The Reasons for Optimism Thread

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BostonBeaneater
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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by BostonBeaneater »

I live in a shanty in the shantytown.
We have no money so we had to sleep on the ground.
I played the music. My father he dig a ditch.
My mother she do laundry life sure was a bitch.

But 'till we killed the white people. Ooh we gun make them hurt.
Kill the white people yea. But buy my record first.
Ooh yea. Why don't you buy my record?

We sing of freedom and ooh equality.
But we really don't care we just want money money money.
We want to drive in a big black limosine.
Get so high off ganja we cant even see.
and then we kill the white people. Ooh we gunna make them hurt.
Kill the white people. Yea. Ooh but buy my record first ooh.

When u go in the record store. We gunna wait outside.
We gunna hit them in the head with a bat and make them cry.
but 'till we kill the white people.
Yea but buy my record first.

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Rat Patrol
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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by Rat Patrol »

Optimism:

If I can hold it in till exactly 1 year from today, I will have bested my longest lifetime no-puke streak: 15 years, 13 days.

This is big, people.

BostonBeaneater
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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by BostonBeaneater »

Rat Patrol wrote:
25 Jan 2017, 10:46pm
Optimism:

If I can hold it in till exactly 1 year from today, I will have bested my longest lifetime no-puke streak: 15 years, 13 days.

This is big, people.
Heavy drinking between Epiphany and MLK Day is discouraged.
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Kory
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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by Kory »

tepista wrote:
25 Jan 2017, 7:13pm
Because those in charge heart's can't beat forever?
Tell that to Cheney.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

Kory
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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by Kory »

I think I'm with Wolt on this one. I had very little faith in humanity to begin with, but it's totally bottomed out now.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by Silent Majority »

Kory wrote:
26 Jan 2017, 1:53am
I think I'm with Wolt on this one. I had very little faith in humanity to begin with, but it's totally bottomed out now.
I think people are basically alright the majority of the time, if not angels. It's the system that's designed to make resources scarce and a media that's only after profits that's fucked the planet.
a lifetime serving one machine
Is ten times worse than prison


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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Silent Majority wrote:
26 Jan 2017, 2:25am
Kory wrote:
26 Jan 2017, 1:53am
I think I'm with Wolt on this one. I had very little faith in humanity to begin with, but it's totally bottomed out now.
I think people are basically alright the majority of the time, if not angels. It's the system that's designed to make resources scarce and a media that's only after profits that's fucked the planet.
Agreed. I'm not sure how someone could be on the left and not think human beings are fundamentally good (or at least not shitheads) and deserving of a dignity and comfort simply based on their existence. We are taught to be anti-social as a means to secure those resources, both when necessary and when more than necessary.

edit: There should have been a "not" in front of "shitheads." Proofreading, kids, it's not just for breakfast anymore.
Last edited by Dr. Medulla on 26 Jan 2017, 11:48am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by Wolter »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
26 Jan 2017, 7:34am
Silent Majority wrote:
26 Jan 2017, 2:25am
Kory wrote:
26 Jan 2017, 1:53am
I think I'm with Wolt on this one. I had very little faith in humanity to begin with, but it's totally bottomed out now.
I think people are basically alright the majority of the time, if not angels. It's the system that's designed to make resources scarce and a media that's only after profits that's fucked the planet.
Agreed. I'm not sure how someone could be on the left and not think human beings are fundamentally good (or at least shitheads) and deserving of a dignity and comfort simply based on their existence. We are taught to be anti-social as a means to secure those resources, both when necessary and when more than necessary.
I should point out I am in the midst of the catastrophic thinking that a severe bout of depression can bring on. Also, I'm just so tired. So very tired.
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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by Rat Patrol »

BostonBeaneater wrote:
25 Jan 2017, 11:04pm
Rat Patrol wrote:
25 Jan 2017, 10:46pm
Optimism:

If I can hold it in till exactly 1 year from today, I will have bested my longest lifetime no-puke streak: 15 years, 13 days.

This is big, people.
Heavy drinking between Epiphany and MLK Day is discouraged.
Should've told me that the night of 1/9/2003 when I was downing sambucca shots on my boss's company card at Maggiano's Little Italy. I was a Saturn V-tipped-sideways of black licorice and marinara sauce exhaust that whole night. And SUPREMELY mad at myself for breaking the streak I'd held ever since Christmas Day '87 when Baby Jesus stopped my vomiting after 3 days of food poisoning from some kid's mom's undercooked cookies at 4th grade class Xmas Party.


Re-climbing Olympus will be ever more impressive, because I spent most of the first decade of the streak a functional alcoholic instead of underage child.

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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by JennyB »

A reason for optimism: Donald Trump is a morbidly obese 70-year-old who doesn't exercise, eats fast food, and has a nasty temper.
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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by Rat Patrol »

JennyB wrote:
26 Jan 2017, 3:28pm
A reason for optimism: Donald Trump is a morbidly obese 70-year-old who doesn't exercise, eats fast food, and has a nasty temper.
And he'll be forced to side with the intelligence agencies he hates so much when this smell encamps on his front lawn later this year: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jug ... cf898d003d.

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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
26 Jan 2017, 7:34am
Silent Majority wrote:
26 Jan 2017, 2:25am
Kory wrote:
26 Jan 2017, 1:53am
I think I'm with Wolt on this one. I had very little faith in humanity to begin with, but it's totally bottomed out now.
I think people are basically alright the majority of the time, if not angels. It's the system that's designed to make resources scarce and a media that's only after profits that's fucked the planet.
Agreed. I'm not sure how someone could be on the left and not think human beings are fundamentally good (or at least not shitheads) and deserving of a dignity and comfort simply based on their existence. We are taught to be anti-social as a means to secure those resources, both when necessary and when more than necessary.

edit: There should have been a "not" in front of "shitheads." Proofreading, kids, it's not just for breakfast anymore.
I'm fine with everybody living with dignity and comfort. I don't have any objection to that. But after talking to people online, reading thousands of comments, and talking to people in real life including my entire family, I just don't have any faith that people care about anything other than paranoid self-preservation paired with their need to control things that don't affect them. I see it a lot more than the opposite.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Kory wrote:
30 Jan 2017, 3:56pm
I'm fine with everybody living with dignity and comfort. I don't have any objection to that. But after talking to people online, reading thousands of comments, and talking to people in real life including my entire family, I just don't have any faith that people care about anything other than paranoid self-preservation paired with their need to control things that don't affect them. I see it a lot more than the opposite.
The key here is whether that shittiness is something inherent in human beings—something natural—or is it learned behaviour, the result of absorbing too uncritically ideologies that encourage that kind of nastiness. Leftists don't deny that ugliness in people; we just recognize it as something not intrinsic to human nature. It's about separating the sinner from the sin, to borrow inelegantly from religion. Which isn't to say that you can persuade all these people to let go of their bigotries, but to not inadvertently embrace the same kind of harsh, abstracting ideologies that denies a shared humanity.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Kory
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Re: The Reasons for Optimism Thread

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
30 Jan 2017, 4:12pm
Kory wrote:
30 Jan 2017, 3:56pm
I'm fine with everybody living with dignity and comfort. I don't have any objection to that. But after talking to people online, reading thousands of comments, and talking to people in real life including my entire family, I just don't have any faith that people care about anything other than paranoid self-preservation paired with their need to control things that don't affect them. I see it a lot more than the opposite.
The key here is whether that shittiness is something inherent in human beings—something natural—or is it learned behaviour, the result of absorbing too uncritically ideologies that encourage that kind of nastiness. Leftists don't deny that ugliness in people; we just recognize it as something not intrinsic to human nature. It's about separating the sinner from the sin, to borrow inelegantly from religion. Which isn't to say that you can persuade all these people to let go of their bigotries, but to not inadvertently embrace the same kind of harsh, abstracting ideologies that denies a shared humanity.
Yeah I'll concede that I'm probably just getting discouraged.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

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