CuriousCat Archive Page 26 of 202

  1. You ever slapped an ass like bongos

    I tapped that ass like tablas

  3. How would you rank the Monkey Island games?

    subject to change, but:

    1. secret
    2. return
    3. curse
    4. lechuck's revenge
    5. tales
    6. escape

    this is personal preference, probably swap curse and lechuck's revenge if we're talking about quality

  4. The only way you can believe this is if you think America’s foreign affairs have been evil for the last 80 years.

    in response to Why do people say that every U.S. president is a bad person?

    the first sentence of the linked essay is, "If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged." do you find fault with this statement?

  5. (Different anon) lmao, I thought that the Marie Kondo comparison was just a reference to Peterson’s "clean your room, bucko" schtick.

    in response to You used to shill Marie Kondo as the better alternative to manosphere garbage but now she’s admitting that her excessive cleaning is an unhealthy coping mechanism all self help gurus are grifters who prey on the rejects of society and often even themselves

    my comment on Kondo was as follows and I quote:

    Jordan Peterson: Clean your room.
    Boys: Anything you say, daddy.
    Marie Kondo: Clean your room.
    Boys: FUCK YOU MOM!!

  6. I've often heard "we can't represent healthy relationships in media because then there wouldn't be meaningful drama" but like, that feels kind of not great to me. Idk what you think

    the expectation that "healthy relationships" never have conflict is, in fact, deeply unhealthy. healthy conflict has plenty of drama. and also, like... partners can deal with external problems???

  8. How come the phrase "it’s for your own good" never precedes anything nice?

    it's nice when my domme says it

  9. You used to shill Marie Kondo as the better alternative to manosphere garbage but now she’s admitting that her excessive cleaning is an unhealthy coping mechanism

    all self help gurus are grifters who prey on the rejects of society and often even themselves

    I think I made one tweet about shitty dudes yelling at Marie Kondo for saying the same things Jordan Peterson says, which shitty dudes lap up. I've never even watched her show or read her books. is that the "shill" you're referring to? was this your big victory over #TeamKondo?

  10. i can't tell if the idea of this being true or false is funnier

    in response to How much have you read of Capital?

    it's 100% true

  11. have you ever sent an aask to yourself just so you could share a take

    one time I had an answer too long for the character limit so I sent myself an ask just so I could add more paragraphs to the thread. that's the only time I've sent myself one.

  12. What's the desired end state for anti racism? Is it the end of race as a concept or the dismantling of systemic biases or just the end of whiteness as a concept?

    that's a good question. definitely the systemic dismantling, and hard to imagine that the concepts would survive without the systemic underpinning. personally, I'd like future generations to think of racism the way we think of, like, phrenology or geocentrism: a nonsense thing the world used to believe and a few crackpots are still holding onto.

  13. No Microsoft, Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Company, etc. No Windows, Xbox, Halo, Excel, Android, etc.

    in response to Or when someone is afraid of the consequences of trying to raise everyone at the bottom up but instead bringing all the people at the top down...

    but all of that technology would exist, just not the companies. Elon didn't even found Tesla, he bought it. The Boring Company hasn't accomplished anything. SpaceX is founded almost entirely on technology invented by NASA. Bill Gates is rich cuz he got to market first, but loads of people were working on the same problems. he didn't invented the computers or the programming languages. you even say "Android" because you know full well smartphones would exist, just not the specific brand you like; a smartphone is a mashup of satellite technology pioneered by NASA, internet technology pioneered by the ARPANET team, and telephone infrastructure that goes back to Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Labs which were (hey hey) founded with money from the French government.

    across the board, public funding and collective effort have created all these technologies, and all the billionaires have done is found ways to get paid for it and take the credit. if Musk stepped down as CEO of Tesla I promise you it would keep running without him.

  15. From Stanley Payne's definition of fascism: "'fascist negations' - anti-liberalism, anti-communism, and anti-conservatism."

    in response to Is fascism diametrically incompatible with conservatism and capitalism, or did fascists like Hitler oppose them because they "didn’t go far enough?"

    Hitler's voting base was conservative, he was appointed Vice-Chancellor by head of the conservative party Chancellor von Papen, who also personally ended the ban on SA activity; conservatives in the Weimar Congress would ally with Nazis to get a majority over the liberals and socialists, with whom they were otherwise in a three-way deadlock. Mussolini's squadrismo was tacitly ignored when not outright aided by the conservative-run police and army, and was similarly supported politically by middle-class conservatives while leftists rejected the fasci.

    we can discuss how fascism will eventually attempt to leave conservatism behind in its quest for power, but it does not MOBILIZE AGAINST CONSERVATISM the way it demonizes liberals and most especially leftists. conservatives overwhelmingly find places to make themselves useful in fascist hierarchies, when fascists find purchase in a political party it's always the conservative party, and there is no conservative corollary to socialists being sent to Dachau.

    Payne, it should be noted, is a Francoist and radical conservative who co-wrote a book with a Neo-Nazi and supports the Far Right Spanish party Vox. as ever, don't take your definitions of fascism from fascists.

  16. Are the masses smart or ethical enough to be trusted with democracy?

    I don't think any leader in a non-democratic system has ever been smart or ethical enough to have that much power. one could maybe argue that the TRUE value of direct democracy is less that the will of the people is so wise, but that, if power is spread evenly among the people, no one has enough to do any real harm with it. perhaps dysfunction is democracy's greatest gift.

  17. Who first bit the forbidden fruit?

    in response to [Citation strongly needed]

    I did

  18. Also, what does the previous anon mean by "give the right less fodder"? Republicans have no trouble making shit up if they run low on legitimate grievances against Democrats.

    in response to Tbh I think there’s value in just supporting Biden whatever he does, because we give the right less fodder that way. Keep bombing Gaza and hopefully in a few years we can be politically normal enough to elect actually competent officials and stop doing so.

  19. hurgh (hits two boulders together) gurgh?

    grunk

  20. [Diff Anon] Out of curiosity, what would you say to those of us who do live in states that are firmly red/blue (recommended actions, books on the subject, etc.)?

    in response to I do live in a swing state.

    I wouldn't necessarily have DIFFERENT advice, the stakes would just be lower

  21. Is fascism diametrically incompatible with conservatism and capitalism, or did fascists like Hitler oppose them because they "didn’t go far enough?"

    fascism in no way, shape, or form "opposed" either of those things.

  22. How much have you read of Capital?

    there was this girl on OnlyFans whose thing was reading Capital in her underwear. but then she stopped doing it and started posting nudes so I canceled my subscription.

    whatever chunks of that I caught are all the actual text I've consumed.

  23. Or when someone is afraid of the consequences of trying to raise everyone at the bottom up but instead bringing all the people at the top down...

    in response to Why is hierarchy so bad?

    what precisely do you think are the consequences of, say, Elon Musk and Bill Gates being brought down to the middle with the rest of us?

  24. What got you interested in film noir? Did you just stumble upon it one day and wanted to see more of it/learn more about it? Or was it like a part of an art school class? Or does something about the genre (or whatever noir is) speak to you personally?

    I think I started liking neo-noir before I knew what it was. I just knew Brick and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and In Bruges were clearly part of the same, like, "pulpy crime film" vibe, and I dug it. then, yeah, film classes started digging into what film noir was, and I realized what that thing I had liked was, and then looked into the connections between genres, and... it just became a hyperfocus.

  25. Truthfully, do you think music has gotten worse since your youth?

    god no.

    I mean, I'm a little biased because I didn't start listening to contemporary music til, like, high school, and music kinda sucked then. I started paying attention riiiiiiiiight when boy bands and nu metal were taking over MTV. my taste sucked for a few years but then I got into Radiohead and that served as a bridge to weirder stuff like Aphex Twin and Blonde Redhead and Tool. so most of the, like, GOOD 90's music was stuff I had to go back and school myself on.

    but the good shit you have to dig a little for? it's as good as ever, if not somewhat improved! if anything, we're spoiled for options now. the biggest problem is FINDING IT amid all the STUFF that's out there. and I gather the industry has gotten pretty shitty for the artists: a lot easier to get your music out, a lot harder to make money from it.

  26. Right wingers post things liberals and leftists say and do out of context all of the time. I can easily see a right winger posting in response to a post from you “look what he really thinks of young men!”

    in response to But you said “ I’m not here to convert young men, I’m here to defeat them”. You said young men, not young conservative men. That sounds like you are opposed to all young men. I know what you meant, but apolitical young men will not. And the right will be eager to add to their confusion.

    so what is your argument? "don't say anything that could be taken out of context"? if I speak juuuuuuust right, the dishonest people trying to discredit me will HAVE to portray me accurately? like... what are we even discussing?

  28. Tbh I think there’s value in just supporting Biden whatever he does, because we give the right less fodder that way. Keep bombing Gaza and hopefully in a few years we can be politically normal enough to elect actually competent officials and stop doing so.

    in response to I do live in a swing state.

    what is supposed to happen "in a few years" to make the Democrats more normal?

  29. Did you come up with the phrase "self-similar on many scales" in Always a Bigger Fish? The cadence of it is always really charming to me when I rewatch it

    nah, that's something I learned from fractal geometry

  30. I do live in a swing state.

    in response to I voted for Biden in 2020 because I was so afraid of Trump and the movement he represents. Now it's 2024 and between Gaza, the border bill, and everything else going on I'm genuinely unsure whether I even want to vote at all. Do you have any opinions on how or whether at all to participate in elections when the candidates are this bad? Or alternatively do you have any recommended reading on the subject?

    well, I'm not here to tell you what to do. I would only say this: you have to accept responsibility for anything that you could have prevented. if someone gets elected by a narrow margin, and your county was a close call, then you share some responsibility for what happens. not voting isn't a "get out of responsibility free" card. so just... think about which outcome you would be more bothered by in making your decision.

  32. Why is hierarchy so bad?

    this is a question people only ask when they know they won't be at the bottom

  34. What's a song you wish existed?

    my answer is and always will be:

    Cake should cover Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover

  35. What empirical evidence do you have that conservatism and right-wing politics in general is provably wrong?

    I can prove that the things they argue are factually inaccurate, but no one can prove morality. morals and ethics have no absolute, intrinsic value, and we could all kill each other for sport and the universe won't really notice. I'm a secular atheist, so I'm VERY aware of how cosmically insignificant our behavior is.

    but that's moot, cuz nobody really lives like nothing matters, and certainly conservatives don't.

  36. But you said “ I’m not here to convert young men, I’m here to defeat them”. You said young men, not young conservative men. That sounds like you are opposed to all young men. I know what you meant, but apolitical young men will not. And the right will be eager to add to their confusion.

    in response to Why did you say on Curiouscat a while back "I’m not here to convert young men, I’m here to defeat them". Why don’t you have sympathy for the plight of half the population?

    exactly how are the apolitical young men seeing my answer without the context of the question?

  38. I voted for Biden in 2020 because I was so afraid of Trump and the movement he represents. Now it's 2024 and between Gaza, the border bill, and everything else going on I'm genuinely unsure whether I even want to vote at all. Do you have any opinions on how or whether at all to participate in elections when the candidates are this bad? Or alternatively do you have any recommended reading on the subject?

    are you in a narrow county in a swing state?

  39. Even Jimmy Carter?

    in response to Why do people say that every U.S. president is a bad person?

    from the linked essay:

    "Ford was only there for a very short time so he didn’t have time for a lot of crimes, but he managed one major one. He supported the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, which was near genocidal. I mean, it makes Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait look like a tea party. That was supported decisively by the United States, both the diplomatic and the necessary military support came primarily from the United States. This was picked up under Carter.

    Carter was the least violent of American presidents but he did things which I think would certainly fall under Nuremberg provisions. As the Indonesian atrocities increased to a level of really near-genocide, the U.S. aid under Carter increased. It reached a peak in 1978 as the atrocities peaked. So we took care of Carter, even forgetting other things."

  40. It's ancedotal, but I see way more conservative young men get more left as they grow up. Would be curious to see what happens to these people between 17 and 25

    in response to (different anon) How do you think these trends will effect the political landscape of the future ( 10-20+ years from now )?

    Bob Altemeyer pointed out that people, on average, get less authoritarian as they get older, especially if they go to college or move to a city.

  41. So would you support a anarchist revolution where we overthrow capitalism, then we establish socialism if we need to?

    in response to What's your opinion on anarchy?

    all I'm prepared to commit to at this point is hooking up with the anarchists

  42. If the US was attacked by a foreign nation (not Russia, China, or N Korea) would you fight on their side

    hard no

  43. What outdoor activity haven’t you tried, but would like to?

    flight

  44. As a child, what did you think would be awesome about being an adult, but isn’t as awesome as you thought it would be?

    nothing. I never wanted to grow up and by some metrics still haven't.

  45. I just want you to know that the semiotics of cuck has forever colored my perception of nick offerman even though I know he is nothing like that and have to remind myself of that

    hehehe

  46. What's your opinion on anarchy?

    would smash

  47. That would depend on the definition of lefty Youtubers but i think you at least somewhat agree because you gave 1 Example. That is actually why asked. In searching for opinions on the left i did not find many videos at all. And the ones i have found seems to have problems for example why could Depp sue Heard when she didn't even mention him by name... As if people from the left have forgotten what implications are. And no i did not and will not entertain anything that a rightwinger has to say on the topic...

    Also it is okay to say that you do not know or have no opinion on the topic of my question. But you can still share your opinion if you have one.

    in response to ... thanks, but that was not my question. Why do you think most of the Left on Youtube have not made any Videos about Depp v Heard?

    I don't agree or disagree! I have a self-selected sampling of lefty YouTubers, and I am very aware of the limits of my knowledge there. I get people asking me to weigh in on lefty YouTuber discourse rather a lot when I have NO IDEA what they're talking about. there are ENTIRE subcultures I'm not tapped into. and I generally find that YouTube's algorithms have made finding lefty YouTubers increasingly difficult, even when I know certain content exists and I am searching explicitly for it.

    given that my small and biased sampling HAD some Depp/Heard discussion, and I doubt I'm so good at sampling YouTube that I found the only instances of it, it makes me wonder how much of it is going on that we just aren't finding. it's the kind of thing I don't assume the algorithm promotes - conservatives yelling at Heard is probably better for engagement than lefties defending her. but I don't know!

    as for why my own circle of YouTubers haven't weighed in on Depp/Heard except for Princess... I dunno. some of it is probably just avoiding the headache; you know you're not gonna persuade many people who don't already agree with you, you know your words are gonna get taken out of context, you know a lot of people on your OWN SIDE have VERY STRONG BELIEFS that probably don't align with yours, and it's the EXACT kind of thing lefties will try to cancel each other over.

    speaking for myself, I have personal history that makes the subject charged for me, and I suspect enough other lefties have similar that any backlash over a Depp/Heard video from their allies would be particularly painful. it just seems like the amount you could add to the conversation is minimal and the amount of grief you would incur is massive.

    but, also, yeah: probably some fear they're gonna defend the wrong person, a tool Depp has used to his advantage even as the evidence makes it PRETTY FUCKING EXPLICIT who the abuser was. internalized misogyny is a bitch.

  48. Do you think the left should use some of the tactics outlined in your series "the alt-right playbook"?

    some, yes. some, absolutely not.

  50. Racism is not an institution. That doesn't make any sense. That word is never used in that way. You could instead use the word white supremacy and it would have the same function.

    in response to With regard to racism: The big asterisk over it is that because it exists to concentrate power / diminish the ability of people without power to engage in collective action (please don't get sidetracked by this digression), we can be "racist against anybody" the Italian and the Irish were also victims of racism in the US until after WW2. Those "Irish Need Not Apply" signs weren't cute little jokes, they were real notices that the person doing hiring for a task would not hire you if they thought you were Irish. The tension, the fear (I think) for a lot of "I'm not racist, but..." racists is the gut knowledge that if we don't toe the line, we could be next in the wall. And, THAT IS TRUE, but we could also be next on the wall regardless of how well we toe that line. (Where my White Latinos at? How well did you deal with the cognitive dissonance of a US president in our lifetimes calling us rapists and murderers?) The only way not to be at risk is if the systems that would put anyone against that wall are made impotent.

    I am using it that way right now, and I didn't come up with it on my own, so, yes, it is often used that way. what you mean is it is never used that way "legitimately," which is your own judgment, based on your own experience, and I wanna ask you how often that experience is with white people.

  51. "While it was possible for individual Ancient Greek slaves to be freed, manumission was always in the hands of the owner.[15] Slavery was HERITABLE, meaning that even if an individual slave was granted freedom, their children would still likely be slaves.[15] The permanence of many Greek slaves subjection and the perpetuity of enslavement over generations of a family was therefore indicative of their status as unfree members of society, since their freedom was on someone else's terms and never their own.[15]"
    Emphasis is mine.
    Less then 13 seconds.

    in response to Again, it's "reckless-at-best" to back-port modern social notions onto antiquity, but Greece and Rome did have Race-like concepts, sometimes even justified by similar nonsense arguments. Key thing tho: skin color, whiteness was not the key differentiating trait. I should re-read The History of White People?

    you're still fusing two concepts - "slavery could be a generational condition" and "certain peoples were regularly enslaved" - and treating them as unified because that's how we look at slavery NOW. those slaves were not slaves because of their "race," they were not destined only for slavery because of their "race," the ones who were freed and naturalized were not stigmatized for generations. those are modern notions you are imposing on the past.

    I'm not defending ancient slavery, but people could just kinda DO A STINT as a slave in Greece and Rome. fuckin Diogenes was a slave for a while. race-based slavery is just materially and philosophically distinct from that.

  52. Why do people say that every U.S. president is a bad person?

    https://chomsky.info/1990____-2/

  53. Where did you find/come up with the insult "mayonnaise boy" for the Card Says Moops episode? It cracks me up every time.

    oh that was a real thing: https://imgur.com/qLsJfFx

  55. why.

    in response to They were asking a genuine question.

    I would like to casually toss out a handful of names in a Curious Cat answer without being accused of "excluding" a handful of other names, and that literally ONLY happens with debatebro fans

  56. That's not moving the goal post, that *literally* what you're saying to justify your extremely narrow definition of "racism".

    in response to Ah yes, I remember a time before white people when nobody ever anywhere used arbitrary differences between groups of people to create social stratification. Good times.

    me: there was a time before racism existed because the concept of 'race' had to be invented and we literally know when it happened and by whom.

    you: pfft, you think the Portuguese invented prejudice???

    like... I can't have a conversation with you if you can't understand sentences, you know? bigotries have always existed. sexism is ancient. xenophobia, religious intolerance. but racism? comparatively recent. because you can't hate people based on "race" until someone invents the concept of race.

    you seem to think that's a distinction without a difference. it's annoying.

  59. If the Alt-Right "gentrifying" racism by making it appear more respectable to elites and institutions without changing the underlying ideology was effective, should leftists be taking a similar strategy in that regard?

    gentrifying anticapitalism hasn't proven very effective

  60. (diff anon) You're employing the exact same rhetorical technique you criticized in your "Ship of Theseus" video by insisting upon this narrow, singular definition of capital R "Racism". It's frankly a weird hill to die on.

    in response to Translation: yes but I can't admit I'm wrong.

    don't talk about videos you didn't understand

  61. Can you recommend any books about the differences between the modern western concept of race and how other cultures viewed outgroups?

    in response to Again, it's "reckless-at-best" to back-port modern social notions onto antiquity, but Greece and Rome did have Race-like concepts, sometimes even justified by similar nonsense arguments. Key thing tho: skin color, whiteness was not the key differentiating trait. I should re-read The History of White People?

    https://www.amazon.com/Stamped-Beginning-Definitive-History-National/dp/1568585985

  67. okay at first at your mention of it i listened to cake's cover of i will survive and while i didn't like it at first because how mccrea's vocals sort of meander around the tempo, after several listens the raw emotion of it hits me super hard, what a good fucking version of the song

    RIGHT???

  68. Well, I think it’s weird you mentioned Shaun and Three Arrows when some of those streamers have far more subscribers than them (nothing against Shaun or TA).

    in response to Why did you exclude any of the streaming crowd from you examples of deradicalization YouTubers? You said in HTRAN "what doesn’t get Gabe out is an argument that proves all his facts wrong and his ideology bunk." I think video essays, while important, don’t deradicalize young men who are more responsive to how ideologies feel and sound to them than how logically true they are. Meanwhile, streamers like Hasan, Destiny, Vaush, and Keffals can make content on a much more regular basis covering trending topics that young boys are likely to find. I’m aware there are problems with the debate format, but I think we can’t neglect that a big part of the reason folks Andrew Tate gain popularity is because they fill a niche that I don’t think essayists making videos every few months can provide.

    get a different hobby

  70. Is it weird then that I, as a cis het white man like yourself, feel envious about that?

    in response to Do you ever feel jealous as a cis het white man that you don’t get any of the "minority" recognition like Black History Month and International Women’s Day, that you will always be the oppressor, not the oppressed that others are supposed to care about?

    it's pretty common - Jordan Peale made a pretty infamous movie about it! - but you should maybe unpack that.

  72. Why haven't you made a video about tankies if you think they're a problem, considering their growing influence in the online left?

    because I'm trying to finish the Alt-Right Playbook

  73. Ah yes, I remember a time before white people when nobody ever anywhere used arbitrary differences between groups of people to create social stratification. Good times.

    in response to With regard to racism: The big asterisk over it is that because it exists to concentrate power / diminish the ability of people without power to engage in collective action (please don't get sidetracked by this digression), we can be "racist against anybody" the Italian and the Irish were also victims of racism in the US until after WW2. Those "Irish Need Not Apply" signs weren't cute little jokes, they were real notices that the person doing hiring for a task would not hire you if they thought you were Irish. The tension, the fear (I think) for a lot of "I'm not racist, but..." racists is the gut knowledge that if we don't toe the line, we could be next in the wall. And, THAT IS TRUE, but we could also be next on the wall regardless of how well we toe that line. (Where my White Latinos at? How well did you deal with the cognitive dissonance of a US president in our lifetimes calling us rapists and murderers?) The only way not to be at risk is if the systems that would put anyone against that wall are made impotent.

    curious, the goalpost is not where I left it. did someone... move it?

  74. Again, it's "reckless-at-best" to back-port modern social notions onto antiquity, but Greece and Rome did have Race-like concepts, sometimes even justified by similar nonsense arguments. Key thing tho: skin color, whiteness was not the key differentiating trait.

    I should re-read The History of White People?

    the fundamental difference in Greece and Rome was that, however much they demonized cultural and religious Others, the Otherness was not based in BLOOD. their xenophobia did not dictate that you could NEVER become a naturalized Roman or that your kids and grandkids all born in Rome were still Other. that is fundamental to race: it's in your GENES. it's in your SKIN. it's in your BONE STRUCTURE. this is how slavers justified owning not just a person but their entire genealogy, how they justified owning mixed-race children born of rape. this is how white supremacy justified miscegenation laws, redlining, segregation that lasted GENERATIONS.

    no, Rome and Greece did not have anything like that.

  75. (diff anon) "Racism was invented by white people" is a hell of a take considering the fact that racism exists among non-white races in countries with a minority of white people (Japan for instance).

    in response to With regard to racism: The big asterisk over it is that because it exists to concentrate power / diminish the ability of people without power to engage in collective action (please don't get sidetracked by this digression), we can be "racist against anybody" the Italian and the Irish were also victims of racism in the US until after WW2. Those "Irish Need Not Apply" signs weren't cute little jokes, they were real notices that the person doing hiring for a task would not hire you if they thought you were Irish. The tension, the fear (I think) for a lot of "I'm not racist, but..." racists is the gut knowledge that if we don't toe the line, we could be next in the wall. And, THAT IS TRUE, but we could also be next on the wall regardless of how well we toe that line. (Where my White Latinos at? How well did you deal with the cognitive dissonance of a US president in our lifetimes calling us rapists and murderers?) The only way not to be at risk is if the systems that would put anyone against that wall are made impotent.

    you are imposing the notion of "race" onto other forms of prejudice in countries that had no concept of race. "race" was first fabricated in Portugal in the 15th century to convince the church it was ethical to exclusively enslave Africans. that is the first time anyone considered humanity to have "races."

    you are talking about a time when people we now think of as white were mistreated by people we now think of an non-white. they were not mistreated *because* they were white, as "white" did not exist.

Anon commented:
Ian replied: