Random Rants ': No, YOUR thread titles suck!

[Lohrenswald]

Attack on Titan looks really cool but is really obnoxious.

except the titans

 

[JohannaK]

Well, I am talking in general. Plus the freak titans do look cool.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Attack on Titan looks really cool but is really obnoxious.

It's basically just bad tragedy/gore porn tbh.

Rant: I have to work really late tonight. I probably won't get home until like 9pm.

 

[Hygro]

So, I had a conversation with a friend, who is generally very interested in politics. I asked his alignment.

He said he doesn't really like labels, but he felt "socialist" was good. I, naturally, proceeded to ask what kind, since there are so many varieties of socialism.

Unsure, he said that whatever kind I am, probably. So I proceeded to explain in less than 140 characters that I'm a mixed market socialist, as in I believe in worker-owned businesses, with a welfare state to smooth over any issues that arise.

He proceeded to respond with "whatever, I don't feel like talking about this."

I'm just... why respond in the first place? Why invite discussion if you're just going to throw a fit? It sounded like you were legitimately interested in an intelligent exchange of ideas, and you're going to "whatever" me? That's an excellent way to sour your standing with me. If you're not interested, that's okay, but tell me up front so I don't waste my time on you.

I always thought of him as a fairly intelligent individual, but I can't help but feel his left-wing views are motivated by emotion rather than reason and knowledge if he's unable to have a deeper discussion. While his views are convenient to my agenda, I just don't like when viewpoints aren't based in study, reasoning, etc. Critical thinking is important if we are to successfully pursue the truth.

Frankly, it reminds me of the time I convinced a creationist of evolution's existence, just by avoiding the term "evolution." It speaks to a serious lack of deeper understanding of the issue on their part.

You said: what's your label
Your friend: I dunno, probably loosely this first level macro descriptor, that's as deep as I know
You: we must go deeper into my preferred paradigm of categories. let me assert my identity as an example
Friend: you left me behind, let's keep the convo mutual
You: why r u so mean?

 

[Ajidica]

Attack on Titan looks really cool but is really obnoxious.

I couldn't stand the show because of its unabashed pro-militarist stance; which given Japan has never really come to terms with or admitted to the horrible things it did during WWII doesn't sit well with me.
I mean, the entire show is about an idyllic people who think themselves protected from the horrible unthinking outside world; yet the only way to protect themselves is to train a group of elite soldiers to hunt down the enemy in the wilderness beyond.

 

[cardgame]

I can see both sides of the issue

edit: Attack on Titan is fantastic idc

 

[Lohrenswald]

I always thought of him as a fairly intelligent individual, but I can't help but feel his left-wing views are motivated by emotion rather than reason and knowledge if he's unable to have a deeper discussion.

That's totally me

 

[gay_Aleks]

this ing day.

 

[Cutlass]

Thanks Phrossack and I appreciate the offer. I will be in-and-out of St. Louis in less than a day for the funeral so I won't be able to meet up.

Unrelated rant -

It's funny how you find out who your real friends are. It can happen in unexpected ways. I had 2 friends that recently graduated. One, we'll call Bob was a great guy and I really liked him. The other, 'Steve', I was not as close with.

After graduation, they both had trouble finding work so I helped them both out substantially. I shared my list of companies in the field to apply to and open job listings. I recommended them both for jobs. I edited resumes and gave advice freely.

Now Bob, my 'great' friend, was really slow to act. I'd tell him about a job opening and offer to edit his resume. He'd take a week to send me his resume (which is as easy as opening a freaking email and attaching a document, hit send) and I would take time out of my hectic schedule to edit it that day. Then I'd ask him to make the edits and send me the new draft and apply for the job so I could formally recommend him. He'd take over two weeks to do this, even though I made it as easy as possible for him.

I felt it was disrespectful as hell for him to lollygag after I put so much effort into helping him. But he acted like he had all the time in the world to hop on a hot job listing and he didn't value my time.

Now, several months later, he doesn't even text me unless he wants me to recommend him again. Not even a 'hey how's it going?' text. Nothing. He freaking used me and thinks he can still use me without even maintaining the pretext of being my friend.

Compare this with Steve, who I did help but much less so because I wasn't that great of a friend. This dude hopped on every opportunity I sent to him with speed. And he never asks for more than what I've given him, he never texts me asking for more recommendations. And he regularly chats me up about all kinds of stuff not related to job hunting. In other words, it turns out Steve was my real friend all along.


Oh and another rant -

Now that I'm working at SpaceX, people that were decidedly not my friend in school all of a sudden want to be buddy buddy and get me to recommend them for a job here. They can sod right off.

If there's anybody you are still willing to help on that front, check your space cadet thread. Pratt & Whitney is hiring 1000s of people in the next few years.



Sorry to hear of your great grandmother. All my great grandparents passed long before I was born. Nice that you got to know yours.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

If there's anybody you are still willing to help on that front, check your space cadet thread. Pratt & Whitney is hiring 1000s of people in the next few years.



Sorry to hear of your great grandmother. All my great grandparents passed long before I was born. Nice that you got to know yours.

I saw that and thanks for the tip! I will pass it along to my one friend who's proven not to try and use me. I'm not helping anyone else for the foreseeable future.


Thanks for the condolences. I was a pallbearer at the funeral and it was a nice ceremony.

Everything else about the trip was near-disaster. My flight into StL was delayed by 2 hours and my taxi driver tried to swindle me and took me on a scenic tour through E St Louis at 2am and I got 3 hours of sleep before the funeral. On the flight back, I was so sleep deprived that when the plane throttled down after take off and lost maybe 20 feet of altitude, I went into panic mode and spent the rest of the flight at the edge of my seat absolutely freaking the hell out. I'm usually a good flier but I guess in my mental state I just could not handle it.

 

[JohannaK]

Sad to hear about your great grandmother. Although I lived to see all of my maternal great grandparents, my maternal grandmother's mother died about six years ago. Her roommate at the hospital actually died this year on the very same day.

 

[Traitorfish]

I always thought of him as a fairly intelligent individual, but I can't help but feel his left-wing views are motivated by emotion rather than reason and knowledge if he's unable to have a deeper discussion.

Okay, but... so what? Revolutions aren't made by philosophers.

 

[Takhisis]

<snip>I'm usually a good flier but I guess in my mental state I just could not handle it.

Overload. Take it easy for a few days. Hey, the weekend's coming up.

Okay, but... so what? Revolutions aren't made by philosophers.

A philosopoher would argue that they'd make revolutions better.

(just in case you didn't take the above line seriously, is it good if revolutionaries don't know what they want, so they destroy everything in their path and then try to find out something to aim for?)

 

[Traitorfish]

A philosopoher would argue that they'd make revolutions better.

(just in case you didn't take the above line seriously, is it good if revolutionaries don't know what they want, so they destroy everything in their path and then try to find out something to aim for?)

I'm not convinced that philosophers know what people want, either, even if they might know what philosophers want. People have to figure out what they want for themselves, and that's always going to be a collective process.

 

[Takhisis]

My point is that a revolution needs a vision of what to do once it achieves power. Otherwise you get stuck with these little authoritarianisms that keep popping up in Latin America and Africa where &#8216;we'll win&#8217; is the battle cry and then people find themselves giddy at the heights they've achieved.

 

[Traitorfish]

The question is whether philosophers are the ones who supply that vision. Historically, I don't think it's the case: in every revolution, the masses rapidly excel their leaders in radicalism and breadth of vision. The wise philosopher is one who defers to the collective wisdom of the popular assembly.

 

[Takhisis]

I'm not sure&#8230; many times here the people want to be left alone and to end the current crisis while the leaders get drunk on their triumph and go for a revolution which turns into kleptocracy every single time, thus renewing the cycle.

 

[Ajidica]

I suppose it depends what you consider a revolution. Several academics consider Labour's implementation of the Beveridge Report to comprise a revolution and nobody got shot during that.

 

[sophie]

Unrelated rant -

It's funny how you find out who your real friends are. It can happen in unexpected ways. I had 2 friends that recently graduated. One, we'll call Bob was a great guy and I really liked him. The other, 'Steve', I was not as close with.

After graduation, they both had trouble finding work so I helped them both out substantially. I shared my list of companies in the field to apply to and open job listings. I recommended them both for jobs. I edited resumes and gave advice freely.

Now Bob, my 'great' friend, was really slow to act. I'd tell him about a job opening and offer to edit his resume. He'd take a week to send me his resume (which is as easy as opening a freaking email and attaching a document, hit send) and I would take time out of my hectic schedule to edit it that day. Then I'd ask him to make the edits and send me the new draft and apply for the job so I could formally recommend him. He'd take over two weeks to do this, even though I made it as easy as possible for him.

I felt it was disrespectful as hell for him to lollygag after I put so much effort into helping him. But he acted like he had all the time in the world to hop on a hot job listing and he didn't value my time.

Now, several months later, he doesn't even text me unless he wants me to recommend him again. Not even a 'hey how's it going?' text. Nothing. He freaking used me and thinks he can still use me without even maintaining the pretext of being my friend.

Alternative explanation: he wasn't proactive about getting the resume done initially and the fact that someone out there was expecting him to be proactive made him feel ******er about his earlier procrastination so he reacted by avoiding the thing that was causing the stress. Naturally the whole thing blew up in his face and he feels like a failure and not only a failure but someone who wasted the valuable time and energies of a trusted friend. He feels guilty and can't bear to look that friend he let down in the face anymore so he avoids him (i.e. you) like the plague. Periodically he'll go through stages of high energy/motivation/confidence and will reach out to you hoping to get himself back on track, but that energy is fleeting and he'll regress to his normal even after a couple hours and the cycle of procrastination leading to shame leading to further procrastination will repeat.

Not saying what "Bob" did wasn't *****y, nor that helping him out is or should be your responsibility. But it's worth considering that what Bob did wasn't born out of malice or some desire to take advantage of your kindness, but rather just his own head problems sabotaging his efforts at your expense.

 

[gay_Aleks]

The recent upgrade broke my formatting. Yay.