If you want an interesting party sometime combine cocktails and a fresh box of crayons for everyone.
I'm carded for R-rated movies. And I get talked down to a lot. When I try to go rent a car or buy an airplane ticket or other stuff adults do I get 'Okaaaaaay honey.' I remember when I was 18 getting crayons in a restaurant.
Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor and your picture begins to lighten up.
One side-effect of the so-called war on terror has been a crisis of liberalism. This is not only a question of alarmingly illiberal legislation but a more general problem of how the liberal state deals with its anti-liberal enemies.