Post a controversial opinion

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (7390 of them)

(art, photography, etc. books excluded)

you are juror number 144 and we will excuse you (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 17 November 2017 19:21 (six years ago) link

Life causes cancer

https://youtu.be/1oDAkmfoAgA

loretta swit happens (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 17 November 2017 19:23 (six years ago) link

anybody who considers themself clever is a big idiot

― the intentional phallusy (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 18 November 2017 06:04 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dumb people have started talking about the dunning-kruger effect like it doesn't apply to them

rove mcmanus island (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 17 November 2017 20:53 (six years ago) link

two weeks pass...

children under the age of 5 shouldn't be allowed to attend churches that obsess over a literal eternal hell. eternal hell is a concept that is much more horrifying and difficult to deal with than many other things that children are not allowed to witness until they're older. people sometimes treat small children as if they don't understand the content of the adult-talk going on around them, but i can attest that i understood what hell was from a very young age and took it very seriously and it traumatized the living fuck out of me. i remember lightning striking just outside of our house during a terrible storm in the middle of the night. the room flashed so blindingly white, and it was so intensely loud, that i really did think i had died. and of course i thought i had gone to hell, because i was a little kid and i thought whatever minor kid mistake i had recently made could be enough to condemn me to eternal damnation. the lightning knocked the electricity out but i had to find my sister to see if we were in hell or not. i had to make this wrenching climb up the basement steps to check in lightning striking over and over and the rain pouring in sheets against the window. the lightning incident was particularly memorable, but the fear of it was always spiking out of nowhere. there's always a reason to fear hell. the idea of burning forever as punishment is all you can think about, if you really believe it's real.

it's a concept i've long since rejected, but something about that terror lives inside of me because the concept has been there since the very beginning of my memory. i may be somewhat unusual in the kind of church that i had to go to and how i emotionally responded to the idea of hell, but i'd guess there were lots of others in the same boat. it seems strange to be allowed to force young minds to hear all about this (actually deeply fucked up) idea on 1/7th of their mornings.

Karl Malone, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 00:38 (six years ago) link

yep.

Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 00:43 (six years ago) link

No one under 18 should be allowed to attend church.

Jeff, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 00:52 (six years ago) link

The people who whine about the War on Christmas are kind of right to be worried because if they give an inch on ‘happy holidays’ we might as well just go ahead and try to prevent them from bringing their kids to church

Karl Malone, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 00:55 (six years ago) link

Tbf maybe u did die and u are in hell think about it

You are still otm tho

Tho I would note that this shit is sheer magic for young imaginations

moyesery loves kompany (darraghmac), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 01:22 (six years ago) link

Closely following politics is more damaging to one’s long term mental health than drinking heavily seven nights a week.

treeship 2, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 01:23 (six years ago) link

I wouldn’t recommend either

.oO (silby), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 01:47 (six years ago) link

choosing both is also bad tbh

mh, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 01:55 (six years ago) link

Apple cider vinegar tastes OK.

No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 02:12 (six years ago) link

i have a jar a quarter-full of it next to my sink and the gnats floating in agree!

Karl Malone, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 02:31 (six years ago) link

not to be a bummer here but i clearly remember being told as a fourth grader by several other strident fourth graders that i was going to hell because i didn't go to church and when i told the teacher she said she thought they were right so wheeeeeeeeeeeee public education

Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 03:04 (six years ago) link

hate to tell you, but all tattle-tales goes to hell. for eternity. those are the rules

Karl Malone, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 03:06 (six years ago) link

i know I'll go to hell cause i spent my time in heaven

Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 03:16 (six years ago) link

hell yeah brother

flappy bird, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 03:22 (six years ago) link

i agree w/ karl. i don't get that worked up about religion one way or the other anymore but teaching kids to believe in hell is just outright fucking abuse as far as i'm concerned. i had a good friend tell me once that she was thinking of going back to church because she couldn't escape the fear that she'd go to hell if she didn't. this was a smart, thoughtful, well-read, v liberal person. i still feel furious that anyone would let a child believe in that evil garbage.

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 03:24 (six years ago) link

When you next see her, tell your smart thoughtful friend that a literal hell is only a device to smack people upside the head who are unable to grasp the concept of a metaphorical hell sufficiently strongly to understand the desirability of avoiding metaphorical hell. Churches have never been above lying to their congregations in this way, while reserving the true doctrine for smart thoughtful adults who are capable of abstract ideas and can benefit from moral teachings that aren't backed up by the threat of dire eternal pain. Cuz this is the truth about churches and she needs to hear it.

A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 03:36 (six years ago) link

~~ scales fall from eyes ~~

the late great, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 03:41 (six years ago) link

Only rule is that you should actually believe it.

Illegal Ethiopian Dance Music (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 03:44 (six years ago) link

Only rule is that you should actually believe it.

https://i.imgur.com/fEcvjwx.jpg

crüt, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 03:53 (six years ago) link

~~ scales fall from eyes ~~

wow, were you feeling like going back to church to avoid everlasting hellfire, too?

A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 03:55 (six years ago) link

95% or more of adult men have groped a boob and/or a butt without any consent whatsoever, because the opportunity presented itself and when you’re under 25 you are still just a simian with a little less hair.

El Tomboto, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 03:58 (six years ago) link

she knew all the rational objections to the concept of hell, aimless. it was just a gut feeling/irrational terror she couldn't get out of her head. i suspect there are a lot of people walking around with that feeling in the back of their minds. i remember a george orwell essay where he talks about the decline of religion in the UK and says something like, even a lot of the religious people don't seem to believe in the afterlife as literally as they believe in the existence of, say, australia. now i think of that quote and think, george, you never went to america.

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 04:02 (six years ago) link

Eh, I don't believe in Australia.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 04:04 (six years ago) link

I'm sorry to hear that. if she fears something she knows does not exist, and therefore knows the fear is irrational and groundless, but is simply an artifact of childhood trauma caused by lying adults, then going to church to deal with that fear seems to embody an irreconcilable contradiction within her. still, if that's what she feels is imperative, then maybe she should go to church, but not to the same church that lied to her. she obviously has to do something to get her head straight.

A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 04:12 (six years ago) link

My grandmother told me once my folks got divorced because we stopped going to church. This was during her final stretch years, vacillating between total love and insane Irish nun-style judgment. I think she thought it would put the fear into me, maybe I'd eventually become a priest in a small suburban Chicago parish. Anyway yadda yadda yadda eventually I married a nice Jewish girl from the valley.

omar little, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 04:13 (six years ago) link

95% or more of adult men have groped a boob and/or a butt without any consent whatsoever, because the opportunity presented itself and when you’re under 25 you are still just a simian with a little less hair.

― El Tomboto, Monday, December 4, 2017 10:58 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I never did this

treeship 2, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 04:13 (six years ago) link

Idk if that was meant facetiously or not but still, I don’t think most men have done this.

treeship 2, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 04:15 (six years ago) link

cf thread title

sincerely good for you though

El Tomboto, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 04:32 (six years ago) link

Tombot you should head to bed a little bit earlier

.oO (silby), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 04:41 (six years ago) link

Not controversial

El Tomboto, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 04:46 (six years ago) link

95% or more of adult men have groped a boob and/or a butt without any consent whatsoever, because the opportunity presented itself and when you’re under 25 you are still just a simian with a little less hair.
― El Tomboto, Monday, December 4, 2017 10:58 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao speak for yourself damn

flappy bird, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 04:51 (six years ago) link

if you get diarrhea, it's your fault for sliding into first

fuck you, your hat is horrible (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 05:49 (six years ago) link

Now my baby loves to do the cha cha cha
She loves to do the cha cha cha
She likes her, she likes to cha cha cha
Everybody likes to cha cha cha

Karl Malone, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 06:23 (six years ago) link

95% or more of adult men have groped a boob and/or a butt without any consent whatsoever, because the opportunity presented itself and when you’re under 25 you are still just a simian with a little less hair.
― El Tomboto, Monday, December 4, 2017 10:58 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I have also never done this, and wouldn't call myself a paragon of virtue.

mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 10:02 (six years ago) link

TOmbot otm imo

Illegal Ethiopian Dance Music (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 10:05 (six years ago) link

He’s cutting the over 25s too much slack.

Luna Schlosser, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 10:11 (six years ago) link

fair

Illegal Ethiopian Dance Music (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 10:15 (six years ago) link

tombot otm m/l

ur-oik (rip van wanko), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 12:07 (six years ago) link

"speak for yourself" is not a productive approach when looking at systemic issues imo

ogmor, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 12:15 (six years ago) link

Neither is "whaddaya expect, men are garbage ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ " - it's just "boys will be boys" wrapped in a layer of cynicism

mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 12:26 (six years ago) link

has anyone said that

ogmor, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 12:36 (six years ago) link

That's how I read Tombot's post, not sure how else it can be read tbh

mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 12:40 (six years ago) link

acknowledging guilt/the scale of a problem is not the same as throwing up your hands in the face of it

ogmor, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 12:42 (six years ago) link

when you’re under 25 you are still just a simian with a little less hair.
― El Tomboto

This is dehumanizing rhetoric and can only serve to alienate young men from feminist perspectives. I mostly see male feminists talking this way — people like Stephen Marche who wrote a column in the Times about the bestial nature of male sexuality. I don’t know why it’s considered constructive to make these essentialist arguments but people are doing it. Seems to have little to do with the purpose of the #metoo movement, which as I understood it was about stopping sexual harassment and assault, not insisting that we are all guilty in the eyes of God style fatalism.

treeship 2, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 13:10 (six years ago) link

thanks ogmor. that is the correct interpretation per the author.

Luna probably right though, was just using the old “the prefrontal cortex isn’t done baking until” age as my plimsoll line in this case.

also I of course am in the 98th percentile of virtue I have no idea why anybody would think otherwise my decision making in my teens and twenties was impeccable how else do you think I wound up in the military harrumph.

El Tomboto, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 13:14 (six years ago) link

I’m not sure how acknowledging that a lot of men currently living are likely to have engaged in sexual harassment and/or battery when they were young dumb and you-know-what is “dehumanizing” unless you think it’s dehumanizing to acknowledge anything else that you ought to be fucking ashamed of

Be careful you don’t hurt your ankle coming down though

El Tomboto, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 13:19 (six years ago) link

Because saying that almost everyone has done it lessens the implied individual guilt. Also element of "we're animals, we can't help it" - no, we can help it.

mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 13:26 (six years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.