Grant_us_eyes
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User ID: 1156
Grant_us_eyes
1d ago
It finally clicked with me the other day why Discord drives me up the wall; it's because they took the worst parts of IRC with the worst parts of forums, slap them together, and called the unholy abortion a success.
I don't know how the internet is going to pull out of that goddamn spiral.
Grant_us_eyes
1d ago
Grant_us_eyes
6d ago
"We have agreed to abide by these terms. If you do not, I will kill you." "Excellent. We have agreed to abide by these terms. If you do not, I will kill you." "Good."
Carry this forward a number of centuries, where your word is your bond(or you die), and, well...
Grant_us_eyes
6d ago
Well, thank you for putting some things together for me that didn't click, before.
By the way, the lady in question - RealDianeYap - who insulted his wife was the same one prattling on about wanting to be a sex-slave for a 9 or 10 rather than a housekeeper for a 5. People claim she's a troll, but fake retarded behavior online is still retarded behavior, regardless.
Shagbark's wife, by the way, is a lovely woman and he's atleast lucky in that respect, I feel.
As for Shagbark - I'm not sure what my opinion on the man himself can fall into. He received a heavy amount of flack on twitter about his admission that his priors had shifted post-birth of his daughter. Advice he had been constantly preaching on how he felt men should follow his example and do what he was doing - all of a sudden, that didn't fly now that he had a small child to take care of, and he was getting roundly called out for it.
It was about this point where he admitted his big hope wasn't a round-robin bar scene for trad men(or even a round-robin trad-men coffee shop), but instead he had hoped to inspire men to basically settle with him and build a unified community.
Which shows where the critical failure lies, and what his sin really is - the lack of leadership, of charisma, of inspiration, of a passive type of ideological cowardice where instead of boldy stating 'Come with me to build a good society' he instead wibble-wobbled about how men should just do the things he had been doing while making limp-wristed motions in his general direction.
...Okay, I'm probably being very unfair to the guy. I get how fatherhood can radically change one's priorities. But I find it hard to respect someone who's actions prove him to be more than willing to sacrifice his prior principles and ideals.
On the other hand, as a parent, you haven't got the luxury of principles.
Now, having said all of that, I feel you're atleast doing him a bit of disservice. There's nothing wrong with wanting to have the company of your peers to throw around and discuss ideas, even outside of alcohal. I mentioned coffee shops before, and I actually got to see this, where a bunch of old men would come in like clock-work to have idle discussion on various topics, from politics to business to just idle chatter. It was definately interesting to see that in the flesh, and if that's what he was going for, I applaud him for it.
I don't think that's what it was, mind. Conversely, if he had setup his overall ideal community, it's possible things like that would grow out of it organically. Again, something I feel overall would be a good thing.
But it's clear by this point that if this is what he wants to do, he needs to step up and be a Leader, a Patriarch, someone whom others find worthy enough to follow. And that's something he's failed to do up until this point. He might want to work on that.
...running back to your initial question, while writing can cultivate intellectual work, open and skilled communication and debate is a completely different skill. Ideally, one should cultivate both, and my opinion is that one isn't nessecarily superior to the other.
Grant_us_eyes
6d ago
Ah, Cryptonomicon. The book that pretty much killed my interest in Neal Stephenson.
...which is really weird to say, cause it's not a bad book by any means. I've read bad books before. That isn't one of them. Hell, I've read through slogs before, and I wouldn't call Cryptonomicon a slog.
But after finishing, I basically paused, considered everything, put it on my shelf, and never picked up one of his books ever again.
Which is weird, come to think. Cause Snow Crash was fun as hell, and The Big U was definitely entertaining.
Eh, maybe I'll give Diamond Age another shot one day.
Grant_us_eyes
6d ago
The last time I was in a physical bookstore(a few months ago) and browsed through the sci-fi/fantasy genre, the majority of new books seemed to be overwhelmingly written by women in a quirky, post-2000 semi-ironic genre-smacking type style that comes across as a 'serious parody/satire' more than anything.
So if you want to find anything written that will appeal to men, you either need to go old-school or down the indie-rabbit hole, not exactly an easy thing to slog through.
Conversely, if you're being uncharitable, when women brag about how much reading they do, they're bragging about stuff like this and booktok(IE, it's all porn).
Grant_us_eyes
10d ago
You statement: 'under Trump financial analysts are talking about "rising unemployment" when unemployment is lower than it literally ever was under Obama. unemployment is lower than it literally ever was under Obama'
Job searching during the Obama years was a nightmare.
Job searching right now is even worse.
Maybe I misread your statement - I've been doing alot of cooking and am slightly buzzed right now, I won't discount it - but I took your statement to imply that employment wasn't that bad during the Obama years.
It doesn't help that isn't the first time I've heard that, admittedly.
So, if I'm mistaken on that part, I do apologize. However, this part;
Something odd is going on as well, where under Trump financial analysts are talking about "rising unemployment" when unemployment is lower than it literally ever was under Obama.
Again, trying to find a job right now is a fairly horrible process. So if Trump financial analysts are talking about rising unemployment, I'd start listening to them. Cause they might be on to something.
Grant_us_eyes
10d ago
Shotokan karate.
Grant_us_eyes
10d ago
Boy Scouts(before it got ruined(And, if I'm being extremely charitable, still is today)) is alot like martial arts.
When it's good, it's really, really good.
When it's not, it's the metaphorical equivalent of a mcdojo.
Sadly, there's no uniform way you're going to be able to enforce that level of discipline other than getting the weird and interesting people whom are passionate about Odd Things into joining.
Recalling my own scouting days, come to think, all the weird and wonderful things that we got up to where specifically because of the guys running stuff were all Weird and Interesting in thier own unique ways. From Baptist Preachers to Ex-military to old-school Ham operators to... Well, you get the idea.
So. While the announcement that the military is basically backing away from scouting... well, I wish I could say I'm surprised. But I'm really, really not. Still a shame, though - I can remember many a time when scouting activities were being held on miltiary bases and whatnot, and getting to visit them were actually really cool.
Enshittification continues apace, I suppose.
Grant_us_eyes
11d ago
Something odd is going on as well, where under Trump financial analysts are talking about "rising unemployment" when unemployment is lower than it literally ever was under Obama. Unemployment has only very rarely been lower than it currently is.
As someone who had the misfortune to graduate during the Obama years and currently in the line to try and find a new job right now, you will have to excuse me if I so politely reply with bullshit.
Trying to find a job under Obama that wasn't some sort of high-turnover high-pressure sales job was a complete nightmare that I barely managed to stumble into through a series of unusual circumstance. (And, checking back what the average for my degree was at the time, I was getting severely underpaid for it).
Right now, it's arguably even worse; throwing out applications for even slightly sketchy jobs, and I'm not even getting replies back for an interview.
Back during Obama, I couldn't even count the times I'd get slotted in for an interview only to get in and find they were interviewing me for something completely different, or had just straight up lied about what I was applying for. Good times.
If anything, those financial analysts sound like the only people who know a goddamn inkling of what they're talking about. I'd listen to them, if I were you.
Grant_us_eyes
11d ago
"Oh, I tell you, women are not the sensitive sex. That's one of the great delusions of literature. Men are the true romanticists."
- From the movie 'Indiscreet', 1958.
I have that movie on-call, I really need to sit down and watch it for the full context of that quote one day.
Grant_us_eyes
11d ago
Minor antecedent, but I was assisting with a 'local' tournament a few weeks ago.
The most annoying issue with working the tables that always happens is the inevitable student who pops up out of nowhere that wants to compete. We basically had to throw together a special bracket at one point where we basically said 'Fuck it, everyone who hasn't competed that WANTS to compete gets thrown in here, and if they don't show up, shame on them'.
So... it seems to be doing pretty damn well.
At the end of the day, martial arts is something you just can't fake. It's really hard to deny not being impressed when two opponents are going at it so hard that the damn tournament mat beneath them is getting shoved around.
Though I'd also say that the attitude of the people in charge helps, as well. Really dedicated martial artists, who've been at this for decades, are just a different breed. It's really interesting to see.
Grant_us_eyes
11d ago
There's a bit of a funny story at my dojo my sensei likes to tell from time to time.
Years ago, his sensei was teaching. At the end of the class, his sensei turned to one of the female students, and promptly said '(Female student), you're getting fat!' In front of everyone. Not giving a fuck.
Cue strangled reply from said female student. Who then promptly lost weight in the coming months.
Morale of the story is... I dunno, get an old japanese guy to teach your running classes or something.
Grant_us_eyes
14d ago
Grant_us_eyes
15d ago
You don't need to look at Groypers for this.
I'm going to blatantly shill for a youtube channel I'm rather fond of; Effective Purpose, whom if I had to describe to other people, I'd say he was a Married, Christian Hoe Math.
I'm not joking.
The thing I find most interesting about him is that, despite his professed Christianity(and he certainly comes across as spiritual, though I suppose that could be my bias in action), he does not spare the rod nor spoil the child when it comes to criticism of things he finds need to be criticized; From the Church itself, to Church leadership, to women, and even Christian Women as a whole, noting that the entire 'TradCath' path toward acquiring a woman is just another pig and poke due to various reasons(which he then goes into).
He's done a video about what you talk about; How other things in the past(and in the current day), men will flock to the church in times of trouble and promptly leave for various reasons(see above).
So. Perhaps I'm a bit of a pessimist, but I don't see any influx of Groypers to have any long-term influence. If anything, the real danger will be excactly that; they move into the church, find the above, and then promptly move onto something that will satisfy thier need without any sense of restraint or stricture.
Grant_us_eyes
16d ago
Grant_us_eyes
17d ago
Ah! I see what you're referring to. I've heard that argument before, and while it works on paper(and certainly sounds nice), it seems as if most current relationships nowadays rely on men being successful and bringing in value before they can occur.
Grant_us_eyes
18d ago
I don't disagree. If anything, I feel that this developed habit of women 'waiting at the finish line' is contributing to some of the bitterness men are feeling toward woman who demonstrate this.
Sadly, I have no utter clue as to how one could even go about correcting this, so I can only focus on the one element that could be fixed - IE, making men more successful, earlier.
Grant_us_eyes
18d ago
You're never going to find a single Golden Ticket solution to the TFR question(because, ultimately, there is no single golden ticket solution to TFR), but economic conditions allowing for succesful, established men relatively early in life so they can support a family is atleast a very strong factor in play here.
The hidden question here that few people ask; If men as a whole were richer and more established, would women quietly choose to be stay-at-home-moms or instead go for the go-girl-business-boss path? We really don't know.
On the other hand, we should still probably want for successful, established men early in life, because even if a good chunk of women still go for the go-girl-business-boss path, the stay-at-home-moms may very well make up for the slack if they're churning out 3 to 4 kids at a time.
relationshiplessness of zoomers contradicts the "purely economic factors" explanation.
I can't see how you reach this conclusion. If anything, going by current economic conditions, it blatantly supports it.
Grant_us_eyes
19d ago
I admittedly have never heard of Kreia described as a 'Mary Sue'.
I've heard of alot of people dislike her, but never call her a Mary Sue.
Grant_us_eyes
19d ago
The reason I bring that game up is because Knights of the Old Republic 1 and Knights of the Old Republic 2 both set out to subvert and deconstruct Star Wars respectively in a way that was not destructive, and years before the Disney Triology ever came to fruition.
While people universally hold KOTOR1 is one of the best Star Wars games ever made(as well they should), KOTOR2 is much more devisive. For one, there's a severe tonal shift - while KOTOR1 is a galaxy-spanning pulp science fantasy in the theme of the original trilogy, KOTOR2 is much more darker and philosophical, to the point where the opening level is taken straight out of a horror game.
KOTOR2 also brings to the fore the potential consequences of the Jedi and Sith conflict, in the wake of such a cataclysmic, planet-destroying war, openly questioning on wether such organizations and individuals are good things overall, and the nature of the Force as a whole.
And it does all of this while managing to somehow not take a steaming shit over the setting itself or insult the fandom, while never giving you a clear or concise answer as to what the game thinks is correct. I'd argue it's a masterpeice of writing, for all the balancing act it plays.
Doesn't hurt that it has one of the best video game characters ever created in the form of Kreia, but the KOTOR series is littered with incredible characters.
Personally, I like KOTOR2 far more than KOTOR1, myself. There's just something about it...
Grant_us_eyes
19d ago
You haven't played Knights of the Old Republic 2, have you?
Grant_us_eyes
21d ago
Most of the people on youtube I watch are already having to supplement their income via ads they willingly insert into their videos. Or setup patreons, or advertise for off-youtube streaming sites(because youtube is a censoring hell that would make Orwell blush), or...
So no, I'm not giving youtube access to my hardware and internet to force their advertising on me. If I want to support the people I watch on youtube, I'll do so directly.
Grant_us_eyes
29d ago
Fallacious logic. There have been plenty of conspiracies that have held up to scrutiny with no one whistle-blowing, despite the likely large number of personelle involved.
MK-Ultra, for example, is only know due to a filing mishap that meant not all the paperwork on said project was successfully destroyed.
More recently, we've learned of 275 plain-clothes FBI agents amoung the January 6 crowd - not a single whistleblower.
Conspiracies can work just fine, it seems.
I'm old enough to recall the videos we got coming out of China back when Covid was just reving up. People spontaneously dropping in the streets, apartments being welded shut with tenants inside, the works.
My personal conspiracy theory is that Covid was bio-engineered in a lab, and when they realized it had gotten out, they didn't know which variant had escaped - and that there were much, much nastier variants than the one we got.
Hence China's initial reaction looking like something out of a zombie movie.
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