CuriousCat Archive Page 35 of 202

  1. Do you like The Cure?

    some! Catch and Inbetween Days are unimpeachable.

  2. What's the best depiction of direct action you've ever seen in a work of fiction?

    How To Blow Up a Pipeline

  5. Random question: armadillo, penguin, or crab?

    f: crab
    m: penguin
    k: armadillo

  6. Why do conservatives against cancel culture hardly ever push against tough-on-crime justice systems or even try to push for better unemployment safety nets? It seems like solving those issues would fix half of their problems.

    they don't want to fix problems. they want centralized authority; they want power. crime and poverty justify giving more money to police, which suits their belief in authority. if crime and poverty went away, that couldn't justify the use of power anymore.

    they're only against cancel culture when it threatens their own power; they smash Keurigs for pulling advertising from Hannity, they boycott Budweiser for letting a trans woman do an ad, they launch harassment campaigns against women they don't agree with. they LOVE canceling people. they're only against BEING canceled.

    it's only ever about power.

  8. Why do conservatives and other queerphobes talk about children like they are too stupid to know when they are upset/ in distress?

    in response to Why do minors need to be allowed gender-affirming care? Can’t they wait until they’re older? They’re causing irreversible damage to themselves before they can truly know their gender identity or understand the consequences.

    it's what would need to be true for their queerphobia to be justified, so they believe it

  9. I do wonder how the people who go on about gender-affirming care causing irreversible damage to children feel about teenagers (and kids younger than that) playing sports.

    Because, y'know, it's definitely not unheard of for an athlete to sustain a permanent, life-altering injury while playing a game.

    in response to Why do minors need to be allowed gender-affirming care? Can’t they wait until they’re older? They’re causing irreversible damage to themselves before they can truly know their gender identity or understand the consequences.

  11. I think it's important to draw a distinction between people with this "fluke abnormality", and grown adults who pursue girls and boys in the 14-19 age range because they are easier to take advantage of. There's a real issue in society with the fetishization of youth.

    in response to You lost me at the suggestion that anyone with the "impulse" to have sex with children should be shown any measure of compassion.

    not to get into the whole "pedophilia vs. attraction to sexually-developed minors" debate, but the same argument goes: there is no evidence that prison is deterrent or rehabilitation

  12. Have you ever considered joining the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

    I don't need a meme religion

  13. Why do minors need to be allowed gender-affirming care? Can’t they wait until they’re older? They’re causing irreversible damage to themselves before they can truly know their gender identity or understand the consequences.

    a female puberty is irreversible damage to a trans boy

  15. You lost me at the suggestion that anyone with the "impulse" to have sex with children should be shown any measure of compassion.

    in response to What would be a good alternate solution for people who can't live safely in general society (clinical psychopaths, pedophiles, etc.)?

    people don't choose their impulses, just whether they act on them. there's a biological switch that's supposed to flip in puberty that changes your interest to sexually mature people, and for some people, for some reason, it doesn't flip. if that happens and is treated as the fluke abnormality it is and the person lives their life managing a condition they never act on, that's all I need.

    prison folks are like "throw em in jail for a decade and then let em out like that fixed anything."

  17. What would be a good alternate solution for people who can't live safely in general society (clinical psychopaths, pedophiles, etc.)?

    in response to Should our prisons be less secure?

    oooh, well, I don't recommend going straight to genetic determinism! it is possible for pedophiles to restrain from acting on their impulses; people with antisocial personality disorder ("clinical psychopaths" is an outdated term) can function healthily in society with the right help. people living with these problems exist in society right now and don't commit crimes because they're doing the work necessary and have supports. and it's not like the prison system has any plans for these people! pedophiles and APD people who commit crimes serve years in jail and then are just let back out into society with no treatment or rehabilitation. if you think they are incapable of living in society, how is the prison system any better than abolition? (unless you think all people with these disorders should be given life sentences or executed, which, I feel, is far more extreme and dangerous than abolition.)

  18. What should replace them?

    in response to Should our prisons be less secure?

    I'm no expert, but social work, rehabilitation, transformative justice, etc.

  19. Should our prisons be less secure?

    in response to Should our borders be more secure?

    our prisons shouldn't be

  21. With a snap of your fingers, you have now completed a task that would have taken 1-3 hours of your day. What task do you pick?

    cooking dinner

  22. This sounds like "yeah, it sucks. But it’s a Monday" Ignoring how harsh the dating scene is for young Men already and how soul-crushing it can be when you’re still a virgin.

    in response to I feel like the clear follow-up question would be "Do you think that sex and intimacy are basic human needs for those who are not asexuals?"

    friend, you're arguing in favor of sexual slavery. dating isn't "harsh," you just don't see women as people and that's why they don't date you.

  23. What even is asexuality. I feel asexual (demi) sometimes but other times I wonder if it's just like a lot of deep seated Shame/Anxiety or something. Is this normal

    asexual means you don't want sex. it can be an identity, or it can be a descriptor. maybe the reason you don't want sex is shame and anxiety; you still don't want sex and are functionally asexual. the question is less "is this normal" (but it is!) but "do I want it to be different?"

    if not, well, then it doesn't matter WHY you're asexual, because it's not something you need to change.

  24. I know I'm years late on this but in your 200k special you said that your favorite joke is the lemon cookie joke, could you tell it/direct me to it?

    no

  25. Should our borders be more secure?

    very much the opposite

  26. If you ask me, the clear follow-up question is: "Do you think a girlfriend is the only possible source of sex and/or intimacy for a straight guy?"

    in response to I feel like the clear follow-up question would be "Do you think that sex and intimacy are basic human needs for those who are not asexuals?"

    yeah the fact that people are like "the government should force a girl to date me" and not "the government should legalize and subsidize sex work" is pretty revealing!

  27. I feel like the clear follow-up question would be "Do you think that sex and intimacy are basic human needs for those who are not asexuals?"

    in response to Do you think sex and intimacy are basic human needs? (Serious)

    sure, but so is bodily autonomy. welcome to society.

  28. What makes you think it’s one person?

    in response to How often do you get shit like this?

    "state-mandated girlfriend guy" isn't an individual, it's a category, like "reply guy" or "wife guy"

  29. OK, what do you propose we do instead?

    in response to What if we had state-mandated girlfriends to assuage incels? Hear me out for a moment. It would greatly decrease mass shootings because the vast majority of violent crimes are committed by lonely men. We wouldn't even have to take away anyone's guns, so we could appease both sides of the political spectrum. Elliot Rodger & Alek Minassians' victims would still be alive if they were afforded their basic human needs.

    lol at this anon saying "well I suggested sexual slavery, so I did my part"

  30. Why do you think everything is made in China? There’s cheap labor there in the form of sweatshops. Workers are treated much better in Western liberal democracies than in China. That’s not to say that there aren’t things China does much better than the West at, but that’s a different matter.

    in response to Why do you continue to believe China isn't capitalist?

    I am aware of Chinese sweatshops, though I find it interesting that you take "does not have sweatshops" as a feature of Western liberal democracy when, like... an overwhelming amount of China's sweatshop labor is fulfilling America's demand for cheap labor. we only don't have sweatshops because we make use of China's sweatshops; manufacturing jobs aren't better in the US, they simply don't exist anymore.

  31. At what point did "mass shootings only happen because nobody wanted to fuck the shooter" become a serious argument that people unironically made?

    in response to (DA) I wonder if people who genuinely believe in this idea realise that we have had a time when women were mandated into romantic relationships (by societal pressure rather than the state, but it's the same effect). If you go back 75-100 years you'll find that most women were incapable of supporting themselves financially, which basically forced them to get married. And that state of affairs literally spawned a whole subgenre of jokes about how much husbands and wives hate each other. It didn't make anyone less lonely or unhappy, it just made them lonely and unhappy in a different way.

    when Jordan Peterson said it

  32. Do you think sex and intimacy are basic human needs? (Serious)

    in response to What if we had state-mandated girlfriends to assuage incels? Hear me out for a moment. It would greatly decrease mass shootings because the vast majority of violent crimes are committed by lonely men. We wouldn't even have to take away anyone's guns, so we could appease both sides of the political spectrum. Elliot Rodger & Alek Minassians' victims would still be alive if they were afforded their basic human needs.

    asexuals exist

  33. Aren't septums Skyrim money?

    in response to The hell even is a deviated septum?

    no, you're thinking of septim, the primary currency of Tamriel. septum is the in-universe title of the priest played by Jonathan Pryce on Game of Thrones.

  34. The real question is why aren't incels dating each other, do they believe they have a god given right to a partner but also they are exempt from contributing to that so-called "basic human need"?

    in response to What if we had state-mandated girlfriends to assuage incels? Hear me out for a moment. It would greatly decrease mass shootings because the vast majority of violent crimes are committed by lonely men. We wouldn't even have to take away anyone's guns, so we could appease both sides of the political spectrum. Elliot Rodger & Alek Minassians' victims would still be alive if they were afforded their basic human needs.

    any one of these guys could just hire a sex worker, too. they don't want sex, they want to be ENTITLED to sex. in some ways, a state-mandated girlfriend would resolve that, because what they want is to be OWED a woman, not PAY HER FOR THE PRIVILEGE, but, in the end, I think they'll be unhappy knowing the woman doesn't actually like them? that she's only here by legal coercion? just a thought.

  35. I may just be out of the loop, but is Musk known for inventing buses often?

    in response to What if we had state-mandated girlfriends to assuage incels? Hear me out for a moment. It would greatly decrease mass shootings because the vast majority of violent crimes are committed by lonely men. We wouldn't even have to take away anyone's guns, so we could appease both sides of the political spectrum. Elliot Rodger & Alek Minassians' victims would still be alive if they were afforded their basic human needs.

    he keeps coming up with "solutions to traffic" that, the more he iterates, the more they turn out to be shittier versions of public transportation

  36. (DA) I wonder if people who genuinely believe in this idea realise that we have had a time when women were mandated into romantic relationships (by societal pressure rather than the state, but it's the same effect). If you go back 75-100 years you'll find that most women were incapable of supporting themselves financially, which basically forced them to get married. And that state of affairs literally spawned a whole subgenre of jokes about how much husbands and wives hate each other. It didn't make anyone less lonely or unhappy, it just made them lonely and unhappy in a different way.

    in response to What if we had state-mandated girlfriends to assuage incels? Hear me out for a moment. It would greatly decrease mass shootings because the vast majority of violent crimes are committed by lonely men. We wouldn't even have to take away anyone's guns, so we could appease both sides of the political spectrum. Elliot Rodger & Alek Minassians' victims would still be alive if they were afforded their basic human needs.

    yeah, like, this is one of those things you could look for data for if you cared. many cultures have practiced arranged marriages; did the rate of male mass violence increase when those customs fell out of favor? but, no, they just say shit like "Elliott Rodger wouldn't have shot a bunch of women if someone had fucked him" with no evidence, let's traffic women to be on the safe side.

  37. How often do you get shit like this?

    in response to What if we had state-mandated girlfriends to assuage incels? Hear me out for a moment. It would greatly decrease mass shootings because the vast majority of violent crimes are committed by lonely men. We wouldn't even have to take away anyone's guns, so we could appease both sides of the political spectrum. Elliot Rodger & Alek Minassians' victims would still be alive if they were afforded their basic human needs.

    the "state-mandated girlfriend" guy appears about once every 3-6 months these days

  38. Why do you continue to believe China isn't capitalist?

    I don't know a lot about China's government, Maoism, or its history. the argument that China's economy is functionally capitalist at this point is compelling, and I don't discount the possibility. I assume it's more complicated than that, but, whenever I look into it, it may hold some water. who's to say?

    but I find it VERY INTERESTING how the "socialism always fails" crowd have such a nuanced understanding of China, but get really cranky if you say, by similar arguments, you don't consider the USSR to have been properly communist. like, not saying the reasoning is false, just saying it's selective and has an agenda.

  39. What if we had state-mandated girlfriends to assuage incels? Hear me out for a moment. It would greatly decrease mass shootings because the vast majority of violent crimes are committed by lonely men. We wouldn't even have to take away anyone's guns, so we could appease both sides of the political spectrum. Elliot Rodger & Alek Minassians' victims would still be alive if they were afforded their basic human needs.

    y'all incel motherfuckers keep inventing sexual slavery the way Elon keeps inventing buses

  41. Why come white people can't dance

    privilege means you can be bad at a lot of things and still be successful/happy

  42. Why is it so insulting to ask if you have a deviated septum?

    in response to Do you have a deviated septum?

    it's an indirect way of telling someone either their nose is crooked or their voice is weird to the point that it must be a defect

  43. If you could, right now, magically become proficient at any single language of your choosing, what would It be?

    ASL

  44. Comprehensive thoughts on Ronald Reagan?

    comprehensive? curious cat has a character limit.

    in short: we sometimes make people symbols of wider systems, say "fuck that guy" as though that guy were not a product of larger trends that would have probably continued had he never gotten involved, and we focus on that guy, on hating him and tearing him down and making him a symbol, and often miss the trends the produced him.

    this is less true of Reagan. fuck Ronald Reagan.

  46. How often do you think of THE GLORIOUS IMPERIUM OF MAN AND THE HOLY GOD-EMPEROR OF MANKIND, MAY HIS ARMIES EVER CRUSH THE FOUL XENOS UNDER THEIR RIGHTEOUS BOOT

    in response to How often do you think about the Roman Empire?

    THAT THRONE-DAMNED SORCERER!

  48. How often do you think about the giant pit of fire that's been burning in the desert in Turkmenistan for fifty years?

    in response to How often do you think about the Roman Empire?

    uh.

    right now is the first time!

  49. Men are weird but women are weirder

    in response to How often do you think about the Roman Empire?

    the weirdest thing about women is that most of them date men. fuckin wack.

  51. There’s been a weird amount of high profile pinocchio projects lately. We have Lies of P, the live action remake, and del Toro’s movie.

    Does this mean something? Has anyone covered this?

    lies of p is pinocchio???

  54. Are we living in a utopia then?

    in response to Are we living in a dystopia?

    we live in a topia

  55. You care enough about the subject to say where you'd say you do land on the scale, or no?

    in response to Thoughts on those who lean hard opposite extreme and say that "Human Nature" barely if at all exists and mostly just governs fight-or-flight response and *maybe* general will to live too?

    if it's like the kinsey scale where 0 is "human nature governs everything" and 6 is "human nature does not exist beyond the most basic reflexes," I'm probably a 4.5

  56. So basically you're railing against capitalism with no solid idea what you'd replace it with. No system of government or commerce is immune to exploitation by self interested parties.

    in response to I agree with most if not all of your criticisms of capitalism. But since there is little consensus on what exactly socialism would be, how can we say things like “X would be less of a problem under socialism,” or “X would be better under socialism?” I mean if someone calls themselves a socialist, I know I have to ask multiple questions before I know whether or not I will find it worth engaging with them.

    you're railing against me with no solid plan for what to replace me with, so who's the dickhead, really?

  57. How often do you think about the Roman Empire?

    almost never. I think about Ancient Greece way more than Rome, and these days I probably think about the Mongols slightly more than either. but I don't think of ANY of them that often!

    men are fucking weird.

  58. I've heard a bunch of stories of workers in hospitals and clinics acting like terrible people, doing things like lying and acting condescending and disregarding the needs of patients. I'm wondering if that kind of behavior is partly a product of the for profit healthcare system corrupting people. Or is that behavior more just a product of toxic cultural elements in the US in general?

    ¿por que no los dos?

  59. "I try to think of it like worldbuilding." Well you sure know your audience! Iegitimately cannot think of a single better thing you could have said.

    in response to I agree with most if not all of your criticisms of capitalism. But since there is little consensus on what exactly socialism would be, how can we say things like “X would be less of a problem under socialism,” or “X would be better under socialism?” I mean if someone calls themselves a socialist, I know I have to ask multiple questions before I know whether or not I will find it worth engaging with them.

    I'm good at what I do!

  60. imagine a good curious cat. search functionality is an important feature in a good curious cat, what else would be important? lately I've been thinking about an FAQ page that you could semi-automatically direct people to, and you could easily generate similar to a YouTube or Spotify playlist yourself.

    search functionality, definitely. the ability to pin favorite responses for easy reference. absolutely needs an "answer privately" option. and it is SERIOUSLY lacking in moderation tools (like why does it auto-flag messages with links assuming their spam, but there's no way to auto-flag q's with slurs in them???).

  61. I agree with most if not all of your criticisms of capitalism. But since there is little consensus on what exactly socialism would be, how can we say things like “X would be less of a problem under socialism,” or “X would be better under socialism?” I mean if someone calls themselves a socialist, I know I have to ask multiple questions before I know whether or not I will find it worth engaging with them.

    in response to Read your Twitter thread on the evils of capitalism. It was very dramatic, which I'm sure was your intention. The problem is you seem to blame capitalism for society's ills instead of human nature. The reason we need laws against murder isn't because Capitalists are uniquely evil, as you seem to think. Capitalists aren't the only people who murder for their own gain.

    if the -isms are getting in the way of conversation, set them aside a moment and get concrete. what are the problems of capitalism, and how could we address them if we were starting from scratch? the profit motive encourages - arguably depends on - exploitation; how can we set up the exchange of goods and services without profit? capitalism requires constant growth and naturally depletes resources; how might we allocate resources if the goal was to get them where they're needed rather than make money off them? the threat of poverty and starvation compels people to work and to make concessions of their health and ethics; how could we divvy up work if people knew they'd be provided for regardless?

    I try to think of it like worldbuilding. Marxism has been trying to tackle these questions for ~175 years and I find a lot of insight when I read Marxist thinkers. but Marx isn't a god! there are lots of ways to interpret him, and a lot of brilliant dissenters. I lean towards socialism because it's the lens that has best helped me understand the problems and given me the most ideas how to solve them. but maybe the answer is anarchism! or maybe the answer is something we don't have a name for yet! I don't suuuuuper care what we call it or which historical/philosophical tradition it follows, I care about whether it addresses the problems we face in a sustainable way.

  62. Thoughts on those who lean hard opposite extreme and say that "Human Nature" barely if at all exists and mostly just governs fight-or-flight response and *maybe* general will to live too?

    in response to Read your Twitter thread on the evils of capitalism. It was very dramatic, which I'm sure was your intention. The problem is you seem to blame capitalism for society's ills instead of human nature. The reason we need laws against murder isn't because Capitalists are uniquely evil, as you seem to think. Capitalists aren't the only people who murder for their own gain.

    I don't go nearly that far but it's closer to my beliefs

  63. Read your Twitter thread on the evils of capitalism. It was very dramatic, which I'm sure was your intention. The problem is you seem to blame capitalism for society's ills instead of human nature. The reason we need laws against murder isn't because Capitalists are uniquely evil, as you seem to think. Capitalists aren't the only people who murder for their own gain.

    this is the "I Hate Mondays" argument. no, capitalism did not invent cruelty, or selfishness. but we don't need to have a system where cruelty and selfishness are actively rewarded?! where people who WANT to be kind and generous have to compromise their beliefs to stay competitive?! the fact that a lot of good is done IN SPITE of capitalism - that charities and regulations and domestic aid exist EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE BAD BUSINESS - shows that kindness and cooperation are just as natural to humans as cruelty. it's WILD how people look at capitalism, which rewards selfishness and disincentivizes community, and deduce "clearly the thing people are pushed to do by the market is human nature and the thing they do despite great personal cost is the exception."

    no, socialism will not eradicate shittiness. but we don't need a system BUILT on shittiness.

    "people murder for their own reward" FFS WE CAN STOP REWARDING IT, WE INVENTED THE REWARDS

  64. Is it bad that I'm tired of cynical socialists saying that Biden's recent pro-labor actions aren't worth celebrating? Like I know they're not substantive policies but still.

    I am generally exhausted by kneejerk cynicism, and, yes, it is good to celebrate even incremental change. that said, I am personally finding it hard to celebrate even the good things Biden has done because there's always a "but" attached. like, he did a lot for the railworkers, BUT he also broke the strike and passed laws making it harder for them to strike in future, so now labor is dependent on a benevolent politician rather than being able to accomplish things for themselves... that kind of thing. less cynicism than just an overwhelming ambivalence.

  65. You said you wanted to research leftist revolutions that succeeded but haven't had the time to do the research yet. Do you have books on that subject that you already intend to read that you can share here?

    some!

    for the Soviet Union, October by China Mieville and Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti

    for the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, The Spanish Tragedy by Raymond Carr, and The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge by Paul Preston

    for The Korean People's Association in Manchuria, Anarchism in Korea by Dongyoun Hwang, and A History of the Korean Anarchist Movement by Ha Ki-Rak

    for Latin American Liberation Theology, A Theology of Liberation by Gustavo Gutiérrez, The World Come of Age by Lilian Calles Barger, and Liberation Theology: A Documentary History by Alfred T. Hennelly

    for general understanding of the US toppling socialist movements in Latin America, Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations by Vijay Prashad

    this documentary on MAREZ: https://youtu.be/NqlZOa7DMiU

    this website on the Seattle General Strike: https://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/

    and this podcast on the Paris Commune: https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/revolutions_podcast/2018/05/81-the-second-french-empire.html

    I also want to look into China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Burkina Faso, Chile after Pinochet, Radio Vinceremos, the Arab Spring, Makhnovia, Nepal, Rojava, and Northern Europe's "Grand Compromise." don't have many resources collected for those yet.

  67. Many conservative women think that they will never be victims of sexual assault and anyone who is a victim only has themself to blame.

    in response to If rank-and-file conservatives condone sexual assault, how can conservative women even *be* a voting block?

    many conservative women have been assaulted by their husbands and aren't aware of it, because they have been told that marriage means permanent consent and that anything their husband does to them cannot be rape. this was, in fact, the law in many conservative states until 1985.

    to them, if the victim isn't to blame, then it's not sexual assault.

  69. But what if we *don't* do anything different for the next twenty years, because corporations would rather let the world burn (literally!) than do anything that negatively impacts their bottom line? Are we doomed then?

    in response to Is it too late?

    I don't think corporations functioning at current levels of consumption is physically possible for that long. we have passed peak oil, we've probably passed peak energy, climate crises are starting to get VERY expensive. Sophie from Mars' recent video mentioned the estimated cost of climate change is like 2x the amount of money that currently exists? so, like... if the corporations don't stop willingly, they will stop when the resources dry up or production is halted by too many consecutive hurricanes/forest fires/120° days.

    when we say the situation is "unsustainable," we don't mean "things will get bad if we don't stop." we mean they literally *cannot sustain themselves*. if the mechanisms causing climate changed are not stopped, *they will collapse*.

    I don't think they have 20 years left in them.

  70. Is there anything it's too early for, or no?

    in response to Is it too late?

    too early for breakfast, I'd say.

  71. Have you considered the possibility that run of the mill conservatives might hold different opinions than the people they vote for and listen to on the radio and watch on TV?

    in response to You're referring, mostly, to legislative acts taken by right-wing politicians or arguments made by right-wing ideologues (think Shapiro or Crowder). I suppose I can accept that many right-wing politicians and ideologues make arguments and act in ways, for all intents and purposes, help those who sexually assault and hurt sexual assault victims, but to say that the average conservative person believes this strains belief.

    *sigh*

    it's my fault, I shouldn't have tried explaining things. this isn't embarrassing anyone but me.

  72. If rank-and-file conservatives condone sexual assault, how can conservative women even *be* a voting block?

    in response to You're referring, mostly, to legislative acts taken by right-wing politicians or arguments made by right-wing ideologues (think Shapiro or Crowder). I suppose I can accept that many right-wing politicians and ideologues make arguments and act in ways, for all intents and purposes, help those who sexually assault and hurt sexual assault victims, but to say that the average conservative person believes this strains belief.

    a nonzero number are afraid of how their husbands will react

  73. When will you give in to Brennan Lee Mulligan?

    they don't call it PATHOLOGIC demand avoidance cuz we eventually give in

  74. Isn't weird how Notch was a fan of both the channel Second Thought & your channel before both of you grew in popularity, and that he turned into such a reactionary?

    the number of turned-out-to-be-shitty white people who related to This Is Phil Fish is sobering

  75. Do you have a deviated septum?

Anon commented:
Ian replied: