Sermon #1 on 21C Fun

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I would really enjoy rounding up all the engineers and all the philosophers and throwing them in a lake.

Not to drown them, mind you. Just to stop their endless prattle for a moment and to remind them that actually, water is subjectively wet.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I might also kick them a little. Not gonna lie.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Just a little.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Can I give you an example that might break your philosophical wankery? Imagine a scenario in which your youngest child is brutally raped and severely, disablingly, injured.

Are you laughing at that? Can you imagine yourself laughing at it?

[Reginald Ret]

Can I give you an example that might break your philosophical wankery? Imagine a scenario in which your youngest child is brutally raped and severely, disablingly, injured.

Are you laughing at that? Can you imagine yourself laughing at it?

Not that I'm stepping into the philosophical wankery discussion, I don't think laughter and this kind of philosophizing work well together. Philosophy is laying tracks for your trains of thought (or, more often: just following someone else's tracks), while laughter (can i replace that with mirth? it is more accurate for me) is what happens after your train of thought has been derailed by reality.

My answer to Nigel's question (redacted, see below):
After a decade or two of that child becoming mentally stronger and stronger and overcoming all that trauma? Yes I can imagine we would make jokes about it. Very very bitter jokes, at the expense of rapists but still. Laughter can be healing as well as hurting.


this is below, see here:
... Huh. I just realized my caveats set my response apart from 'all things'. Oh well, it turns out that my answer is not applicable to this conversation.

[hooplala]

Can I give you an example that might break your philosophical wankery? Imagine a scenario in which your youngest child is brutally raped and severely, disablingly, injured.

Are you laughing at that? Can you imagine yourself laughing at it?

I can imagine that, but it would necessarily involve a psychotic break... which I doubt was Howl's point in this thread.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Can I give you an example that might break your philosophical wankery? Imagine a scenario in which your youngest child is brutally raped and severely, disablingly, injured.

Are you laughing at that? Can you imagine yourself laughing at it?

I can imagine that, but it would necessarily involve a psychotic break... which I doubt was Howl's point in this thread.

Yeah, I don't think that was where he was going with it at all.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Everyone gets their monkey on in different ways.  On the East coast, they have THE GAY BAR and all the other shit that comes with proper cities.  Here in Tucson, we have "driving badly" and "irresponsible firearms use" and various plants that make you think you live in the RIGHT universe for a while.  Portland, well, nobody's really sure, but it seems to involve art gallery openings and scooter/hockey stick mayhem of the sort that can only be done right by middle-aged single mothers with teenaged kids driving them batshit.

The point is, if we're gonna have Wrongfun™, we all have to do it our own way, if you know what I mean.  And I think you do.

But there are those who feel that "fun" should be regulated and controled, so that only Rightfun™ is obtainable.  These are the forces of NO, of STOP, of CALM YOUR TITS.  They are the people who feel that prohibition is a great idea.  They are the people who post "shock" articles on Facebook and howl weird shit about what should be done to Those People depicted in the articles. 

History is full of these assholes, whether they be Stasi or NSA or just the HOA Rules Nazi down the block.  They are against unregulated FUN, and for everyone settling down and being Good Americans™.

I am against these people, brothers and sisters, and I hope you are too.  I hate them and they hate me and that's how everyone likes it.  If they liked me, or even found me amusing from a distance, I would seriously have to reexamine the way I live my life.  They walk around all day with their disapproval stamped to their ugly, pinched faces, screaming at anyone who will listen (and most of those who won't) that "IT'S NOT FUNNY" and "THIS ISN'T A SUBJECT FOR HUMOR".

Yes it is.  I don't care if they're talking about terrorism, the free market, or whatever social justice zealotry they have shackled themselves with...And don't get me wrong, I'm all about egalitarianism, but I was just informed that "fart rape" is a thing, and it doesn't actually matter if that turned out to be a hoax, because if it IS, it hit too close to the bullseye.  No, as the late and unlamented Good Reverend Roger said, "Everything is funny when it happens to someone else...and it's usually still funny when it happens to YOU."

The fact is, you can judge a society on how much it laughs.  The Germans laugh all day, and nobody ever laughs in North Korea.  You decide.  And here in America, 43% of the population is democratic and 43% is republican, leaving only 14% of us laughing.  So we'd better LAUGH UNTIL OUR GUTS BLEED, or accept the fact that this nation is 86% North Korean.

What's really odd about that is that I remember a time when at least the democrats were laughing.  Not the politicians, of course, but the regular person in the street.  But let me ask you:  When was the last time you heard Joe or Jane Sixpack laugh?  I bet it's been a long time.  In fact, I bet they look at you funny when YOU laugh...Like you'd done something inappropriate.  And maybe you had, but that doesn't mean a laugh is a sign of bad manners or bad taste.

And why is this?  Because our society has lost its nerve.  Because our society is BUTTHURT, because being butthurt is both easier and SAFER.  Nobody gets black-bagged for NOT having a good time.  Nobody arrests people for Angry Townhall Face.  Nobody loses their job for sitting utterly rigid in their cube, staring at their monitor...Or joylessly eating their lunch in the breakroom, talking about SAFE subjects like the football game or how well their kids are fitting into the Jello-mould of society.

Is THAT what you want?  It isn't what I want.  I laughed at The Bomb and I laughed at Al Qaeda and now I laugh at the NSA and the republican senate.  And if rumors are true, I'll LAUGH MY ASS OFF when Sarah Palin puts her name on the presidential ballot in 2016. I laugh at preachers doomsaying on account of Gay marriage, and I laugh hysterically while icebergs the size of New Hampshire fall off of Antarctica.

Yes, I laugh at all of these things, all of these things and more.  I bray spittle and laughter in the faces of those who disapprove of my laughing at awful shit most people won't even bring up, because THAT'S WHAT A YETI DOES.  Leave the glum miseryguts bullshit for the Calvinists.  They LIKE that shit.  Because they're NUTS.

Okay for now,
Dok

Amen.

It's all in HOW you find amusement in the horrorshow.

Also reminds me of this Redd Foxx bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t_wR1ps3wE#t=1170

[Dildo Argentino]

Can I give you an example that might break your philosophical wankery? Imagine a scenario in which your youngest child is brutally raped and severely, disablingly, injured.

Are you laughing at that? Can you imagine yourself laughing at it?

After I kill that man with meticulous and atrocius brutality, and after crying a river, I might. Then I may or may not go on to kill myself. But it is hard to tell.

[Dildo Argentino]

Also,what Ret said.

[Doktor Howl]

Can I give you an example that might break your philosophical wankery? Imagine a scenario in which your youngest child is brutally raped and severely, disablingly, injured.

Are you laughing at that? Can you imagine yourself laughing at it?

I can imagine that, but it would necessarily involve a psychotic break... which I doubt was Howl's point in this thread.

It was not, and I didn't take it as such.  I am operating under the impression that she was talking to Holist.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Can I give you an example that might break your philosophical wankery? Imagine a scenario in which your youngest child is brutally raped and severely, disablingly, injured.

Are you laughing at that? Can you imagine yourself laughing at it?

I can imagine that, but it would necessarily involve a psychotic break... which I doubt was Howl's point in this thread.

It was not, and I didn't take it as such.  I am operating under the impression that she was talking to Holist.

Bingo!