Father's Day

On June 18 2018 10:25 RiKD wrote: Show nested quote + On June 18 2018 09:43 hiems wrote: lol @ leads me to believe people are delusional, illusioned, repressed and secretly deeply resentful about these realities. fucking white people man. rikd if you were some black dude doing the same shit you'd be cast off as just another loser angry black man. if you were some scrawny asian dude I really doubt people on here or anywhere would "find you endearing" or whatever else and they'd think your just another crazy. There's a whole bunch of issues that I go through on a daily basis that your fucking entitled ass does not have to go through. When's the last time Chomsky talked on some fucking youtube video about how hard it is for asian dudes to get dates on tinder? I can't make some gay speech at some wedding with my rich white daddy friends to have landed some cushy job i dont deserve. I have more shit than the capitalist system to worry about. i'm just about the last person delusional, illusioned, and repressed about any sort of reality so please go shove it. I think people take deeply resentful feelings about capitalism, dominance hierarchies, manipulation, control, exploitation out on others or themselves. I know I certainly did (and still do). What is with this language? Just another loser angry black man? If there was an "angry" black man going off on some Marx I would love it. I don't know if people on here find me endearing. It doesn't seem to be the case from this blog. I was talking IRL. They may not like me so much if I shared some of my viewpoints like I do on here. You won't find me discussing anti-natalism with my siblings with young children or Marx with my Fox News Baby Boomer friends. I am a little crazy. I think that's another thing people typically like about me but that is one of those double edged sword traits. I am probably entitled to an extent but I don't really see it. Entitled just seems to be an easy word to throw around. If you are scrawny and it is a concern of yours get in the gym and eat some food. Not finding dates is kind of a marketing issue more than anything. Cushy job? I was spending my life in steel mills and it led to me being dependent on alcohol and after detoxing I ended up in a psych ward for being suicidal. That's not exactly butterflies and rainbows. Of course, it is very difficult to read and think about this stuff when we are caught in the capitalist system. I doubt most if any will take this suggestion but I suggest reading "The Denial of Death" by Ernest Becker and "The Communist Manifesto" by Karl Marx. "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. La Guin is also very good if you are interested in Anarchy or just a good sci-fi story. If people are working 40 hours a week it might be difficult to accomplish. That's kind of the point. It's easy to be delusional and repressed in that state of being.

I'm sorry I get kind of tilted by you but I was also tired from working a ton the past week/had a bad session of online poker.

I'm trying to figure out exactly what it is that annoys me so much about you. I'm actually similar to you in some aspects.

Probably the underlying arrogance that he still seems to carry with him. Starts becoming quite evident once you read more than a post or two over time.

Or the consistent bitching about why things are the way they are in this world while he does nothing productive to actually further himself. It seems like he convinces himself that he has a high level of self responsibility when in fact he has nearly none.

This is a start in figuring out why it's annoying to read his shit even if you may be similar in some aspects.




I'll bite on one thing right now though. Maybe I can relate a little in that I used to find reasons to be negative for no real reason when I was younger. So something as simple as Father's Day.


"Bullshit is the first word that comes to mind. Celebrating natalism with more consumerism. Celebrating false immortality projects and God-complexes. "Exploit new markets or better exploit current ones" -Marx "


Like, what the fuck is the point of this...or thinking like this? Yeah great. Consumerism is pushed heavily on kind of an arbitrarily chosen day. So what? Maybe some people like to go all out to express certain things. Or maybe they need the occasion to come to get certain things out. You going to judge that? And there's some truly genuine bonding that does happen on Father's Day or other given days that simply wouldn't have happened if the occasion didn't call for certain people to get together. Don't like some of the bullshit that comes with it? Well why can't you ignore it and not bitch for once. I'm cheap. I don't love the idea that simple cards for occasions like this have gone above more than a few dollars. My father agrees. But it's still important to me that I acknowledge that it is Father's Day to him in some concrete way even if I've often not been able to spend much time with him on recent Father's Days. So even if it's a scribbly hand written Happy Father's Day that I can get to him, I do that. Because I'm grateful.

Point being, maybe sometimes, not everything needs to be questioned to the deepest of levels (or your dumbass's idea of deep) and you should just look around, shut your mouth, and fucking be grateful.

Disagree. society would be much richer if everything is questioned at the deepest of levels. This whole blog post is starting to sound like socrates trial lol. Society is too interconnected to ignore problems, we are social creatures are interact with each other. So we share responsibility for each other. Plus people may appreciate the criticism of fathers day and do something for it that doesn't involve buying worthless junk.

"Well why can't you ignore it and not bitch for once."

The irony. It's his blog you come on to say this. The place where he chooses to express things he doesn't get to express IRL. You could ignore it instead of bitching about him not being grateful and asking him to repress himself. Being grateful about your dad giving you life or whatever is fine if you really feel good about life, but you don't get to request it out of others.

Meh, as far as RikD blogs go on a tilt scale of 1 to 10 this is like a 1.5. Nothing really wrong with the stance that father's day is a materialistic waste. I think people here are more responding to the general tone of his collective blogs rather than the content of this particular post. The times I've responded to Rik's blogs I think I've mostly been critical, but I'm sure this post wouldn't receive near as much hate if it were made by any other poster. Also the Argentina sex blog was one of the better blogs in a while.

On June 17 2018 22:03 RiKD wrote: The fact that I get blowback whenever I talk about any of this stuff on here or IRL leads me to believe people are delusional, illusioned, repressed and secretly deeply resentful about these realities. It's easier to just get drunk and watch the World Cup.

Ok I didn't read this reply, that's at least a little tilting. For some reason it reminds me of this cartoon:

I hadn't seen this cartoon in probably 2-3 years yet it popped in my mind three days ago in the subway. Honestly, it's just a funny cartoon, it clearly doesn't happen. Most people are indeed ignorant of the real world and it doesn't take long to figure it out. It's always a dangerous thing to think you're more conscious and informed than everybody else and it's something to be vigilant about, but there is no doubt that when you've committed yourself to reading important books for quite some time and you know a thing or two about cognitive biases and critical thinking, you know more about the world than the vast majority of people you'll pass by. And I think it's fair to say that the opposition and resentment that skeptics and truth tellers face is not just some narrative you tell yourself out of an ego trip. It can be if you haven't done any serious study, but otherwise, like Stroggoz hinted at, this is really the beginning of philosophy... a philosopher always faces ridicule and incredulity from the masses. Is RiKD a philosopher? It depends how you view it (in an ancient or modern way). One thing's for sure, the criticisms that he gets for his thoughts come from people who are almost always defending the status quo. Also, it's only perceived as self-congratulatory ego pandering by those doing the ridiculing, the other side is actually like this:

Yeah when I said it reminded me if that cartoon, that's literally all I meant. I don't actually think it encapsulates his disposition. But without expounding too much, I think some of the delusion and arrogance (for lack of a better word) comes through in his writing.

Which important books has he read? The only purpose of philosophy is to confirm/rationalize your preformed intuitive beliefs. This can lead to the illusion of greater internal consistency, which makes certain personality types feel better about themselves. Does that make these books important? I guess if you're one of the personality types who benefits from that sort of thing, it's important for you. But for anyone seeking truth, trying to understand themselves and the people around them on a deeper and richer level, is going to be much better-served digging into math and physics than reading any philosophy book.

oooooorr its actually one of the least consumption-oriented hollidays aimed at frankly one of the most undervalued members in our families.


Even in an antinatalism world view where life has a overall negative value, these kind of things are the positives that bring some joy to the world, so take a break from angst, call your dad and be a bit less miserable for a little while.

So much whining man.. No one is forcing you to spend a penny or forcing you to love your dad. If you don't like fathers day you must feel the same way for all holidays?

I never call people arrogant because that usually means I am the arrogant one and that my importance, abilities and ego are being challenged in a way that I do not like. I realize that with that sentence I just called some of my detractors arrogant which makes me arrogant so maybe they are right. I never claim to be perfect.

On June 19 2018 07:15 Baalim wrote: oooooorr its actually one of the least consumption-oriented hollidays aimed at frankly one of the most undervalued members in our families. Even in an antinatalism world view where life has a overall negative value, these kind of things are the positives that bring some joy to the world, so take a break from angst, call your dad and be a bit less miserable for a little while.

I get my angst out here so that I can be a better family member. I am more or less trapped in a beach house with my entire family. I obviously shouldn't discuss these views at the dinner table when everyone is talking about how much they love their children. I spent the whole day with my dad on father's day. I am not grateful for them having me. My dad has made a lot of mistakes that he will never admit to. I used to carry quite a lot of resentment towards him. I can say today I no longer carry most of those resentments but some of them are likely still there repressed. He was just doing the best he could. I am grateful for him being there for me.

On June 19 2018 08:10 wobbly_au wrote: So much whining man.. No one is forcing you to spend a penny or forcing you to love your dad. If you don't like fathers day you must feel the same way for all holidays?

Here we go with the branding my writing as "whining." Classic wobbly. Classic status quo play.

I like other holidays less than father's day. Actually, I like halloween. Well, I don't like halloween but I like the idea of dressing up in costumes and that whole vibe. It is better than dressing up in costumes and acting at the bourgeois life. I think I like Martin Luther King Day but I am not sure. I don't really want to go through them all. Christmas is awful though.

In a room full of family members entranced by the England World Cup game I can't really state my viewpoint that watching a stadium full of Earthlings singing "God Save the Queen" makes me want to vomit.

On June 19 2018 06:47 bigredhoss wrote: Yeah when I said it reminded me if that cartoon, that's literally all I meant. I don't actually think it encapsulates his disposition. But without expounding too much, I think some of the delusion and arrogance (for lack of a better word) comes through in his writing. Which important books has he read? The only purpose of philosophy is to confirm/rationalize your preformed intuitive beliefs. This can lead to the illusion of greater internal consistency, which makes certain personality types feel better about themselves. Does that make these books important? I guess if you're one of the personality types who benefits from that sort of thing, it's important for you. But for anyone seeking truth, trying to understand themselves and the people around them on a deeper and richer level, is going to be much better-served digging into math and physics than reading any philosophy book.

That's really not the purpose of philosophy. It is the premise of ethical intuitionism, which is just one set of moral views in foundationalist philosophy. In the ancient sense, philosophy taught you how to gain wisdom and live a better life; in the modern one, it offers you a broad tool set by which you approach and understand the world. Some things you discover might have felt intuitive but many others won't.

He's mentioned the books he's read often, he has named 3 in this entry alone, you just weren't paying attention. How the hell does digging into math and physics lead to a better understanding of the human mind and society than philosophy? .....

I don't know how to make a list of books or even if I want to do that. I guess I will do it as it comes to mind not most important which could be valuable but difficult and not chronological which could be important.

Plato
Aristotle
Marcus Aurelius
Nietzsche from "Human All Too Human" forward. I would say this library has maybe been extra important
Marx
"Denial of Death" by Ernest Becker
Freud
Jung
Joseph Campbell
Kierkegaard
Sartre
Samuel Beckett
Joyce
Kafka
Dostoevsky
Nabokov
Tolstoy
Gogol
Martin Amis

EDGAR MORIN
Chomsky
Orwell
Daniel Dennett
Foucault
Derrida

David Foster Wallace

Cioran

I'm running out of steam. I'm sure I'm missing plenty.

OH SHIT

Kant

Fuck it, not that it matters I just figured I'd pass some time and try to get some sort of list down as any of this stuff can enrich a life and it is kind of like a gateway drug situation. There are also a lot of books like Johan Hari's "Lost Connections" and even books like "Revolution" by Russell Brand that have importance to me. I'm sure I am forgetting a lot of those. I mean I could list all sorts of philosophers that I am aware of but unfortunately not had the time to read. I am not always unemployed. I am actually a bit distracted, tired, and tilty and don't really want to write any more on this subject at the moment. The literature is more for enjoyment. For the spine tingle. For the journey with the dear writer. I would almost say just start with Plato and work your way up from there but maybe it is best to find something that sounds exciting and go from there. For me, Dostoevsky saved my life and Sartre's "Being and Nothingness" was my bible. I am a much different person than I was then. In the moment I would say the Edgar Morin works that I can read are the most important that I have read. The problem with a list like this is that it is probably overwhelming but if you just chink away at it in anyway your life will be better. Or, maybe it is better to get drunk and watch the World Cup? Get a "good" job and go shopping? I have my opinions and don't want to dwell on it now. I can only speak for myself.

starting with Plato is a good idea to see one of the origin points of where humanity went wrong imo. Most systems of oppressive authority borrow from Plato's ideas. The republic contains the central ideas that justfiy almost every authoritian system created ever since...I see similar stuff in Ser Robert Filmer, lenin, and edward bernays; all arguing that the human race are children that need to be looked after by a guardian class who know better.

Very true Stroggoz.

For the first time this vacation I have peace and quiet. Complete silence except for the morning birds chirping. It feels incredible. I know it will not last but it reminds me that I am ok with making the best of this trip but I really long for being back home.

Stroggoz makes a good point. I just remember "The Republic" affecting me but I was in capitalist mode when reading it.

(And now that lovely piece of peace has passed.)

I think I just wanted to point out that reading a lot of this stuff can be frustrating because there is no one to discuss it with. Shoehorning Nietzsche into a conversation IRL is not really acceptable and I have encountered few that can actually discuss it. This goes for pretty much all of this stuff including the literature.

(Now, the Sesame Street is on the tv. LOUD.)

What's the alternative? Going to Walmart to buy Coca Cola and popcorn to come back to the beach house to watch Thor: Ragnarok. At least there are no advertisements during a movie.

One way to do it would be to start with Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud and branch out from there.

Imagine discussing Cioran or David Benatar at the dinner table or a wedding?

Stroggoz, I would be interested to find what you have found to be the most important books?

I understand where plato was coming from, his friend had just been killed by the mob rule.

Well when i read i am in fact collector mode. I don't read much science fiction/fantasy.

I don't read much literature or much philosophy these days. I've never really read much continental philosophy, and analytic philosophy has become too bogged down in empty theories that don't teach me anything. I'm convinced their purpose is to further the profession. So analytic philosophy has become mostly like a bureaucracy to me, and continental philosophy never taught me much.

So i read a lot from academics that are dissenters in their own profession. Heterodox economics, and radical political scientists, ect, all seem to teach me a lot more than what i get from the mainstream stuff. And the books I learn the most from are very empirically dense, the amount of facts used to back up their case is very important-if they say something different they better have the facts. So when that is done, it makes for a powerful book to me.

I havn't read Freud, I tried Nietzsche but didn't think it was scientific. For marx i read the companions to capital by david harvey, and the 1844 manuscripts. Marx has some interesting things to say, but if your looking for an explanation for how capitalism is working, it's far better to read the work of neo-marxian economists like john Bellamy foster.

Corporate Propaganda by Alex Carey is an interesting book. He taught Chomsky a lot about the history of public relations. I think he was the first historian on the topic of modern corporate propaganda. If every undergraduate read his book we would be a very well informed society.

I have the whole house to myself and perfect peace and quiet and I don't feel like writing or reading. Actually the construction workers next door just started to play loud music. There was no escape earlier with 2 babies and a construction site next door. I found a spot outside and just started to pass the time with Tinder. The short of it is that I need to move to Northampton, MA. The long version starts with it is interesting traveling to different towns and experimenting with Tinder.


Sorry Stroggoz for going a bit of stream of consciousness there. That's just my way of doing things. I meant to just respond to your post that I picked up the Alex Carey book. I could have seen if the local library has it but I want it Friday on my doorstep until I read it and give it to my sister.


I could go on a rant about kids but I don't think I will. I guess they don't bother me too much but I am happy I don't have kids even though I think my nephews are probably more awesome than not. This is coming from the perspective of an uncle that doesn't have to take care of them and thankfully my siblings don't expect me to take care of them. It seems silly to go into anti-natalism discussion with anyone with young children but I have had to bite my tongue at times and I am thankful that I did. The kids are already here. Let's make the best of it! And on that note I'm going back to the beach!