Funny events in anti-woke world

Cheetodust

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Not sure why you'd think that, honestly. The protagonist is depicted as dangerous, unhinged. He is able to whip up and inspire followers, but only among the shallow and directionless.

There's an analogy of repressed homo-eroticism, which perhaps has some crossover with the author's own experiences, but the outcomes and actions are not sympathetic.

Anyone who identifies with Tyler Durden is spectacularly missing the point, just like those who identify with Rick Sanchez or the Joker.
Oh i don't just mean Fight Club. But I get that that seems like the VERY obvious reading of it. But sometimes I'm not sure Palahniuk gets that that is the VERY obvious reading of it. I am really struggling to find it now but I remember an interview with him basically painting these guys as sort of sympathetic in a Jordan Peterson "sure they're bad, but is it not the world's fault?" kinda way
 
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BrawlMan

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Oh i don't just mean Fight Club. But I get that that seems like the VERY obvious reading of it. But sometimes I'm not sure Palahniuk gets that that is the VERY obvious reading of it. I am really struggling to find it now but I remember an interview with him basically painting these guys as sort of sympathetic in a Jordan Peterson "sure they're bad, but is it not the world's fault?" kinda way
is one of those stories, that I just began to dislike after a while. I never read the book, but I saw the movie. So honestly, the movie is the best case scenario for that story, and there are idiots that still didn't get it. Even till this day. What I find really weird is that there is a Fight Club 2 and 3 that are in comic book form. Why was a sequel even needed to be made twice?
 

Cheetodust

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is one of those stories, that I just began to dislike after a while. I never read the book, but I saw the movie. So honestly, the movie is the best case scenario for that story, and there are idiots that still didn't get it. Even till this day. What I find really weird is that there is a Fight Club 2 and 3 that are in comic book form. Why was a sequel even needed to be made twice?
I couldn't say. I haven't even read a plot synopsis of the sequels. Similarly, the world has made me have no small degree of disdain for the story, regardless of the authors intentions. Even if Palahniuk never intended them to be sympathetic the story still revolves around entirely unlikeable people with increasingly more real world counterparts that just make the story all the more unpleasant to engage with.
 

XsjadoBlayde

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No need for dog whsitles anymore I spose. This coming after my super pilled family last weekend claiming that hitler wasn't as bad as everyone made him out to be too. It isn't an insignificant concern.
 

Agema

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No need for dog whsitles anymore I spose. This coming after my super pilled family last weekend claiming that hitler wasn't as bad as everyone made him out to be too. It isn't an insignificant concern.
Actually, I spotted this article too.


Although called covid denialists, this is a bit of a zeitgeisty spin as the article explains they are the usual bunch of kooks with rather more disturbing beliefs tucked away. And of course, there is a such a rich history of very right wing Germans decamping to South America.
 

Kwak

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I just...



Please explain how I am supposed to take these people seriously as a political class?
A political class that is stupid is still a threat when there's enough of them.
The stupidity is everywhere, is extremely dangerous, and is spreading because it pushes stupid people's easily manipulated buttons.
 

bluegate

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No need for dog whsitles anymore I spose. This coming after my super pilled family last weekend claiming that hitler wasn't as bad as everyone made him out to be too. It isn't an insignificant concern.
When a person I know tried to go there when we were talking over a message app, I inundated the conversation with pictures of mass graves and concentration camp atrocities for days, always asking whether it wasn't as bad.

Not sure if it got the point across, but I haven't heard them say "well he wasn't that bad" anymore.
 
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Terminal Blue

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Palahniuk is a weird guy. I like his books well enough but the cynicism of his protagonists reads to me like we're meant to view his characters negatively but he sometime makes me think he might have a closer worldview to the characters he creates than I would like to think.
I think Palahniuk is deeply sympathetic to his characters because, at the end of the day, they are broken people put in impossible positions by a cruel world.

I think it's important to remember that, like many gay men of his generation, Palahniuk watched most of his friends die horrible deaths from AIDS while the world at large was happy to be rid of them.

In my opinion, the best passage in fight club is at the end when the protagonist is in the psychiatric hospital.

“I’ve met God across his long walnut desk with his diplomas hanging on the wall behind him, and God asks me, “Why?” Why did I cause so much pain? Didn’t I realize that each of us is a sacred, unique snowflake of special unique specialness? Can’t I see how we’re all manifestations of love? I look at God behind his desk, taking notes on a pad, but God’s got this all wrong. We are not special. We are not crap or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what happens just happens.

And God says, “No, that’s not right.”

Yeah. Well. Whatever. You can’t teach God anything.”


People on the margins of society don't always get to live in the same moral universe as everyone else.
 

Trunkage

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Gergar12

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Anti-woke opinion here. If there is demand for it, and it doesn't cause too much harm, there should be a marketplace for it. That means no hired killers, but yes for many drugs, porn, sex work, and in my opinion modpacks.
 

Silvanus

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While that's a pretty stupid way to phrase the headline, I read the piece itself, and it's not actually decrying high-speed rail at all; it's a travel piece primarily about how beautiful the country is and talking endearingly about the culture.
 

Agema

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While that's a pretty stupid way to phrase the headline, I read the piece itself, and it's not actually decrying high-speed rail at all; it's a travel piece primarily about how beautiful the country is and talking endearingly about the culture.
We live in the Twitter age. If it can't be written in 280 characters, it's not worth reading - but you can complain about the thing you haven't read on Twitter.
 

Seanchaidh

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We live in the Twitter age. If it can't be written in 280 characters, it's not worth reading - but you can complain about the thing you haven't read on Twitter.
The complaint is pretty squarely about the headline*. Which all involved did read.

edit:
*and the summary
 
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Terminal Blue

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Anti-woke opinion here. If there is demand for it, and it doesn't cause too much harm, there should be a marketplace for it. That means no hired killers, but yes for many drugs, porn, sex work, and in my opinion modpacks.
I don't think that's an anti-woke opinion at all. I'm an anarchist, so I largely agree.

The one thing I would ask is, how would you feel about cleaning up the mess?

Let's take drugs. Many illegal drugs are extremely addictive, and they're especially attractive especially to people who are not living very good lives because they provide an escape. Addiction, sadly, isn't like it is on the movies or television. It's not something people typically snap out of just through willpower or because they just gosh-darn love their families so much. Recovering from addiction is one of the hardest things a person can do, and it's a process that lasts for the rest of that person's life.

So yeah, we can legalize drugs. But if you legalize drugs and just keep everything else the way it is, the result is just going to be a lot of addicts and a lot of people making money off of addicts.

The same goes for sex work. Some of my friends have done various forms of sex work, and it works really well for some people. But when people talk about "legalizing" sex work, often what they mean is legalizing the sex industry and the economic exploitation of sex workers, often at the expense of the freedom that makes sex work so attractive to many people. Legalizing the sex industry also tends to increase demand for sexual services without a corresponding increase in supply, which means that actually it doesn't reduce the problems of things like trafficking or coercion in the way lobbyists often claim. It also leads to a pressure on the industry to drive down prices, which means sex work ends up being devalued.

Again, decriminalizing sex work sounds great, but depending on the way it is implemented, and assuming everything else stays the same the result is not actually very beneficial for the people who do it.

So yeah, who cleans up the mess?
 

Gergar12

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I don't think that's an anti-woke opinion at all. I'm an anarchist, so I largely agree.

The one thing I would ask is, how would you feel about cleaning up the mess?

Let's take drugs. Many illegal drugs are extremely addictive, and they're especially attractive especially to people who are not living very good lives because they provide an escape. Addiction, sadly, isn't like it is on the movies or television. It's not something people typically snap out of just through willpower or because they just gosh-darn love their families so much. Recovering from addiction is one of the hardest things a person can do, and it's a process that lasts for the rest of that person's life.

So yeah, we can legalize drugs. But if you legalize drugs and just keep everything else the way it is, the result is just going to be a lot of addicts and a lot of people making money off of addicts.

The same goes for sex work. Some of my friends have done various forms of sex work, and it works really well for some people. But when people talk about "legalizing" sex work, often what they mean is legalizing the sex industry and the economic exploitation of sex workers, often at the expense of the freedom that makes sex work so attractive to many people. Legalizing the sex industry also tends to increase demand for sexual services without a corresponding increase in supply, which means that actually it doesn't reduce the problems of things like trafficking or coercion in the way lobbyists often claim. It also leads to a pressure on the industry to drive down prices, which means sex work ends up being devalued.

Again, decriminalizing sex work sounds great, but depending on the way it is implemented, and assuming everything else stays the same the result is not actually very beneficial for the people who do it.

So yeah, who cleans up the mess?
Ideally the government, the medical system, and social workers.

Also, Portugal legalized all drugs, and instead of locking people up, they put them in clinics, give them clean needles, etc. The US however bans, ostracizes, and fines so they in effect create large black markets in the US, and around the world.

Also, many sex workers have to face a war against their livelihoods. Many are arrested by the police for example, and many face abusive pimps. I would rather all of that be given a spotlight, and the sex workers are given more workers rights up to, and including unions.

By the way, the reason I mentioned this is not because I personally want to do these things; I am very risk-averse in real life, the reason is that I am taking underground economics, and I believe black markets are policy failures not because people are a necessary evil.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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"We don't know who they nominating yet, but she's definitely unqualified because she's a black woman" -some Totally Not Racist dude

 

Hades

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"We don't know who they nominating yet, but she's definitely unqualified because she's a black woman" -some Totally Not Racist dude

I mean....he's right in the sense that whoever it is really won't be getting a single Republican vote.