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

i'd like to tell you but this isn't a safe place. this isn't a safe place for me to talk about it.

you say "changed everything" but what if no matter who left or who arrived this particular band always just sucked beyond redemption

I like the idea of this, a band where the entire group could be replaced by unrelated musicians playing a totally different style of music and yet the curse attached to it is so strong that they will never not suck

I could probably make a good-sized list

Mostly every successful metal band that's lasted twenty or more years

i don't want to read the whole thread but i would like to know (hope to know) that no one is actually angry with anyone about music

Otm

Who let the dohgz out

molly hatchet just played here and someone informed me that there is no original member of that band left and it made me think about all the decades of steps that it took to get to the point where people who were never originally involved with that band ended up becoming the band. the three-molly problem. my new series coming to Tubi.

They've also become an avant-garde string quartet

My series starts in Mainland China...

don't wanna hijack ivy's "writers you think are bad" thread, however, i do think it's interesting and i do have Thoughts about it

yes why bother writing a good essay when you can write a bad one

― ivy.

this is genuinely interesting to me, because i've been writing bad essays for most of my life

for most of my life i've had this compulsion to write. and while other people can get by by writing my little pony fanfiction - which is, i think, an _excellent_ use of a person's creative talents - for whatever reason i keep writing _critical essays_.

a lot of them are bad

i didn't write them _for_ anyone in particular - just wrote them because i felt like i had to. why both writing a bad essay when i could write a good one?

sometimes i work really hard at writing, work really hard at it and write something that is probably good. i don't feel a sense of _satisfaction_ about having done it. mostly i'm glad to be done with it.

what i can never figure out is what the fuck to _do_ with my writing

the thing that amazes me about oyler is that she actually went to all the work to get her work _published_

lots of different people can write, but like. even getting to the _point_ where one can be reviewed is...

i kind of agree with the idea that "no one should be popular"! i'm not a big fan of the concept of "popularity". particularly writing something where...

the idea of being a "bad thinker" particularly connects with me. the parallel to being a "bad writer", which to me suggests writing as a _craft_

i think i kind of understand what's meant by someone being a "bad thinker" - someone who starts with a premise and reaches a conclusion that's either irrelevant or just plain wrong. it might be that "thinking" in that way is a craft the way writing is a craft.

i guess that's where my attempts at critical essays come from... the way i write is a sort of aid to structuring my thinking. when i try to figure things out in my head it doesn't always go so good. when i write things out on paper it's easier to come up with meaningful conclusions. meaningful to me, at least.

-

it's the idea of criticism _itself_ that gets me. so i'm writing for myself, but who else? as a critical writer, i'm highly sensitive to the power of criticism. i even surprise myself sometimes with my lack of resilience. i haven't read this oyler person's work. it reminds me of a video essay i watched about... i think it was about the Hobbit video game. i transcribed the part of it that resonates me, that helps me remind myself that writing isn't a bad thing, even if i'm a bad writer, even if i'm a bad thinker. i'm just gonna paste it here... i think it says things better than i could.

I'm not sure a culture where we respond to failure with anger and hatred is such a good thing.

Creating things is hard. Do you know what happens to most things people create? Nothing. Nothing happens, because most people never share their creations with the world.

Creating things is hard, and it can be particularly hard to keep going in spite of that. It can be hard to deal with the constant fear of failure, the prospect of disappointing yourself or other people, and the pain of not making something as good as you want it to be and believe yourself capable of.

I think this kind of fear of failure and self-doubt probably holds many people back in life. I think that's a great shame, because the number one way to make something good is usually to fail a bunch of times. Unless you're very lucky, failure is the best teacher you will ever have. Failure is useful. Failure is necessary. Failure is normal. It is a part of creation, and if we want people to create good things - games or otherwise - failure should probably be allowed.

So maybe we should avoid vilifying it.

-

ok, and i'm still a _critical writer_. that's what i do. it is so _easy_ to vilify. i've seen so much writing that's truly bad. that's without even bringing bad thinking into it. i don't think people do bad things _because_ of bad thinking. i think bad thinking is a manifestation of something else, something that's not fundamentally intellectual in nature. i'm not sure how relevant that is, though? one's _motive_ for bad thoughts, bad actions, doesn't necessarily matter... what matters is the results.

critics, i guess... i feel like part of what i do is make arguments for what those results... _ought_ to be. like, there is a _should_ implicit in all criticism. it promotes the critic's particular set of values. all of this talk... vulnerability, radical acceptance... and yet my work is fundamentally driven by my values. criticism is rooted in a lack of acceptance. while i can appreciate the vulnerability someone displays by saying something wrong... it doesn't alter that wrongness. sometimes it doesn't matter that a person is wrong.

to me a lot of the time it doesn't matter to me that someone is wrong, that someone is a bad thinker. there was that thread on cerebus... dave sim is someone who i would classify without hesitation as a "bad thinker". he reaches conclusions of staggering wrongness. certain sorts of wrongness - either qualitatively or quantitatively - are effectively immune to criticism due to their distance from the would-be critic's worldview.

if i'm gonna criticize, i'd prefer it to be criticism of work like sim's. a sort of inquiry into _otherness_. i'm inclined to think that it's bad criticism to write about something one doesn't understand, but there's _so much_ about this fucking world i don't understand. criticism for me isn't a debate on the merits of a work or lack thereof. it's making sense of the insensible. it's, often, me shaking my head and saying "Why was this published? Who's the audience for this shit?"

"nobody should be popular"... i think what i agree with most about that is that i have this very radical sense of egalitarianism about me. it's not entirely healthy - the fundamental motivation is my belief that nobody should be having a worse time than me. i don't think the belief itself is _wrong_, though. it is, in some sense, unjust when bad writing is exalted. the injustice is, well. the existence of _critics_. people who say "this is good", "this is bad". the problem is that, well... everyone's a critic. in the early days of the internet, these libertarians would say "the answer to bad speech is more speech". patent nonsense. just as nonsensical, i think, is any idea that the answer to criticism is more criticism.

-

i guess i write criticism because i need to, because it's one of the best ways i can think of to express my values. the thing about criticism is that no matter one's intent, it does, i think, bend towards personal conflict. i'm in favor of conflict, honestly. it's difficult for me to do conflict well. i got a tendency towards the performative. that kind of thing cheapens criticism, in my book. well, at least... it goes against my current values.

i think it's important for bad writers to have the opportunity to become better writers, and bad thinkers to have the opportunity to become better thinkers. that mindset is... difficult for me to cultivate.

I try not to write negative reviews anymore, not because I don't hate things — I hate so many things — but because life is short and I'd rather say "Hey, listen to this."

whereas to me criticism is about saying "let me tell you why i find this interesting"

my buddy John Ch3ds3y once wrote a review of this Christian metal band Ultimatum's album and said the vocalist sounded like a duck and the dude wrote him back and called him an asshole and a whole bunch of other uncouth things he didn't expect to be posted publicly, which my buddy nonetheless did the next day

why a duck

i kinda hear it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLzr0eeTRoA

like he's trying to be Zetro but can't enunciate

Honestly, a metal vocalist who went full spluttering Donald Duck would be pretty amazing. I remember hearing one Immortal song where Abbath sounded exactly like Popeye, right down to the "huck-uck-uck-uck-uck" chuckling sound, and just laughing my ass off. But it was still awesome.

'popeye' was definitely my pejorative statement for a lot of BM vocalists back in the 90s, until I realized most of my favs also sounded like him

why a duck

Because they're Christian metal, and Lord love a duck

Honestly, a metal vocalist who went full spluttering Donald Duck would be pretty amazing.

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson)

not a metal vocalist, but scott walker on "the escape" does the most terrifying donald duck impression i have ever heard

admittedly i haven't heard any other donald duck impressions i could describe as "terrifying"

as far as ultimatum goes, i do genuinely feel bad for the vocalist - i mean, i got a speech impediment myself.

having said that, first, if someone wrote a review of my christian metal band's album and made fun of me for talking like donald duck, i wouldn't go after the person who said it. i mean if you're reviewing the record and the singer has a speech impediment it seems reasonably fair to point it out. my speech impediment is a large part of the reason i'm not a christian metal band singer. i mean, it's more important to me that i'm not a christian and i'm a pretty bad singer, but the speech impediment is definitely in there.

the best metal version of the popeye theme i've heard is on chunktrade's 2003 demo.

i am a fan of the early 1970s australian band "duck"

just... a weird lineup or contemporary rock covers. "maybe i'm amazed"... sure... "southern man"... ok... "dog breath"?!? "memo from turner"? "the man in me"? shit gets weird.

hitting the ball at an outfielders head so it bounces out for a home run

Usually requires at least one (1) Canseco ranging the outfield, but a good strategy if available.

I don't know about happiness. Most of the assholes I know are mostly "smugly complacent" or "blissfully ignorant". Maybe that's happiness, I don't know. I'm pretty happy and I'm not a duck.
-- Gear! (drink_to_remembe...), May 19th, 2004 12:17 PM. (Gear!) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

not a dick. DICK
-- Gear! (drink_to_remembe...), May 19th, 2004 12:18 PM. (Gear!) (later)

― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 16:19 (nineteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

From a v.old Excelsior post...

the worlds mildest edgelord

i don't think an apology is necessary but i do think our society might be a little nicer if people were willing to acknowledge when they were wrong about something

I KNOW WHY HE DID IT!!! NUH UH, I DO!!!

i don't think an apology is necessary but i do think our society might be a little nicer if people were willing to acknowledge when they were wrong about something

― na (NA), Thursday, April 11, 2024 3:40 PM bookmarkflaglink

look I'm sorry I said what I said about the Cubs

https://i.postimg.cc/RZ04LcTR/IMG-7468.jpg

How do you all find the time to figure out who these weirdos are? Seems exhausting.

throw that hot dog down the hallway of justice

somehow knew DJP was gonna score that obvious goal, lol...i thought about it

the writers that are good thread reminded me that a writer has to at least be a little gay to be good. not that the gays aren't incapable of producing ridiculous garbage but there's just a natural advantage in knowing that the world as it's presented to you isn't necessarily the truth

I put 'mad psychedelic party in 2006' into one of those ai picture generators and it gave me this, which doesn't look very 2006, more like a bad 90s alt-something album cover

https://api.deepai.org/job-view-file/4dd221cb-5095-4e99-9fa6-eae256d4d512/outputs/output.jpg

https://api.deepai.org/job-view-file/4dd221cb-5095-4e99-9fa6-eae256d4d512/outputs/output.jpg

The thing is, I'm never sure how to receive your political opinions/judgments, because they omit so much context (taken here to mean "the reality of life on Earth") that they're really nothing but "assume a can opener" rhetorical jacking-off. The position you stake out in virtually every political discussion here, no matter the specific circumstance you're commenting on, is never, ever going to happen, and I'm sure you know that. Which makes me wonder how you can get so frothy-mouthed about condemning anyone attempting to propose strategies that lie within the boundaries of "things that might actually happen in the society we currently inhabit." Like, where do you think the whole "join me in my dream world or you're a fascist!" thing gets anyone, you included?

sorry bro

love how self-congratulatory cynicism and insulting people who believe in change can so easily stand in for a political position for some on this board

unperson is like an exasperated parent, telling the kid to turn that loud noise off lol

Tbf, the noise can get pretty loud

But also table otm, and the cynicical view that "change ain't gonna happen so it's no use fighting for it" is exactly the view that enables the, often terrible, status quo. And it should be challenged

the cynical view that "change ain't gonna happen so it's no use fighting for it"

Change — positive change, even — happens all the time. Just today, the Biden administration announced a new rule which states that doctors cannot give patients' medical records to law enforcement in other states. So if someone from Texas travels to Colorado for an abortion, doctors in Colorado will not be permitted to give Texas law enforcement that patient's medical records.

But the kind of "change" advocated around here is too often along the lines of "if we can get everyone to give up capitalism, heteronormativity, and monotheistic religion, everything will be great! and anything short of that is a worthless capitulation to the forces of evil!" Which serves nothing and no one.

OTM

xp well, your example of positive change exists in the context of a massive rollback of rights occurring under a Democratic administration, sure, it's something, but I don't blame people for wanting more.

I dunno unperson, that sounds like some broad brushwork that doesn’t take into consideration and sincerity and specificity of said posters. If you want to reduce it all down to “kill capitalism, heteronormativity, monotheism”, that’s your choice. But I more often see actual helpful critique and analysis of specific events. YMMV

i don't know where this thread comes from... i don't usually do the politics threads... but since it's here, and because i'm feeling particularly helpless and hopeless this week, i'll go ahead and engage

xp well, your example of positive change exists in the context of a massive rollback of rights occurring under a Democratic administration, sure, it's something, but I don't blame people for wanting more.

― JoeStork

for me it's first and foremost a question of _trust_ - "do i trust these people to speak for me, to act on my behalf?" for me, since 2016, that answer has been fundamentally "no". there are a couple of reasons here:

1. perceived/demonstrated lack of efficacy. the one thing which broke my faith in democracy, in the democratic party, more than anything else was clinton's failure to _beat trump_. i think your point also goes to this, joe - for decades one of the democrats' key priorities has been to protect roe v. wade, and they failed to do that. democrats i suppose will argue that they did everything they reasonably could. i disagree. in light of that, making a temporary administrative change which can and will be rolled back immediately the second any republican gets into office... i won't say it's _worthless_, but of significantly lesser value to me than, say, roe v. wade being the law of the united states was.

one of my big beefs with the democrats is that they continually let their adversaries shift the goalposts. republicans break _the rules_, get away with it, and then those are the "rules" which the democrats then try to play by. i had in me a very strong streak of realpolitik - i was willing to excuse a great deal in the name of _winning_. democrats' chief priority to me seems to be to minimize threats to their internal institutional power structure. anybody can be a democrat - as long as they're ok with doing things the DNC's way.

in other words, my subjective perception is that the DNC is able to enforce power and control within the confines of the democratic party, but not outside of those confines. this is not a recipe for a strategically robust organization, imo.

-

But the kind of "change" advocated around here is too often along the lines of "if we can get everyone to give up capitalism, heteronormativity, and monotheistic religion, everything will be great! and anything short of that is a worthless capitulation to the forces of evil!" Which serves nothing and no one.

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson)

i mean i'm gonna be honest my denunciation of capitalism, cisheteronormativity, and repressive patriarchal religion is to a large part born out of frustration. i can't say that the biden administration _hasn't_ done anything for me. i have had for years had the chance to fill out paperwork to update the gender on my social security card. i mean it's nice but the idea of bureaucratic paperwork fills me with dread. i haven't done it. there's this huge rush among people i know - if you need to do something, get it done before november. get your surgeries done, your paperwork updated, your passports in order, because after november, you might not have the chance. i just don't have my shit together enough. i don't know where my passport is. one more of a million things on my backlog. and i guess if i don't do it, i might wind up dying because of that. that should motivate me. it doesn't.

ideas, words... they're easy when one has no real power, no real choice in one's own life. yelling about capitalism is, well. i don't know how else to describe it. people around me are suffering and hurt, and none of us have enough, and none of us are truly able to help each other effectively. we need more. more money, more of a social safety net, more opportunities, more access to disability, more _respect_. and, simultaneously, we need less. fewer people calling us "faggots" on the streets. fewer people misgendering us. we need people to have less _access_ to hateful, bigoted lies about us, we need there to be less _acceptance_ of these things.

well, that all sounds very selfish and entitled, and it is, because, i mean, we're not the only ones suffering. i talk about what trans people need and of course we're not the only marginalized group, probably not even the _most_ marginalized group. so many people are suffering in the same way and the only way i can think to talk about it is by abstraction, is by looking at the common forces of oppression. capitalism. cisheteronormativity. patriarchy. i'm not saying these things as _immediate calls to action_. i'm not saying these things to negate or disregard the very real personal, daily conflicts that affect even people who are strongly politically aligned.

if we can't agree on everything, if we can't always work together, i just... i'd like to believe that we can agree on _something_, something _meaningful_. that we can have a common cause. a better common cause than whatever watered-down intellectually and emotionally bankrupt mishmash the DNC leadership is offering.

if we can't agree on everything, if we can't always work together, i just... i'd like to believe that we can agree on _something_, something _meaningful_. that we can have a common cause.

There are always meaningful points of agreement. They can be as small as, "So-and-so needs help paying the rent. Can you kick in?" or "We need a better library. Vote Yes on the ballot initiative, please." This is why I wish the empty-headed fucks who launch ego-driven "presidential campaigns" would run for city council instead. Do some actual goddamn work to make people's lives materially better, instead of preening on Twitter and/or cable news. And this is why I have no time for talk of sweeping change. It's not coming. But small change absolutely is. There's work to be done every day. If you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean. Hell, I (in my guise as Burning Ambulance) am a member of the Chamber of Commerce! And a member of my local electrical co-op. I have a voice in local issues! I get emails about public hearings about stuff like replacing the bridge that the Montana DOT decided is no longer safe for pedestrian or vehicle traffic. Now we gotta figure out what we're gonna do about that, and where the money's gonna come from. That shit is important — way more important than railing against capitalism on the internet.

Lots of ppl preening on twitter are actually doing the work, they just have a longer term view of what it's for.

And bigger change is absolutely coming via climate change, and in many of our lifetimes. Lol @ "voting for a library". You are praying that's all you'll have to do.

I don't think we should tell anyone what to believe or how to approach the world, on the other hand people should know better than to weaponize their positions as if they were final and fit for all purposes. Unperson is right that long-term is meaningless if there is no short-term path to it, and that you have to work with what you have, no matter how sad/frustrating/humbling that is - more than grand declarations or ideology, that's the essence of politics.

Also we're all commenters here, if there's a politician here I haven't heard. We don't even live in the same countries. So we don't have to defend our little persona / "line" and we can be a little more chill.