itt a strange man asks if you saw the ass on that one

this is exactly the sort of weird puritanism i was talking about. i haven't said anything sexist or racist or gross or whatever. i've only suggested that we've manufactured a rather censorious public culture over the last few decades. but it's apparently tempting to read that purely intellectual criticism as some kind of smokescreen cloaking a hidden eeeeeevil. which, again, fucking sucks.

― a dimension that can only be accessed through self-immolation (contenderizer), Thursday, December 3, 2009 6:12 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

fyi if youre going to advocate the free and open exchange of ideas you might have to be ok with one of those ideas being that you are racist

i mean: there is a weird thing you are doing, where you are advocating some sort of agon of ideas, and then when people offer up the idea that your ideas are wrong, you accuse them of "puritanism"

have we all established how to not be a dick yet

right, but this goes back to my vaguely political/miltonic statement up there somewhere: saying that "everyone should say what they believe openly" is not the same thing saying "everything people have in their heads is just fine". go ahead, speak up! it doesn't mean you don't believe a lot of disgusting bullshit.

this deserves to be said again by the way. im a big fan of open engagement but its not "engagement" if youre going to be all hands-off "ooh well he has racist thoughts but theyre his thoughts so theyre beyond judgment."

have we all established how to not be a dick yet

you may want to check back later.

*insert Team America speech here*

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (943 of them)

pithy

the weak

this is exactly the sort of weird puritanism i was talking about. i haven't said anything sexist or racist or gross or whatever. i've only suggested that we've manufactured a rather censorious public culture over the last few decades. but it's apparently tempting to read that purely intellectual criticism as some kind of smokescreen cloaking a hidden eeeeeevil. which, again, fucking sucks.

You have got to be kidding.

the conflict here is between people who think that freedom of speech's most important guarantee is the right to say whatever pops into their head without anybody judging you about it & people who think that it's really ok to say "you know, some of the thoughts you have are probably lame and maybe suppressing them/unlearning those thought patterns is actually ok"

which is the thing - there's this dumb-ass pop psych idea that any suppression is "bad for you." it's not. you know who's really conquered the evils of suppressing their desires? gluttons. is gluttony our model for great mental health and a well-functioning society? I propose to you that it is not.

I resisted the urge to have that last sentence terminate in a senseless burst of truly foul obscenity btw so show me love

I'd say we have been rapidly destroying a "censorious public culture" over the last few decades tbh

i completely agree with JD, although a few years months ago i wouldn't have

j0hn dude you should have just gone for it, no one would have judged you. at least no one ~decent~

life ilx has been a harsh but informative mistress

i've been away too long. this thread. you guys.

not saying the thing you want to say has its own discreet pleasures, I know anybody who ever lived in the midwest can at least partially relate in a bitter pissed-off kinda way

elmo fwiw i quoted you upthread because you gave probably the most joyful defence of ogling/wanting to bury face in ass that ilx has seen, and i felt it only right to offer it as a counter-position...not that ogling is really what i'm attacking, more unasked approaches

a strange man asking me about "that ass" is only slightly more awkard and disorienting than a strange man asking me what i thought of "the game" tbh

not saying the thing you want to say has its own discreet pleasures, I know anybody who ever lived in the midwest can at least partially relate in a bitter pissed-off kinda way

otm x infinity

that's why i didn't like the midwest. x infinity.

a strange man asking me about "that ass" i

great ILE board descriptions that died before they got out of committee imo

minus the i at the end that i accidentally didn't delete OR WAS I JUST SAYING WHAT I REALLY FELT

Oh that reminds me of the good old days when Alex in NYC's posts had random letters stuck at the end of them for no discernible reason.h

that ass, i

those were good times.u

lololo

At least once a week I will think "MY BLOOD IS BOILING!" & think of Alex.w

the giggles I get from remembering the Plague of Random Terminal Lower-Case Letters are some of the sweetest lols to be had imo.s

re: the original scenario, when this has happened to me I have assumed that on some level the guy suspected I might be gay and wanted to shore up his own heterosexual credentials (read: clueless AND homophobic AND sexist). When this happens I know instantly that there will be no real level of communication possible with him.

i tend to think of it was a "let us attempt to bond in male privilege by talking loudly and crudely of ladies in their presence" thing. i don't tend to see it as a challenge of heterosexuality and maybe dude is just being a dumb male primate with massive alpha jerk tendencies?

the strange man doesn't really care about your opinion about "that ass" iirc, he's just asking

^^yes, probably true in most cases, but in some there seems to have been that extra sinister element. that's when I tune out.

I don't know if it's sinister as much as it's the equivalent of whipping his dick out in front of you. It's childish and weird and gross. Fine line, I guess.

haven't read the thread, but this is totally harmless, you dicks, unless the chick is within earshot and might get offended

cause, like, ASS

I mean, I probably wouldn't hang around to discuss ass philosophy with coors lite guy, but I'm not going to make the sign of the cross before I pull up my pettiskirts and run in the opposite direction either

http://www.wisdomportal.com/Ouroboros-1.jpg

haha i know he was trolling but Dan I.'s position

haven't read the thread, but this is totally harmless, you dicks, unless the chick is within earshot and might get offended

― Dan I., Friday, December 4, 2009 12:46 AM (15 minutes ago)

was kinda hiarious in its unwitting otm summary of the first 3 hundred posts itt

not saying the thing you want to say has its own discreet pleasures

life of the lurker -_-

lrka

Is it still OK to play 'shoot, shag or marry'. I'm kinda worried now.

Only with Spice Girls.

OK thanks.

Pan's people?

Only Babs.

Shoot, shag AND Marry Babs? I think Robert Powell has done 2 of the 3.

What are "engineer glasses"?

My father-in-law is ~this guy~ except his confidences to me are more like "women - they don't like to fix anything, do they?" I have no trouble imagining him sharing his opinions about waitresses with his "lunch buddies". He's a sad man.

the only person i will ask if they saw "the ass on that one" is my boyfriend, in reference to other guys. he's my booty-watching buddy. is that still creepy?

no I'm sure you guys are discreet

welcome back tbh