even more quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a new rolling new york times thread

I guess maybe today's macbook casings are pretty strong? Several years ago I cracked a laptop screen by putting the (non-padded) bag it was in down a little too hard on a security conveyor belt and since then I've been paranoid about them.

idk I'm just fucking around, am I supposed to say when I'm doing that I really don't want to hurt anybody's feelings

I keep seeing ads for this in facebook and wondering wtf it is. Article itself is from last year but seems appropriate for this thread:
http://nypost.com/2014/07/05/the-22-year-old-dropout-who-created-nycs-most-exclusive-credit-card/

nah that's just run-of-the-mill hucksterism

I mentioned it in the "not the onion" thread where I first saw the Victorians but I live in WA and my colleague who is a victorian lit prof (and lol steampunk fan) set up an in-person interview with this couple. I think he's sort of disgusted but secretly jealous of them.

Also nit-picking flaws in their system - like using the Internet, how their material goods were produced, etc - feels weird to me because it sort of implies that if these few details were ironed out then their ideology would make perfect sense. I can point out religious homophobes mixing fibers or ask libertarians who would wire their rural house for electricity but nothing is really ever going to get me to believe in a supernatural power or that businesses would act responsibly without any regulations.

i want to hate the victorians in a pomplamoose kinda way, but they don't bug me that much. can probably get a proper cup of tea at their house at least. pomplamoose would be all celestial seasonings hippie shite.

Faux-Victorians seem way worse than Poopmoose. Poopmoose are just a shitty band who exploit their fans but that's on those dopes. Attitudes behind FVs books/essays is worst retrograde bullshit. If it was just a fashion thing then I'd probably agree though, but they've gone out of their way to establish a pretty gross philosophy behind their stupid bike choices.

Also nit-picking flaws in their system - like using the Internet, how their material goods were produced, etc - feels weird to me because it sort of implies that if these few details were ironed out then their ideology would make perfect sense.

Oh, see, no, to me those things are emphatically not details! Like, the fact that they have to suspend those key points is what makes this so problematic and fucked up... the things they're suppressing constitute precisely the sites where the rubber of little lifestyle accoutrements meets the road of a whole world of labor and class and power. Infrastructures are like that - semi-visible technological systems that literally and figuratively wire up individual objects and things to big, big political and material systems. So yeah, my concern is that people who don't think very much about things read these essays and come away less thoughtful about all of the above, because "it was simpler and better back then!" is so digestible and ready-to-be-believed.

this is basically everything awful about paula deen antebellum larping and hipster the spirit of the 1890s is alive in portland at once right?

nothing more 20-teens than justifying yr personal brand of disgusting savagery as "more mindful". not v victorian imo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/movies/film-snob-is-that-so-wrong.html

. I like my pleasures slow and difficult. I would rather watch a mediocre film from South America or Eastern Europe about the sufferings of poor people than a mediocre Hollywood comedy about the inconveniences of the affluent. I look up in admiration at models of artistic perfection, sound judgment and noble achievement, and I look down on what I take to be the stupid, cheap and cynical aspects of public discourse. I sit at my cobbler’s bench and hammer away. If the words nerd and geek can be rehabilitated — if legions of misunderstood enthusiasts can march from the margins of respectability to the heart of the mainstream — then why not snob as well?

Who’s with me? Anyone? I’m really not that picky.

I want to check his reviews of Whit Stillman and Noah Baumbach movies against that "comedy about the inconveniences of the affluent" line.

a good ilx thread collectively outthinks and outwrites a piece like that by miles imo

Yeah, in general I think Scott is a pretty knowledgeable and thoughtful film writer. I was a little surprised to see him publish a piece like that.

I would rather watch a mediocre film from South America or Eastern Europe about the sufferings of poor people than a mediocre Hollywood comedy about the inconveniences of the affluent.

Like, his editor should have stopped this line from getting into the piece. I actually think there's a good point to be made about the sheer number of American films (Hollywood and "independent") that are centered around the affluent...but I cringe reading Scott brag about how he gets his authentic enlightenment from watching the suffering of generic impoverished foreigners (from South America…or maybe Eastern Europe, yeah, one of those beautifully bleak places)

- If I'm perfectly honest, this isn't even an American film.
- It's not?
- No. There are no stars. No pat happy endings. No Schwarzenegger, no stickups, no terrorists. This is a tough story, a tragedy in which an innocent woman dies. Why? Because that happens!

everyone otm :(

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CQ5tZigWEAAaFpk.png

oh what a fascinating angle. please do go on.

is that a snowflake I see?

don't like it there? move to texas. Everyone is judgmental if u DON'T have Jesus (or jewish analog; no third option) here

More evidence of the need for Christians to feel persecuted and socially outcast, even if there is no evidence that they are persecuted or socially outcast.

I had a Catholic friend of mine express that opinion recently (we are both NYers). It was hard to know where to start to argue with that, it seems so crazy

about 70% percent of amerikkkans call themselves christians. which ain't what it used to be, but still...

In the expensively educated, ambitiously employed, urban circles of the country the % is much lower. And that's hard. For a Christian.

the right answer to all these people is 'oh, i'm sorry, i couldn't tell you were a christian from the way you're living your life—you just look like everyone else'

To be fair, it was sad how when the Pope just visited the city closeted Christians ignored him in droves and he ended up drinking alone in an Irish bar on 2nd Avenue.

(But I guess the people who did come out were less expensively educated, less ambitiously employed?)

going to church is totally gonna be the next hip fad. mark my words. hipsters invading baptist churches. getting baptized in a scenic river. making ham salad for the church picnic. it will be a competition to see who goes to the more authentic olde-tyme church. the russian orthodox people won't know what hit them.

dude is clearly not running in the "urban circles" of DC in which a significant proportion of actual urban, actual DC residents actually occupy (see: everywhere outside of upper NW).

It's a not dude and she's actually in NYC/LA.

http://www.salon.com/2015/10/03/dont_you_be_my_neighbor_i_despised_the_man_next_door_and_hated_myself_for_hating_him/

It's a not dude

username gold

http://www.salon.com/2015/10/03/dont_you_be_my_neighbor_i_despised_the_man_next_door_and_hated_myself_for_hating_him🔗/

"Maybe my inability to befriend a neighbor I don’t like represents a personal failing, a narcissism that demands everyone I spend time with share my little corner of the world."

MAYBE

Unlike many pop-ups, which can involve taking over an established restaurant for a night or two, the Bride of the Fox will play out like a kind of gastronomic parlor game. Each event will involve a single table, and the meal may be served to as many as 20 people — or as few as two. Prices will fluctuate, depending on the circumstances.

He will choose the diners at random, through requests that come through his website, and he will not reveal the ever-shifting site of the dinner until the customers find out they have been picked. Guests will get the menu upon arrival.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CzOsF8KdL._SL500_SY300_.jpg

And then there is the damage the injury has done to Connell’s social life.

“I was at a party recently, and it was difficult to hold my hors d’oeuvre plate,” she said.

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/8-year-old-boy-on-trial-for-exuberance-6566757.php

Amazing.

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Jury-Aunt-who-sued-8-year-old-gets-zero-6568677.php

"The boy, now 12 years old, appeared with his father, Michael Tarala, in the Main Street courtroom. The boy’s mother, Lisa Tarala, died last year."

WTF.

I almost cannot believe this story is real.

The Daily News has branded her "The Auntie Christ" :D :D

(she lost)

Could be an insurance thing.

probably and maybe it got out of control after the family death

If it was an insurance thing wouldn't the insurance company be suing?

What insurance company would be suing? I don't think the woman likely had a policy covering injuries by children.

I guess if this happened in the boy's home maybe it could have been covered by his family's homeowner's policy?

There are definitely auto accident cases where family members sue each other solely for insurance reasons. I'm not well-versed in the fine points, but I think it's along the lines of a driver has liability insurance beyond what he has in injury insurance covering his passengers, so the passengers sue the driver to implicate the liability policy.

That happened to a couple of sisters from my high school - both were in their dad's car, got in a minor accident and dad had one daughter sue the other figuring any rate increase was easily offset by his winnings. Not sure how it turned out but everyone seemed to think he was a horrible sleazeball.

Yeah and it does happen in sleazy ways, but it also happens in situations where someone genuinely needs the excess insurance to cover their medical costs. As a French friend likes to point out, these kinds of lawsuits don't happen when you have socialized medicine.

Yeah homeowner's insurance. Have you ever gotten one of those questionnaires from your insurance company asking you if the injury you saw a doctor for was due to an accident? If you say yes, the insurance company will try to recover the money from the policy that would cover the accident, or just deny the claim and tell you to sue to get coverage under the policy that would cover the accident to pay your medical bills.