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[Nephew Twiddleton]

I've been avoiding saying anything up until now because I honestly don't want any condolences, and I also am still in a state of disbelief even though I saw her comatose in the hospital, but yesterday, I lost someone I've known for 20 years, and who can be pointed out as both a direct and indirect influence on who I am today, the choices I've made, and the attitudes that I have, all for better or worse, for a good half of my existence. A friend and sometimes enemy, a hindrance and a help, someone who has had a profound and irrefutable effect on my life.

I don't think I've had such a confusing clusterfuck of emotions than I do right now. The last thing she said to me was in anger. When I texted her to say lets talk it out, her boyfriend responded to let me know she was in the hospital. She had a severe attack of asthma that left her oxygen deprived enough to destroy her brain. She never regained consciousness and was on life support for a week. You think you have all the time in the world to sort things out, because who the fuck dies at 32 of asthma? At least one person.

Everything looked small today.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm sorry to hear that, Twid.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Upon further reflection: dandelions are not food.

I made that mistake once, too.

We modern humans have a more refined palate and more discerning stomach than our "that tarantula is easy pickin's" ancestors'.

Speak for yourself, city boy.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

On that note, I'm going to make a doctor appointment to get my asthma better controlled.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Upon further reflection: dandelions are not food.

I made that mistake once, too.

We modern humans have a more refined palate and more discerning stomach than our "that tarantula is easy pickin's" ancestors'.

Speak for yourself, city boy.

[EK WAFFLR]

So sorry to hear that, Twid.

[Junkenstein]

Twid. Take it easy man. Hope the bad outweighed the good, significantly. 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

On that note, I'm going to make a doctor appointment to get my asthma better controlled.

Please do.

Twid. Take it easy man. Hope the bad outweighed the good, significantly. 

I think overall, it did, but the bad was really bad. I felt progressively trapped and isolated by the friendship between the ages of 18 and 21. She wasn't terribly stable and being entirely ill-equipped to deal with that that young, she was able to emotionally manipulate me into essentially spending all of my free time with her. Which is something that obviously is getting dredged up for me again, since I'm reflecting on the whole friendship. I ended up accepting a second job the week after I turned 21, reasoning that if I wasn't going to have any free time anymore, I'd at least get paid for it. Not too long after, she herself got a job and a boyfriend and gained some stability, and I chucked the second job and got my freedom back.

There was one time during that period where I flipped out, and I mean, got dizzy, redfaced, shouting as loud as was humanly possible about her monopolizing my time, which she got indignant about, stormed off home, I got a day off, and then she called back to apologize, because looking at her wall calendar she realized that she had indeed spent literally every day for the past two months with me. Somehow that made me feel like the bad guy and I told her it was fine.

But the past 10 years of it were actually pretty good.

[LMNO]

I noticed something.

I was in a couple of discussions/arguments/head-wall-bashing on FB a few days ago.  One was about making the Internet a utility, and one was about catcalls.*  It was pretty standard -- people talking past each other, ossified talking points, non-sequitor arguments, heel-dig-screech, etc.  Fun for a while, in that way.

But since I am nothing if not a naive idealist, I began to honestly be confused at some of the positions these people were taking.  They seemed completely foreign to me.  I couldn't find any entry point in how their position holds up.  So I decided to take it out of the public forum.  I PMd them, and asked if they could clarify themselves.

Not a single one of them wanted to engage in a private discussion.  They would much rather bluster on where everyone can see them.  There's no thinking things through, it's all tribal signalling.  And the thing about signals is that there's no truth value to them.  That would be like saying "the color green is true".  It's meaningless.  The problem is that since they're signalling with words rather than colors, you might get the impression that they're trying to communicate ideas instead of [/i]affiliations[/i].  And you can't use rationality or well-constructed arguments to change someone's affiliation.

But I'm sure many of you have already realized this.






*I'm pro-utility and anti-catcall, for the record.

[Cain]

Modern liberalism is pretty much almost entirely social signalling and cultural dispositions, at this point.  Conservatism reached that point somewhere around 2002.

Good thing the internet has allowed free and open exchange of views, or else we'd be totally fucked.

Har. Har. Har.

[Doktor Howl]

I noticed something.

I was in a couple of discussions/arguments/head-wall-bashing on FB a few days ago.  One was about making the Internet a utility, and one was about catcalls.*  It was pretty standard -- people talking past each other, ossified talking points, non-sequitor arguments, heel-dig-screech, etc.  Fun for a while, in that way.

But since I am nothing if not a naive idealist, I began to honestly be confused at some of the positions these people were taking.  They seemed completely foreign to me.  I couldn't find any entry point in how their position holds up.  So I decided to take it out of the public forum.  I PMd them, and asked if they could clarify themselves.

Not a single one of them wanted to engage in a private discussion.  They would much rather bluster on where everyone can see them.  There's no thinking things through, it's all tribal signalling.  And the thing about signals is that there's no truth value to them.  That would be like saying "the color green is true".  It's meaningless.  The problem is that since they're signalling with words rather than colors, you might get the impression that they're trying to communicate ideas instead of [/i]affiliations[/i].  And you can't use rationality or well-constructed arguments to change someone's affiliation.

But I'm sure many of you have already realized this.






*I'm pro-utility and anti-catcall, for the record.

This is just another variation of the tumblr effect.

[Cain]

Also, this is why I keep linking to Freddie d'Boer's blog on Facebook, as he's one of the few people pointing out how fucked up this is.

[Doktor Howl]

Also, this is why I keep linking to Freddie d'Boer's blog on Facebook, as he's one of the few people pointing out how fucked up this is.

Can't see this at work.  Fortunately, I have nothing to do this evening.

[LMNO]

Woot, new bookmark!  Thanks, Cain.

[Junkenstein]

Current employer having some kind of breakdown.

Laughing isn't helping apparently. Neither is correcting him when he says I'll be around and able to fix shit.