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nh4n3.bsky.social
Ammonium Azide
@nh4n3.bsky.social
720 followers 930 following 8.3K posts
Bluesky account for the toxic and explosive (but insensitive and amphoteric) salt formed by combining Ammonia and Hydrazoic Acid.

Posts by Josh, he/him, aerospace engineer, from NY, based in LA via DC (and also Eastern Washington State and Baltimore) 🏳️‍🌈
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nh4n3.bsky.social
Who better to draw contrast and drive an economic message against Trump? What area of disagreement is really left between Bernie and the Democratic mainstream, except clarity vs muddiness?
November 10, 2025 at 7:29 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Yeah, he's old. He won't serve for long. Just long enough to fix this broken party.
November 10, 2025 at 7:18 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Bernie has functionally spent his long career in the Senate as a minority leader in a caucus of one, using that position pretty effectively to advance the popularity of his agenda with pretty striking success. Isn't that what we need in this moment?
November 10, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Ammonium Azide
nh4n3.bsky.social
Pretty interesting to reflect on these conclusions in light of the 57 years of history between publication and today
What I am saying now is that the best solution to the problem of homosexuality is one which is mod-eled on the solution to the problem of religious differ-ence, namely, a radical tolerance for homosexual ob-ject-choice, whether as a segment of an individual's sexual existence or as a full commitment to homosexu-ality as a way of life. I suggest that we view homosexuals as a minority group, and begin to seriously consider giving them the full legal rights and social privileges that we have finally given to some minority groups (e.g., Roman Catholics) and that we talk about giving to others. This means, among other things, we will have to: (1) abolish the penalties that now exist for certain kinds of sexual relations between consenting adults in pri-vate; (2) end police activity against homosexuals, in all its forms, including use of decoys and harassment of gay bars and other homosexual meeting places; (3) cease firing government employees (including members of the armed forces) because they are thought to be homosexual; (4) encourage private in-dustry to cease similar treatment of homosexual em-ployees. To carry this analysis to its utopian conclusion, we would see the end of the gay world as a hidden, de- viant subculture, lurking in the unhappy interstices of the larger society. Instead, we would simply see ho- mosexuals and heterosexuals and bisexuals within our social world, all living their lives without having to endure persecution. Is this all a utopian dream? Is it really possible? Frankly, I don't know. Our society, like most others, is very slow in changing social attitudes, especially ones which go as deep into the hearts of the populace as do feelings about sexuality. Still changes are occur-ring. During the past decade both England and Illi-nois have abolished age-old statutes prohibiting ho-mosexual men from having sexual relations in private. While such legal changes are only a beginning, they are a necessary beginning, and they do indicate a greater degree of tolerance in the society as a whole. There are other encouraging signs. Homosexuality is now being discussed in popular magazines, on tele-vision, in the sex education courses that are develop-ing in our schools. Many are discovering that homo-sexuals are real people, not rare oddities of fun, and that perhaps they should be treated with human dig-nity. I cannot say where this will lead or how soon (if ever) the changes I advocate will occur. Most of what I can do to help I have already done, here in this volume.
October 14, 2025 at 9:04 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Pretty interesting to reflect on these conclusions in light of the 57 years of history between publication and today
What I am saying now is that the best solution to the problem of homosexuality is one which is mod-eled on the solution to the problem of religious differ-ence, namely, a radical tolerance for homosexual ob-ject-choice, whether as a segment of an individual's sexual existence or as a full commitment to homosexu-ality as a way of life. I suggest that we view homosexuals as a minority group, and begin to seriously consider giving them the full legal rights and social privileges that we have finally given to some minority groups (e.g., Roman Catholics) and that we talk about giving to others. This means, among other things, we will have to: (1) abolish the penalties that now exist for certain kinds of sexual relations between consenting adults in pri-vate; (2) end police activity against homosexuals, in all its forms, including use of decoys and harassment of gay bars and other homosexual meeting places; (3) cease firing government employees (including members of the armed forces) because they are thought to be homosexual; (4) encourage private in-dustry to cease similar treatment of homosexual em-ployees. To carry this analysis to its utopian conclusion, we would see the end of the gay world as a hidden, de- viant subculture, lurking in the unhappy interstices of the larger society. Instead, we would simply see ho- mosexuals and heterosexuals and bisexuals within our social world, all living their lives without having to endure persecution. Is this all a utopian dream? Is it really possible? Frankly, I don't know. Our society, like most others, is very slow in changing social attitudes, especially ones which go as deep into the hearts of the populace as do feelings about sexuality. Still changes are occur-ring. During the past decade both England and Illi-nois have abolished age-old statutes prohibiting ho-mosexual men from having sexual relations in private. While such legal changes are only a beginning, they are a necessary beginning, and they do indicate a greater degree of tolerance in the society as a whole. There are other encouraging signs. Homosexuality is now being discussed in popular magazines, on tele-vision, in the sex education courses that are develop-ing in our schools. Many are discovering that homo-sexuals are real people, not rare oddities of fun, and that perhaps they should be treated with human dig-nity. I cannot say where this will lead or how soon (if ever) the changes I advocate will occur. Most of what I can do to help I have already done, here in this volume.
October 14, 2025 at 9:04 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Pretty cool to be saying this in 1968!
their sexual activities. As anyone who saw the play Tea and Sympathy will remember, this price is also paid by very many heterosexual males who go through terrible agonies concerning their own mascu- linity, simply because they are in some ways unable to live up to a stereotype of what a "he-man" ought to be like. (One of the real benefits that will hopefully be derived from the "hippie" movement is that the stereotype of masculinity which has dominated Amer- ican culture for so long and which has been the source of great unhappiness for so many of those who are unable to live up to it-even though they be basi- cally heterosexual-will be considerably diminished, and a male's sexual and personal identity will no longer be threatened if he likes flowers or cares about the texture of his clothes or likes to wear his hair long, etc.)
October 14, 2025 at 7:05 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
Ask not whose book combines astute clinical observations with pseudoscience (the Freudian psychoanalysis in this book is a little silly and not scientific but I guess it's not malicious or slanderous so it's not the worst kind of pseudoscience)
9 The Disease Concept of Homosexuality At the present time, the most fashionable view of a homosexually oriented object-choice is that it is a mental illness or a symptom of mental illness. Perhaps the most influential exponent of this view today is the New York psychoanalyst Irving Bieber. Bieber's book (1962) is a strange mixture of astute clinical observa-tion and the worst kind of pseudo-science. He inter-
October 14, 2025 at 5:44 PM
nh4n3.bsky.social
This feels like something that could more or less be written today
A number of observers, such as Kenneth Keniston (1965), have pointed out the damaging effects of modern urbanized, technological society in producing a serious alienation between persons, especially in the larger cities. This decline in a sense of community be-tween urban Americans has created a powerful impe-tus toward deviant behavior, for one of the positive virtues to be gained from being deviant is that one gains both a sense of identity and a community of fel-lows. Being heterosexual does not provide an identity for an alienated, confused modern individual, since everybody is expected to be heterosexual, and this provides about as much of a clue to who one is as lik-ing ice cream. To be a homosexual, however, is quite a different matter, for the individual can define him-self as a homosexual and can make this identity the center of his own self-concept and of his behavior. At the same time, it makes him a member of a deviant community, and wherever he goes he can find a small group of individuals who will have something in com-mon with him which is very real and very intrinsic to their own being. This is true, of course, for a number of other forms of deviant behavior as well, such as "bohemian" or "hippie" life-styles. Especially if one is young and attractive, being homosexual means belonging to an underground com-munity of fellows which provides one with not only a sense of one's identity, but also with places to go and things to do, even in an otherwise foreign location. In
October 14, 2025 at 5:04 PM