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pureschmaltz.bsky.social
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pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Ferocency

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This Decency Story reminds me that Decency sometimes appears in ferocious guise. Decency: Ferocency "Under certain uncertain conditions, a two-by-four to the side of the head could be considered an intervention of Decency." Varying intensities are permitted when deploying Decency. It needn’t always seem gentle or even necessarily kind. As with most things, tough love equivalents unquestionably exist, though one must usually deploy them circumspectly lest motive be interpreted differently than intended. In business, for instance, certain otherwise unseemly intensities seem permitted under the self-referential rubric that “business is business,” a multi-purpose excuse intended to cover every possible variation. It seems as though nobody can call “violation” regardless of the intensity of the application if it’s done in the pursuit of profits. I’ve also noticed a certain erosion of what used to pass for decorum, allowing for some rather coarse words to be injected into otherwise benign conversation. ...
December 4, 2025 at 4:04 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: MoralHazard
"What does it mean to respond Decently then?"

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This Decency Story asks how the presence of insanity affects Decency. Decency: MoralHazard "What does it mean to respond Decently then?" Decency seems to demand continual adaptation. What constitutes Decency in one context might border on indecency in an adjacent space. Further, emotional states also enter into this calculus. One might easily justify different responses when feeling angry than when feeling secure. Decency does not provide an isolated or isolating platform for responding. Everybody’s inescapably in each fray together, whatever their behavioral or moral preference. It might not prove helpful to equate Decency with morality, especially when subtle senses of superiority creep into the internal conversation. That said, the Decent might behave more consistently, if only because they insist upon certain limits and boundaries. There are probably many more things Decency won’t consent to do than indecency even notices. I’m fussing today about how Decency can get twisted in the presence of the insane. ...
December 3, 2025 at 4:15 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: InnerIndecency
"They ultimately only manage to fool themselves."

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This Decency Story speaks about how we seem to perceive InnerIndecency. Decency: InnerIndecency "They ultimately only manage to fool themselves." Some things I firmly believe that I can see might not actually exist. Belief provides more than adequate evidence to convince almost anybody that almost any nonexistent entity probably exists. Beliefs can be remarkably incorrigible beasts, so they must be held with a certain circumspection. They might support unshakeable conviction in absolute fiction. I concede that many of the worst indecencies I’ve ever witnessed fed on just such convictions. Furthermore, few who held those convictions were ever considered to be felons, though the damage they inflicted might well have supported criminal indictment. ...
December 2, 2025 at 4:43 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: SelfDealing
"Nobody Decently corners any competition."

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This Decency Story discusses SelfDealing, a hair-splitting necessity sometimes taken to indecent excess. Decency: SelfDealing "Nobody Decently corners any competition." Decency requires some hair-splitting. One must somehow manage to sustain oneself without over-reaching. Society maintains laws against monopoly because we deem SelfDealing indecent. It’s unseemly for anybody to merely compete with their own interests. It’s considered Decent to engage as a part of a system rather than as the entirety of it. Monopolists freeze others out, essentially robbing them of opportunity, however much their monopoly might resemble greater efficiency. Efficiency in the service of nobody else amounts to wasted effort. Efficient monopolies are merely rapacious. Oligarchies are monopolies on steroids. ...
December 1, 2025 at 4:09 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: RelativeDecency
"…I will remain confident in what constitutes some relatively absolute Decencies."

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This Decency Story dabbles in relativity, a property that even Decency exhibits. Decency: RelativeDecency "…I will remain confident that I understand what constitutes some relatively absolute Decencies." Like everything else, Decency exists on a sliding scale. Few absolutes seem appropriate when considering it. One person’s Decency might well prove to be another’s downfall. Further, it often appears in know-it-when-I-see-it guises. I sometimes feel surprised to find that what I thought might degrade me turns out to elevate me instead. Likewise, some actions initiated in good faith and lofty intentions leave me feeling humiliated. Even with my considerable decades of experience, I have yet to develop a foolproof method for classifying Decencies. Yet I continue as if I understood, as if I could know how to tell Decency in action. I’ve many times proven myself fully capable of fooling myself. What could be preventing anyone else from fooling me, too? I still consider myself firmly on the side of Decent. ...
November 30, 2025 at 3:12 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: D_e_C_ency
"Beware the land speculator promising to eliminate non-existent swamps."

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This Decency Story deconstructs the false "Drain the Swamp" story concocted to foster the self-hate that authoritarian states require. Decency: D_e_C_ency "Beware the land speculator promising to eliminate non-existent swamps." Contrary to popularly promoted misconceptions, our nation’s Capitol was never a shithole. It did begin life as a swamp, one owned by that era’s most enthusiastic land speculator and so-called founder of our country, none other than General Geo. Washington, esquire. Those promising to “Drain The Swamp” were centuries too late, for the original swamp had long before been drained and filled to allow a truly great city to be built. The result was not, like most of this world’s capitols, some ancient artifact built on ruins, but a testament to a country’s citizens’ dedication to self-governance. They funded and built an odd collection of buildings, some grand and inspiring, others quite the opposite. The boulevards were broad and laid out so that every few ran diagonally. The result seemed absolutely unique in this as well as every other country. Its heritage was that of a swamp, for sure, but its legacy was self-esteem. Many have noted that perhaps the primary function of government has always been to “Make Sausage.” ...
November 29, 2025 at 1:27 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 11/27/2025

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This Decency Story contain a summary of my last week's writing. Thank you for following along! Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 11/27/2025 This writing week, like every previous week, was destined to become a writing week that was. Like you, I live with a trailing tail endlessly emerging, persistently trailing me, and refusing to let go of my present past or my fading presence. I routinely accomplish considerably less than I might otherwise prove capable of producing. Any engine designed with the presumption that it might perform at its design peak was always designed to fail. Any engine built to perform well beneath its design spec was always built to actually exceed its more optimistic expectations. I began this writing week naming a familiar haunt, the Dundency that has always followed me. I praised that most unlikely and always welcomed couple, Dignity and Freedom. I reframed my experience of Decency as a Decendency rather than as an ascendancy up and into any place above. I reported that indecency seems radioactive in Radioactivization (which is a term Google® found no hits for on the internets). I ended this week with a short screed insisting that Decency must be deployed relentlessly if it is to be effectively used. I appreciate all those who shamelessly employ their Decency without ever once necessarily expecting to be rewarded for their efforts. Bless us all as we defend the continuing insults to our Dignity again. Thank you for following along! ...
November 28, 2025 at 1:46 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Relentless
"This necessarily requires that the Decent fear less and be Relentless more."

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This Decency Story explains that Decency demands to be deployed in a requisitely Relentless manner. Decency: Relentless "This necessarily requires that the Decent fear less and be Relentless more." As near as I can determine from here, the universal antidote to indecency must be RelentlessDecency. Nothing more annoys the indecent than Relentlessness being employed in the service of the Decent. I know that we most often associate Relentlessness with more nefarious activities. However, I suppose that Decency probably seems evil enough to the indecent, perhaps among the most heinous possible activities, especially for the Relentlessly indecent. To be Relentless in the service of the good side of any equation demonstrates a reassuring dedication, for even Decency demands some consistency. Nobody much appreciates the merely fair weather Decent. One must, it seems, become requisitely Relentless to be taken very seriously. If I retreat into numbed silence or simply disappear whenever another indecency appears, especially when it seems Relentless itself, I might just as well have never been here. My sporadic contributions to the general well-being might not have gone for naught, but they probably didn’t go half as far as they might have gone had I more diligently held my ground. Relentless Decency demands some courage from its practitioner, for it won’t always feel safe to honestly display your Decency when immersed in some den of iniquity. ...
November 27, 2025 at 3:21 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Radioactivization

"That's what Decency appears to be here for."

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This Decency Story recounts how radioactive indecency tends to seem. Decency: Radioactivization "That's what Decency appears to be here for." Indecencies seem radioactive to me. They perform like unstable elements, bleeding atoms on their way to becoming something else. They are by their very nature transitory and poisonous. They produce waste that outlives their original purpose. They prove unsuitable for use in anything lasting. We do not build bridges out of radioactive materials for good reasons. We avoid including them in connecting roads, too. They can produce relatively short bursts of extreme energy and, when properly harnessed, longer-lived power. Whatever the use, though, they leave behind messes far exceeding their initially intended usefulness. Their use requires more than usual justification. I visited my dentist last week and noticed that they no longer draped a reassuringly weighted lead-lined blanket over me when taking pictures of my mouth. ...
November 26, 2025 at 5:07 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Descending_Into_Decency
Because Decency’s always a choice, it brings certain limitations. ...

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I hope this Decency Story helps dispel the notion that Decency usually comes from somewhere on high. I think it more likely that we're usually Descending_Into_Decency instead. Decency: Descending_Into_Decency "That's how Descending Into Decency feels to me." I instinctively think of Decency as holding an elevated position, slightly higher and left of some center line. When I engage in an act of Decency, though, I feel a sensation more like Descending. I reflectively think of myself as Descending into Decency rather than stepping up into it. This descending should not be mistaken as degrading or any of the other coming-down metaphors. Decency feels like immersive activity, effort that seems to cloak and reassure me, as if I were being carried and cared for, even though I know I’m the one caring for myself in those moments. Decency seems inherently innocent. It expresses an inner innocence regardless of a person’s prior experiences. It can even be an antidote to some experiences, a penance, or a form of forgiveness. Because Decency’s always a choice, it brings certain limitations.
November 25, 2025 at 3:40 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: CommonDecency
"…everything's extraordinary, especially and including CommonDecency."

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This Decency Story explains whatever happened to CommonDecency. Decency: CommonDecency "…everything's extraordinary, especially and including Decency." I once inhabited a now utterly mythical place: The Past. What seemed ordinary and commonplace then, when it was present, seems utterly extraordinary and absolutely unattainable now. I do not mean that some rare and special things are now rarer and even more special, but that even the most pedestrianly commonplace items have now joined the ranks of the exceptional. I can almost experience these once-so-ordinary things vicariously now, through dreams and fading memories, though the colors and textures seem blunted after the passage of so much time. I have been noticing lately just how remarkable almost everything suddenly seems. ...
November 24, 2025 at 3:05 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Dignity&Freedom
"May Dignity&Freedom never abandon them…"

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This Decency Story celebrates Dignity&Freedom, two prominent attributes of Decency. Decency: Dignity&Freedom "May Dignity&Freedom never abandon them…" Facing invasion by a hostile neighbor, Ukraine declared its purpose for defending its sovereignty. It announced that it was fighting for Dignity&Freedom. Their Freedom demanded a deeper purpose. It could not stand alone as sufficient to justify the suffering inflicted in its defense. Dignity would have to be Freedom’s companion to properly justify the struggle. This combination has lent Decency to Ukraine’s otherwise purely defensive strategies, inspiring freedom-loving nations around the world. Unfortunately, my country tisn’t of this at present. Our incumbent has made it his special mission to discourage our intrepid ally by denying it the necessary and prudent support that any freedom-loving nation deserves. Now the world observes a different struggle, one between Decency and its enemies, who presently most prominently include Russia and the once United States. ...
November 23, 2025 at 2:11 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Duncency
"Let such mysteries be."

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This Decency Story introduces a familiar sort of Decency in which everybody occasionally engages: Duncency. Decency: Duncency "Let such mysteries be." Not all Decencies contain the same quantity of sincerity. Some seem more phony than actual. Some seem counterfactual. I mention this not to encourage paranoia, for minor discrepancies are probably nothing to lose much sleep over. For one reason or another, or for no discernible reason at all, some will pretend to be acting Decently when they actually aren’t. The motive probably doesn’t matter. The insincerity says much more about them than it ever could about you, and what it says about them will probably remain unspoken, even if you were to break ranks and ask after the disconnect. These acts most often remain uncommentable. You might be able to convince yourself that something smells fishy, but the fish rarely admits to any deliberate deception, or even inadvertent. This often means they’re not aware of their inauthenticity. So be that. I speak here of that niceness that seems out of context. ...
November 22, 2025 at 3:41 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 11/20/2025

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This Decency Story contains a summary of my last week's writing. Thank you for following along! Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 11/20/2025 Our concrete contractor, Pablo, and his crew laid a new sidewalk on the north side of our newly refurbished front porch this week, bringing us one step closer to completing our infinite front porch remodeling project. A new sidewalk serves as the closest thing The Muse and I might ever contribute to permanence here, lasting evidence that someone once lived here, evidence that should last well into the following century. This Writing Week proved to be more speculative than concrete. Change seemed prominent without necessarily feeling imminent. Our hapless administration, still apparently uninterested in administering anything, has been exhibiting some gravely serious difficulties recruiting and retaining EvilPeople in sufficient numbers to completely undermine our Democratic order. I sensed an impending Awakening. The Elites seemed teetering again, on their usual precipice of greatness … or something. I praised our sacred Jurisprudence, which has proven to be the most stalwart defender of our civic Decency. I admitted to feeling Enraged, however politically unacceptable that emotion might seem in a discussion of Decency. I ended this writing week praising the Insubordinate as the true patriot of Decency in our ongoing passion play. Thank you for following along with me here. ...
November 21, 2025 at 3:16 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Insubordinate
"The Decent direct themselves for their own damned reasons…"

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This Decency Story discloses an unsettling fact about the Decent. Their gift often requires them to act as an Insubordinate. They have to be responsible for their own actions without relying upon another's orders. Decency: Insubordinate "The Decent direct themselves for their own damned reasons…" Decency must be an Insubordinate act. It cannot be ordered or productively insisted upon, but must be more or less freely chosen by the individual engaging in it. One may take instruction in its practice, though this offers little beyond a grasp of its underlying concept. Practice proves different in actual practice and utterly depends on context, which shifts so that any two instances might prove the opposite of being indistinguishable from each other. Even experienced practitioners often wonder if what they just tried really represented the Decency they intended. Not even the receiver can always confirm receipt. So much of its delivery depends upon intention, which often necessarily remains implicit. Decency frequently appears in unexpected guises. Indecencies can easily be coerced. ...
November 20, 2025 at 2:26 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: EnRaged
"Don't tread on Decency!"

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This Decency Story tries to clear up the popular misconception that Decency necessarily equates passivity, when Decency might more often understandably feel EnRaged! Decency: EnRaged "Don't tread on Decency!" Contrary to popular misconception, the Decent do not naturally lean heavily toward passivity. In some significant ways, Decency can encourage a fury, if only because it tends to sharpen sensibilities. Those incapable of properly parsing experiences, who live a more numbed existence, might find it more challenging to act out when encountering the subtly outrageous. Many infractions fail to pierce together their native insensitivity. This can lead to a disturbing passivity. Those, however, more primed to sense disturbing differences might be much more easily encouraged to respond with rage, and even to complain that certain events leave them feeling EnRaged. This fury doesn’t always show, for Decency sometimes, even often, paradoxically, encourages a stifling of certain rages, lest a reaction appear equally outrageous. The resulting ‘anger turned inward’ can spawn periods of dark depression as inner frustration fails to find adequate release in outward expression. The Decent sometimes foments dissent. ...
November 19, 2025 at 3:58 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Jurisprudence

"Even those who assault our Jurisprudence deserve justice. Decency demands it."

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This Decency story explores Decency's civic counterpart, Jurisprudence. Decency: Jurisprudence "Even those who assault our Jurisprudence deserve justice. Decency demands it." We hold our judicial system sacred, or we have. It has seemed imperiled lately, if only due to the sudden incursion of indecency into her hallowed halls. Our Jurisprudence was the store of our society’s civic Decency, though it has lately seen repeated attempts to degrade it. These have been mainly unsuccessful, if only due to the native ineptness as lawyers of the agents of indecency attempting to intrude. They have filed motions that don’t pass muster and suits that almost always prove frivolous. Our budding Department of Injustice turns out to actually be a department of dunces and indecencies in practice. They seem to believe that they can make anything so by merely declaring it so. However, our Jurisprudence, by which I mean our legal philosophy and long traditions, usually renders that functionally impossible, thank heavens. Between judges chosen for their partiality and a SCOTUS half dedicated to indecency, our civic Decency has sometimes been taking it in the shorts. ...
November 18, 2025 at 3:18 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Elites
"…they always seem to disappoint us and themselves in practice."

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This Decency Story wonders whether our Elites are really necessary to the smooth functioning of our society or if they are merely in the way of our greatness. Decency: Elites "…they always seem to disappoint us and themselves in practice." Some hold a belief in the absolute necessity of maintaining an Elite class in a society. History provides strong evidence against this belief. The story insists that Elites set the standards others follow and sustain society’s highest ground, enabling “regular” people to attend to lesser interests. This notion contradicts the first principle upon which this country was founded: the notion that all people are created equal. The historical record reveals many examples of Elites who, rather than serving their publics, merely served themselves. Crowned heads more often abused their power than wisely deployed it. Of all the awful notions humans have spawned, the notion of the necessity of superiority might have proven to be the worst. Yet, we still worship leaders and imagine them somehow superhumanly capable when, much more often, they’ve proven to possess feet of the most fragile clay. Our country was founded partly to address the paradoxes that Plutocracy inevitably produces. ...
November 17, 2025 at 5:06 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Awakening
"…American Dreams emerge from Awakenings."

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This Decency Story reports on a growing Awakening that seems to be undermining our incumbent's agenda. Decency: Awakening "…American Dreams emerge from Awakenings." The question of when our incumbent might start to seriously bleed supporters has been prominent in the minds of his many detractors. For us, and I consider myself a prominent detractor, it was always unthinkable that anyone might even imagine supporting him, for he seemed simply vile. His incoherence alone rendered him unsupportable since nobody has ever successfully parsed even his simplest utterances. Still, he seemed to possess some hypnotizing power, an astonishingly strange attractor, that reliably attracted and retained what he labeled his base. His base seemed at least aptly labeled, for they seemed to follow their leader beyond the depths of conventional political depravity. This devotion was truly disgusting to me. He’d famously insisted that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York City and shoot somebody and nobody would raise an eyebrow. That “Teflon Don” capability seems to have started weakening lately. ...
November 16, 2025 at 3:43 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: EvilPeople
"…never in sufficient numbers to succeed, thank heavens."

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This Decency Story reports on some reassuring news from the frontlines of The War On Decency. The enemy appears to be having difficulties recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of Evil People to sustain their offensives. Decency: EvilPeople "…never in sufficient numbers to succeed, thank heavens." A promising dispatch from the front lines of The War On Decency reports an apparent sharp decline in the ready availability of additional EvilPeople to populate the ranks of the administration uninterested in administering anything’s many anti-Decency programs. Reports indicate that hiring and performance bonuses have proven inadequate to attract sufficient numbers of eager candidates. Further, a reassuring swell in voluntary resignations has only added to MAGA’s staffing problems. It seems that officials grossly overestimated the number of Americans who would voluntarily stand against their fellow citizens. This shortage was reportedly the deciding factor behind our incumbent ordering National Guard troops to be mobilized into our cities. Adequate numbers of volunteers refused the assignment. Now, though, with courts refusing to permit our incumbent from deploying the National Guard against citizens, the whole movement seems increasingly imperiled. Their naive belief that we would not prove to be Decent people under pressure has apparently bitten them in their collective ass. ...
November 15, 2025 at 3:35 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 11/13/2025

A genuine discovery.

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This Decency Story contains a summary of last week's Decency writing. Thank you for following along! Decency: Weekly Writing Summary For The Week Ending 11/13/2025 This writing week proved to be a genuine discovery. As usual, I set off on this adventure not understanding the purpose of the excursion. I consider this factor to be de rigeuor. If I planned beforehand or (shudder) outlined the trip before I took it, I sense that I might have leached most of the eventual potential out of it. I entered naked and, right off the bat, I hit at least a double into the corner with ThanksTaking. In this venial season of political degradation, it made perfect sense (and I make no overstatement suggesting this) to downgrade the usual, familiar Thanksgiving celebration to the level of the typical druid appreciation: roasted gruel with a side of sour cide, instead of the usual turkey with trimmings. I then entered into a short series of side-explorations, considering the relationships between Decency and Disgrace, Disgust, and Misdirection. I then slipped into a half-remarkable question: What might be the MotiveToDecency, given that it offers no clear evolutionary superiority? I ended this writing week admitting that I've been increasingly resembling one of my old nemeses, whom I had always considered somehow beneath me: the venerable and disturingly similar to me, the ever-Decent Mr. Magoo! Thank you for following along on these voyages of discovery! ...
November 14, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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Decency: MrMaGoo

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This Decency Story finds me channeling my inner and outer MrMagoo. Decency: MrMaGoo "Wisdom comes from noticing the ridiculed other is us. Acknowledging this preserves Decency." MaGoo was a Decent man by most accounts. He was never accused of intending cruelty. Quite the opposite, he was, by all accounts, an innocent, guilty of perhaps, at worst, naivety, at best, a tenacious ignorance. He never knew what he didn’t suspect, and he apparently never suspected anything nefarious about anybody, including himself. His sole sin, if, indeed, this could be counted as a sin, was his steadfast refusal to wear glasses. Being extremely near-sighted, this insistence produced hilarious results as he continually misidentified virtually everything he encountered. He could have easily qualified as The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, had he been married. He was not ‘touched in the head,’ as was often said in his day, but tenaciously ignorant of the world he inhabited. Because he never knew better, he never suffered. He continually encountered life-threatening situations without once suffering any adverse consequences. It was as if he carried a guardian angel on his shoulders, or one carried him on hers. In my youth, I watched MaGoo’s antics as portrayed on a cartoon series. ...
November 13, 2025 at 3:27 PM
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Decency: MotiveToDecency

"It's me, mustering my own Decency for its own sake. That's plenty."

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This Decency wonders after my MotiveToDecency. For something that doesn't seem to offer any evolutionary advantage, Decency sure seems sacred to me. Decency: MotiveToDecency "It's me, mustering my own Decency for its own sake. That's plenty." It doesn’t seem fair that Decency doesn’t bestow special privileges on those who practice it. The Decent get sick and die at pretty much the same rate as the indecent do, so Decency might not provide any evolutionary advantage. Likewise, we see Decent people being taken advantage of, despite their good records. Decency also seems like a difficulty when compared to its alternatives. Just appearing upstanding can prove exhausting, and maintaining a Decent reputation can sometimes seem life-threatening. Those who cut corners without remorse might seem to inhabit the most advantageous universe. Someone else absorbs their overhead costs while Decency spends extra resources dotting their ‘t’s and crossing their ‘i’s. Why? The MotiveToDecency mystifies me. ...
November 12, 2025 at 3:17 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: MisDirection
"Why, then, does Decency so often prevail?"

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This Decency Story demonstrates that Decency isn't necessarily above deception. It sometimes resorts to MisDirection to succeed against some indecency. Decency: MisDirection "Why, then, does Decency so often prevail?" Contrary to popular misconception, Decency is not necessarily in a competition with indecency. They might both exist on some imaginary continuum, but that line bisects dimensions as well as linear space. It’s more diagonal than level, and not necessarily a straight or narrow line connecting the two poles, which cannot be adequately characterized as opposites without ignoring some rather obvious similarities. One continuing challenge stems from the straightforward-seeming notion of good and bad, beneficial and evil. Decency isn’t necessarily without sin, and indecency doesn’t always qualify as even a venial sin. Decency might satisfy convention while offending with pretension. Indecency might occasionally be absolutely necessary. Let he without indecency cast the first stone. Indecency might seem to lack the discipline necessary to fully abide by the rules. ...
November 11, 2025 at 3:27 PM
pureschmaltz.bsky.social
Decency: Disgust

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This Decency Story finds me Disgusted. It feels odd to notice that Disgust and Decency have once again become closely associated. Decency: Disgust "We bring the conversation around to less upsetting topics before the dessert course gets served to aid digestion." I feel odd mentioning this, but I’ve been noticing Disgust being expressed whenever Decent people gather these days. I’d never before closely associated Disgust and Decency, but upon deeper reflection, I suppose it makes sense that they might commonly appear together. You see, the Decent possess a palate capable of sensing the sorts of dysfunction capable of producing Disgust. Some seem to be able to engage in most any lowlife activity without turning their stomach, while others find revolting displays entertaining. Those who find cage fighting diverting, for example, probably aren’t the same ones who attend symphony concerts. I understand that the standards by which audiences judge performances have changed over the generations; nobody gives a second’s thought these days to watching a bloody murder mystery over dinner. Some core discerning Decencies remain. ...
November 10, 2025 at 4:10 PM