News:

To the "allies," if you aren't complicit in my crimes then you are complicit in theirs.

Main Menu

A letter to the morally pure

Started by Doktor Howl, February 07, 2020, 04:01:32 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Doktor Howl

Dear Savior,

You're sitting there bitching about some son of a bitch who fucked up someone's pronouns or might have fucked up someone's pronouns.  Nobody complained but you worry that they are too intimidated to complain and it's your fucking job to call that shit out.  Your vocation.  Jerks ain't gonna act right, you're gonna save the day by slapping them down.  Bastards won't put content warning/trigger warnings on top of the post, you're gonna see to that...Even if the warning itself is basically as triggering as the content, that's not the important bit.  The important bit is...

...Your validation.

Let's just face facts:  In a world in which you have no agency, being a self-appointed tone cop looks pretty damn good, right?  You can transfer all of your rage at your asshole boss, your shitty living conditions, your lack of opportunity, yes you can transfer them all right onto that fucker over there and at the same time be on the side of the angels.  But I gotta say...

...I see you.

I mean, it's understandable.  You want some control over your environment.  All humans do.  That is in fact what politics is.  But as an old slave-trading religious bigot once said, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."  You employ the injustice of the world as a hammer to get the other primates to react to you to get that control, and the reaction is that they hate you.  And eventually they hate your message.  I am not talking about the proudboys and 4Chan freaks and MRA/Incel dweebs here, I am talking about people that want to be on your side.  People for whom you have coined a term to prevent them from getting into the little tent of your politics...

...Cookie seekers.

Aka "point whores," aka "YT saviors (ironically enough almost always said by YT saviors)".  One of a grab-bag of derisive terms used to ensure that YOU are the lone voice in the wilderness, decrying the injustices of the world, regardless of the cost.  Regardless of what the original subject was.

An example would be 365 Portland.  This is an organization started to bring attention to climate change.  One of the prominent old-school Subgenius guys, Huey, was asked by them to do a poster art (gratis, of course) advertisement for an upcoming event.  Huey was happy to help, and he drew up one that REALLY conveyed urgency.  It involved a picture of a young lady holding a sign that read "Wake up, the house is on fire!" or something similar.  The person who had requested the art rejected the piece with the explanation "It conveys too much urgency, which might exclude members of marginalized populations."

No shit, that's what she said.  As if somehow the marginalized populations won't suffer first as climate change progresses.  To top it all off, the lady in the pic was either Hispanic or Native American in the first Goddamn place.  But that didn't matter, because the committee member dealing with Huey delivered her actual message, even if it was at the expense of both the climate change effort AND the people she had fetishized.  And make no mistake, that's precisely what it was.

When I saw screencaps of the exchange, I was horrified to realize that I wasn't horrified.  I had expected EXACTLY that result, because in a time of ecological disaster and rising fascism, the hip and obviously correct thing to do is address everything EXCEPT the disasters and the fascism.  To show just how fucking pure you are.  To validate yourself.  To maximize your potential as a Goddamn vulture that lives on the pain of others, and must, in a not-so-subtle manner, perpetuate that misery to gain more of that sweet, sweet validation.

So when you work yourself into a righteous froth about those sons of bitches, just keep in mind that YOU are one of those sons of bitches.

Yours truly,
Ferdinand Marcos



Molon Lube

LMNO

"It conveys too much urgency, which might exclude members of marginalized populations."


Was there anything clarifying what the hell she meant by that?  I'm confused.

Doktor Howl

Quote from: LMNO on February 07, 2020, 04:44:48 PM
"It conveys too much urgency, which might exclude members of marginalized populations."


Was there anything clarifying what the hell she meant by that?  I'm confused.


No, but it isn't actually necessary.  The phrase "might exclude members of marginalized populations" has been a stock phrase for several months, now.  Years, if you allow for slightly different wording that says the exact same shit.


At that point Huey told her to fuck right off and terminated the conversation.  Can't blame him.  That had to have been 6 hours of graphic art work, which was discarded so that committee member could display the correct religious symbology.
Molon Lube

The Wizard Joseph

 :mittens:

Had some trouble finding a solid definition of "YT saviour" through google. Is it perhaps a reference to something like "YouTube Savior"?
You can't get out backward.  You have to go forward to go back.. better press on! - Willie Wonka, PBUH

Life can be seen as a game with no reset button, no extra lives, and if the power goes out there is no restarting.  If that's all you see life as you are not long for this world, and never will get it.

"Ayn Rand never swung a hammer in her life and had serious dominance issues" - The Fountainhead

"World domination is such an ugly phrase. I prefer to call it world optimisation."
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality :lulz:

"You program the controller to do the thing, only it doesn't do the thing.  It does something else entirely, or nothing at all.  It's like voting."
- Billy, Aug 21st, 2019

"It's not even chaos anymore. It's BANAL."
- Doktor Hamish Howl

tyrannosaurus vex

Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on February 07, 2020, 05:17:44 PM
Had some trouble finding a solid definition of "YT saviour" through google. Is it perhaps a reference to something like "YouTube Savior"?

YT =  "white"

also,

:mittens:

I was called a racist the other day for making fun of leprechauns.
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

The Wizard Joseph

 :lulz:

YT peepl! I phonetically get it now.
You can't get out backward.  You have to go forward to go back.. better press on! - Willie Wonka, PBUH

Life can be seen as a game with no reset button, no extra lives, and if the power goes out there is no restarting.  If that's all you see life as you are not long for this world, and never will get it.

"Ayn Rand never swung a hammer in her life and had serious dominance issues" - The Fountainhead

"World domination is such an ugly phrase. I prefer to call it world optimisation."
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality :lulz:

"You program the controller to do the thing, only it doesn't do the thing.  It does something else entirely, or nothing at all.  It's like voting."
- Billy, Aug 21st, 2019

"It's not even chaos anymore. It's BANAL."
- Doktor Hamish Howl

Doktor Howl

Quote from: tyrannosaurus vex on February 07, 2020, 05:28:40 PM
Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on February 07, 2020, 05:17:44 PM
Had some trouble finding a solid definition of "YT saviour" through google. Is it perhaps a reference to something like "YouTube Savior"?

YT =  "white"

also,

:mittens:

I was called a racist the other day for making fun of leprechauns.

I was called racist yesterday for saying that you can walk across Panama in a weekend.   :lulz:
Molon Lube

Doktor Howl

Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on February 07, 2020, 05:31:50 PM
:lulz:

YT peepl! I phonetically get it now.

It's a Facebook dodge.  If you say "White People" on facebook, you will get an automatic flag, because Zucc has to protect the po'buckers from systemic racism.
Molon Lube

Doktor Howl

Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on February 07, 2020, 05:17:44 PM
:mittens:

Had some trouble finding a solid definition of "YT saviour" through google. Is it perhaps a reference to something like "YouTube Savior"?

It is people who think that by shouting down every single discussion, regardless of topic, with "But PoC", they can expiate their share of 400 years of chattel slavery and abuse.

So they go one step beyond paternalism and fetishize PoC, which is all on its own CREEPY AS FUCK.
Molon Lube

Doktor Howl

AND ANOTHER THING:

Do not presume to tell me how to be a "good ally".  I am not your ally.  You and I merely share common enemies.  Think of it as the USA and the USSR in 1943.  They didn't like each other, but they both hated the Nazis.  So they kicked the Nazi's asses, and then mean-mugged each other for 75 years.  That is where we are.  Not because you are a minority or disabled or whatever it is, but because you are a human and I don't like humans.  They fuck too much and they don't even enjoy it because they feel guilty for feeling good.  They cannot stand their own odor.  They are fucking stupid, and I want them to all die from harpoon injuries.  Like now.  Like right fucking now. 

So that being said, does it seem reasonable to coach me on being a proper "ally"?  No.  No, it fucking does not.  You hate the Nazis and the religious fanatics and I hate the Nazis and religious fanatics and we both want to give them a great big kick in the business, and let's just leave it at that.
Molon Lube

altered

What I find funny is that despite how I act (hey Johnny, remember your return?) I've never been accused of tone policing or whatever by anyone but myself.

And as someone who has to be on the other, other side of this (cis women and men telling me what I find upsetting), the very people you're talking about are who I consider "cookie seekers".  People who are there purely to give evidence to their own eventual sainthood. They're the white folks who tell a black person not to use the n-slur or appropriate AAVE online. Their only purpose is to show how good they are: they contribute nothing but "Look at me! I'm good! Recognize me!"

As for urgency, no one is as urgent as a marginalized community. If you bring up a high-medium problem to a well-off cishet white person, they add it to the agenda. The to do list. If you bring up a high-medium problem to a marginalized person, they're like "I do not have the time, energy or patience for that right now. We have thirty other dumpster fires we are trying to solve: I do not give a fuck."

This is not specific to any particular community. Everyone I know who is in a marginalized group is like this. If you are marginalized, by definition you have more problems than you know what to do with.

The house is on fire, yes, it's on fire all day every day. The house has never not been burning. You pick the most important rooms to try to save and let the siding bubble and warp because you don't need siding anyway. You run yourself to the blood-slick bones and then eat lunch and get back to it.

Anyone who worries about being offputting to marginalized communities due to an excess of urgency is a person who has never known hardship first hand.
"I am that worst of all type of criminal...I cannot bring myself to do what you tell me, because you told me."

There's over 100 of us in this meat-suit. You'd think it runs like a ship, but it's more like a hundred and ten angry ghosts having an old-school QuakeWorld tournament, three people desperately trying to make sure the gamers don't go hungry or soil themselves, and the Facilities manager weeping in the corner as the garbage piles high.

Doktor Howl

Quote from: altered on February 07, 2020, 08:35:39 PM

Anyone who worries about being offputting to marginalized communities due to an excess of urgency is a person who has never known hardship first hand.

:mittens:
Molon Lube

The Johnny

Quote from: altered on February 07, 2020, 08:35:39 PM
What I find funny is that despite how I act (hey Johnny, remember your return?) I've never been accused of tone policing or whatever by anyone but myself.

It was more about content than tone, and not policing, but like, "how aware are you of what you're repeating like an automaton".
<<My image in some places, is of a monster of some kind who wants to pull a string and manipulate people. Nothing could be further from the truth. People are manipulated; I just want them to be manipulated more effectively.>>

-B.F. Skinner

The Johnny


And Idk, regarding OP...

American politics (in the broadest sense of the term) are so fucked up and divisive that it's practically trench warfare.

I live in a different "world" (country) from you people but, fighting over preferred pronouns in the context of a dialogue or debate which primary theme is not that, its like fighting over spelling and grammar in a text argument. Surely there needs to be a basic standard of quality of writing for the purpose of intelligibility and making communication a possibility, but answering entire paragraphs of arguments with "I'ts spelled <<you're>>, not <<your>>", to me, just communicates that the main debate is over either because of lack of interest or because they lost and are looking to divert the attention elsewhere - so when in the middle of a debate im interrupted to tell me that im using the wrong pronouns, it's telling me that our attention is divided to different topics... perhaps in text it's more of a reasonable request, but in live speech its like, what the fuck are we even doing.

And already we are seeing the negative aspects of this trend, they're not "fascists" they're "alt-right", and all of a sudden we're fighting over pronouns and identity instead of the underlying issues, each one respectively on their own side of "No Man's land".
<<My image in some places, is of a monster of some kind who wants to pull a string and manipulate people. Nothing could be further from the truth. People are manipulated; I just want them to be manipulated more effectively.>>

-B.F. Skinner

The Wizard Joseph

Quote from: Doktor Howl on February 07, 2020, 08:57:15 PM
Quote from: altered on February 07, 2020, 08:35:39 PM

Anyone who worries about being offputting to marginalized communities due to an excess of urgency is a person who has never known hardship first hand.

:mittens:

:mittens:
You can't get out backward.  You have to go forward to go back.. better press on! - Willie Wonka, PBUH

Life can be seen as a game with no reset button, no extra lives, and if the power goes out there is no restarting.  If that's all you see life as you are not long for this world, and never will get it.

"Ayn Rand never swung a hammer in her life and had serious dominance issues" - The Fountainhead

"World domination is such an ugly phrase. I prefer to call it world optimisation."
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality :lulz:

"You program the controller to do the thing, only it doesn't do the thing.  It does something else entirely, or nothing at all.  It's like voting."
- Billy, Aug 21st, 2019

"It's not even chaos anymore. It's BANAL."
- Doktor Hamish Howl