Fruck
Lacks all conviction
Fruck is just this guy, you know?
User ID: 889
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
we had a day of solidarity on campus to stand against antisemetic hatred, and the progressives who participated have all quietly removed those pictures from their social media
You would have to be trapped in an incredibly toxic and paranoid environment to be worried about getting cancelled for opposing hatred.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
I actually hadn't heard that before, it's really sweet and sad and she sings beautifully. Do you think he ever came back?
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Yeah I was going to say, I'm a bit surprised to see how popular this song has become. It's always been in my family's playlists, because The Pogues were only slightly less popular than Elton in my family, but I always feel like I'm on the defensive about it with other people in Australia. Learning it's actually popular and not just because McGowan passed is making me pretty emotional right now. It's not a particularly nice (or saccharine) Christmas song, but it absolutely nails the feel of the holiday when you can't summon denial.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
And in that context, affiliation with mainstream Republicans is much stronger evidence that the guy is serious - the overlap between "mainstream Republican" and "posts 14/88 memes ironically" is basically zero. People who post 14/88 memes ironically are either nihilistic trolls or lefties, and following mainstream Republicans on social media is good Bayesian evidence that someone is neither of those things.
That's a hell of a lot of sweeping generalisations based on the use of four digits, twice. Yeah no one on the planet has ever been an edgy idiot saying stupid shit because it causes a reaction. No, we're rationalists, we're smart, we're Bayesian so we can calculate that 1488 + nihilist/leftist = irony and 1488 + any affiliation with mainstream republicans = hide and protect the Jews.
The funny thing is, the rule of goats says I have to pretend I don't understand trolling either and treat you like an IFLS short busser.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
We listened to traditional Christmas carols these past weeks, now let's get more modern with it - what are your favourite newer Christmas songs (let's say recorded no earlier than 1970 1967)?
I'll start with some older ones - Step into Christmas by Elton John has always been popular in my family, because Elton John has always been popular in my family. But even leaving that aside it's a great song, and it's classic Taupin, with Elton breaking the fourth wall in the very first line to welcome us to his song, and the rest of the lyrics seeming perfectly christmassy if you aren't paying much attention, but actually kind of confused about the event if you do. Oh admission's free is it? One of those rare religious holidays you don't have to pay for? I'll 'step into it' then.
Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin' Stevens is another song that always gets played at my Christmas dos, it always used to trip me up because I had never heard of Shakin' Stevens outside of it - actually until about 5 years ago I thought it was somehow Shadoe Stevens, the former host of American Top 40, who sang it. It is not, Shakin Stevens is some Welsh guy. Apparently he released this song the year after Band Aid released the immeasurably shitty Do They Know Its Christmas (no link for the second most patronising Christmas song in existence), when he wasn't invited to join in. I like to imagine he calls Geldof every year and rubs his face in it.
What Christmas Means To Me by Stevie Wonder is one of my all time favourites - it's why I dialed the cut off back 3 years - no one sells enthusiasm like Stevie Wonder. The blend of Motown music and traditional Christmas instruments is brilliantly done, and the lyrics are so earnest and sweet. When I'm feeling grinchy I just have to pop this on and I find my goodwill easily.
Last Christmas by Wham does not usually get added to my Christmas playlists, but that's because it's everywhere else all the time here in Australia. Even my fifteen year old neighbour knows it off by heart (he has been singing it in the shower this past week). Like all good Wham songs it's the George Michael show - he played every instrument on it, as well as writing the lyrics and music.
Christmas isn't Christmas 'til You Get Here by Kylie Minogue - God I love this song. Kylie ramps her cuteness into maximum overdrive to sing it, and the lyrics are just adorable - the repetition of single words (like ring, ring, ring, and blink, blink, blink), the bit about fairy lights, and there's a real sense of impatience in the way the bridge leads into the next verse that flows perfectly with the lyrics.
Christmas in Hollis by Run DMC is the quintessential Christmas rap. Mixing in the music from a bunch of different carols in classic Jay style, the boys rap about returning Santa's wallet, getting presents and Christmas dinner. The elf in the music video is pure uncanny valley though, just plain unsettling.
Doowop Christmas by Kem might technically not belong on this list - I've been told that because it's religious it's a carol, not a song. And boy is it religious, not only does Kem dismiss presents as paling in comparison to God's love, he also doesn't like Santa! He says "Santa's alright with me" twice in the song, and everyone knows that's code for "I hate Santa but realise no one is buying a Christmas song where I lay into him." But it's very catchy nonetheless, especially if you enjoy a cappella music.
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee is a classic, and as a result I kind of hate it. Also it's 70 years old so it really doesn't belong in this list. But how could we skip the first song to beat Mariah Carey in the billboard charts since they added streaming to the count in 2018? Rockin is the number one track this year, having played runner up to All I Want For Christmas Is You the previous four years. How did it beat out a nigh infinitely better song? Well Lee made a music video for it this year, which got very popular on Tiktok. She definitely doesn't have everyone she knows streaming the song on repeat day and night on every device they own, no those Tiktokers love watching videos of old ladies swaying in a nightie. Also on a potentially related note according to YouTube Music it's an explicit song, which means I haven't been mishearing it all these years, she is actually singing "maybe we'll have some fuckin pie and we'll do some carolling".
Oh Santa! by Mariah Carey - while Oh Santa! will never be as much fun as All I Want For Christmas Is You, it's definitely a fun song in which Mariah begs Santa to return her ex for Christmas. Personally I prefer the version where she sings by herself as opposed to the music video's version with Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande - Jennifer Hudson is a great addition, but it sounds like Ariana needed a couple of xanax to get through the performance. And how is it Grande is wearing the least slutty outfit? Shouldn't the youngest performer wear the sluttiest outfit, not the oldest? Also what the fuck are you looking at in the sky to your left Mariah, can't you just look at the camera like everyone else? Anyway the song, I was talking about the song. It's catchy.
Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto 2017 by Snoop Dogg and Boyz II Men is a difficult song to track down, because not only has Snoop released a dozen different tracks called Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto, but so did James Brown. The 2017 version of the song is my favourite, it does a brilliant job of combining Snoop's musical sensibilities with the soul and feeling of Boyz II Men, and it's full of heart from start to finish. Snoop raps about the days of Christmas, about trading Hennessey for weed for the holidays and about having a baby girl so his mom can be a grandma, and the Boyz II Men sing beautifully as always.
There are many other great Christmas songs I haven't mentioned yet, what are your favourites?
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Just a nitpick - while the store front of most florists isn't cash intensive, the back end can be, especially if you go heavily on the 'locally sourced, independent farmer' angle. A lot of my family is in the flower industry, and "is it because they're money laundering?" is a common response when people learn how outrageous florist mark ups can be, like charging $20 a stem for roses you paid $10 a bunch for outrageous. But really it's a combination of luxury, perishability, ip, antitrust prospiracy and the fact that the majority of people who go into flowers just want to play with flowers, not run a business.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Congratulations! Your wife is very beautiful, and you don't scrub up too bad yourself! I hope you have many wonderful years together.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
And let's be clear about what "Zionism" is. It's the belief that Israel should continue to exist. Anyone who describes themselves as "anti-Zionist" is demanding an end to the Jewish state, from which will inevitably follow an end to the Jewish population in the middle east. If you are not for Zionism, you are for genocide.
Such a great run up and you biffed it on the closer. I can believe both that nobody is entitled to their own country requiring the displacement of others and also that nobody should be genocided.
Also why are the Palestinians any different? Are anti-Palestinians not demanding an end to the Palestinian state and therefore the Palestinian population? Or is anyone not happy with the current state of affairs for genocide?
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
I think their opinion of you and me would both change pretty drastically, though I think their opinion of you would fall far more. But I don't think "status" is the best framing of the situation. You having sex with my wife in front of them would cause them to feel incredibly awkward and (I'd hope) sorry for me. You'd associate me with negative emotions, which would make it less desirable for them to socialize with me.
But, again, I don't think any of this is zero-sum. I don't think if I went to a separate group the "low-status" would follow me. I don't think I would be significantly listened to less at work. etc.
I'm going to start from here, because I think if I can explain this right you'll understand how it applies to the earlier part of your post. Status is zero sum within each social hierarchy, social hierarchies form the basis of every relationship and are nested - the social hierarchy of you me and your wife is different to the social hierarchy of you me and your friends, which is different to the social hierarchy at work, but if they have overlapping members the hierarchies can inform the others they are tied to. They might not, depending on how you manage your image however. And, as you say, social hierarchies feel (and as a result are) less important the further you move away from formalised hierarchical structures like work or school or church. But they are still there. Cliques are social hierarchies, inside each clique there are people whose opinions matter more and those who matter less, but removed from formal structures of hierarchy they can be a lot more fluid.
In the situation with your wife, you thinking she loved you less is the loss of status, and that social hierarchy is between you and your wife. It is not unidirectional, it is multi-polar, and it is zero sum - you can't be equally loved and loathed by your wife at the same time, one feeling has to take precedence. Same with your friends - they can't both feel sorry for you and admire you, or despise me and want to introduce me to their wives at the same time. The closest you can get to zero sum in status games is apathy, and we only feel apathy towards people and things that don't matter to us.
Another way to put it is status games are kind of like proprioception. Just because you don't use the academic language of status games and social hierarchies doesn't mean your brain isn't picking up on those things. In fact, I'm pretty sure academics developed those terms because they didn't know how to talk about this stuff without them.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Status is a person's placement in a social hierarchy. Most people don't think in terms of status, they simply feel shame or embarrassment when it is taken from them or pride and confidence when they take it. You don't need to think about becoming more popular by taking it from others - simply by being more popular you do so inevitably. Just because it isn't a concious effort doesn't mean you don't care about status.
Re banging your wife, we can add your peer group to the dynamic - do you think their opinion of you would change at all if I banged your wife in front of them? It might not affect their opinion of your competence, but I bet it affects their respect for you - but status is an element even between the three of us original parties - you me and your wife. If you walked in on that what would you think my opinion of you was? Would it be different from before you entered the room? What about your wife - if you saw that would you immediately assume she loved you as much as she did on your wedding day? If not, you do care about status.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Is that a dodge, or are you actually saying that you wouldn't feel like you lost status if I banged your wife in front of you? Because I wouldn't consider the status loss the biggest problem in either of those scenarios, but I would still consider it a problem.
I get the impression that you have a warped understanding of psychological strength. Status very often - if not always - is zero sum. To be the most popular or most hated requires that someone else is not occupying that spot - if they are, you have to take it from them (otherwise you are not the most popular/hated). Being psychologically healthy is not ignoring attacks, or being apathetic to them, or writing your pain off as an artifact of your brain, it is (assuming fighting back isn't an option) enduring the suffering without being broken by it. That doesn't mean it doesn't affect you or hurt you. I don't know what the psychologically healthy way to respond to either of those scenarios would be, but I'm sure it's not a thumbs up or yawn or intense rationalisation. Those strike me as closer to denial than anything else.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Any feeling full stop really. Any cognition at all in fact. I'm actually only capable of engaging with reality using my brain, I didn't realise that made me psychologically unhealthy.
Actually I think you need to define psychologically healthy, because you don't seem to be describing it in my eyes. You also don't have to feel like you are losing status if I fuck your wife in front of you, or force you to blow me, but I would suggest not doing so demonstrates a lack of self respect (or a fetish, if they can be separated) not good psychological health.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Only for unhealthy minds, I think? Whether freeing slaves "reduced" the position of non-slaves is a question without an objective answer - only psychological interpretations. For instance, many Indians never eat meat and would tell you they don't feel "reduced" by this.
I'm sorry, are you saying that everyone who isn't Indian is an "unhealthy mind" or are you saying that everyone who eats meat is? This entire bit is confused as hell - quality of life is often psychological, and having meat taken out of my diet for the benefit of animals sure feels like an objective reduction in my quality of life to improve theirs. Status too is objectively changed - if I am not allowed to eat animals then by necessity this indicates an increase in the position of animals and a reduction in my status - from dominion over the beasts of the land to a sad sack of shit who gets less respect than a pig.
And I see no charitable justification for inserting that analogy to slaves, only a cheap appeal to emotions - it didn't improve the clarity of your point, if anything it obfuscated it, since you immediately went straight back to talking about animals.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
I would be on board with this if we weren't talking about illegal, undocumented, non-citizens. I would actually be ok with indentured servitude if it was between consenting adults. But the system as it stands seems almost designed to be abused.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
That kind of apathy is the biggest issue though. Because it's one step above acceptance - you already present exploitation as a fait accompli, like Americans are physically incapable of picking berries or doing yard work or paying a reasonable rate for those tasks, when the exploitation is why they refuse to do those things. Why would a politician act any differently?
I don't mean that to sound personal, I'm part of the problem too. It's such a massive and ingrained problem at this point that it seems almost impossible to fix.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Well from my perspective, for starters. Is that your perspective then, a free market perspective? Because that wasn't the impression I got from any of your other posts. Other posts I've read of yours gave me the impression you would oppose the exploitation of people living in poverty so Americans can keep their suvs and dollar cheeseburgers.
Also I recall a different response the last time America got a bunch of cheap laborers and gave them just enough to make them better off than they would have been in their home nation.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Wouldn't a better idea be to fix the US economy so it doesn't require importing countless poor people to work unpleasant jobs reliant on the fact that they aren't here legally and therefore have no right to a liveable wage?
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
I did show it off to my parents, as I was gravely concerned by the new turpidity of an organ I'd only ever used for pissing. Sadly I can't recall their reaction, heh.
Oh God, that reminds me of the first time I got an inconvenient erection. I was 8 or 9 and my brother was 11 or 12 and I was getting dressed because our family was hosting a barbecue. I'd just finished putting my shoes on when my brother came into my room sporting a pants teepee and a look of confusion. It was something he'd just learned about in school - "a totally natural thing called an erection, and your penis does it so you can have sex with a lady." Since I read encyclopaedias for fun, he figured I would know what to do about it. He was mistaken.
"Is there a lady you are going to have sex with?" I asked, although I already knew the answer. I started thinking more intently about it, when suddenly our problems multiplied - now my pants were tenting too! Like all good farce it didn't stop there though - my mum's voice sang out down the hallway, our guests had arrived! We both froze for a second before I realised what to do - the teacher said it was totally natural right? So it's only a big deal to us because we've never seen it before!
We did absolutely nothing, and walked out into the crowd of guests both sporting massive erections, and didn't even notice how everyone gawped at us with eyes like dinner plates and desperately leaned away from us when we tried to hug them. Our dad, for reasons known only to him, waited until we'd made everyone present uncomfortable before taking us aside and explaining a few things.
Having sex with someone definitely forms a deep connection with them, but it doesn't have to be permanent. I see sex, or one element of it, as the ultimate expression of rebellion against the fact that we will die alone. Inevitably futile, but that doesn't stop me in any other arena of life.
I'm with you on managing Dunbar's number, but these connections aren't supposed to be deep in a way that impacts that variable, they are deep but fleeting. Which still means you are more likely to suffer emotionally, yes, but that's the trap of modern society, of atomisation and antidepressants - you are limiting the suffering you may experience, but you are also limiting the joy you may experience. You can not avoid being hurt in this life, and trying to avoid it just lessens your capacity to deal with the really rough stuff.
It's definitely important to make sure your partner doesn't have different expectations though, that's for sure. But that's more a problem for people who go out and pick up at last call, or by getting blackout drunk and taking someone home. Forming a deep connection, even a fleeting one, requires getting to know the other person - including what they are getting out of it, and most people can change their perspective, sans some underlying issues.
In that arena the most common red flags are from the women who see these kinds of relationships as primarily vehicles for drama. They feel something missing from their lives but don't realise it's connection, and instead see its common side effect drama as the point.
And fair enough re prostitutes, I didn't realise you were coming at it from that'll angle.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Igi might play along, but I won't - you are far too old to still believe in circles. Did you know that the first circle was made up by an isosceles triangle to mock oblongs? Just because some oblongs ran with it and started worshipping circles doesn't mean they're real.
(I know, I'm nutpicking, the oblongs I know don't believe circles are real, just a metaphor for striving to be a well rounded individual.)
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
I guess I'm a medium decoupler, because I don't care about making a fool of myself (as my post history demonstrates) but I find your perspective upsetting. The most important thing about sex isn't the climax, although that's certainly the best thing ("You guys know what my favorite part of having sex is? That end part. That crazy feeling."), it's the connection you form with another person. Masturbation engenders apathy and narcissism, and while I (already a schizoid narcissist) strongly sympathise with the Norm Macdonald philosophy of finding the need for connection kind of pathetic, I see it like exercise or bathing, because I am just straight up a better person in everyone else's eyes when I work to achieve and maintain those connections. Besides, I feel like 'using a free prostitute' strips agency from your partner, who, like you, is getting something out of it. (And if they wait an hour or so they can get it again.)
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Are you saying you have seen a lot of fat guy's erections? Being a doctor is so glamorous.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
11mo ago
Damn, that's a nice looking barbecue too. Ok shapes, you're off the shit list - for now. But I'm watching you.
In my perspective, the major difference between gamergate and dickwolves or racefail or elevatorgate or Eich's ouster is that it was with gamergate that the online journalists stopped even trying to understand the other side. Previously articles would include a sentence or two explaining roughly the other side's position (this is stupid and hysterical usually) but with gamergate it was just mouth breathing chodes impotently raging at Quinn the whole way down. And when the publications started doing that, so did the rank and file - you could sit an agg down and walk them through your perspective and at the end of it they'd bsod, shake their head and call you a mouth breathing chode impotently raging at Quinn*. Everyone acted like Arthur Chu was a lone spark of extra insanity after he talked about mind killing himself, but that's because he was actually giving the game away.
*Note I am not saying they would bsod because they knew I was right about gamergate, I am saying they would bsod because they could feel themselves empathising with me.
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