Posts you had second thought about and decided not to post - put them here

The thing that keeps me from misanthropy is knowing that all the ppl I think most epitomize what's wrong with humanity would also think Agent Smith's speech is otm.

― Daniel_Rf

the thing that keeps me from misanthropy is estrogen

i, too, was heavily philosophically influenced by _the matrix_

that's not a joke btw. i mean it's a joke but i also sincerely mean it. pre-transition i was very into antinatalism, very into cioran. i still think cioran is fucking hilarious. my life has taken me in a path diametrically opposite to his, though. these books of his - "The Temptation to Exist", "The Trouble With Being Born". i gave into that temptation. if there's trouble with being born, i choose to make it.

my philosophical belief in the value of human existence was ultimately solipsistic, a stand-in for my own feelings about the value of my own existence. i understood my existence as meaningless, painful, and stupid and this life as a sort of hell.

my life was, in fact, hell, at least by the definition of andre malraux:

The attempt to force human beings to despise themselves is what I call hell.

i no longer despise myself. i love myself. i'm proud of myself. i don't think of myself as a "good person" or a "bad person" or any kind of person at all, but my existence has meaning, and if my existence has meaning, human existence cannot truly be said to be meaningless.

that meaning is, in the larger scale of things, ephemeral. i am going to die. i've had a hell of a time while i've been here, though. a hell of a time. transition hasn't "fixed" me, but i can say this: never once since i accepted myself as trans have i wished i'd never been born.

Meaninglessness by definition is value-neutral, though. A meaningless life is neither heaven nor hell; it's just life. I am alive; so is the grass. I absolutely believe in the meaninglessness of existence, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying any aspect of my life.

Isn’t enjoyment then the meaning?

In my experience, fear of death becomes more pressing the older you get, making questions of meaning more relevant and enjoyment more difficult.

I do think enjoyment is a facile meaning of life. Last year was my year of rest/relaxation/enjoyment. I worked the least, I did what I wanted the most, but it left me feeling emptier than some much more difficult years

In my experience, fear of death becomes more pressing the older you get

huh, in mine, the opposite!

xp Yeah, fulfillment and engagement tend to bring the deepest satisfaction, but those things are enjoyable, but maybe that's a shallow (or, to use your word) facile word for the feeling.

i mean it's one of those things i don't know how to describe... i went from not existing to existing. apparently this is not just a thing i can actually do but a thing everybody else does and takes for granted. i don't. i didn't get this for free. it cost me a lot, and i'm fucking lucky because some people, it costs more than they have. fear of death, enjoyment, all of this stuff, i don't know, meaning for me is to just _exist_ for its own sake. whatever else i'm doing, easy, hard, i exist. i'm human. i should be a misanthrope? i should hate humans because of the awful shit a lot of us do? no, no, seriously, this is fucking amazing and i can't imagine _ever_ taking that for granted.

Amen

Good post Kate

This man is so committed to his truth that it makes him frantic with frustration that even though he builds a yellow brick road to all-encompassing wisdom the world fails to follow it.

(nb: ^ not in reference to any posts itt)

I was at a Taco Bell today and was parked next to one of those assholes with a "Choose Life" license plate, and worse, it was a vanity tag with custom plate number "UNBRN".

thought for a moment that UNBRN was something to do with IRN-BRU and that "Choose Life" was a reference to Trainspotting before I realised

IRN-BRU smells to me like a barnyard

it's just orange sugar water ffs sito

maybe I'm sensitive to whatever the hell this is: As of 1999, it contained 0.002% of ammonium ferric citrate

everyone should have a little ammonium ferric citrate, as a treat

Now with more Retsyn

isn't retsyn just vegetable oil?

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/73/66/4e/73664e7dbc92c25454a9787aed19a340.jpg

(A) trademarked name for a mixture of copper gluconate, partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, and flavoring. It is the copper gluconate in Retsyn which gives Certs its signature green flecks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certs

You can imagine how disappointed I was the first time I bought two rolls of Certs and banged them together. No sparks.

Some pretty good kissing in this ad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gtFCfGjjms

my disappontment at the absence of girders looks like a law suit waiting to happen

made in scotlind from gurrdahs and the guy in the pic likely voted for the psycho pm who decimated the Scottish steel industry

Looks like John Oates

european black licorice smells like piss to me as well

probly the wrong thread but pastis is the only good incarnation of licorice

pastis is no good but boy do I feel cool drinking it

i will not choose a sweet that tastes that way but my god it slides down when you're drinking

pasties a) grebt and b) awful for the reasons you say drf. tastes wonderful and looks great but by gott it scrambles your kopf ja.

pastis ffs

during a recent fuckwitted adventure into miscomprehension I was recently struggling to find that "liquori pasta" from an online supermarket, but no, my eyesight is so bad it was actually an Italian brand of pasta called Ligouri. But I was convinced there was a hint of liquorish in there.

i've been thru a "Jaeger kills my heartburn" phase so gotta question my reliability as a witness"

god a pastis and water is the shit tho

I used to like Good & Plentys.

recent liquorice findings:

Walker's Nonsuch Liquorice Toffee - amazing
Panda liquorice comfits - perfectly fine, a bit drab
anything from the great nation of Finland - utter hell

i've done a little trip into the mythology and tastiness of absinthe too tho and i'll comfortably confirm it's just strong Pernod that people do silly things to when we're kids

come on lads, it's friday night, I don't want to get a side-eye from souness before bedtime

mate don't start nothin

I get an allergic reaction, a rosy red flushing of the cheeks when I drink liqueurs or port. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise!

pastis ffs

pasties is grebt too

Pasties and a G-String

...I know, I know, it's serious

If I could live on Salmiak and beer, I would

You can imagine how disappointed I was the first time I bought two rolls of Certs and banged them together. No sparks.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux)

wait I'm pretty sure this is a thing you are supposed to do with mint Lifesavers in the dark?

wintergreen! https://www.thoughtco.com/why-wintergreen-lifesavers-spark-in-the-dark-602179

xp Yes, I remember that, but if you watch that old (1970) commercial I posted, the Certs rolls made a clacking or sparking sound when hit together. This was almost as big a letdown as Sea Monkeys.

or the glasses to see through girls' dresses

obviously you’re not a sublime fan

Why did I say pace there, it's clearly not what I meant. Stupid brain