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PaperclipPerfector  13d ago (text post)   2277 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 11, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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What do we think of Severance? I only just started watching it because I figured it was normieslop, but I find the theme pretty intelligent. I love that all the ambient media and conversations in the show are tangential to the topic of memory. The show is thoughtfully made imo, but I’m only on episode 3.

The idea of your “laboring identity” being totally cut off from your holistic identity, and what that means for the You in workmode, is fascinating as a thought experiment in how humans construe motivation. If you were really in severance, in the show, of course you would have no motivation to work, because you don’t have the experience of reaping what you sowing, only the annoying sowing. It’s like the Homer Simpson quote, when he does something stupid for short term gratification he says “that’s a problem for future Homer”; he doesn’t know who future Homer is, and future Homer doesn’t know who past Homer is. If your identity between sowing and reaping, future and past is severed, morale / motivation suffers; the greater memory we have of joy when we work, the greater we are able to bear the annoyances of working.

So I find severance vs integration interesting because its at play in a lot of human dysfunction: delayed gratification, procrastination, low vs high time preference, work-life balance, counterfactual thinking about future events. Probably every human requires the practice of greater integration in order to increase their wellbeing, because we are imperfect forecasters and rememberers. You can even see how drug culture worsens quality of life, because so much joy is just not remembered.

It was on my 'maybe watch' list and then some stupid SJW highlighted some dance number from that show and now it's on my 'you better hold me at gunpoint to make me watch it' list.

Are you turned off simply because there is a scene with dancing in it, or that some "stupid SJW" shared it approvingly?

No, but the criticisms of the scene on an aesthetic level really hit home for me. It really does look like a mid market cell phone commercial.

And when annoying midwits effusively praise something so underwhelming, it’s basically impossible to unsee.

Vibe killed, so I’ll skip. I’ve got plenty of other stuff to watch when I have free time.

I'm fine with song and dancing but it can't be cringe. If it's cringe I avoid it - I hate cringe.

Parts of the show are intentionally cringe, as they are satirizing corporate America's choices, abuses, and aesthetic.

Part of the show is enjoying the severed characters rolling with corporate bullshit because they don't know any better and then later going...wait...this is so stupid.

Loved loved season 1. Season 2 was a mess. I'm willing to extend it some measure of grace because there was a long series of disruptions behind the scenes (writer's strike, actor's strike, power struggles). But if it continues in the way of season 2 I'm going to drop it quickly.

I simply can't wrap my head around the Hally character, mostly her origins. She is a daughter of a Lumon CEO and is portrayed in season 2 as very ruthless and calculating individual all in on their creepy cult business and secrets, so why is she there? Just to provide a PR face to their Severance project? Can't she fake it? And nobody(including herself) gives a shit about the suicide attempt? Like we are hiding that this project almost killed the daughter of CEO and everyone is cool with it.

The second season generally seems to be pretty aimless. People do stuff without any obvious motive, there's so much secrecy and mystery but I get the feeling that it's a kind of potemkin village of a plot where there's nothing actually behind any of those secrets.

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