I just feel like no one (not just here, in general) cares about anything I say or do unless I really pester them to, and when that happens I know it's just because I'm a bother and not because they're actually interested.
I just feel like no one (not just here, in general) cares about anything I say or do unless I really pester them to, and when that happens I know it's just because I'm a bother and not because they're actually interested.
well, if you (1) haven't really seen the climate change over your lifetime or haven't felt noticeable effects that have been generally attributed to climate change by the people around you, and (2) you see climate change as a political football, then it's possible.
> it's not creepy for an adult to lust after 14-year-olds because 14 is the age of consent in some countries
well, it looks like time for me to step in it again. 1a. it's not a surprise for normal (and non-asexual) adult humans to find some physiologically sexually mature fellow human beings to be attractive. 1b. some 14-year-olds, especially in places of the world where the age of puberty has gradually fallen (due in part to better nutrition), are physiologically sexually mature. so there's a small subset that, statistically, normal adults would find attractive. 1c. it IS creepy for adults to have either: intentions for sexual contact with 14-year-olds, or serious thoughts about pursuing romances with 14-year-olds. 1d. it is downright wrong and ought to be flat-out illegal for the adult to act on those intentions or thoughts. this is because 14-year-olds almost certainly do not have the emotional maturity to properly deal with such actions, and an adult taking such actions is tantamount to taking advantage of a weaker victim. 2. age of consent is irrelevant to creepiness, since creepiness is a value judgement, NOT a legal judgement. age of consent is a legal issue.
> the western media is a pack of lies but russia does not produce propaganda
1. western countries tend to have a stronger cultural emphasis on freedom of the press than russia does, as far as i know. 2. if anything, western media tends to be controlled by media moguls rather than governments. one would not call corporationally-biased productions "propaganda" anyway -- more like, advertisement. 3. western countries also tend to have more of a political/cultural emphasis on individual liberty and questioning established social norms, which discourages the creation of propaganda 4. the relatively wealthier economies of western countries give their citizens somewhat more ability (e.g. via free time) to evaluate and discuss issues with each other, which enables #3.
it is of course possible for western countries to produce propaganda, but it is often less effective and prevalent -- especially if they have to compete with existing non-governmental media outlets (which have often been established using, in part, antagonistic press-vs.-government and private-vs.-public power relationships) to disseminate propaganda.
* gay people choose to be gay, and and all claims to the contrary are highly controversial amongst the scientific community and their spread is the product of cultural imperialism
1. do not, ever, try to apply reasoning to any individual's sexual preferences or paraphilias. they develop outside the bounds of rational thinking. i'm not gay myself so i can't say for sure, but as far as i can tell, people suddenly discover/realize one day that they're gay. (whether they choose to tell other people is another matter.) 2. people being gay is not the product of cultural imperialism. people willing to say out loud that they are gay is.
@ Burgundy Queen - i am interested in much of what you have to say. our interests don't always overlap, especially now that i don't listen to as much music as i used to and i'm no longer studying history, but i still like reading your posts, even if i don't always have anything to say in response.
@glennmagusharvey - to the first two, i guess that explains why he might feel that way, but i still don't get how it's possible to maintain those views to adulthood without noticing the problems with them, especially given how many papers he's supposedly read about climate change
to the third, well, yeah, that's why i find his views on the subject so baffling
and to the fourth, i guess it's possible his perception that gay identification is the product of cultural imperialism is associated with an increase in people professing to be gay out loud... i don't think that's entirely the product of cultural imperialism, since that would imply that gay people in Russia don't have agency, surely? not that he'd give a damn about that.
(As an aside: for me, i was aware of attraction to men long before i considered myself bisexual, but when i was younger i tended to dismiss it because i was attracted to women more... as i've gotten older i've found that's been less the case and i'm attracted to both sexes.)
> given how many papers he's supposedly read about climate change
well, what papers is he reading?
> and to the fourth, i guess it's possible his perception that gay identification is the product of cultural imperialism is associated with an increase in people professing to be gay out loud... i don't think that's entirely the product of cultural imperialism, since that would imply that gay people in Russia don't have agency, surely? not that he'd give a damn about that.
what do you mean by cultural imperialism?
i thought it meant that, due to the dominance of western countries in the world economy, western cultural ideas have become more commonly spread throughout the world. people's willingness to pick up those cultural ideas and run with them is still their own sense of agency.
if your acquaintance meant some sort of active, intentional "export" of culture, then that's completely bullshit.
i thought it meant that, due to the dominance of western countries in the world economy, western cultural ideas have become more commonly spread throughout the world. people's willingness to pick up those cultural ideas and run with them is still their own sense of agency.
this still implies that homosexuality is a "cultural idea" instead of a sexual orientation. Which is nonsense.
i thought it meant that, due to the dominance of western countries in the world economy, western cultural ideas have become more commonly spread throughout the world. people's willingness to pick up those cultural ideas and run with them is still their own sense of agency.
if your acquaintance meant some sort of active, intentional "export" of culture, then that's completely bullshit.
'Cultural imperialism' is his term... as far as i can gather it means both the inadvertant spread of Western culture due to market forces and the deliberate spread of Western culture by governments, activists and the like, but i've never heard him distinguish between the two.
yep it's true one day I was just hit in the face by the Bisexuality Truck and now I also like men.
yep.
i never said that sexual preference had to begin at the same time as discovery.
discovery can occur long after preference begins.
That doesn't make any sense, man.
i mean that it's entirely possible to have the basis of a sexual preference (or paraphilia, for that matter) going on in your brain and you might not consciously notice it until some time later. that's why it's not a conscious choice -- you don't choose a sexuality and then start to feel that way; you feel that way and then realize your sexuality. that's what i meant.
at least, that's as far as i've been able to glean, in my few observations.
Team Fortress 2 is a perfectly competent multiplayer FPS that people seem to love for reasons that I should be able to identify with, yet cannot.
i think people play it because it's a generally well-designed, generally-well-balanced game, with amusing flavor.
people return to it because they get invested in it, literally and figuratively. the whole thing with hats and other cosmetics is pretty much purely a social feature involved in status determination and stereotypes and such.
i thought it meant that, due to the dominance of western countries in the world economy, western cultural ideas have become more commonly spread throughout the world. people's willingness to pick up those cultural ideas and run with them is still their own sense of agency.
this still implies that homosexuality is a "cultural idea" instead of a sexual orientation. Which is nonsense.
i'm assuming, for the sake of charity, that Glenn means that willingness to come out is a cultural idea, not homosexuality itself.
i thought it meant that, due to the dominance of western countries in the world economy, western cultural ideas have become more commonly spread throughout the world. people's willingness to pick up those cultural ideas and run with them is still their own sense of agency.
this still implies that homosexuality is a "cultural idea" instead of a sexual orientation. Which is nonsense.
no, i'm saying that the willingness to speak openly about one's homosexuality is a cultural idea.
'Cultural imperialism' is his term... as far as i can gather it means both the inadvertant spread of Western culture due to market forces and the deliberate spread of Western culture by governments, activists and the like, but i've never heard him distinguish between the two.
sounds like you should force him to distinguish the two.
i see no reason to; it's irrelevant to the argument
in any case, i don't think the latter is bullshit, since there are plenty of people who desire to spread Western ideas to other countries, for a variety of reasons (e.g. profit, religious fervour, humanitarian concerns)
I never got why people buy stuff in DOTA2 either I guess.
well i dunno about dota 2 but i think it's kinda like, y'know, you're playing tf2 over and over again, and by itself it's kinda boring, but once you see that you're getting these random weapon drops, it becomes a little more interesting. then you find out you can craft them into cosmetic items like the cool things that other people are wearing and which makes them look distinctive, as well as other weapons that allow you alternative playstyles and more variety of experiences. but only "like"! -- not exactly what they have. if you want to get what they have, and look interesting and novel and thus cool like them, you'll have to get more items and trade for them or something. and there's always that rush of "wow" when you get a random rare drop like a hat. and then if you keep going down that rabbit hole, you also get into getting yourself cooler and cooler hats and other cosmetics. maybe you start designing item sets and give them custom names and descriptions to crack silly jokes. or maybe that other hat you can get by just trading like a good amount of stuff you have, but if you trade with some other people judiciously you might be able to get it for cheaper. and nowadays there are things like strange and killstreak weapons which count either total number of kills or number of kills in a row, so if you like showing off those are your thing. or something like that. and at the far end of the rabbit hole, we've got the "unusual" hats -- extremely rare, and have really distinctive and tacky special effects attached to them. they may be tacky and stupid but they get everyone's attention, and pretty much brand you as someone who knows the game very well. so...yeah.
TL;DR: come for the PVP gameplay, stay for the random little things that keep up your interest.
note that you can't get craftable items from the store. you HAVE to play the game and wait for items to drop, only dropped items are craftable into metal, the trading currency of TF2. so this basically forces people to actually populate servers.
You know, this talk about homosexuality has reminded me that people haven't really come up with a good argument as to why homosexuality(even if it happened to be a choice) is a bad thing.
I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
Disney sold ABC to New Capital Cities Communications (later to be known as ABC Inc) in 2010; shortly thereafter, the network reacquired WXYZ from Scripps. This served no purpose whatsoever.
When examining works on a political basis, I think it is often more important to see if conservatives hate something than to see whether leftists love something. Am I wrong here?
Comments
hat level: Ultimate
I guess I just wish more people said as much. But now that I've said that, I'm less inclined to believe them if they do.
It's a self-defeating cycle.
well, if you (1) haven't really seen the climate change over your lifetime or haven't felt noticeable effects that have been generally attributed to climate change by the people around you, and (2) you see climate change as a political football, then it's possible.
> it's not creepy for an adult to lust after 14-year-olds because 14 is the age of consent in some countries
well, it looks like time for me to step in it again.
1a. it's not a surprise for normal (and non-asexual) adult humans to find some physiologically sexually mature fellow human beings to be attractive.
1b. some 14-year-olds, especially in places of the world where the age of puberty has gradually fallen (due in part to better nutrition), are physiologically sexually mature. so there's a small subset that, statistically, normal adults would find attractive.
1c. it IS creepy for adults to have either: intentions for sexual contact with 14-year-olds, or serious thoughts about pursuing romances with 14-year-olds.
1d. it is downright wrong and ought to be flat-out illegal for the adult to act on those intentions or thoughts. this is because 14-year-olds almost certainly do not have the emotional maturity to properly deal with such actions, and an adult taking such actions is tantamount to taking advantage of a weaker victim.
2. age of consent is irrelevant to creepiness, since creepiness is a value judgement, NOT a legal judgement. age of consent is a legal issue.
> the western media is a pack of lies but russia does not produce propaganda
1. western countries tend to have a stronger cultural emphasis on freedom of the press than russia does, as far as i know.
2. if anything, western media tends to be controlled by media moguls rather than governments. one would not call corporationally-biased productions "propaganda" anyway -- more like, advertisement.
3. western countries also tend to have more of a political/cultural emphasis on individual liberty and questioning established social norms, which discourages the creation of propaganda
4. the relatively wealthier economies of western countries give their citizens somewhat more ability (e.g. via free time) to evaluate and discuss issues with each other, which enables #3.
it is of course possible for western countries to produce propaganda, but it is often less effective and prevalent -- especially if they have to compete with existing non-governmental media outlets (which have often been established using, in part, antagonistic press-vs.-government and private-vs.-public power relationships) to disseminate propaganda.
* gay people choose to be gay, and and all claims to the contrary are highly controversial amongst the scientific community and their spread is the product of cultural imperialism
1. do not, ever, try to apply reasoning to any individual's sexual preferences or paraphilias. they develop outside the bounds of rational thinking. i'm not gay myself so i can't say for sure, but as far as i can tell, people suddenly discover/realize one day that they're gay. (whether they choose to tell other people is another matter.)
2. people being gay is not the product of cultural imperialism. people willing to say out loud that they are gay is.
yep.
@glennmagusharvey - to the first two, i guess that explains why he might feel that way, but i still don't get how it's possible to maintain those views to adulthood without noticing the problems with them, especially given how many papers he's supposedly read about climate change
to the third, well, yeah, that's why i find his views on the subject so baffling
and to the fourth, i guess it's possible his perception that gay identification is the product of cultural imperialism is associated with an increase in people professing to be gay out loud... i don't think that's entirely the product of cultural imperialism, since that would imply that gay people in Russia don't have agency, surely? not that he'd give a damn about that.
(As an aside: for me, i was aware of attraction to men long before i considered myself bisexual, but when i was younger i tended to dismiss it because i was attracted to women more... as i've gotten older i've found that's been less the case and i'm attracted to both sexes.)
discovery can occur long after preference begins.
well, what papers is he reading?
> and to the fourth, i guess it's possible his perception that gay
identification is the product of cultural imperialism is associated with
an increase in people professing to be gay out loud... i don't think
that's entirely the product of cultural imperialism, since that would
imply that gay people in Russia don't have agency, surely? not that
he'd give a damn about that.
what do you mean by cultural imperialism?
i thought it meant that, due to the dominance of western countries in the world economy, western cultural ideas have become more commonly spread throughout the world. people's willingness to pick up those cultural ideas and run with them is still their own sense of agency.
if your acquaintance meant some sort of active, intentional "export" of culture, then that's completely bullshit.
...i guess that makes a kind of sense
i mean, puberty
at least, that's as far as i've been able to glean, in my few observations. i think people play it because it's a generally well-designed, generally-well-balanced game, with amusing flavor.
people return to it because they get invested in it, literally and figuratively. the whole thing with hats and other cosmetics is pretty much purely a social feature involved in status determination and stereotypes and such.
I never got why people buy stuff in DOTA2 either I guess.
i'm assuming, for the sake of charity, that Glenn means that willingness to come out is a cultural idea, not homosexuality itself.
sounds like you should force him to distinguish the two.
in any case, i don't think the latter is bullshit, since there are plenty of people who desire to spread Western ideas to other countries, for a variety of reasons (e.g. profit, religious fervour, humanitarian concerns)
Is writing about the cultural significance of "witch hats" in a fictional universe a poor idea? Probably, but I'm also probably going to do it anyway.
and worldbuilding is fun to read, anyway
besides, all writing is good practice
TL;DR: come for the PVP gameplay, stay for the random little things that keep up your interest.
note that you can't get craftable items from the store. you HAVE to play the game and wait for items to drop, only dropped items are craftable into metal, the trading currency of TF2. so this basically forces people to actually populate servers.
I think it's actually lyrics from the perspective of someone with severe Tall Poppy Syndrome. So killing angel babies wouldn't be too far off-base.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
suppose I'll probably end up gettin' em
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
EIGHTIES NOSTALGIA DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN