5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Our thoughts about the famous Cracked.com.

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby Anglerphobe » Sun Nov 15, 2015 7:41 pm

reallifegirl wrote: ...decided to propose the idea of "the Iron Box" because of their baby-pushing power. Because it's wrong to imply vaginas are only for pleasure, but fine to imply they're only for baby-shoving, I guess.

None of the women in the comment section (that I saw, anyway) were thrilled by this.


The comment section on that article is wonderful.
  • 9

"Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive,
Thou, teaching thrift, thyselfe couldst never thrive.
So, like the whetstone, many men are wont
To sharpen others, when themselves are blunt."

Anyone who has any kind of opinion fucking disgusts me.
User avatar
Anglerphobe
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 2160
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2015 6:03 pm
Show rep
Title: round Earth shill

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby NathanLoiselle » Sun Nov 15, 2015 7:47 pm

I'm not happy that all I have to do to invalidate Rowntree's opinion is say to myself half way through his article. "What a dope." and then just not read page two.
  • 2

User avatar
NathanLoiselle
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 4484
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:49 am
Location: You'll Never Know!
Show rep

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby Crimson847 » Sun Nov 15, 2015 10:27 pm

reallifegirl wrote:I admit, I am curious if I or any other female commenters ever cross a line and get banned or smack-talked by a male writer for not agreeing with a male Cracked writer's opinions on women and feminism. As far as I know it hasn't happened yet (and I would prefer they have enough self-awareness not to) but I wonder.


I dunno about commenters, but it's happened on the forums. Some double-X type folks went in there about two years ago to protest a dumb, potentially offensive joke (something about whores or sluts I think) that ATB made. It went about as well as criticism of articles ever does over there--the peanut gallery made fun of them, they got downvoted to hell, and Wong basically told them to fuck off.
  • 10

"If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them; but the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
User avatar
Crimson847
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3195
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2015 5:18 am
Show rep

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby iMURDAu » Sun Nov 15, 2015 10:42 pm

NathanLoiselle wrote:I'm not happy that all I have to do to invalidate Rowntree's opinion is say to myself half way through his article. "What a dope." and then just not read page two.


I've found myself quite happy with my success in not reading cracked in like 8.5 months.
  • 14

“This is going to become a bad meme,” Todd observed.
User avatar
iMURDAu
TCS Chomper
TCS Chomper
 
Posts: 6752
Joined: Fri Apr 19, 2013 10:08 am
Location: twitch.tv/beakstore
Show rep
Title: King of Fuh

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby williamthallis » Sun Nov 15, 2015 10:44 pm

Crimson847 wrote:
reallifegirl wrote:I admit, I am curious if I or any other female commenters ever cross a line and get banned or smack-talked by a male writer for not agreeing with a male Cracked writer's opinions on women and feminism. As far as I know it hasn't happened yet (and I would prefer they have enough self-awareness not to) but I wonder.


I dunno about commenters, but it's happened on the forums. Some double-X type folks went in there about two years ago to protest a dumb, potentially offensive joke (something about whores or sluts I think) that ATB made. It went about as well as criticism of articles ever does over there--the peanut gallery made fun of them, they got downvoted to hell, and Wong basically told them to fuck off.


And then this http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-sex-scene-thats-so-hot-no-one-else-would-publish-it/

But that's different because it's comedy by the writers of the site, so it's not sexist and no female gets to be offended because it's done by the people who write the articles about how women are subject to sexism, sort of how like since I lectured my friend who had a DUI, it's different when I've been drinking because I am the one who lectured him in the first place.

Being told by Wong to fuck off is a rite of passage these days it seems. I have encountered more people who have been told that by him than haven't.
  • 9

“Ever since you’ve joined this PC thing, you just bully people, and wait for people to say anything improper so you can just jump down their throats for whatever words he or she used.”
“‘He or she’ is an agender phobic microagression, Sharon. You are a bigot.”
User avatar
williamthallis
Commenter
Commenter
 
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:54 pm
Location: The Desert
Show rep
Title: Divinitatis Doctor

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby reallifegirl » Mon Nov 16, 2015 1:40 am

All of these examples are disappointing. (And of course one of them was because of an ATB article. Of course.)

I hate that certain strains of thought tend to attract those who 1) really only follow them in order to feed a sense of superiority, and 2) don't actually care about it the second it's them or someone in their circle who crosses a line. Which sounds like it's the case going with Wong.
  • 11

"I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not."

Encyclopedia Dramatica wrote:Reallifegirl: Is supposedly a girl in real life, but we all know that's false. Gets highest comment roughly 75% of the time, and has never had a single red-thumbed comment. Ever.
User avatar
reallifegirl
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1609
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:21 pm
Show rep
Title: Officially allegedly female

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby williamthallis » Mon Nov 16, 2015 2:06 am

reallifegirl wrote:I hate that certain strains of thought tend to attract those who 1) really only follow them in order to feed a sense of superiority, and 2) don't actually care about it the second it's them or someone in their circle who crosses a line. Which sounds like it's the case going with Wong.


I don't want this to turn into a Wong bashing thing, so I don't know who isn't guilty of either one of those - but the awareness that you are is what some people just refuse to see, as well as the circumspection to look at what you're currently doing and asking yourself if it's possible you're falling into either trap.

There are times when it's benign - I am not a Bowie fan, so when I hear Life on Mars and his use of a direct quote from Mahler's 9th, I roll my eyes. Then I listen to Gainsbourg's Jane B., which takes the melody of Chopin's prelude in E minor as the melody of the entire song, and I think it's great. I like Gainsbourg, not Bowie, and it's hypocrisy on my part since they both crossed the line (Gainsbourg even moreso), but I know it's there when it comes to my attitude toward people stealing from classical music over 30 years ago, rather than something that affects someone else.

It's the inability to say 'I am capable of being a hypocrite' that some people possess, so they can self justify it away. It stings the ego when you catch yourself being one, so people avoid it altogether. I don't have a problem with people who are hypocrites, just the ones that won't acknowledge they're capable of it and get self-righteous. The latter case is when it becomes something different. Everyone sticks their foot in their mouth and acts like a hypocrite - I did recently, and I had about 5 minutes of 'no I'm not wrong because...' in my head before I realized, yes, I am, and apologized. Cuz I was a douche... but it affected someone else so, it's different than being a hypocrite about musical opinions. I just wish I could see Wong once say 'we are all hypocrites' instead of 'you are all hypocrites'. I don't think he sees it that way.
  • 8

“Ever since you’ve joined this PC thing, you just bully people, and wait for people to say anything improper so you can just jump down their throats for whatever words he or she used.”
“‘He or she’ is an agender phobic microagression, Sharon. You are a bigot.”
User avatar
williamthallis
Commenter
Commenter
 
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:54 pm
Location: The Desert
Show rep
Title: Divinitatis Doctor

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby reallifegirl » Mon Nov 16, 2015 4:40 pm

williamthallis wrote:
reallifegirl wrote:I hate that certain strains of thought tend to attract those who 1) really only follow them in order to feed a sense of superiority, and 2) don't actually care about it the second it's them or someone in their circle who crosses a line. Which sounds like it's the case going with Wong.


I don't want this to turn into a Wong bashing thing, so I don't know who isn't guilty of either one of those - but the awareness that you are is what some people just refuse to see, as well as the circumspection to look at what you're currently doing and asking yourself if it's possible you're falling into either trap.

There are times when it's benign - I am not a Bowie fan, so when I hear Life on Mars and his use of a direct quote from Mahler's 9th, I roll my eyes. Then I listen to Gainsbourg's Jane B., which takes the melody of Chopin's prelude in E minor as the melody of the entire song, and I think it's great. I like Gainsbourg, not Bowie, and it's hypocrisy on my part since they both crossed the line (Gainsbourg even moreso), but I know it's there when it comes to my attitude toward people stealing from classical music over 30 years ago, rather than something that affects someone else.

It's the inability to say 'I am capable of being a hypocrite' that some people possess, so they can self justify it away. It stings the ego when you catch yourself being one, so people avoid it altogether. I don't have a problem with people who are hypocrites, just the ones that won't acknowledge they're capable of it and get self-righteous. The latter case is when it becomes something different. Everyone sticks their foot in their mouth and acts like a hypocrite - I did recently, and I had about 5 minutes of 'no I'm not wrong because...' in my head before I realized, yes, I am, and apologized. Cuz I was a douche... but it affected someone else so, it's different than being a hypocrite about musical opinions. I just wish I could see Wong once say 'we are all hypocrites' instead of 'you are all hypocrites'. I don't think he sees it that way.


I guess I should be clearer -- it's not so much that I think most people aren't hypocrites, or that I myself am not one. Everyone messes up, and we're all imperfect and, to some extent, defensive of those imperfections.

I suppose what actually really bothers me is when a group I belong to (in this particular case, women) is being 'defended' by hypocritical actions. Partly because Wong (and some of the other writers) is trying to talk over a group that already can speak for itself, and partly because he can then turn around and silence the same group he's supposedly attempting to defend. It's a double-whammy: 'shut up, ladies, but also be grateful for well I'm representing you'.

It also sucks because I do have feminist leanings, but these type of actions reflect badly on people who do. So not only are we being spoken over by someone who isn't even a woman, he's also making the rest of the group look bad. To be fair, he's not the only person who does this, so part of my ire is that Wong is just one of many who pull this type of stunt, and I guess it's just one of those things that particularly sets me off.
  • 7

"I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not."

Encyclopedia Dramatica wrote:Reallifegirl: Is supposedly a girl in real life, but we all know that's false. Gets highest comment roughly 75% of the time, and has never had a single red-thumbed comment. Ever.
User avatar
reallifegirl
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1609
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:21 pm
Show rep
Title: Officially allegedly female

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby blehblah » Mon Nov 16, 2015 5:53 pm

Everyone leaves a few Internet comments here and there, but if you're doing it INSTEAD OF writing articles or books or screenplays or crazy manifestos, then I know you're not happy, because there are only so many hours in the day (more on that later) and so many ideas in your head. If a comment tree gets 1,000 upvotes, does it make a sound? Media and the arts are ultimately the comment section of real life ...


That, and a lot else, is phrased in an way that makes me think this isn't entirely straight. Repetitions of "you suck", "you're sad", etc...

I found the YouTube comments graphic funny. The double-post from "Cracked" is solid.

So fucking use it, because anger is a gift, and if you're angry and in it for the long haul, then eventually it'll be YOU getting paid to lecture people in lieu of entertainment (instead of writing comments for free with just as valid an opinion).


I think that's a subtle wink.

Spoiler: show
Image
A subtly subtitled wink?


On the other hand, maybe I'm reading it too generously, and the author is telling everyone that happiness is being exactly like him, though he's a professional snowflake, so we really are doomed to sucking while wallowing in unhappiness in five ways.
  • 9

A quantum state of signature may or may not be here... you just ruined it.
User avatar
blehblah
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3895
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:16 pm
Show rep
Title: Error General, Panic Colonel

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby williamthallis » Mon Nov 16, 2015 6:02 pm

reallifegirl wrote:I suppose what actually really bothers me is when a group I belong to (in this particular case, women) is being 'defended' by hypocritical actions. Partly because Wong (and some of the other writers) is trying to talk over a group that already can speak for itself, and partly because he can then turn around and silence the same group he's supposedly attempting to defend. It's a double-whammy: 'shut up, ladies, but also be grateful for well I'm representing you'.

It also sucks because I do have feminist leanings, but these type of actions reflect badly on people who do. So not only are we being spoken over by someone who isn't even a woman, he's also making the rest of the group look bad. To be fair, he's not the only person who does this, so part of my ire is that Wong is just one of many who pull this type of stunt, and I guess it's just one of those things that particularly sets me off.


Hmmm... this is interesting to me. Outwardly I'm white (well, half white/half light skinned hispanic, but people see me as white), male, heterosexual, from the middle class suburbs. Mentally I'm a freak, but in terms of demographics, I'm not part of any minority group (which would include women, which statistically worldwide I think are the majority gender, but you get my point) that would ever need to be defended or stood up for. Even bringing up my Mexican ancestry, I'm reminded that I'm white hispanic and my Spanish sucks, so ostensibly, I don't belong to any minority group outwardly - in fact, I suppose I'm *the* group that is disliked so much, fulfilling much of the Dead White European Male that was bandied about so much while I was in college, the one that has a blood guilt for oppression, yada yada yada.

How do you deal with people coming in and defending you because you're 'one of the minorities' by lieu of having an innie instead of an outie in the genitalia area? My default assumption is I don't know much about other people, so I try not to assume, since I'm so often wrong when I do, so the 'I'll defend these people while telling the people I'm defending to be grateful' is fucking bizarre to me.

Do you find you have to take a certain 'stance' due to pressure coming from other women (or whatever group, if you're a lesbian and communist and whatever...), as well as a responsibility that you have to stand up for 'the cause'? Does that make you hypersensitive to people like Wong when they do that, where you carry the frustration along, or is it incited fresh by each time something like that happens?

Like I said, demographically, I'm plain vanilla, the most common flavor, a white (sort of) guy from a middle class background, but mentally I'm a freak, so I've never seen myself as part of anything but a team of one, not part of a group. All of this looks bizarre to me. So when you say 'group I belong to', that's not something I can identify with, since even white suburban heterosexual males are a mystery to me because they're all so damn normal mentally, boring boring boring, get a good job have a house with a nice tv and cars and kids et al.
  • 9

“Ever since you’ve joined this PC thing, you just bully people, and wait for people to say anything improper so you can just jump down their throats for whatever words he or she used.”
“‘He or she’ is an agender phobic microagression, Sharon. You are a bigot.”
User avatar
williamthallis
Commenter
Commenter
 
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:54 pm
Location: The Desert
Show rep
Title: Divinitatis Doctor

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby NathanLoiselle » Mon Nov 16, 2015 7:41 pm

Woman: I think we might have a bit of difference of opinion.
Man: I'LL TELL YOU WHAT THE PROBLEM IS.
Woman: We seem to be butting heads on this topic of sexuality.
Man: IT'S THAT YOU'RE OPPRESSING WOMEN.
Woman: Umm, excuse me. I can talk for myself.
Man: SHHH, BE QUIET HONEY. I'M BUSY DEFENDING YOUR RIGHTS.
  • 9

User avatar
NathanLoiselle
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 4484
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:49 am
Location: You'll Never Know!
Show rep

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby reallifegirl » Mon Nov 16, 2015 9:29 pm

williamthallis wrote:Do you find you have to take a certain 'stance' due to pressure coming from other women (or whatever group, if you're a lesbian and communist and whatever...), as well as a responsibility that you have to stand up for 'the cause'? Does that make you hypersensitive to people like Wong when they do that, where you carry the frustration along, or is it incited fresh by each time something like that happens?


I don't think there's a particular 'stance' I feel pressured to take by other women, because the other women in my life are so varied. My aunts/cousins are working-class, religious, and moderately conservative; my friends tend towards liberal but vary in intensity, while ranging from working-class to white collar; my Internet friends do tend towards really progressive ideas and tend to be atheist. I think they're all strong women who don't take shit, but they would disagree wildly on what that means. All of them inform who I am, but I don't feel pressured to conform to one of them entirely. Maybe if they were more uniform, I'd feel differently.

But I do, admittedly, feel like I have to defend women as a whole when I feel like we're being dismissed, treated unfairly, or talked over. Not because I feel like I have a responsibility to, but because it just bothers me to be insulted or dismissed as a person. It pisses me off to be demeaned or ignored or stereotyped, particularly for something I was born as. If you throw on the condescension that comes with someone doing it 'for my own good', then that's all the more infuriating.

I don't think I carry the frustration with me all the time, but I guess it is still a button that hits a nerve, because it does kind of immediately set me off. Maybe because I have been in situations where it really was clear to me how ugly people's attitudes could be. And while I tend to be defensive of all the aspects of who I am -- being a member of a huge family, being a geek, being a cubicle worker, being Irish-Catholic -- that's the one that seems to have the most bullshit and anger wrapped up in it, and also the one that's the most physically dangerous for me. I've never been physically harmed for being a geek cubicle worker in a huge Irish-Catholic family, but I've been followed, touched, grabbed, screamed at, and groped for being a girl in a public place.
  • 6

"I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not."

Encyclopedia Dramatica wrote:Reallifegirl: Is supposedly a girl in real life, but we all know that's false. Gets highest comment roughly 75% of the time, and has never had a single red-thumbed comment. Ever.
User avatar
reallifegirl
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1609
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:21 pm
Show rep
Title: Officially allegedly female

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby williamthallis » Tue Nov 17, 2015 5:37 am

reallifegirl wrote:But I do, admittedly, feel like I have to defend women as a whole when I feel like we're being dismissed, treated unfairly, or talked over. Not because I feel like I have a responsibility to, but because it just bothers me to be insulted or dismissed as a person. It pisses me off to be demeaned or ignored or stereotyped, particularly for something I was born as. If you throw on the condescension that comes with someone doing it 'for my own good', then that's all the more infuriating.

I don't think I carry the frustration with me all the time, but I guess it is still a button that hits a nerve, because it does kind of immediately set me off. Maybe because I have been in situations where it really was clear to me how ugly people's attitudes could be. And while I tend to be defensive of all the aspects of who I am -- being a member of a huge family, being a geek, being a cubicle worker, being Irish-Catholic -- that's the one that seems to have the most bullshit and anger wrapped up in it, and also the one that's the most physically dangerous for me. I've never been physically harmed for being a geek cubicle worker in a huge Irish-Catholic family, but I've been followed, touched, grabbed, screamed at, and groped for being a girl in a public place.


I mean in this in the best way possible, but I'm glad I'm not a woman. That's an awful lot of bullshit to have to put up with. The way I see it, you're not really being dismissed as a person, you're being dismissed as a gender - you don't the opportunity of being dismissed as a person, because you're not taken seriously in the first place.

I have been on the receiving end of disagreeing with a woman and having misogynist thrown in my face about things that had nothing to do with gender, which has always been confusing. It seems like some women carry it around, cumulatively, and explode right into it the moment they meet resistance. It's good to have the perspective of a woman on it. Unfortunately, I still haven't come up with the right response when 'actually, 2+2=4' is met with 'you're only saying that because I'm a woman and you think I'm dumb because women can't do math SEXIST' in a way that de-escalates the situation. :?

'Actually, you as a person can't do math', I have learned, is definitely not the right response.
  • 9

“Ever since you’ve joined this PC thing, you just bully people, and wait for people to say anything improper so you can just jump down their throats for whatever words he or she used.”
“‘He or she’ is an agender phobic microagression, Sharon. You are a bigot.”
User avatar
williamthallis
Commenter
Commenter
 
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:54 pm
Location: The Desert
Show rep
Title: Divinitatis Doctor

Re: 5 Reasons You're Not Happy and Successful

Postby AboveGL » Tue Nov 17, 2015 10:04 am

If there's anything which puts me off presenting as female, it's everything reallifegirl said.
  • 6

AboveGL
TCS Sithlord
TCS Sithlord
 
Posts: 1797
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:37 pm
Show rep

Previous

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests

cron