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

Jesus that was depressing.

I have a friend with kids who says Wine o'clock all the f'ing time on fb. :/

it's depressing to read about depressed people

yes

My wife started going to *mommy meetups* in our neighborhood and a lot of the women are heavy drinkers and sound like they're probably the slightly younger versions of the women in Sohn's novel.

How do you think they smoked weed out of the cardboard part of a hanger? I can't figure it out.

sounds like a really long one-hitter

I just assume they packed the tube full of weed and smoked it like a cigar

you put the burning matter at one end and inhale out the other iirc

Why are these people having kids?

yeah, but cardboard

because they didn't pull out, that was covered

lol

or they were uncovered, I guess

I mean don't these people basically have a lot of paid help with their kids? It's news to me that parenting becomes easy once your kids start kindergarten, and obviously someone is watching the kids while mom and dad are out at all these coke parties. I guess if you can outsource responsibility you don't really have to be responsible, you can just enjoy drug-laced ennui.

I figured that with the exception of the anecdotal party where the husbands were off to the side while the wives were going crazy, the described nights were all ones where the other spouse was at home with the kid.

oh right, yeah she did say that

Tbh I still like doing all those irresponsible things, and if I'd gotten married at 30 and had my 2.5 kids already I'm not sure I wouldn't resemble those people?

i kinda of feel like there's a tone in this piece that is simultaneously asking readers to make ethical judgements on these ppl (the drinking, cheating, drug use, mindlessness) and is defiantly justifying those behaviors. i understand that it's titillating to read about presumably responsible adults (parents, no less) doing irresponsible things, but it's also hugely sensationalistic and i doubt any of these behaviors indicate some broader/extensive trend. maybe more importantly, this should be the crux of the piece:

Why do moms in my generation regress, whether by drugging, cheating, or going out too late and too often? Because everything our children thrive on—stability, routine, lack of flux, love, well-paired parents—feels like death to those entrusted with their care.

But it is totally asinine! Why do things like stability, routine, lack of flux, love etc feel like death to parents?

Also, the stigmatization of casual marijuana use in that article is pretty reactionary. The guy who gifted the author a generous amount of weed isn't her friend but her drug dealer? OKAY.

What, casually nicknaming your friends Hooker, Slut, and Drug Addict and cheating on your dude in the back of a minivan?

xp

You can do all those "omg irresponsible" behaviors without pretending you're a total degenerate for the purposes of creative fiction, imo.

What, casually nicknaming your friends Hooker, Slut, and Drug Addict and cheating on your dude in the back of a minivan?

I have a bunch of friends who would do this in a heartbeat but they're all guys

mommy whites

Judd Apatow would be proud /morbs

I used to get all the jokes along that line, or even the casual prison rape jokes, but then I realized I knew people who had shitty families or were actual former drug addicts or work in sex work and I was just o_O at throwing that shit out for the laughs

btw this says a lot about me but the only thing that actually made me angry about this was calling the dude who sells you weed a drug dealer, otherwise it seems like a certain kind of boilerplate workshop fiction I've heard a million times

The difference between twenty-five and thirty-eight is that, at thirty-eight, when a strange man says he wants to have sex with you, you feel grateful.

o rly?

in 2012 is weed drugs

I don't see how anyone can read the "drug dealer" section and think that she for real considers that dude to be her drug dealer, as opposed to sensationalizing their relationship to elicit a reaction (which, btw, fails spectacularly)

Actually I am a simmering kettle of thoughts about women calling their female friends (previously?) derogatory names. I've been seeing it in a few difft capacities lately, some more defensible than others, and THAT is not something I do but the ways it's done are percolating with me right now.

The difference between twenty-five and thirty-eight is that, at thirty-eight, when a strange man says he wants to have sex with you, you feel grateful.

o rly?

― mookieproof

YEAH my outburst of yesterday notwithstanding, this is some seriously toxic bullshit.

i think it's telling that she watched Girls and decided that it was time for a similarly self-hating narrative about ppl her age.

showing how vapid + irresponsible you and your friends are = brave + honest in 2012

I am sorry I clicked on that link thanks a lot guys

completely loling at you guys getting offender by "drug dealer". if she referred to a barista that way, would you be offended? or are you angry because of the borderline acceptable/illegal way weed is treated so you have to stand up for your socially-acceptable drug of choice?

wtf are you talking about mh?

lyfe

*passes a hanger*

*winks*

*mouths "get yer coat mate"*

PLEASE FERTILIZE ME O MAN, FOR I HAVE A HAUNTED PUSSY

Mordy, if "drug dealer" carries a stigma, why not her derogatory nicknames for the friends? Seems like an arbitrary distinction.

yes, her derogatory nicknames for her friends also carry a stigma is that your point?

... are we just going to ignore Tracer's post, then

I'd change my display name but apparently I'm already "the dude who makes reference to sex organs in his display name" and I don't really feel like conforming to expectations right now

ghost in birth canal

I see Laurel and mookieproof have covered the "38 year old women like to be sexually harassed" angle, so that saves me some time.

Maybe it's "sexual harassment" meaning it's just flirting but she's married and likes it so it's "harassment."

Like when her "slut" friend introduced her to her "drug dealer" who gave her free drugs and "sexually harassed" her and she enjoyed it.

ugh

I am already feeling pretty low but that article made me feel so much worse. Awful people all around.

the fetishization of the behavior is so much more obnoxious than the behavior itself