People are so suited to slavery, so easy to break, so easy to make submit. Fighters are rare, for the most part the herd has the mentality of submission rather than confrontation or defiance.
That's why everybody is so eager to find a "good leader". You all want to find the person who will tell you what to do in way that you (not your commander) will benefit, which is, in case you haven't noticed, seriously fucking stupid. If I have a bunch of ignorant, servile fucks at my command, everything they do will be for my benefit, not theirs.
You can make the argument that it stems from people having gotten soft, life having gotten too easy and too leisure-obsessed, but to an extent humanity has always had the tendency to follow instead of do. The essence of the exceptional man is to get the herd to move in a certain direction, to manipulate it to benefit himself. Nobody sees anything wrong with this, everybody is satisfied with their personal mediocrity, with never having done anything special.
So continue to take it, continue to let them tell you what you can or cannot put in your bodies, what you can share with your friends, what you can read, what you can watch, how to live, like the good little children you are. I am not here to tell you to grow up and take your own path, it obviously doesn't matter to you if you do or not. I am here to tell you to stop pretending that you have a spine. I hear rape victims suffer less injury if they just shut up and lay there.
That's why everybody is so eager to find a "good leader". You all want to find the person who will tell you what to do in way that you (not your commander) will benefit, which is, in case you haven't noticed, seriously fucking stupid. If I have a bunch of ignorant, servile fucks at my command, everything they do will be for my benefit, not theirs.
You can make the argument that it stems from people having gotten soft, life having gotten too easy and too leisure-obsessed, but to an extent humanity has always had the tendency to follow instead of do. The essence of the exceptional man is to get the herd to move in a certain direction, to manipulate it to benefit himself. Nobody sees anything wrong with this, everybody is satisfied with their personal mediocrity, with never having done anything special.
So continue to take it, continue to let them tell you what you can or cannot put in your bodies, what you can share with your friends, what you can read, what you can watch, how to live, like the good little children you are. I am not here to tell you to grow up and take your own path, it obviously doesn't matter to you if you do or not. I am here to tell you to stop pretending that you have a spine. I hear rape victims suffer less injury if they just shut up and lay there.
Labels: People, People I know, Social Issues
If you are going allow homosexual marriage why not allow bestiality too?
0 Comments Published by Icon on Monday, September 15, 2008 at 1:33 PM.
Yes, why not?
The whole problem with legislating morality is that many people think eating pork is a sin, whereas I like ham, pork rinds and other pig products very much, and I would oppose you. It all has to do with whose morality you legislate. The concept of trying to force other people who don't share your beliefs to live by your rules is not unlike, say, going to another continent, kidnapping a bunch of random people and bringing them back to live by your rules and to do as you say. I am exaggerating, you say? How exactly?
It is all about inflicting your will on other people. It involves your dismissal of this other person's right to do as they will with their lives because you don't think it's right, while preserving your right to do as you will with your life against others who think you are wrong. It's a clusterfuck of hypocrisy, egomania, and the refusal to think.
So outside of your morality why shouldn't somebody marry a donkey? It's their choice, and your "morality" has nothing to do with the animal's supposed inability to consent.
Note: I understand the concept of a universal right and wrong, the fact that certain things are absolutely wrong, but even if donkey sex is indeed evil as hell, how is it different from you deciding what channels your neighbor can watch? What food they can eat? What friends they can have over?
The whole problem with legislating morality is that many people think eating pork is a sin, whereas I like ham, pork rinds and other pig products very much, and I would oppose you. It all has to do with whose morality you legislate. The concept of trying to force other people who don't share your beliefs to live by your rules is not unlike, say, going to another continent, kidnapping a bunch of random people and bringing them back to live by your rules and to do as you say. I am exaggerating, you say? How exactly?
It is all about inflicting your will on other people. It involves your dismissal of this other person's right to do as they will with their lives because you don't think it's right, while preserving your right to do as you will with your life against others who think you are wrong. It's a clusterfuck of hypocrisy, egomania, and the refusal to think.
So outside of your morality why shouldn't somebody marry a donkey? It's their choice, and your "morality" has nothing to do with the animal's supposed inability to consent.
Note: I understand the concept of a universal right and wrong, the fact that certain things are absolutely wrong, but even if donkey sex is indeed evil as hell, how is it different from you deciding what channels your neighbor can watch? What food they can eat? What friends they can have over?
Labels: People, Relationships
They don't work
Nobody cares that you are sorry. They care about the damage you did, the feelings you hurt, but you being merely "sorry" is you getting off way too easy. If it's a matter of ego, a pulic apology might soothe the sting a little bit, especially if they didn't have the balls to retaliate, your ceremonial gesture takes the burden of cowardice off their backs.
You look like a pussy
Nobody cares that you are sorry. They care about the damage you did, the feelings you hurt, but you being merely "sorry" is you getting off way too easy. If it's a matter of ego, a pulic apology might soothe the sting a little bit, especially if they didn't have the balls to retaliate, your ceremonial gesture takes the burden of cowardice off their backs.
You look like a pussy
If the apology comes off as anything close to sincere, that is. If they believe that you really are sorry, and you really do want to resume a friendly relationship, then you seem like a genuinely well-intentioned person. The kind that assholes want to take advantage of.
You have to admit that you were wrong
You have to admit that you were wrong
That's the only thing they will be satisfied with. Were you? Were you , really? If you at any point qualify your actions while apologizing then you are not all the way convinced of your own wrongness, they know it, and you know it, so basically, it's like a handshake, a rite connoting nothing.
Labels: People, Relationships
Are you a moron? No? Well, what does that mean? If you were a moron, wouldn't your answer be the same? You would be too stupid to know what you were, in fact you might even consider yourself to be my equal or superior, so obviously answering that question with a "no" has no bearing on the truth. The fact is that you don't really know if you are a moron or not.
One of the essential ingredients of being human, is to have a definition of the word "fool", to be able to point another human being and say, that's your idiot right there. People need to feel smarter than somebody else. In the old days they had clowns and jesters, now we have the likes of Larry the Cable Guy. They all serve the same purpose, as a scapegoat for our own stupidity. We get to point at somebody else and pretend to be better. But there is a problem.
Lets look at human intelligence as a step-ladder of IQ scores or grades or any arbitrary measure of intellect. Smart people on top, genuine stupids on the bottom rung. Let's say we only get to laugh at and feel superior to the person on the rung immediately below them. What you laugh at would then signify your own place on the ladder. The level of the people you feel superior to also indicates the people who are your superiors. Rung 2 laughs mockingly at rung 3, but by laughing specifically at rung 3, they have identified themselves as being rung 2, which also means that they are inferior to rung 1.
Morons identify themselves by what they find funny, what they feel superior to. They not only identify themselves as morons, but as specific types of moron. The people they feel superior to, and the criteria with which they judge superiority is all a part of it. The fact is they can't hide it no matter how hard they try because they don't know they are stupid, all they can see is the rung below them, they don't know that they aren't at the top of the ladder.
One of the essential ingredients of being human, is to have a definition of the word "fool", to be able to point another human being and say, that's your idiot right there. People need to feel smarter than somebody else. In the old days they had clowns and jesters, now we have the likes of Larry the Cable Guy. They all serve the same purpose, as a scapegoat for our own stupidity. We get to point at somebody else and pretend to be better. But there is a problem.
Lets look at human intelligence as a step-ladder of IQ scores or grades or any arbitrary measure of intellect. Smart people on top, genuine stupids on the bottom rung. Let's say we only get to laugh at and feel superior to the person on the rung immediately below them. What you laugh at would then signify your own place on the ladder. The level of the people you feel superior to also indicates the people who are your superiors. Rung 2 laughs mockingly at rung 3, but by laughing specifically at rung 3, they have identified themselves as being rung 2, which also means that they are inferior to rung 1.
Morons identify themselves by what they find funny, what they feel superior to. They not only identify themselves as morons, but as specific types of moron. The people they feel superior to, and the criteria with which they judge superiority is all a part of it. The fact is they can't hide it no matter how hard they try because they don't know they are stupid, all they can see is the rung below them, they don't know that they aren't at the top of the ladder.
Labels: People
Yes, the fact of death looming closer, and innocent youth rapidly disappearing from memory does come with a handful of benefits. So here, young man, here is what you have to look forward to:
1. Knowing what comes next
This goes for Hollywood movies as well as real life. Gradually you will get to the point where the feeling of surprise is such a novelty that when it does come you won't even recognize it anymore. Something will happen, and you will have a sensation, and a minute or two will go by and then it will hit you, you really did not see that coming. After 30 the ability to be surprised by anything decreases dramatically every year. Some people refer to this as being "jaded", but it can be quite useful in avoiding mistakes that you have made before.
2. The ability to read minds
Especially of people younger than you. There is a reason that men like younger chicks, the fact is that this is pretty much the only kind of female that is transparent to us. In my opinion this makes them boring, but I can see the appeal. A teenaged boy is like a wide open book that we have read and memorized. Movies are the simplest thing ever as we have seen the same thing two or three times before, at least. As you get older you will be able to spot assholes more easily and learn how to handle morons.
3. General Expertise
I don't care what you do for a living, anything from selling crack to cleaning toilets, you can't get to your mid-30s without getting really good at it, or at least some aspect of it. You might be a lazy motherfucker, but you still know how to do it when you have to. Life and just being in it, listening to people, being in the same place every day, makes you better. If you enjoy something, and everybody enjoys something, you try to do it as often as you can, and you get better at it just from exposure. Even sucky old-timer poker-players are better than novices.
4. Ambition
Life is full of milestones, the birth of a child, your first major car-crash, marriage, the death of a parent, a diagnosis of cancer, turning 30. Everything is a prompt for you to get something done, to leave a mark, to make sure the world knows that you were here. To do something. They all start coming fast and hard as you pass out of your 20s, as you start to see how unpredictable life is and start to sense your mortality. After t30 is not the point where you start dreaming, it is the time for effort, for getting things done. The sudden intense compulsion to accomplish before death is what you call a mid-life crisis, and it's not at all a bad thing. Read William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom.
5. Bullshit artistry
It's as if there is a little recorder in your brain, paying attention to every word somebody says. It learns what works and what doesn't, it learns to spot deceit and trickery and quietly file it away for future reference. When the times comes you find that lies, even if they don't sit well with your conscience, come with astonishing ease. You learn how to bluff, how fake, how to sell a story.
6. Taste
Things that once seemed so exciting now seem childish and simple. You need complexity in order to feel satisfied. You get picky because you have had everything before and need something exotic to get you feeling the same way you did before. Again, some people refer to this as being "jaded", but again, it's not necessarily a bad thing. There is nothing more pathetic than a 50 year-old man who thinks Tom Clancy is brilliant literature. It's the sign of a kind of mental retardation.
1. Knowing what comes next
This goes for Hollywood movies as well as real life. Gradually you will get to the point where the feeling of surprise is such a novelty that when it does come you won't even recognize it anymore. Something will happen, and you will have a sensation, and a minute or two will go by and then it will hit you, you really did not see that coming. After 30 the ability to be surprised by anything decreases dramatically every year. Some people refer to this as being "jaded", but it can be quite useful in avoiding mistakes that you have made before.
2. The ability to read minds
Especially of people younger than you. There is a reason that men like younger chicks, the fact is that this is pretty much the only kind of female that is transparent to us. In my opinion this makes them boring, but I can see the appeal. A teenaged boy is like a wide open book that we have read and memorized. Movies are the simplest thing ever as we have seen the same thing two or three times before, at least. As you get older you will be able to spot assholes more easily and learn how to handle morons.
3. General Expertise
I don't care what you do for a living, anything from selling crack to cleaning toilets, you can't get to your mid-30s without getting really good at it, or at least some aspect of it. You might be a lazy motherfucker, but you still know how to do it when you have to. Life and just being in it, listening to people, being in the same place every day, makes you better. If you enjoy something, and everybody enjoys something, you try to do it as often as you can, and you get better at it just from exposure. Even sucky old-timer poker-players are better than novices.
4. Ambition
Life is full of milestones, the birth of a child, your first major car-crash, marriage, the death of a parent, a diagnosis of cancer, turning 30. Everything is a prompt for you to get something done, to leave a mark, to make sure the world knows that you were here. To do something. They all start coming fast and hard as you pass out of your 20s, as you start to see how unpredictable life is and start to sense your mortality. After t30 is not the point where you start dreaming, it is the time for effort, for getting things done. The sudden intense compulsion to accomplish before death is what you call a mid-life crisis, and it's not at all a bad thing. Read William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom.
5. Bullshit artistry
It's as if there is a little recorder in your brain, paying attention to every word somebody says. It learns what works and what doesn't, it learns to spot deceit and trickery and quietly file it away for future reference. When the times comes you find that lies, even if they don't sit well with your conscience, come with astonishing ease. You learn how to bluff, how fake, how to sell a story.
6. Taste
Things that once seemed so exciting now seem childish and simple. You need complexity in order to feel satisfied. You get picky because you have had everything before and need something exotic to get you feeling the same way you did before. Again, some people refer to this as being "jaded", but again, it's not necessarily a bad thing. There is nothing more pathetic than a 50 year-old man who thinks Tom Clancy is brilliant literature. It's the sign of a kind of mental retardation.
5 Things that show your inability to deal with real life
1 Comments Published by Icon on Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 1:16 PM.
1. Science Fiction, for the most part
The genre is mostly shit, built on stories that have nothing to do with science, written for people who know nothing about science, and with no themes that apply to real life. It serves only as an escape for people who are too ignorant to know what bad writing is. Speculative fiction is written usually by people who know very little about the real world and who can relate only to their own daydreams. It's the attempt to circumvent your ignorance of the world around by making up your own worlds.
2. Romance fiction
This is an escape for those frustrated, for whom real life relationships are never satisfactory because the person they are with does not make them happy. These are the women who go into relationships expecting that some guy is going to, or should, make everything in their lives perfect and protect them from ever feeling unhappy about anything ever again.
3. Insulting commercials
Why the fuck do you have an animated lizard advertising insurance? Are toddler's insuring their pacifiers now? Nobody questions it, either so the whole world must think this kind of thing appropriate. The reason they do it is because a fantasy animated creature automatically shuts down the grown-up part of the brain and switches on the infantile picture-book entertainment part so that you watch and accept instead of thinking about, real-life adult matters like money and property. The idea is to make you into a kid again so they can take advantage.
4. Mexican Immigrants
This is because most Americans think they are too good to pick lettuce, and clean their own homes. Everybody sees themselves as belonging to the upper middleclass, or are longing for it so badly that the idea of doing menial work is unpalatable to them.
5. Marriage, how you see it
Your fairy-tale happily ever after shit. Of course, nobody is going to admit to being naive to the point where they actually believe that everything will turn out perfectly now, but they do. Deep down they think that marriage will change their lives for the better, which it doesn't because can't, and when they find this out they switch their expectations to having kids. After 3 or 4 kids they still aren't happy so then it's onto the divorce and the second marriage and so on and so forth on in perpetuity.
The genre is mostly shit, built on stories that have nothing to do with science, written for people who know nothing about science, and with no themes that apply to real life. It serves only as an escape for people who are too ignorant to know what bad writing is. Speculative fiction is written usually by people who know very little about the real world and who can relate only to their own daydreams. It's the attempt to circumvent your ignorance of the world around by making up your own worlds.
2. Romance fiction
This is an escape for those frustrated, for whom real life relationships are never satisfactory because the person they are with does not make them happy. These are the women who go into relationships expecting that some guy is going to, or should, make everything in their lives perfect and protect them from ever feeling unhappy about anything ever again.
3. Insulting commercials
Why the fuck do you have an animated lizard advertising insurance? Are toddler's insuring their pacifiers now? Nobody questions it, either so the whole world must think this kind of thing appropriate. The reason they do it is because a fantasy animated creature automatically shuts down the grown-up part of the brain and switches on the infantile picture-book entertainment part so that you watch and accept instead of thinking about, real-life adult matters like money and property. The idea is to make you into a kid again so they can take advantage.
4. Mexican Immigrants
This is because most Americans think they are too good to pick lettuce, and clean their own homes. Everybody sees themselves as belonging to the upper middleclass, or are longing for it so badly that the idea of doing menial work is unpalatable to them.
5. Marriage, how you see it
Your fairy-tale happily ever after shit. Of course, nobody is going to admit to being naive to the point where they actually believe that everything will turn out perfectly now, but they do. Deep down they think that marriage will change their lives for the better, which it doesn't because can't, and when they find this out they switch their expectations to having kids. After 3 or 4 kids they still aren't happy so then it's onto the divorce and the second marriage and so on and so forth on in perpetuity.
Labels: People, Relationships
I realize that everything here should fall into the categories of "obvious" and "common sense", but they don't since not all of you know them.
Understand this, before you do anything most people have already can't stand you. By the time you actually do something half the poeple in the room want to see your brain splattered on the wall. Here are a few things you might want to keep in mind to cut down on the unnecessary enemies in your life:
1. Keep your mouth shut
Unless speech is necessary. Lots of people don't get this, especially female people. They are unsure of what "necessary" is. "Necessary" means when not talking will cost you money, time, or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Beyond that it only denotes insecurity and a desire to be heard in order to feel validated, which is just pathetic. Your chattering on about something your boyfriend said, or the cost of Jell-o means that your life has been wasted and you probably should die.
2. Do not stare
I have a feeling that half of the seemingly random murders in this country occur as a result of somebody staring at somebody else. A stranger stares at you for no reason (no, you are not wearing a chicken costume) you have either assume that they are challenging you to kill them, or they plan on killing you. Seriously, why would you do that? What do you think it says to the object of the stare but that you want attention, preferably of the bad kind? Stares mean only one thing: I see you, motherfucker, do you see me?
3. Do not cut in line
Or anything of the kind, meaning casual discourtesy, games of social chicken which are wagers that the other person is not as willing to be rude. How long before you come across somebody with nothing to lose, who just bashes your head against the sidewalk because you cost him a few seconds of his lunch-hour? I sincerely hope it is soon.
4. Don't stand too close
People stink, even if they just showered. Everybody has their own individual aroma and it takes getting used to, meaning it is acquired, meaning unless you have slept in the same bed as me for at least a week, you don't smell good to me, so back the fuck up. Chicks trying to sell you stuff often do this flirty in-your-face thing because they think you are horny and stupid, the problem there is that you are not going to get any, and if you were you would want them to shower first.
5. Get out of the way
If you are standing in a public doorway or a hallway or an aisle of some kind, be mindful of other people who may want to go around you, do not force them to say "excuse me" like they were in your house and needed your permission to do something. If you have to have a conversation, either on your phone or with somebody there, step into the corner or learn to walk in the same direction and talk, otherwise somebody may just follow you the fuck home and torture you with a razorblade in your garage for a few days. So on top of the rest of the shit in my life I have to avoid colliding with some dumb shit-speck standing in the doorway? Fuck that.
Understand this, before you do anything most people have already can't stand you. By the time you actually do something half the poeple in the room want to see your brain splattered on the wall. Here are a few things you might want to keep in mind to cut down on the unnecessary enemies in your life:
1. Keep your mouth shut
Unless speech is necessary. Lots of people don't get this, especially female people. They are unsure of what "necessary" is. "Necessary" means when not talking will cost you money, time, or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Beyond that it only denotes insecurity and a desire to be heard in order to feel validated, which is just pathetic. Your chattering on about something your boyfriend said, or the cost of Jell-o means that your life has been wasted and you probably should die.
2. Do not stare
I have a feeling that half of the seemingly random murders in this country occur as a result of somebody staring at somebody else. A stranger stares at you for no reason (no, you are not wearing a chicken costume) you have either assume that they are challenging you to kill them, or they plan on killing you. Seriously, why would you do that? What do you think it says to the object of the stare but that you want attention, preferably of the bad kind? Stares mean only one thing: I see you, motherfucker, do you see me?
3. Do not cut in line
Or anything of the kind, meaning casual discourtesy, games of social chicken which are wagers that the other person is not as willing to be rude. How long before you come across somebody with nothing to lose, who just bashes your head against the sidewalk because you cost him a few seconds of his lunch-hour? I sincerely hope it is soon.
4. Don't stand too close
People stink, even if they just showered. Everybody has their own individual aroma and it takes getting used to, meaning it is acquired, meaning unless you have slept in the same bed as me for at least a week, you don't smell good to me, so back the fuck up. Chicks trying to sell you stuff often do this flirty in-your-face thing because they think you are horny and stupid, the problem there is that you are not going to get any, and if you were you would want them to shower first.
5. Get out of the way
If you are standing in a public doorway or a hallway or an aisle of some kind, be mindful of other people who may want to go around you, do not force them to say "excuse me" like they were in your house and needed your permission to do something. If you have to have a conversation, either on your phone or with somebody there, step into the corner or learn to walk in the same direction and talk, otherwise somebody may just follow you the fuck home and torture you with a razorblade in your garage for a few days. So on top of the rest of the shit in my life I have to avoid colliding with some dumb shit-speck standing in the doorway? Fuck that.
Labels: People, People I know
Why it is pointless to tell a stupid person that they are, in fact, stupid
5 Comments Published by Icon on at 2:17 PM.
They won't get it
The one thing that they ones I have met, those dumber than me, anyway, is that they are profoundly lacking in self-awareness. They cannot assess themselves in comparision to smart people and usually have some self-serving definition of intelligence. If they have degrees, then degrees make you smart, if they have little schooling then they are "street-smart", and that is what sets them above the dumb. Every moron is a genius in their own mind.
It won't make them smarter
Dumb is permanent. You can't learn your way out of it, and no amount of life experience will reduce it. There are old stupid people and stupid people who have traveled and stupid people who have met Presidents and Popes and Nobel Prize winners. They are still very much the morons they always were. You can't make them smart.
It will likely make them aggressive
You say "idiot" and they hear "inferior". It is merely an insult, something done by you in order to hurt their feelings because you are threatened, or envious, or arrogant, not a true assessment of them. Most people constantly reinforce their sense of worthiness by remembering those times they happened to be right about something and forgetting those times when they were wrong. They see you coming along to remind them of the wrong-times and it is seen merely as an act of hostility, the appropriate response being equal hostility with the intent of shutting you up.
They will at some point try to prove you wrong
Which will probably have disastrous results if they are stupid. The thing is that they can't agree with you, and in order to not agree with you they have to make it clear that they are smart. Think Wile E. Coyote. Imagine somebody driven to prove to the world that they are in fact a genius, when they really are not, against all evidence. Failure just makes them more determined.
The one thing that they ones I have met, those dumber than me, anyway, is that they are profoundly lacking in self-awareness. They cannot assess themselves in comparision to smart people and usually have some self-serving definition of intelligence. If they have degrees, then degrees make you smart, if they have little schooling then they are "street-smart", and that is what sets them above the dumb. Every moron is a genius in their own mind.
It won't make them smarter
Dumb is permanent. You can't learn your way out of it, and no amount of life experience will reduce it. There are old stupid people and stupid people who have traveled and stupid people who have met Presidents and Popes and Nobel Prize winners. They are still very much the morons they always were. You can't make them smart.
It will likely make them aggressive
You say "idiot" and they hear "inferior". It is merely an insult, something done by you in order to hurt their feelings because you are threatened, or envious, or arrogant, not a true assessment of them. Most people constantly reinforce their sense of worthiness by remembering those times they happened to be right about something and forgetting those times when they were wrong. They see you coming along to remind them of the wrong-times and it is seen merely as an act of hostility, the appropriate response being equal hostility with the intent of shutting you up.
They will at some point try to prove you wrong
Which will probably have disastrous results if they are stupid. The thing is that they can't agree with you, and in order to not agree with you they have to make it clear that they are smart. Think Wile E. Coyote. Imagine somebody driven to prove to the world that they are in fact a genius, when they really are not, against all evidence. Failure just makes them more determined.
Labels: People, People I know
The picture above was on the 4th page when I googled "fat fuck", along with lots of fat chicks getting boned. The guy I am talking about (Billy Joe) will look like this in about 10 years.
Billy Joe
First of all he looks like somebody who sneers a lot, like his first response is, and always has been loud, vocal contempt. You can hear it in the way he talks to his kids, the heavy condescension and the world weary false patience. He has those parentheses around his mouth that you can imagine deepening into a disgusted drawing of the upper lip. That alone inspires dislike when first you meet him. He speaks carefully too, very carefully, trying to hide the drawl. His H's are hhheytches, and his TH's are softer than a dove's fart, so that he sounds like a first-grade teacher sometimes.
He seems to at least be capable of working hard in that he is always busy, but there is nothing that says "tough" about the man. He seems hesitant, cautious, unsure of how to proceed with everything, including his walk. He swings a hammer with his wrist instead of his forearm, and he snickers at other people's mistakes. There is nothing about him that suggests forceful.
I think he has made a lot of mistakes in his life and is perpetually afraid of making more. I think people who are direct and aggressive intimidate him and that in a fight he would try to line up his punches and move backwards a lot. The key there would be to hurt him badly as quickly as possible, that would make him hesitant and timid pretty quickly, he would stop and start trying to talk things out. He would also run crying "battery" to the police afterward.
Labels: People, People I know
Why Chinese world-domination would not be cool
0 Comments Published by Icon on Friday, August 22, 2008 at 9:26 AM.
1. We are used to white people running things
It would require change and people do not like change. Right now white people in are in charge and have been since everybody alive has been alive. This is the way things are. Nobody (except for maybe the Chinese) wants to mess with the status quo. There is comfort and stability in the things we have always known, in the sense of predictability we get from not having to learn anything new. The west is populated by white people and those they conquered, everybody is used to it and knows what to do.
2. There would have to be a different universal language
A difficult one based on completely different rules and one which is so arcane that it has become an emblem of things that are hard to learn. English is entrenched, even people who don't speak it know that their lives would be better off if they did. To have to switch over to a new master-language would bog the world down in decades of slogging through calligraphy classes and having to deal with the frustrations of mastering the speech of people who don't look like you.
3. Their movies are not cool enough
Sure, I like Jackie Chan and I like kung fu movies. Every once in a while. I could not subsist on them alone. Do they have anything else? I don't know, I haven't come across anything without martial arts in it and would probably find it hard to pay attention if I did. When I see Chinese people on the screen I expect people to start throwing kicks, otherwise I will not be entertained.
4. They are not varied enough
Part of why American culture took over the world, in addition to us speaking a variant of British English, and thus being accepted in all former colonies, is the fact that there are all kinds of people here. White people elsewhere can identify with the millions of European immigrants, and non-white people elsewhere can identify with the millions of non-white people here. It seems built for the exporting of culture. Everybody has an export market.
5. They didn't have slavery/immigrants to base it on
The melting pot (America's most marketable asset) is due to slavery and people running here. Nobody wants to run to China and they are not going to some vastly different shit-hole continent and hauling people away. They are solidly Chinese. I realize that there are subsets of Chinese people, but those subsets are not visible to most of us who are not Chinese, whereas anybody can tell the difference between, say, Barack Obama and John McCain.
Lest I be mistaken for a Jeff Foxworthy imitator let me point out that not only am I
not a redneck myself, I am a relative newbie to rural America. This list is somewhat more honest than anything you will hear in his routine or read in his (bestselling) books. It is not intended to be derogatory and is primarily based on my experience of this subset of country-folk.
1. Are you proud of being ignorant?
This includes but is not limited a refusal to try anything new, like traveling, or exotic foods. It's a belief that everything you already know is sufficient and that not reading or being interested in the world around you is an indicator of humility and being genuine.
2. Are you comfortable with squalor?
Picture the living-room in a mobile home in which every flat surface is covered with Wendy's paper-bags and cups, or pizza-boxes and there is dirty laundry draped over the back of the sofa. The air stinks from the smell of dirty dishes piled in the kitchen sink and the overflowing garbage-bin under the sink. On the living-room carpet there is an air-compressor that somebody took apart and forgot to put back together and several, Playstation 2 controllers. This is the home of a family of 5 in Northern Florida, and no, I did not make it up.
3. Can you handle people who disagree with you?
Fox News is their idea of fair and balanced,which means that they have no idea what "fair" is and are incapable of tolerating any opposing viewpoint. Voice an opinion contrary to what they believe and you will be met with bitter rage. The violence of this rage, exemplified by the Civil War, the KKK, the general malevolence of the American Right Wing, is what separates them from everybody else. The redneck is, above all, a person who cannot tolerate any form of dissent, even the implied dissent of not being exactly like him.
4. Are you obsessed with territory and the idea of being invaded?
Rednecks are paranoid, fearful, always have an eye out for people trying to take from them, which gives an insight into their own tendencies and intentions. They like the idea of law and order while they see it as being biased towards them. Their weapons-fetish is largely due to this fear of others.
Black Rednecks and White Liberals
not a redneck myself, I am a relative newbie to rural America. This list is somewhat more honest than anything you will hear in his routine or read in his (bestselling) books. It is not intended to be derogatory and is primarily based on my experience of this subset of country-folk.1. Are you proud of being ignorant?
This includes but is not limited a refusal to try anything new, like traveling, or exotic foods. It's a belief that everything you already know is sufficient and that not reading or being interested in the world around you is an indicator of humility and being genuine.
2. Are you comfortable with squalor?
Picture the living-room in a mobile home in which every flat surface is covered with Wendy's paper-bags and cups, or pizza-boxes and there is dirty laundry draped over the back of the sofa. The air stinks from the smell of dirty dishes piled in the kitchen sink and the overflowing garbage-bin under the sink. On the living-room carpet there is an air-compressor that somebody took apart and forgot to put back together and several, Playstation 2 controllers. This is the home of a family of 5 in Northern Florida, and no, I did not make it up.
3. Can you handle people who disagree with you?
Fox News is their idea of fair and balanced,which means that they have no idea what "fair" is and are incapable of tolerating any opposing viewpoint. Voice an opinion contrary to what they believe and you will be met with bitter rage. The violence of this rage, exemplified by the Civil War, the KKK, the general malevolence of the American Right Wing, is what separates them from everybody else. The redneck is, above all, a person who cannot tolerate any form of dissent, even the implied dissent of not being exactly like him.
4. Are you obsessed with territory and the idea of being invaded?
Rednecks are paranoid, fearful, always have an eye out for people trying to take from them, which gives an insight into their own tendencies and intentions. They like the idea of law and order while they see it as being biased towards them. Their weapons-fetish is largely due to this fear of others.
Black Rednecks and White Liberals
An education and intelligence-based economy
If it depends on knowing facts then that puts the people who don't know shit and aren't interest in learning at a disadvantage, doesn't it? Science is offensive because it creates a hierarchy of people based on smartness, rather than the idiot-friendly race and class economies, whereas magic and superstition are democratic, all you have to do is believe or feel. Science disenfranchises ignoramuses. Of course, they won't admit to being stupid, but they wil always try to prove that geeks don't know everything and do their best to compensate for not being able to understand.
It makes everything predictable
meaning that there is a mundane explanation and you don't have to sacrifice your firstborn to keep that hurricane from destroying your village. Not only is everything predictable, it also means you have no control. It's a lot less scary to think that you can appease a natural disaster (if you try hard enough) than to think that all you can do is scream and run.It invalidates superstition, which depends on everything being unpredictable, yet controllable because there is something to appease. Superstition is the ignorant man's means of dealing with life. If they are meaningless then he has no means of success and nothing to look forward to. He is helpless. He won't make a million dollars because he dreamed of some numbers, his enemies won't die miserably because he cursed them.
Everything is restricted to what is "possible"
Meaning you can't dream about having a longer penis because of a pill you took because that just isn't going to happen any time soon. When it does you will be dead, like those people who died on the day that Orville and Wilbur Wright flew. They died in a world where flying men were still the stuff of fantasy. Science is restricted by the limits of knowledge and the physical world and has no bearing on what you want. Superstition is limited only by the imagination.
Technology becomes centered about making money
So that I will not get to see a giant fly with a human head, or x-ray spectacles seeing that those would have limited value for making money. The only "wonders" you will see are the wonders that somebody can sell to you and a million other people, the million other people being more important than you.
The Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn't--and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger
If it depends on knowing facts then that puts the people who don't know shit and aren't interest in learning at a disadvantage, doesn't it? Science is offensive because it creates a hierarchy of people based on smartness, rather than the idiot-friendly race and class economies, whereas magic and superstition are democratic, all you have to do is believe or feel. Science disenfranchises ignoramuses. Of course, they won't admit to being stupid, but they wil always try to prove that geeks don't know everything and do their best to compensate for not being able to understand.
It makes everything predictable
meaning that there is a mundane explanation and you don't have to sacrifice your firstborn to keep that hurricane from destroying your village. Not only is everything predictable, it also means you have no control. It's a lot less scary to think that you can appease a natural disaster (if you try hard enough) than to think that all you can do is scream and run.It invalidates superstition, which depends on everything being unpredictable, yet controllable because there is something to appease. Superstition is the ignorant man's means of dealing with life. If they are meaningless then he has no means of success and nothing to look forward to. He is helpless. He won't make a million dollars because he dreamed of some numbers, his enemies won't die miserably because he cursed them.
Everything is restricted to what is "possible"
Meaning you can't dream about having a longer penis because of a pill you took because that just isn't going to happen any time soon. When it does you will be dead, like those people who died on the day that Orville and Wilbur Wright flew. They died in a world where flying men were still the stuff of fantasy. Science is restricted by the limits of knowledge and the physical world and has no bearing on what you want. Superstition is limited only by the imagination.
Technology becomes centered about making money
So that I will not get to see a giant fly with a human head, or x-ray spectacles seeing that those would have limited value for making money. The only "wonders" you will see are the wonders that somebody can sell to you and a million other people, the million other people being more important than you.
The Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn't--and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger
Labels: People, Social Issues
1. Hardcore Sex
Full gonzo porn live on the set of Good Morning America. Not with Diane Sawyer and company, though, of course, though they can narrate it if they want. In depth stories into the history of the DP and creampie genres. Big-budget gangbang/orgy events covered the way they cover awards shows and the Superbowl. All your favorite sitcoms with lots of full-frontal spreadeagled nudity. Have the Anchor read the news while sitting on a dildo. The strategy here is simply to out-porn the Internet.
2. Fuck Civility
Let's get into discussions of politics, religion, race, and class like skinheads and gangstas in a prison riot. If it comes to blows then it comes to blows, motherfucker. You get to tell Glenn Beck to suck your dick, then you get to (at least try) to make him do it, you get to reach across that table and slap the dentures out of Larry King's mouth. Make it all less like corporate America and more like the trailer-park.
3. Quality work
Good reporting whether or not it goes over the head of your average American, TV shows that assume that each audience-member has read at least one book in their lifetime, the willingness to fuck corporate America and Washington if they beg for it. The fervent, relentless clinging to idealism, like a naive, young reporter, but mingled with the vicious bitterness of an old, impotent alcoholic. This is pretty much the only job where idealism and bitterness are essential. There is no way you are going to get people to dig truth up without being harshly judgmental and also desperate to fuck over random strangers regardless of their social status.
4. The destruction of the Internet
Control access, control content, corral the populace, monitor everything. Make everybody into an audience, a paying audience. Freedom is the enemy, the people are the enemy if they aren't giving you money. Make it as rigidly controlled and stupid as network television then eventually there won't be enough difference for people to want one over the other.
Full gonzo porn live on the set of Good Morning America. Not with Diane Sawyer and company, though, of course, though they can narrate it if they want. In depth stories into the history of the DP and creampie genres. Big-budget gangbang/orgy events covered the way they cover awards shows and the Superbowl. All your favorite sitcoms with lots of full-frontal spreadeagled nudity. Have the Anchor read the news while sitting on a dildo. The strategy here is simply to out-porn the Internet.
2. Fuck Civility
Let's get into discussions of politics, religion, race, and class like skinheads and gangstas in a prison riot. If it comes to blows then it comes to blows, motherfucker. You get to tell Glenn Beck to suck your dick, then you get to (at least try) to make him do it, you get to reach across that table and slap the dentures out of Larry King's mouth. Make it all less like corporate America and more like the trailer-park.
3. Quality work
Good reporting whether or not it goes over the head of your average American, TV shows that assume that each audience-member has read at least one book in their lifetime, the willingness to fuck corporate America and Washington if they beg for it. The fervent, relentless clinging to idealism, like a naive, young reporter, but mingled with the vicious bitterness of an old, impotent alcoholic. This is pretty much the only job where idealism and bitterness are essential. There is no way you are going to get people to dig truth up without being harshly judgmental and also desperate to fuck over random strangers regardless of their social status.
4. The destruction of the Internet
Control access, control content, corral the populace, monitor everything. Make everybody into an audience, a paying audience. Freedom is the enemy, the people are the enemy if they aren't giving you money. Make it as rigidly controlled and stupid as network television then eventually there won't be enough difference for people to want one over the other.
Labels: Effectiveness, People, Social Issues, Television
4 Types on Whom Education has no Effect
2 Comments Published by Icon on Saturday, August 9, 2008 at 12:23 PM.
1. The Naturally Stupid
Not everybody was meant to think or to accomplish things. Some people were meant to mop the floors after great men go home for their 2 hours of sleep a night. The problem is that everybody who gets a certificate thinks that they are the shit and that they have ideas that matter. If you have a floor-mopper trying to voice an opinion on politics or even something as relatively trivial as a movie, you are bound to have an ocean of bullshit through which you must swim to find the things that make sense.
2. The Condescending debater
The naturally condescending person whose approach to any debate has to involve expressing contempt for the other position BEFORE dealing with their argument. The minute somebody tries to insult you before shooting down your argument know this: They are upset. The attempt to hurt your feelings is because they are striking back, their own feelings are hurt. This is what you do: note what hurt their feelings and follow that track whether or not it serves your argument. No matter what their feelings will always come before what they know, before knowledge and reason. It's far more satisfying to see them lose it than to win an argument.
3. The Working-Class
People who grew up around the uneducated, the ones who are the first in their family to go to college, these tend to learn purely because it impresses other people. The idea is to make a better life than their parents while impressing the people they looked up to back when they were poor trash like their parents. It's learning for effect rather than learning to actually get something done. Once they become suitably impressed with themselves (they compare themselves to their co-workers and acquaintances a lot) they simply stop learning.
4. People With No Imagination
If you cannot see any reason to learn other than to get yourself a decent paycheck then know that you will never get anything important done with your life. You are a cog in built to generate wealth for already wealthy men and deserve to be treated as such. You are not even exactly human, just a labor-provider, indistinguishable from a million other labor-providers clogging up the roads every morning. Nothing about you matters or should matter.
Not everybody was meant to think or to accomplish things. Some people were meant to mop the floors after great men go home for their 2 hours of sleep a night. The problem is that everybody who gets a certificate thinks that they are the shit and that they have ideas that matter. If you have a floor-mopper trying to voice an opinion on politics or even something as relatively trivial as a movie, you are bound to have an ocean of bullshit through which you must swim to find the things that make sense.
2. The Condescending debater
The naturally condescending person whose approach to any debate has to involve expressing contempt for the other position BEFORE dealing with their argument. The minute somebody tries to insult you before shooting down your argument know this: They are upset. The attempt to hurt your feelings is because they are striking back, their own feelings are hurt. This is what you do: note what hurt their feelings and follow that track whether or not it serves your argument. No matter what their feelings will always come before what they know, before knowledge and reason. It's far more satisfying to see them lose it than to win an argument.
3. The Working-Class
People who grew up around the uneducated, the ones who are the first in their family to go to college, these tend to learn purely because it impresses other people. The idea is to make a better life than their parents while impressing the people they looked up to back when they were poor trash like their parents. It's learning for effect rather than learning to actually get something done. Once they become suitably impressed with themselves (they compare themselves to their co-workers and acquaintances a lot) they simply stop learning.
4. People With No Imagination
If you cannot see any reason to learn other than to get yourself a decent paycheck then know that you will never get anything important done with your life. You are a cog in built to generate wealth for already wealthy men and deserve to be treated as such. You are not even exactly human, just a labor-provider, indistinguishable from a million other labor-providers clogging up the roads every morning. Nothing about you matters or should matter.
Labels: Effectiveness, People
Arguments in favor of cannibalism
0 Comments Published by Icon on Monday, August 4, 2008 at 1:06 PM.
Fat People
More meat, or more grease, depending on how you decide to you use the product, either way it's more. It could be argued that if your quality of life isn't high due to the fact that you are fat, then it would be better if you served as nutrition for poorer skinnier people. Also, why should one person have an excess of body-fat while other people starve? It seems to me that America's hunger problem could be solved simply by using the top 1% of fat people to feed the bottom 10% of the hungry.
Supposedly Tasty
In the words of Daniel Rakowitz: "I killed her and boiled her head," he told a friend, "Then I made soup out of her brains. It tasted pretty good." There is also this guy here who is pretty graphic. Apparently people are delicious, if not delicious then at least edible. Edible enough that if it comes down to a choice between eating somebody or starving, your decision should be pretty clear.
Lots of Useless People
Dead weight. Seriously, you could kill half of the people on the planet and the only difference would be the opening of a few more dead-end jobs and an increased availability of tiny, depressing apartments, and that's in the First World. You could argue that if somebody is being paid a wage to do something that they are not "useless", but the fact is that if they die then the remainder will be paid a better wage due to the fact that the working-poor will be scarcer than before. You will have fewer poor people, and the ones that remain will be well fed and better-paid. How is that not a win-win?
Logical
People are made of meat, meat is nutritious. People die, leaving the meat behind, which is still edible. If you can rid the world of the cultural issues with eating human flesh, you could rid the world of hunger.
More meat, or more grease, depending on how you decide to you use the product, either way it's more. It could be argued that if your quality of life isn't high due to the fact that you are fat, then it would be better if you served as nutrition for poorer skinnier people. Also, why should one person have an excess of body-fat while other people starve? It seems to me that America's hunger problem could be solved simply by using the top 1% of fat people to feed the bottom 10% of the hungry.
Supposedly Tasty
In the words of Daniel Rakowitz: "I killed her and boiled her head," he told a friend, "Then I made soup out of her brains. It tasted pretty good." There is also this guy here who is pretty graphic. Apparently people are delicious, if not delicious then at least edible. Edible enough that if it comes down to a choice between eating somebody or starving, your decision should be pretty clear.
Lots of Useless People
Dead weight. Seriously, you could kill half of the people on the planet and the only difference would be the opening of a few more dead-end jobs and an increased availability of tiny, depressing apartments, and that's in the First World. You could argue that if somebody is being paid a wage to do something that they are not "useless", but the fact is that if they die then the remainder will be paid a better wage due to the fact that the working-poor will be scarcer than before. You will have fewer poor people, and the ones that remain will be well fed and better-paid. How is that not a win-win?
Logical
People are made of meat, meat is nutritious. People die, leaving the meat behind, which is still edible. If you can rid the world of the cultural issues with eating human flesh, you could rid the world of hunger.
Labels: Food, People, Social Issues
1. That you won't die today
All the chicks who will die in car accidents later on today have no idea that they won't get home to have dinner, that some guy in a morgue will cut their bras off and stare at their tits for a few seconds before covering them up. The guys who think they will do something really cool this Sunday don't know that they should have done it last Sunday and that they will never see another weekend. It would be a fantastic coincidence if you, the reader were one of these people, so be sure to have your next of kin leave me a comment if you get crushed by a semi this afternoon.
2. That you have rights
The only "rights" you have are the rights that the government allows you to have. Basically, you are a tenant, a sharecropper, and your landlord-bosses have no respect for you. You live according to their wishes. "Freedom" and the "power of the people" are illusions created to pacify you. Of course, you will dismiss me because your comfort (the most important thing in the world to you) is threatened by it.
3. That your government/media would never lie
Most people simply watch and obey what they see on TV, they never think twice about it. The logic is that they would be sued if it was not true, or somebody on some other network would raise a stink, therefore it must be true. Everybody else believes it, everybody can't be wrong. People are raised to trust the powers that be the way they are raised to trust their parents. They think that the police are there to protect them because that's what they should be doing.
4. That you are not a moron
There are a lot of stupid people around. You know some of them. Yet, nobody is willing to admit that they don't know what the fuck they are talking about and that their understanding of life is just wrong. Lots of people are in denial, and odds are greatly in favor of you being one of them. Seriously you need to do some serious analysis of your views and listen to the people who disagree with you more. Try to be honest and figure out if they could possibly be right.
5. That nobody means you harm
Maybe you deserve an ass-kicking, maybe everybody should mean you harm. You assume goodwill on the part of everybody you are bound to be wrong. Maybe you remind somebody of somebody else that they really, truly hate, maybe your voice is really annoying and some guy somewhere has had a bad year and as he listens to you he can imagine cleaving your skull with a hatchet or shooting you in the gut and watching you squirm and plead.
Labels: People
1. Get a life
Especially stuff that does not involve other people. Getting your own life is a great way to keep from resenting the person you are with for having one. Also, sometimes being passionate about something can be attractive to other people, especially in women as long it's not collecting designer accessories or stuffed animals.
2. Get yourself a sense of humor
Be able to laugh at stuff that is funny. Note that what you laugh at will reveal more about you than a million long late-night conversations. You can't fake it. If you think Mitch Hedberg was funny, faking amusement at Jeff Foxworthy will be easily detectable to anybody who is really looking.
3. Find the balance between cold bitch/bastard and snivelling dishrag
This goes out especially to women but to some guys as well. Both are hard to take, but if I absolutely had to take one it would be the cold bitch. The ideal you should be striving for is the appropriate reaction.
4. Be practical
Some guys like chirpy, shopping addicted long-nailed princesses who expect to be taken care them for the rest of their lives. Those guys are into the daddy role, they like that it makes them feel in charge and strong. The guys are as clueless about real life as their women. Real men like women, not barbie dolls who are surprised by the stench of a diaper or how much strength it takes to move a dresser.
5. Don't be a baby
Nobody likes snot-dripping hysterical bowls of jelly. Nobody likes to be thrust into the job of taking care of you because you are too weak to do it yourself. The job of being somebody's comforter is one that you have to choose, you can't get drafted into it without feeling some degree of resentment.
Labels: People, Relationships
The Tyranny that you already agreed to
0 Comments Published by Icon on Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 8:50 AM.
You put the saddle on your back, the bit in your mouth and handed the reins over. Now you bitch about the rights they are going to take away from you. Fuck you. You gave them away.
1. TV/Movies/Music
Why should you be held accountable for what other people want to hide from their children? Why should I not hear the word "fuck" on TV when I hear and read it several times a day? Ok, so you don't want your kids to see tits even if they have seen them before, that's your problem. They way you solve it is by turning the TV off, whether you solve it or not is not my concern. Your kid at age 6 or before will probably know every curse word there is. He or she may not use it, but they will know it. It is extremely hard to keep children in a state of ignorance. It all comes down to my life, my tastes, being controlled in by your morality.
2. The Police
Will people stop pretending that these people offer any real assistance? What do they do? Basically their job is to bring in additional funds for the state by ticketing you or arresting you for having narcotics. The rest of the time they referee domestic disputes and drive around aimlessly. They don't protect anybody, criminals have figured out that it makes sense to postpone their crimes till there isn't a police officer in the room. Basically, they exist for the same reason security guards exist, to remind you that nothing you see belongs to you and that you have only the rights they allow you to have.
3. Drugs
There are a million places online where you can find advocacy for the legalization of marijuana, it's not my drug of choice so I cannot get passionate about it the way I would if, say, they threatened to make alcohol illegal. The reason I like alcohol is because it is regulated, I know what to expect when I pour a shot. It is predictable. I don't drink for taste, I drink for effect therefore predictability is desirable. The fact that I cannot get passionate about weed does not stop me from noting that literally every reason for prohibiting its use is also true of alcohol, and that if it were regulated it would likely present much less of a social harm than alcohol.
4. Sex
Even though every man woman and child is a walking representation of not just the sex act, but the male orgasm, you are still not supposed to bring it up in "polite conversation". I don't just mean on the radio or TV, I mean in all aspects of life. You cannot talk about genitals without being "inappropriate", kids are still forbidden to learn about where they came from until some arbitrarily determined time. All sex is, apparently, obscene and shameful. I am not some hippie swinger type, either, I do not believe that life should be one big orgy, just that sex, and talking about it, should not be a treated as unnatural.
5. Guns
The government does not care about your safety as much as it does about looking like it cares. The goal is to render aspects of the citizenry manageable. Guns in the wrong hands would make the peasants dangerous. For this there is always the convenient armed whackjob mass-murderer to scare everybody into thinking that guns on their own present some kind of threat. They make you wear seat-belts and tax the fuck out of cigarettes so that they look all benevolent and parental. A few handguns are ok, but anything that threatens the armed superiority of the powers that be is illegal. The idea is that they are supposed to be able to kill you if necessary.
1. TV/Movies/Music
Why should you be held accountable for what other people want to hide from their children? Why should I not hear the word "fuck" on TV when I hear and read it several times a day? Ok, so you don't want your kids to see tits even if they have seen them before, that's your problem. They way you solve it is by turning the TV off, whether you solve it or not is not my concern. Your kid at age 6 or before will probably know every curse word there is. He or she may not use it, but they will know it. It is extremely hard to keep children in a state of ignorance. It all comes down to my life, my tastes, being controlled in by your morality.
2. The Police
Will people stop pretending that these people offer any real assistance? What do they do? Basically their job is to bring in additional funds for the state by ticketing you or arresting you for having narcotics. The rest of the time they referee domestic disputes and drive around aimlessly. They don't protect anybody, criminals have figured out that it makes sense to postpone their crimes till there isn't a police officer in the room. Basically, they exist for the same reason security guards exist, to remind you that nothing you see belongs to you and that you have only the rights they allow you to have.
3. Drugs
There are a million places online where you can find advocacy for the legalization of marijuana, it's not my drug of choice so I cannot get passionate about it the way I would if, say, they threatened to make alcohol illegal. The reason I like alcohol is because it is regulated, I know what to expect when I pour a shot. It is predictable. I don't drink for taste, I drink for effect therefore predictability is desirable. The fact that I cannot get passionate about weed does not stop me from noting that literally every reason for prohibiting its use is also true of alcohol, and that if it were regulated it would likely present much less of a social harm than alcohol.
4. Sex
Even though every man woman and child is a walking representation of not just the sex act, but the male orgasm, you are still not supposed to bring it up in "polite conversation". I don't just mean on the radio or TV, I mean in all aspects of life. You cannot talk about genitals without being "inappropriate", kids are still forbidden to learn about where they came from until some arbitrarily determined time. All sex is, apparently, obscene and shameful. I am not some hippie swinger type, either, I do not believe that life should be one big orgy, just that sex, and talking about it, should not be a treated as unnatural.
5. Guns
The government does not care about your safety as much as it does about looking like it cares. The goal is to render aspects of the citizenry manageable. Guns in the wrong hands would make the peasants dangerous. For this there is always the convenient armed whackjob mass-murderer to scare everybody into thinking that guns on their own present some kind of threat. They make you wear seat-belts and tax the fuck out of cigarettes so that they look all benevolent and parental. A few handguns are ok, but anything that threatens the armed superiority of the powers that be is illegal. The idea is that they are supposed to be able to kill you if necessary.
Really, there are just 2 kinds of people, the competent and the incompetent. That's it, no race, not culture, no age-groups. There are the people who were meant to get things done and the ones who sit and around and watch them. Once you understand that life and the world will become clear to you, and you will learn to hate the dead weight. Sometimes the incompetents talk a lot, and are friendly, sometimes they learn to do simple, relatively meaning tasks by rote and so acquire minor usefulness. Do not be deceived.
1. They constantly fuck things up
They misunderstand instructions, misread situations, fail to pick up hints, and they keep barreling ahead anyway. They never think or consider, they just keep going, like cattle. They fuck up at work because they don't what they are doing, they fuck up their personal relationships because they have no interest in doing the right thing or even figuring out if there is a right thing.
2. They complain a lot
Incompetents love to bitch as a way of summon more competent, goal-oriented people to come help them. They do it because they are used to not solving their own issues. That's how they see life, as a series of rescues. They have no issues with being a perpetual victim, with whining or being seen as a whiner. For them the natural response to any problem is to complain loudly about it.
3. They do everything they can to get out of work
Laziness is indeed a symptom of the incompetent. For them the idea of being productive, of achieving or creating is meaningless. Those things are for other people. The idea of wasting time is impossible for them to conceive, since they cannot imagine not-wasting it.
4. They accomplish nothing
Ever. They are motivated to eat, shit and sleep. That's it. They think in terms of sensation, so their "aspirations" tend to be about feeling good. They would like to drive a Bentley one day, or have a threesome, or retire to Guam. These are not the people who write great novels, or start their own business, or learn to sing really well. They have nothing to offer, and nothing will change that.
5. They never admit any failure or wrong-doing on their part
Incompetents don't know that they are incompetent, they never even suspect it. More often they imagine themselves to to be expert at something and surrounded by failures. Of course, they have nothing tangible to base this on as they are constantly fucking things up (see #1 on this list), they do not need evidence to come to this conclusion. Everything wrong in any given situation is always due to somebody else.
6. They boast
They need the world to see what cool things they have done. They will boast about being able to get out of bed, being able to walk out the door, being able to wipe their own asses. The incompetent has no ability to rank his or her "achievements" on a scale with other people's achievements, everything they do exists in its own universe, as a masterpiece, showing great intelligence and skill.
7. They have no ideas
Yes, this is possible. There are people who go through their entire lives without ever coming up with a fix for something, a solution. Not even for the simplest thing. Their brains simply are not built for the occurrence of outside-the-box thoughts, or sudden memories with applications to the present. They literally are without the ability to imagine or to create on any level.
8. They fail to learn from their mistakes
That's because their mistakes were due to somebody else fucking up, so it was that person's fault. They have no guilt, no feelings of having done wrong because in their minds they never do anything wrong. The incompetent therefore is a creature of denial, whose world is make-believe, a movie with them as the hero.
1. They constantly fuck things up
They misunderstand instructions, misread situations, fail to pick up hints, and they keep barreling ahead anyway. They never think or consider, they just keep going, like cattle. They fuck up at work because they don't what they are doing, they fuck up their personal relationships because they have no interest in doing the right thing or even figuring out if there is a right thing.
2. They complain a lot
Incompetents love to bitch as a way of summon more competent, goal-oriented people to come help them. They do it because they are used to not solving their own issues. That's how they see life, as a series of rescues. They have no issues with being a perpetual victim, with whining or being seen as a whiner. For them the natural response to any problem is to complain loudly about it.
3. They do everything they can to get out of work
Laziness is indeed a symptom of the incompetent. For them the idea of being productive, of achieving or creating is meaningless. Those things are for other people. The idea of wasting time is impossible for them to conceive, since they cannot imagine not-wasting it.
4. They accomplish nothing
Ever. They are motivated to eat, shit and sleep. That's it. They think in terms of sensation, so their "aspirations" tend to be about feeling good. They would like to drive a Bentley one day, or have a threesome, or retire to Guam. These are not the people who write great novels, or start their own business, or learn to sing really well. They have nothing to offer, and nothing will change that.
5. They never admit any failure or wrong-doing on their part
Incompetents don't know that they are incompetent, they never even suspect it. More often they imagine themselves to to be expert at something and surrounded by failures. Of course, they have nothing tangible to base this on as they are constantly fucking things up (see #1 on this list), they do not need evidence to come to this conclusion. Everything wrong in any given situation is always due to somebody else.
6. They boast
They need the world to see what cool things they have done. They will boast about being able to get out of bed, being able to walk out the door, being able to wipe their own asses. The incompetent has no ability to rank his or her "achievements" on a scale with other people's achievements, everything they do exists in its own universe, as a masterpiece, showing great intelligence and skill.
7. They have no ideas
Yes, this is possible. There are people who go through their entire lives without ever coming up with a fix for something, a solution. Not even for the simplest thing. Their brains simply are not built for the occurrence of outside-the-box thoughts, or sudden memories with applications to the present. They literally are without the ability to imagine or to create on any level.
8. They fail to learn from their mistakes
That's because their mistakes were due to somebody else fucking up, so it was that person's fault. They have no guilt, no feelings of having done wrong because in their minds they never do anything wrong. The incompetent therefore is a creature of denial, whose world is make-believe, a movie with them as the hero.
Labels: People
Rules for getting away with it: Episode 2
0 Comments Published by Icon on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 8:30 AM.
Episode 1 here.
Not only do you need to keep your mouth shut about it afterward, you have to make sure that nobody but you knows about it in the first place. You don't get seen and you do it alone.
No Accomplices
"Accomplice" is another name for "really dangerous witness". If you can't figure out how to pull something off without help, maybe you should just not do it, maybe you are the kind of person who gets caught every time.
Here are the keys to not leaving a trail of onlookers:
Know your surroundings
Know what happens when, know who watches, and where they watch from. Learn how to either give your presence a rational explanation or to prevent anybody from seeing. The latter is better.
Fear getting caught
I don't normally advise people to fear anything, but here fear can be a useful motivator. It needs to be stronger than the need to get whatever it is that you want.
Be patient
Wait. There is a point where hesitation kills all your chances, wait for it, and remember out what it looks like, then work faster on the next go-round. The consequences of hesitation are usually much less heinous than being rash.
Have an excuse
Something rational, something that they won't expect too. Have your alibi ready, and have a back up alibi just in case as well. Something more plausible, that will explain the first one as well as why you did what you did.
Disguise
Kind of dramatic in any setting, but they work. In many cases a simple fake-beard or eyeliner-pencil mustache can completely exonerate you.
Not only do you need to keep your mouth shut about it afterward, you have to make sure that nobody but you knows about it in the first place. You don't get seen and you do it alone.
No Accomplices
"Accomplice" is another name for "really dangerous witness". If you can't figure out how to pull something off without help, maybe you should just not do it, maybe you are the kind of person who gets caught every time.
Here are the keys to not leaving a trail of onlookers:
Know your surroundings
Know what happens when, know who watches, and where they watch from. Learn how to either give your presence a rational explanation or to prevent anybody from seeing. The latter is better.
Fear getting caught
I don't normally advise people to fear anything, but here fear can be a useful motivator. It needs to be stronger than the need to get whatever it is that you want.
Be patient
Wait. There is a point where hesitation kills all your chances, wait for it, and remember out what it looks like, then work faster on the next go-round. The consequences of hesitation are usually much less heinous than being rash.
Have an excuse
Something rational, something that they won't expect too. Have your alibi ready, and have a back up alibi just in case as well. Something more plausible, that will explain the first one as well as why you did what you did.
Disguise
Kind of dramatic in any setting, but they work. In many cases a simple fake-beard or eyeliner-pencil mustache can completely exonerate you.
Labels: Effectiveness, Getting Away With it, People
1. Find poor people who believe that they are owed something
This is most of them, so it's not that hard. Poor people tend to excuse their poverty and always have a scapegoat at hand. People rarely ever admit their own role in their underachieving lives, it's always *their* fault, the oppressors, the parasites. Everybody else is either an oppressor or a parasite.
2. Tell them why
Give them a back-story that goes like this: "we were great once, but these people came and fucked it up. These people are why we are not great now. They are holding us down, keeping us back." There is more to come, but this is where you start, you don't get into the heavy stuff until you are certain that they believe that one.
3. Make them skeptical about learning
You can switch off somebody else's ability to think critically by making them distrust the unknown. Tell them that that book that they haven't read is full of lies and here's why they wrote it. If they don't think to question you then they will probably accept that it is full of lies, or at least might be full of lies. That usually stops them from reading the book.
4. Offer them acceptance
People crave it, they need to be part of something, a community, an organization, a family. Offer them that. It's a tried and true method having built many an established religion. You feel more accepted among people that look like you, and you probably will be since everybody is scared of the people who don't look like them.
5. Make them scared
If they don't act this will happen (insert catastrophe). They will do this (horrible set of acts) if we continue to languish in complacency. In other words, join me or die. This is another point on which it looks very much like religion.
This is most of them, so it's not that hard. Poor people tend to excuse their poverty and always have a scapegoat at hand. People rarely ever admit their own role in their underachieving lives, it's always *their* fault, the oppressors, the parasites. Everybody else is either an oppressor or a parasite.
2. Tell them why
Give them a back-story that goes like this: "we were great once, but these people came and fucked it up. These people are why we are not great now. They are holding us down, keeping us back." There is more to come, but this is where you start, you don't get into the heavy stuff until you are certain that they believe that one.
3. Make them skeptical about learning
You can switch off somebody else's ability to think critically by making them distrust the unknown. Tell them that that book that they haven't read is full of lies and here's why they wrote it. If they don't think to question you then they will probably accept that it is full of lies, or at least might be full of lies. That usually stops them from reading the book.
4. Offer them acceptance
People crave it, they need to be part of something, a community, an organization, a family. Offer them that. It's a tried and true method having built many an established religion. You feel more accepted among people that look like you, and you probably will be since everybody is scared of the people who don't look like them.
5. Make them scared
If they don't act this will happen (insert catastrophe). They will do this (horrible set of acts) if we continue to languish in complacency. In other words, join me or die. This is another point on which it looks very much like religion.
You don't learn to fight by watching Jean Claude Van Damme movies. You can't even learn by watching real fights. To know who you are, and what to do, you actually have to be in one. There are a lot of guys out there who talk like badasses, who have confidence about about their ability physical confrontation because they can bench 200 or because they participated in a brawl back in '01 and kicked some drunk's ass. The truth is none of that matters. Each fight exists in a universe of its own, with rules that get made up when the fight starts. Please understand that I am talking about a spontaneous fight here, one that arises out of a heated dispute, not some kind of organized sport, though I am sure that some of the rules apply.
1. Shit doesn't usually work the way it did in your head
If you train, hit a speed bag regularly and push yourself, and the the guy you are going up against is terrified and also slow and old and fat, then maybe, on the 3rd or 4th attempt you might be able to land that perfect uppercut, or a balletic roundhouse kick. The odds still aren't in your favor though. Your hardest blows miss, when they connect the hurt you worse than they do him. People don't usually just stand still and let you deliver accurate punches. If they are genuinely pissed or scared, or scared AND pissed you will mostly find out that adrenaline can do wonders for a pussy's pain-threshold.
2. It's dramatic
Mostly, in the civilized parts of what have been incorrectly termed "civilized countries", people have trouble with confrontation. For things to escalate to the point of blows it has to be really bad. Really bad things have to come into play before it gets physical. Your state of mind is not going to be what it is normally, you won't be able to calmly deliver punches.
3. Pain
Brawls aren't usually one-sided. Watch a boxing match. Note how if it lasts past 3 rounds even the guy who is clearly winning the fight has swollen eyes and looks exhausted. Remember, that's with breaks and padded gloves. An all-out brawl will last maybe 45 seconds for most people and there will probably be pain on both sides. If nobody grabs a baseball bat there will likely not be a knockout. It's mostly about stamina, who can duck more, or tie the other guy up till he gets tired.
4. Consequences
At some point during the fight you may hear sirens, or your boss/principal telling you to break it up. There are a few men who will say fuck it, I get more pleasure here than I would from a million paychecks, and then there are other guys who immediately start thinking about living out of a shopping-cart, and who start toning things down. You will not know which group you fall into until the time comes. There is also the fact that in those places where fights occur rarely they usually look far worse than they are. People get hysterical and start freaking out calling the police and paramedics. If either participant is not white then somebody willl be going to jail.
1. Shit doesn't usually work the way it did in your head
If you train, hit a speed bag regularly and push yourself, and the the guy you are going up against is terrified and also slow and old and fat, then maybe, on the 3rd or 4th attempt you might be able to land that perfect uppercut, or a balletic roundhouse kick. The odds still aren't in your favor though. Your hardest blows miss, when they connect the hurt you worse than they do him. People don't usually just stand still and let you deliver accurate punches. If they are genuinely pissed or scared, or scared AND pissed you will mostly find out that adrenaline can do wonders for a pussy's pain-threshold.
2. It's dramatic
Mostly, in the civilized parts of what have been incorrectly termed "civilized countries", people have trouble with confrontation. For things to escalate to the point of blows it has to be really bad. Really bad things have to come into play before it gets physical. Your state of mind is not going to be what it is normally, you won't be able to calmly deliver punches.
3. Pain
Brawls aren't usually one-sided. Watch a boxing match. Note how if it lasts past 3 rounds even the guy who is clearly winning the fight has swollen eyes and looks exhausted. Remember, that's with breaks and padded gloves. An all-out brawl will last maybe 45 seconds for most people and there will probably be pain on both sides. If nobody grabs a baseball bat there will likely not be a knockout. It's mostly about stamina, who can duck more, or tie the other guy up till he gets tired.
4. Consequences
At some point during the fight you may hear sirens, or your boss/principal telling you to break it up. There are a few men who will say fuck it, I get more pleasure here than I would from a million paychecks, and then there are other guys who immediately start thinking about living out of a shopping-cart, and who start toning things down. You will not know which group you fall into until the time comes. There is also the fact that in those places where fights occur rarely they usually look far worse than they are. People get hysterical and start freaking out calling the police and paramedics. If either participant is not white then somebody willl be going to jail.
Rules for getting away with it: Episode 1
0 Comments Published by Icon on Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 9:29 AM.
Keep your fucking mouth shut
One of the main reasons people wind up in prison is that they want people to think they are cool for pulling it off, so they talk. They have to impress at least one person. In their heads the frustration of not impressing somebody is worse than a lifetime of prison, so desperately do they need the validation.
Trust
People love to say that they don't trust anybody, but they always do. There is always one person that they think would never ever tell a soul. This is because they want to believe that somebody loves them. Their lives would feel desolate and hopeless without having that validation. Let me tell you this, just so you know: never trust anybody. I don't say this because it sounds like something some movie tough-guy would say and thus makes me sound like a movie tough-guy. I say it because life is unpredictable and people can snitch without consciously trying. I say this because if at some point you have an anxiety attack it will drive you crazy because they know. I say it because everybody is weak.
Attention-lust
People like being able to see awe in other people's eyes, or what they think is awe. Sometimes that awe is really dollar-signs as they look forward to taking your job after you get fired, or informant money depending on what line of work you are in. Even if it was real awe, what exactly is the point? People like and look up to you what does that do for you in a practical sense? Nothing, that's what. It's better to keep your mouth shut and never let them know who they are dealing with. There will come a time that the ignorance of you is useful.
One of the main reasons people wind up in prison is that they want people to think they are cool for pulling it off, so they talk. They have to impress at least one person. In their heads the frustration of not impressing somebody is worse than a lifetime of prison, so desperately do they need the validation.
Trust
People love to say that they don't trust anybody, but they always do. There is always one person that they think would never ever tell a soul. This is because they want to believe that somebody loves them. Their lives would feel desolate and hopeless without having that validation. Let me tell you this, just so you know: never trust anybody. I don't say this because it sounds like something some movie tough-guy would say and thus makes me sound like a movie tough-guy. I say it because life is unpredictable and people can snitch without consciously trying. I say this because if at some point you have an anxiety attack it will drive you crazy because they know. I say it because everybody is weak.
Attention-lust
People like being able to see awe in other people's eyes, or what they think is awe. Sometimes that awe is really dollar-signs as they look forward to taking your job after you get fired, or informant money depending on what line of work you are in. Even if it was real awe, what exactly is the point? People like and look up to you what does that do for you in a practical sense? Nothing, that's what. It's better to keep your mouth shut and never let them know who they are dealing with. There will come a time that the ignorance of you is useful.
Labels: Effectiveness, Getting Away With it, People
