Let's Jam this Bog with Roasts

[Dungeon Snake]

it reminds me of the part in Breaking Bad where jesse starts using NA meetings to sell his new meth

[Izak MD]

but the ideal of the self-sufficient, self-made man is one of bourgeois capitalism's most pernicious myths

what you claim to hate about AA, its disapproval of idealized self-sufficiency, seems completely compatible with socialism

not sure economic ideology has much of anything to do with this

[Dungeon Snake]

so it would seem, but in its disavowal of this concept, AA only further reinforces the idea that you are defective. economic realities have nothing to do with the AA program. the concept is that you- personally, and morally - are a fuck-up. but thankfully! with 12 simple steps, you can be FREE!

[Izak MD]

yeah i've never really had a problem with that aspect of it. it seems like a good way to combat narcissism. especially when so much of addiction is when people start assuming they can do just one hit of this or that and it'll all be fine. hume said it best - reason is a slave to the passions, not the other way around

[Slime]

Originally Posted by Dungeon Snake

it reminds me of the part in Breaking Bad where jesse starts using NA meetings to sell his new meth

thats what i was thinking of too!

[Dungeon Snake]

this is getting off track but also i would argue that "self-sufficient" and "self-made" are 2 different things

self-sufficient = no need for capitalism. i farm my own land. i kill my own steer. i tan my own hides.

self-made = i have conquered capitalism. i own my own businesses. i have risen to the top of the heap.

maybe that's just my own perception, idk. i do think the latter aspiration is pernicious, but not the former.

also, i'm not such a huge fan of socialism per se, i have a lot of unanswered question about it. anyway uh... i forget where i was going with this


anyway yeah addiction is bad, but people can be good. i disagree with hume insofar as, neither passion nor reason is the answer, just a sort of Patrick Swayze-esque radical tolerance of all things

[Izak MD]

one thing i'll say on behalf of the anti-AAers is that i do agree that they raise a few important questions about mental illness and ontology

like, i'm not entirely a fan of how we determine what is/isn't a "disease" in the DSM, and often what we call disease is just an annoying character trait, but it's basically fine for the person who has it (for instance, who "suffers" from narcissism disorder and sees their narcissism as a problem?). and since mental disease is associated with part of the brain, we ought to at least pinpoint the exact areas that are affected, which we've never been fully able to do. and the same kind of thing can be said for "personality disorders," and all of this other stuff. and then there's the question of why something is "disordered" and not merely some difference in orientation. and these issues involve serious questions about the self that will probably never be solved in the current epoch.

but then on the other hand, i get why the DSM and AA and all these therapeutic-style and religious organizations exist from a pragmatic stance. [ribbit]. and that whole approach more or less makes sense to me. like, when i hear these arguments against the ideology of AA, it kind of reminds me of arguments against grammar style guides. like, you can buy a style guide and become a better and clearer writer, but if you don't like some rule, you can just blatantly ignore it. and if you have to pretend to follow it, then just pretend for a while, then go back to ignoring it. that strikes me as being what AA ultimately is.

[Dungeon Snake]

ehh tbh kinda hard to talk to somebody who's only got a 2nd person perspective on this

[Dungeon Snake]

but to address your argument basically what i would say is, style guides are great & fine. but basically we shouldn't be beholden to them. for obvious reasons. because i'm sure you realize, Strunk & White actually doesn't help the majority of people. in fact, Strunk & White is often responsible for quite a lot of horrible writing, and quite a lot of great writers (rightly) ignore it, because it inhibits their inborn ability. i won't belabor the point any further but you know what i'm trying to say

[Izak MD]

yeah it sounds like we definitely agree there. like, there are different mentalities that people have, and different orientations, and some words and rituals work better for different kinds of people. ideally, the government would create some sort of big personality test to figure out which kind of recovery philosophy would work better for each addict. and i think that would be a good investment, since it's becoming a colossally huge problem in the US. i also hate big lists of advice that celebrities give to a general audience for this reason, because some advice is great for some people and toxic for others.

[Tuna Hematoma]

Don't you hate pants?

[Slime]

"did you just assume xir gender?" can still make me laugh even though ive read it so many times, as long as i say it out loud to myself. it just sounds so funny. xir.

[Dungeon Snake]

how do you pronounce that? is it like "zer"? or is it like "sher"? or is it like "sheer"? or do you enunciate the X like "Ex-er"

[Shaun]

my bad i forgot no one cares about songs

[Slime]

i say "zer"

[Izak MD]

http://hotelconcierge.tumblr.com/pos...-mental-health

this is one of my favorite essays on mental health ever. but part of what makes it great is that he starts completely attacking this non-binary person for being an attention whore with a shitty attitude, and he totally complies with zir request that people use non-binary pronouns when referring to zir. so he does, and that actually makes his criticisms look even more damning!

[Damage Jackal]

remember when this thread was for posting amusing videos and memes and not 13,000 essays about assholes punching down on the mentally ill

[Izak MD]

remember when you actually said something funny or amusing or contributed something -- anything -- of substance, in even the most minor of ways?














yeah, me neither

[French Fry]

Originally Posted by Izak MD

http://hotelconcierge.tumblr.com/pos...-mental-health

this is one of my favorite essays on mental health ever. but part of what makes it great is that he starts completely attacking this non-binary person for being an attention whore with a shitty attitude, and he totally complies with zir request that people use non-binary pronouns when referring to zir. so he does, and that actually makes his criticisms look even more damning!

god damn that's so bad

[Izak MD]

http://3dmm.com/showthread.php?t=51901


i feel like this first post in this thread sums up dennis mitchell's personality to a tee

even when he's trying to endorse something, he has to say it sucks and complain about it in some way

[Damage Jackal]

Originally Posted by Izak MD

remember when you actually said something funny or amusing or contributed something -- anything -- of substance, in even the most minor of ways?












yeah, me neither

sorry mate, let me drag out a 15,000 word essay where some pompous dickhead rips apart a tumblr brony

[Tuna Hematoma]

Originally Posted by Damage Jackal

remember when this thread was for posting amusing videos and memes and not 13,000 essays about assholes punching down on the mentally ill

Hey, I tried talking about hate for pants. Don't group me in with the MAGAs.

[Damage Jackal]

Originally Posted by Tuna Hematoma

Hey, I tried talking about hate for pants. Don't group me in with the MAGAs.

your commitment to shitposting has never been in question

[Tuna Hematoma]

*greatposting

[Damage Jackal]

make shitposting great again