ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
No bio...
User ID: 1012
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1d ago
If he was James Damore or something, sure. But how on earth would someone 2 states away be like "hey it's that mid-30s Red Vines guy from that feminist me too short story published several years ago!" Was he actually doxxed? Is his real name online?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1d ago
Part of the reason that this topic is hard to discuss is that suicide is the end of a wide variety of behaviors, such as:
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Suicide to avoid certain torture and death at the hands of genocidaires
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Suicide to escape chronic pain that cannot be alleviated
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Suicide due to a chronic mental illness
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Suicide due to pain from deep and profound tragedy (wartime PTSD, death of ones spouse or children, etc)
These are clearly all sympathetic cases, and I think you would have to be extremely callous indeed to condemn those decisions.
But then there are other reasons:
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"Suicide" to regain control (often only attempted but sometimes accidentally? completed) -- your BPD ex saying "Goodbye, it was nice while it lasted" via text after you fight
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Suicide due to loss of prestige or wealth -- the guy who kills himself after blowing it all in Vegas, leaving a grieving wife and kids; the guy who is outed as gay despite being and ardent anti-gay activist
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"Suicide" by recklessness -- I'm super depressed and I don't care what happens to me; I'm not going to blow my brains out but maybe I'll drink a 12 pack and then speed down the highway at 120mph just to FEEL something
These IMO are less sympathetic. If (and as I keep saying -- it's a big if! We don't know why this guy really died!) he really did commit suicide because someone wrote a mean story, that is pretty weak. If (again, as I stated in my original post) he had other stuff going on like a congenital mental illness or something, his (alleged) suicide is a lot more sympathetic.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1d ago
Thanks for elaborating. I can see that angle as well.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1d ago
Sorry, I'm having a hard time understanding your comment, but I'm interested. Are you saying that even if nobody cared about the story, the story's implication that he was actually "Robert" made him feel guilty and self-hating enough to become suicidal?
Is your distaste rooted in some actual lived experience with suicide, or is it based on some abstract sympathy for suicides as an abstract, theoretical class of people? If it's not the former, I would recommend thinking twice about casting judgement on how others react to it.
Flippant is defined as "not showing a serious or respectful attitude." I assure you that I was quite serious about what I said. I was not mocking his death, I was saying that it was a pity, a shame, a sad and grave mistake, completely and utterly unnecessary (assuming the article caused it). And I afford suicides the respect they are due, which outside of extreme circumstances, is IMHO not very much, as it is often a quite self-absorbed act.
If you disagree, I'd be interested in hearing why. I don't claim to be the sole authority on the subject, I'm on The Motte to have my opinions challenged after all.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
2d ago
Off the top of my head, for me personally I guess it's about something like dignity? A widow (presumably) expected to be married forever, so she does not lose her dignity by remarrying. An abuse victim did not consent to the interaction as so her dignity remains intact. Both cases involve external forces outside of the woman's control. But a promiscuous woman does things within her control to willingly degrades herself and thus becomes undignified and unworthy of respect.
Maybe you really are a Tleilaxu Ghola.
Please don't tell anyone.
This is an incredibly callous response.
Why? Does committing suicide mean you are automatically relieved of accountability for all of your actions? I don't think my response is callous at all, on the contratry, it's the the performative sympathy strangers display for the the person who commits suicide that is insincere, Machiavellian, and callous. I feel more sympathy for his parents and siblings (if any) who have live with that gaping hole in their life, wondering if they could have done something, wonder where they went wrong. FWIW, that is an experience I have personally lived and to some degree will live every day for the rest of my life. He could've chosen differently. He could've chosen not to let some dumb story cut his life short (again, assuming it even has anything to do with it -- he could have had other issues we know nothing about, in which case I may have more sympathy, as I stated above).
It's never been easier to move to another town, lose weight, read some PUA books or whatever, and get your shit together. I don't know what was going on in that guy's life, so I'm not trying to speak ill of the dead, maybe he was wrestling with other demons, and if so I might have more sympathy. But I also think the suggestion that this mean article was so awful that he killed himself is, as we used to say long ago in the 90s, really gay. Nobody makes you do anything. Did literally every single woman in the town know about this dumb story? Did literally every single woman care? Would anyone still have cared 5 years from now? Would anyone have cared 5 miles outside Podunkville city limits? I guess this comes across as mean, but external locus of control males just turn my stomach. I mean imagine being rejected by some literally who college girl because she thinks you're a "loser," and then going ahead and proving her right for all eternity be necking yourself. Just fucking embarrassing. The best revenge is a life well lived.
Even granting everything in the story as true, I don't really get the outrage from either side.
Was she a rape victim? No, she clearly was into it and egged on his advances without thinking about the consequences, and then she lacked the courage to tell him she wasn't interested so she let the sex happen by lying about her feelings.
Was he treated poorly? No, he had a chance and blew it by being out-of-shape and awkward.
The only part of the story that didn't work for me were the last lines. "Are you? Are you? Whore." just seems unrealistic. That kind of guy would say something more subtle and passive aggressive, "Guess I should've known when you told me you weren't a virgin. Guess I was wrong about you. Enjoy fooling around in college, I guess." or something like that. Less raging misogynist and more seething "nice guy."
Anyway, I'm also not impressed by these new revelations. Nobody would know that this story was about this dude if Alexis hadn't said anything. It seems anonymous enough and the story consists of so much internal dialog that unless you were a close friend if either the guy or girl and had heard this story from them, how could you possibly know it was about them?
And it's a silly piece of fiction that was written years ago. Are we meant to believe that this guy killed himself because of the story?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
3d ago
This was cool, you should allow your autism to activate more often.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
18d ago
I think there is definitely less murder and violent assault, it is indeed hard to hide a missing wife or girlfriend.
But unlike many other countries, perverts generally seem to avoid tourists. Western women are stereotyped as being more assertive, and they're generally just physically larger and less demure than Japanese women. And from what I can tell and what I've been told, Japanese men just aren't that attracted to non-Japanese women. There seems to be an assumption that Japanese women are the most feminine, womanly women out there, and that anything else is a downgrade. And there's also the faint but pervasive sentiment permeating every layer and aspect of Japanese life that anything Japanese is "good" and "normal" while anything foreign, while perhaps interesting, is nonetheless alien and inferior (c.f. the stereotypical 20th century Englishman's "proper tea," "proper fish and chips," "foreign parts," etc).
On the other hand, very much like other countries, I've heard that a lot of the sexual assaults happen to lower-class women -- unsupervised teenage daughters of single working moms, young women very drunk or passed out in a nightlife district, and of course, young girls in crowded trains (although this seems to be decreasing). It seems like there is quite a lot of this, and tourists rarely experience it.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
19d ago
Having experienced the latter and currently experiencing the former, I wish I could have started in my early 20s.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
19d ago
On the other hand, less sexual violence
I think it's just endemic and underreported. I've heard that cops here will often blow off accusations of assault or violence unless it's truly egregious. He's your boyfriend/husband, right? Are you sure you weren't just having a lovers quarrel? He could get in a lot of trouble if you insist on reporting this, you know. What were you doing out this late, anyway? Were you drinking? A young woman your age shouldn't be doing that sort of thing. Etc etc. Which is not to say that they don't have a point, but I think there may be more sexual violence that you see in the news or in official stats.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
19d ago
"Nobody 'makes you mad.' Nobody 'makes' you do anything. Don't make excuses for how you choose to feel and what you choose to do."
t. my mom (paraphrased)
As a kid I hated it, but as I became an adult I realized she was so very, very right. I'm endlessly amazed at how very many people age 30+ still blame others for their own emotions and choices.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
20d ago
At last, something on which we can agree.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
20d ago
I've spent years working at several different Japanese companies, and this is a pretty spot-on analysis.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
22d ago
I'm aware of the Quran passages, but I thought that Judaism mostly cozied up to Islam throughout middle ages and early modern ages, and that Jews were willingly employed by Muslims as spies and 5th columnists against Christian kingdoms. AFAIK the current Jewish-Muslim feud did start with the Zionist settlement of the Levant.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
22d ago
My impression is that this was actually true for an earlier period of American history, though. American media from the last 70 years is rife with caricatures of scared mean old men or stupid meathead bullies calling anything perceived as effete or unusual "Communist" or "pinko." My right-wing extended family uses "What? What are you, some kind of Communist?" in response to the same as an ironic self-deprecating joke. And so if you call someone a "Communist" in 2025, all but the most brainrotted boomercons will just laugh at you.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
22d ago
Are Hakan and Drukpa the same guy? I had heard that Hakan had a new account, but I had not linked the two as the tones are quiet different even if the subject matter is the same.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
22d ago
I remember being there in 2007 or so, forming swastikas in Club Penguin with the other anons.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
22d ago
What's interesting is that the one thing both the Nazi denouncers (Hanania/Lynch/etc) and Nazi defenders (Myron/Torba/etc) here both seem to agree on, is that this is common among the young right.
As Ross Douthat(?) said 10 years ago, "if you don't like the Christian right, you're really not going to like the post-Christian right." Whoops!
We've seen this with Kanye and his descent into Nazism
anon, pls
So with all this recent controversy, how big of a Nazi problem is actually festering, and why do the Nazis seem to feel so comfortable in modern conservativism?
Nazis aren't real in 2025. You need to more precisely define what you mean. A guy waving a Soviet flag in 2025 isn't a Bolshevik, he's a progressive.
Will this growing trend of Nazi radicalism destroy the Republicans chances among moderates in the future like embracing left wing radicalism hurt Biden?
What is "Nazi radicalism" in the 2025 American context? In any case, no, I think normies are experiencing a hangover from woke and are desensitized to this pearl-clutching nonsense.
And how do the non Nazi conservatives and moderates balance fighting off Nazi accusations from the left also working to stem this apparant rise of unashamed nazism and Holocaust denialism?
All the defections have already happened. Nobody on the right cares about "fighting off Nazi accusations from the left." Why should we fight any accusation from the left? Why not just lean into it while mocking the left and winking to the audience? That seems to be working.
I think your perspective on TheMotte could actually be extremely valuable, if only you would directly state your opinions and drop all of the accusations and attempts at reader manipulation. You've already been called out on the "have you stopped beating your wife?" style questions, so why not try to write another post about these events seeking to understand people who might have had a different reaction from yours?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
22d ago
So, uncharitable it is. Dan Carlin sources his stories very well. They often have a slight, particular slant to them because of his political leanings, but I would not call him a "liar" who posts trivially debunked (there's that word again) stories that contradict "basic factual knowledge" (cf. "basic logic," "basic human decency"). Dan Carlin emphasizese a specific set of facts to spin a particular narrative. Some people say this means all history is bunk, but IMHO that's a uselessly sweeping and reductive judgement. There is no narrative-free history.
try and whitewash Nazi aggression and Nazi crimes while shifting the blame for these things to their enemies
This complaint is always levelled in bad faith at people who try to understand the internal state of the "bad guys." If you try to explain, even with disavowels, why e.g. how Communists came to power in Russia by tapping into legitimate grievances that certain groups had, you will invariably be called a Communist sympathizer by those on the right too idiotic to understand hypotheticals or too Machiavellian to feel shame. I see little to indicate that you're an idiot.
Given that he's on record praising reactionary authoritarianism
Am I supposed to shrink back in fear at this? So what? Your words have no power here. I've been jaded by the pearl-clutching about "our democracy" by libs for the last decade.
Cooper is deliberately misrepresenting WW2 in a way that minimizes the crimes of Nazism, it raises the question of why?
He isn't, and you don't get to smuggle your tendentious accusation into the question, sorry. As for why he is telling this story, he is doing it for the same reason he told the stories of the Zionist Jews, the Palestinians, the (leftist!) People's Temple, the (leftist!) early labor movement in the U.S. -- because he thinks it's important to tell stories from within the frame and perspective of the people who lived that story, rather than as a "neutral" or baised outsider. An impossible goal, but a worthwhile aspiration (and given how preoccupied leftists are with lived experience, you'd think they would approve, but instead it's just another case of "no not like that!!"). Do you think Cooper is a People's Temple booster? A Zionist Jew sympathizer (Check his Twitter to find out about that one)?
Are these people full on fascists?
There's that word again. There's nothing I can really say in response to this that won't get me in trouble, so let me just recommend that you find a more effective line of attack, because scolding and panicking about "fascism" is so 2017, it doesn't work on anyone anymore save the most dyed in the wool leftists. And it undermines any concern you are trying to create in me about "reactionary authoritarianism."
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
22d ago
My wife and kids are my meaning generator. The low COL area is where some of my extended family lives, and it is religiously, politically, and culturally compatible. Job market is meh, but I've been working remote for years now. I should probably just take a lower-gear tech job and just ride it for a while.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
23d ago
What is the minimum annual income could you live off of while still being happy?
Like many corporate tech drones nearing middle age, I have gotten bored with the rat race and dream of a simpler, lower stress life. I don't really consoom much anymore -- I barely play games or watch TV, and I have a massive collection of books that I've yet to get around to reading. My only expensive habits are whiskey and the very occasional cigar, but I could probably reduce my intake or go without.
Having money is pretty great, though. You can solve a lot of problems by simply throwing money at them. And expensive whiskey is nice...
Great breakdown. His trolling sometimes gets me, but it's artful enough that I can't truly be mad. And he's pretty witty sometimes.
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