privilege as a meme

I am the antihero of my own story

poor holden, fidgeting at the end of this lineup of murderous sociopaths.

if a man says he really wants to be a drug kingpin, a godlike genius, a teenage spree killer, an imaginary embodiment of displaced masculine aggression, or to take care of people so that they can be happy without fear? RUN.

The HOT DAMN NUTSHELL tweet has to be a pisstake of the screenshot right

no it’s serious I’m pretty certain

I get the sentiment behind the quoted comment but I don’t think it takes an especially discerning person to see how silly/arbitrary/absurd it would be to literally think that way

she recommends elphabaforpresidentofgallifrey's twitter account and podcasts in the replies so I think the HOT DAMN was sincere

Yeah, as I mentioned above I read it as a sarcastic "no shit" at first and then realized it was sincere.

But how do you interpret Kevin's posting of the maybe sarcastic tweet of the screenshot of internet comments about people who relate to pop culture antiheroes? There are many layers here, is what I'm saying.

I am getting a little lost about what some people are saying. I am still going by the original sentiment of what it says about a man if he says these works are his "favorite" as opposed to explicitly stating that you identify with a character.

I mean "omg your favourite book is a clockwork orange, it stands to reason you idolise the rapist protagonist" is a leap so silly it has to be sincere but if that "finally someone mansplained a position that was already beyond simplistic IM SCREAMING AND WEEPING SIMULTANEOUSLY" tweet isn't parody I'm shook tbh

I have seen this shared with great seriousness and defended with real intensity in the wild ftr.

There is also a big basic bitchness factor of favoriting these things, nevermind inferring immaturity, misogyny, anger etc about the guy from it.

an imaginary embodiment of displaced masculine aggression, or to take care of people so that they can be happy without fear?

are these supposed to be two distinct options, with a clear line of demarcation?

presumably all the ppl who say the godfather is their favorite movie aspire to be a ruthless mafia kingpin with a tragic past

macbeth, hamlet, othello, and lear are all arguably good things - but if a man says they are his favorite plays? RUN.

That is basic bitch too but it doesn't attract the same type of fans as those other works do. I just checked zero hedge and I am embarrassed they are still using the name Tyler Durden.

Also count me as one of the dupes who was uncomfortable with the premise of Fight Club when it was new and felt it aged very poorly in the post 9/11 world.

The 3 leads and the Pixies saved that movie.

Again, I will say I loved that movie when it first came out and thought the book was fine. But when I rewatched it last year all I thought was "these stupid, fucked up boys."

Brad Pitt is hot, but whatever. Meatloaf is dece. I'm so sick of "Where Is My Mind" in film soundtracks.

I think that was one of the first uses of that song in a movie. I know it's been used more but I just associate it with that movie now.

i wonder if by "clockwork orange" the original post meant the movie, the book, or the book w/ the original ending, all of which are fairly different

i agree w/ difficult listening hour that catcher is painfully out of place in the list

Ugh holden caulfield is a prime blueprint alt-right wannabe fuckboy. How many assassins is that book linked to? The book is fine, but for it to be a modern guy's favorite???

Seeing your reaction, I suggest you RUN from such a guy!

Ha, it's ok. I make do with giving a mild side eye everytime some guys says they love to read and then lists one of these books as their favorite. Of. All. Time.

Just knowing what's your favorite book Of. All. Time. is a good indication you haven't read all that many books.

A lot of guys are this stupid, immature. RUN.

who gives a shit what movies or music or books people like

My all time favorite book is the Turner Diaries, but only because of the crystalline prose.

I don't see how Fight Club could be anyone's favorite movie, I feel like movies with "twists" don't really hold up (for me anyway), feels like saying Sixth Sense is my favorite movie or something....

ppl should decide whether or not they enjoy stuff based on what they imagine would look good on a dating site

my favorite movie is The Room but I identify most with Denny

My favorite tv show and book are Sex and the City and my favorite movie is Sex and the City 2.

But my favorite fictional character is Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket.

well this sure was a thing that somebody felt they had to write

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/04/incel-movement-literary-classics-behind-misogyny

Lit majors are required to act as if the world were driven by literature. Much as I love to read classics and literature of all kinds, its effect of the world at large is weak, vague and imprecise at best, and non-existent for the vast majority of people. To be honest, Ayn Rand seems to have more obvious real world effects than any of the books that article mentions.

having a great aul run on this term round the place today did an article run on it this week again or what

literally assigning an adversity # to college kids *chef finger thing*

link plz lol

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sat-add-adversity-score-will-factor-student-hardships-college-admissions-n1006571

I think this could be a good thing, because it does an end run around recent conservative victories against affirmative action. Socio-economic factors will correlate to race to a significant degree and should be able to withstand court challenges.

Because my school district (a district of NYC) is going through a "diversity plan" process, I decided to listen to a couple episodes of this podcast -- Courtney Mykytyn (who, I didn't realize, just died a couple days ago) was mentioned as a significant activist on these issues

https://integratedschools.org/podcast/ep-16-too-bad-just-fine-whiteness-centered/

I came away with a very uncomfortable feeling about the whole thing -- it feels to me like is approaching a religious cult, where the focus is on self-purification and "not being complicit" in anything that can possibly be perceived as wrong. In another episode, the hosts tied themselves in knots about how even sending your kid to a poor minority school can be "opportunity hoarding" if you treat it as an experience primarily to benefit your kid (tbh I don't know if I'm relating this correctly bc I didn't understand it), but then at the same time, you also have to avoid the "white savior" mentality where you are sending your kid there to help the other kids, so somehow you are supposed to walk "down the middle" between these two things but I have no idea how that's supposed to happen.

In the linked episode, a listener asked when a school is "too bad," i.e. when it's ok not to send your white privileged kid or pull them out, and the answer basically boils down to "never." One of the hosts (or guests?) said her child cried every day coming home from school and they didn't pull her out. As long as some child is forced to go to that school, if you say it's not good enough for your kid, you are placing your kid above that kid and saying they are better or special, and that's evil. Which has a sort of internal logic to it but is unliveable and unworkable in reality.

imagine the memoirs twenty years from now

I run in the same circles as Mykytyn in LA but never met her. Her death last week hit people pretty hard. She was incredibly thoughtful about this stuff and apparently about all aspects of parenting. I think her ideas come across a little clearer in writing. The general point that you’re not necessarily doing a school a favour by sending your kids there and being involved, and that it depends on your definition of “involved” seems sound. I think in practice (at least in LA) the kind of people who most need to hear that already moved out of LAUSD or sent their kids to private school though.

Here’s an obit btw https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/school-integration-activist-dies-at-46/2020/01/04/9d22af06-2e57-11ea-9b60-817cc18cf173_story.html

Also the public school situation wrt diversity, funding, etc. in LA is very different (much worse) to that in New York and while her org was nominally national I get the feeling her ideas were very influenced by circumstances in LA.

One last thing: if you haven’t read it, this is a fantastic (and subtle and sensitive) piece imo https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/magazine/choosing-a-school-for-my-daughter-in-a-segregated-city.html

The general point that you’re not necessarily doing a school a favour by sending your kids there and being involved, and that it depends on your definition of “involved” seems sound

Maybe it is, but then why do it?

Don't do it for your kids' sake. Don't do it for other kids' sake. Why do it?

I am familiar with Hannah-Jones's work.

As a reporter, I’d witnessed how the presence of even a handful of middle-class families made it less likely that a school would be neglected.

So isn't that just "white savior"ism (except not "white" in this case but affluent)?

Don't do it for your kids' sake. Don't do it for other kids' sake. Why do it?

to expunge the sin from yr soul

I think the concern she had is that a certain kind of parent sends their kid to the local elementary school (always the elementary school, they go private for middle and high) with the idea that it’s a culturally improving exchange for everyone involved and elementary school is low stakes. But because they know how to do it, they aggressively advocate for their own kid at the expense of other (more needy?) kids in the school while they’re there. I can she why she’d end up focussed on this issue because it’s a particular problem in LA.