Philip Seymour Hoffman c/d?

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not being a dick:

ts: philip seymour hoffman vs luis guzman

RJG (RJG), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:06 (eighteen years ago) link

oh and completely classic. i would cast PSH in any movie ever made.

Lupton Pitman (Chris V), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:06 (eighteen years ago) link

My favourite actor!

Especially in Love Liza. But also Lebowski, Magnolia, Almost Famous. And he rescued 25th Hour too.

JimD (JimD), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:08 (eighteen years ago) link

i recognise this man as being a rather talented actor.

Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:08 (eighteen years ago) link

I watched Last Party 2000 last night; it's a good documentary in some ways but Hoffman comes over as kind of wimpy, vague and inarticulate.

I like him a lot as an actor though you wouldn't exactly want to hang out with any of his characters for very long. Looking at that photo, he should maybe go for the untucked look, or at least loosen the belt a bit.

Archel (Archel), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:09 (eighteen years ago) link

even in terrible films such as Along Came Polly he's classic.

Lupton Pitman (Chris V), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:09 (eighteen years ago) link

great in 'talented mr ripley'.

i was underwhelmed by '25th hour'.

N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:09 (eighteen years ago) link

I've only just read about Capote! I'm excited!

Hmm. I might rewatch Boogie Nights this afternoon.

JimD (JimD), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:11 (eighteen years ago) link

I really like the talented mr. ripley

RJG (RJG), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:11 (eighteen years ago) link

I think PSH would have made an excellent Ignatius in 'Confederacy of Dunces' but the part has gone to Will Ferrell. I have low hopes.

estela (estela), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:16 (eighteen years ago) link

Yes I always thought so too, estela. Oh well.

Archel (Archel), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:18 (eighteen years ago) link

Classic in that he is, indeed, a rather talented actor. But dud in that he always looks kind of unpleasantly damp to me.

pullapartgirl (pullapartgirl), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:19 (eighteen years ago) link

his deep voice sounds incredibly sexy. but i agree, he does look a bit damp and a bit grotty sometimes too.

gem (trisk), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:20 (eighteen years ago) link

I hate his performance in Punch-Drunk Love so very much. His armor is not without chink.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:21 (eighteen years ago) link

LET IT RAIN!

Lupton Pitman (Chris V), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:55 (eighteen years ago) link

somewhat in his defense, i think his character is PDL is fundamentally flawed and terribly, terribly written...

i've always liked him, but looking through his filmography just now, i'm failing to find much to point to that really shows his classic-ness (apart from "Ripley")...

Jimmy_tango, Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:44 (eighteen years ago) link

he is gold in 'lebowski'. re. 'PDL'. loved the film, but yeah, somehow PSH ended up the weakest link. bizarre.

N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:46 (eighteen years ago) link

people liking PDL is totally incomprehensible to me. i really don't get it, the movie is horrible from the first sequence on.

he is totally classic. you can do so many of his lines in so many situations: "you can either confirm or... disconfirm..." "i thought maybe...you wanted to make out with me..." etc!

geoff (gcannon), Thursday, 18 August 2005 13:51 (eighteen years ago) link

PSH = paunchy sex symbol. SO CLASSIC.

The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Thursday, 18 August 2005 13:58 (eighteen years ago) link

I hated PDL even though the odds were so heavily stacked in its favour: I like Adam Sandler, I like PSH, I like Emily Watson, I liked Magnolia and Boogie Nights. But no.

Archel (Archel), Thursday, 18 August 2005 14:09 (eighteen years ago) link

"Uhhh...Dickie..."

n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 18 August 2005 14:13 (eighteen years ago) link

I believe the Ferrell / DG Green production of 'Confederacy of Dunces' has been cancelled, so there's hope!

My fave perf of his to date is the lead as a compulsive Toronto gambler in "Owning Mahowny." I've never much liked him in the PT Barnum stuff except Magnolia.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 18 August 2005 14:23 (eighteen years ago) link

He's great. And from my hometown, more or less. (Suburban Rochester, represent!) He did a pretty good Lester Bangs, too.

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:21 (eighteen years ago) link

I am embarrassed to say I met him on 'Patch Adams'. He struck me as a very forthright, very professional actor.

M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:24 (eighteen years ago) link

He struck you? Lucky.

The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:29 (eighteen years ago) link

I admire his acting too. I used to stalk him around my NYC neighborhood, he lived close by. At the breakfast place, I'd stare.

mcd (mcd), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:31 (eighteen years ago) link

Classic.

Ian Riese-Moraine: a casualty of social estrangement. (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:32 (eighteen years ago) link

"At the breakfast place, I sat and stared"

Jingle for the Smiths Diner?

M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:43 (eighteen years ago) link

>He did a pretty good Lester Bangs, too.<

My friend who was a late '70s CBGB habitue would disagree, as "Bangs was a much bigger asshole."

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:49 (eighteen years ago) link

"I'll never eat eggs and steak, again...no"

M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Pretty great in 'Happiness' too.

Is that sequel to 'Ripley' any good? It has Malkovich!

Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:55 (eighteen years ago) link

It's pretty decent, but very different from TMR. Seemed more faithfully Highsmithy.

n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:16 (eighteen years ago) link

Just saw "Owning Mahowny", which is basically perfect territory for PSH. A great film. Plus I like seeing the vintage Toronto streetcars... Can anyone (perhaps Steve Buscemi) play a better loser?

http://i.imdb.com/mptv1.gif

Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:21 (eighteen years ago) link

He was great in Love Liza.

gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:24 (eighteen years ago) link

He has a choice cameo in Next Stop Wonderland as a crusty passive-aggressive Greenpeace dork.

David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Results 1 - 10 of about 553 for "philip seymour hoffman" "sad sack". (0.54 seconds)

jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:33 (eighteen years ago) link

This is my shortlist of male movie actors who, if I had my way, would appear in some fashion in every movie ever:

Phillip Seymour Hoffman
John Goodman
Christopher Walken

My favorite PSH performances: Boogie Nights, Happiness, Big Lebowski.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Does anyone remember him as the AA-friend of Meg Ryan in that movie where she's a boozehound?

Can someone back me up here on how CUTE he is? Meow!

The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link

It's killing me!
http://www.patchadams.com/images/castimgphilip.jpg

The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:36 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.kittenpants.org/24_waitup/andy1.jpg

The Yellow Kid, Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:56 (eighteen years ago) link

This is my shortlist of males who, if I had my way, would appear in some fashion in every movie ever:

Uncle Bill from American Movie
Alain Delon (pre-1965-or-so)
Animal the Muppet
Quentin Crisp

Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 18 August 2005 20:53 (eighteen years ago) link

they're all dead, not real or french

RJG (RJG), Thursday, 18 August 2005 20:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Every movie EVER.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 18 August 2005 20:56 (eighteen years ago) link

he's pretty terrific! definitely the funniest scene in lebowski.

s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 18 August 2005 21:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Dud. He's one of those. You know, an ACTOR. I hate em, ACTORBS.

Leeeeeeee (Leee), Thursday, 18 August 2005 21:42 (eighteen years ago) link

'necessary means for a necessary means...'

'first lady of the nation, not just of california'

'this is our concern dude'

Enrique, naked in an unfamiliar future where corporations run the world... (Enri, Thursday, 18 August 2005 22:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah. neither classic nor dud. Sometimes good, sometimes not very good

Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Thursday, 18 August 2005 22:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I would not let him get to 3rd base with me.

jeffrey (johnson), Thursday, 18 August 2005 22:11 (eighteen years ago) link

why does it being fatal or not make any difference?

Joan Digimon (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 December 2017 18:49 (six years ago) link

If it isn't fatal it's not an illness, duh. Did you skip biology or something ums?

sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Friday, 15 December 2017 18:50 (six years ago) link

I mean it's literally a matter of life and death jeez

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Friday, 15 December 2017 18:52 (six years ago) link

gentlemen...i just beat the flu

i will never die

Joan Digimon (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 December 2017 18:55 (six years ago) link

I didn't say that it being fatal or not was the key factor; I was just giving an extreme example of where the label of illness might be applicable.

Freedom, Friday, 15 December 2017 18:57 (six years ago) link

Ok wins if we're getting specific then I don't see anyone itt being all of society damn what a cool thread


It isn't an overly nice distinction! aiui jim was just saying the post itt was annoying because it's indicative of an attitude that is prevalent & harmful outside of ilx, not that its expression here will lead to the collapse of civilisation

Fwiw I took your point straight away about valid emotional response re ppl caught in the fallout, as long as we all agree "freedom" is a dumb cunt it's all good 🙂

sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Friday, 15 December 2017 18:58 (six years ago) link

As always we cool

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Friday, 15 December 2017 18:59 (six years ago) link

anyone that isn't an addict or hasn't had an addict in their lives can fuck right off with their ignorant judgment and analysis of something they clearly don't understand. i cannot see how anyone can read this piece and come away thinking "what a selfish, emotionally manipulative asshole." un-fucking-believable

flappy bird, Friday, 15 December 2017 18:59 (six years ago) link

I didn't say that it being fatal or not was the key factor; I was just giving an extreme example of where the label of illness might be applicable.


Unfortunately the posting of dictionary definitions is really only acceptable in the imbecile forums you need to fuck off to, but: you do not know what "illness" means

sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:02 (six years ago) link

i have experienced addiction first hand and i don't blame anyone who looks at it from the outside and doesn't understand it... it's an incomprehensible thing. also, if a result of the disease is that it in some sense turns one into a selfish emotionally manipulative asshole, is someone really wrong to observe that, regardless of the underlying cause? i dunno

sleepingbag, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:03 (six years ago) link

that is distinct from Broccoli's armchair bullshit, excuse me if you're an addict or have had an addict in your life, but serious question: what do you have to do gain from jumping into a conversation about addiction if you have no experience with it? your input is contributing to a societal problem.

flappy bird, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:06 (six years ago) link

3 years ago I lost one of my longest and very best friends to addiction. It is painful to watch because this guy (as so many addicts) really did not want to be seen as a "selfish asshole" and wanted to do right by his family and friends. He hid it as best as he could. His behavior got increasingly erratic. Day after day, we would notice as things started to not add up with his life. I never had the guts to ask or confront him because I had no clue if or what he was using. He drank a lot but so what, me too. Then one day I got a phone call at 4 AM and he was dead. Most messed up experience of my life.

frogbs, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:06 (six years ago) link

flappy bird unless you know something I don't you are making some big assumptions

sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:08 (six years ago) link

that is distinct from Broccoli's armchair bullshit, excuse me if you're an addict or have had an addict in your life, but serious question: what do you have to do gain from jumping into a conversation about addiction if you have no experience with it? your input is contributing to a societal problem.

― flappy bird, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:06 (fifteen seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Linked to your insistence that anonymous posters bonafides matter upthread but

What do you have to gain from expressing an alternative view in this thread?

Not in a pugnacious way but it's just that this stance essentially boils down to "if I disagree with u fuck off" and look there's a place for that but at least admit that this is what it is

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:09 (six years ago) link

One of the things wins is in fact best at is choosing when this is a suitable tack and openly stating it btw which is why wins wina

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:10 (six years ago) link

Anyway I think we have this one sorted

btw that is an excellent piece fwiw

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:11 (six years ago) link

haven't read it

sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:12 (six years ago) link

lol

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:13 (six years ago) link

Well you can't take drugs if you don't take your hands out of your pockets. Whenever you see drugs just leave your hands in your pockets.

Evan, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:18 (six years ago) link

Can't hold a gun to anyone's head with your hands in your pockets unless their head is in your pocket and also the gun

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:19 (six years ago) link

flappy bird unless you know something I don't you are making some big assumptions

― sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Friday, December 15, 2017 2:08 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no i don't, i realize i'm making assumptions about screen names, but to just parachute in here and parrot the most wack preconceptions about addicts & addiction really rubs me the wrong way. darragh i realize i'm basically doing the same thing shutting down conversation and i apologize. this kinda shit just gets under my skin and frankly i was surprised to see it on here. subject is too heated for me, so i'll bow out for now. the last thing i want to do is argue the semantics of addiction.

flappy bird, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:22 (six years ago) link

dmac what are your thoughts on fat shaming

brimstead, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:23 (six years ago) link

there's no problem shutting down conversations when it's just concern trolls/bad faith

brimstead, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:24 (six years ago) link

the end

brimstead, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:24 (six years ago) link

it's ok to not have an opinion on things you don't fucking understand

brimstead, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:26 (six years ago) link

there's no problem shutting down conversations when it's just concern trolls/bad faith

― brimstead, Friday, December 15, 2017 12:24 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the end

― brimstead, Friday, December 15, 2017 12:24 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

cue deems devil's advocate post

flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:27 (six years ago) link

that's what i assumed based on some of these posts, but i shouldn't assume things about posters i know nothing about. people that are addicts or who have addicts in their lives often express similar sentiments, and rightfully so. it's fucking horrible and confusing. BUT if you have no real experience in it I stand by my statement: Fuck off

flappy bird, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:30 (six years ago) link

dmac, you're a reasonable lad - all good

In a slipshod style (Ross), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:32 (six years ago) link

there's no problem shutting down conversations when it's just concern trolls/bad faith

― brimstead, Friday, December 15, 2017 12:24 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the end

― brimstead, Friday, December 15, 2017 12:24 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

cue deems devil's advocate post

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:27 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Trolling/bad faith posts

Ooooh look what I did there

Ross, fair play

remember the lmao (darraghmac), Friday, 15 December 2017 20:44 (six years ago) link

Before the screening of Hard Eight I was at last night, they ran some oddball P.T. Anderson-related stuff (Haim videos he'd directed, Philip Baker Hall's brilliant book-cop from Seinfeld). There was a fake ad for a mattress store with PSH where he jumped onto some mattresses from above and hurt himself (presumably directed by PTA).

clemenza, Saturday, 16 December 2017 22:15 (six years ago) link

ha oh yeah! that's on the dvd/blu-ray for Punch-Drunk Love, same character

flappy bird, Saturday, 16 December 2017 22:25 (six years ago) link

Incredible piece. Captured so well the 'business' of getting together and falling in love, making a new life..

xyzzzz__, Sunday, 17 December 2017 10:18 (six years ago) link

eleven months pass...

I stepped away from this thread about a year ago because it was proving to be absolute purgatory trying to discuss the subject of addiction with people on here. However, I have been reading through it again recently and, reacquainting myself with the almost cartoonish obnoxiousness and intellectual dishonesty of many of my opponents, I am compelled to return to the matter. I am mainly because I still think that the argument I was trying to make - namely, that addiction isn't an illness - is basically correct, and that the arguments of my opponents, for all their deep intellectual and moral smugness, are basically a load of incoherent, muddled-headed waffle. Ideally, this would go on a more general addiction thread; however, the discussion originated here and I also want to address some of the criticisms - if you can call them that - of my views voiced here. I mostly want to write this simply to let it stand as a clarification/elaboration of my views on addiction for any future observes of this thread. If the conversation above is anything to go by, this board is a fairly suffocating, hopelessly bigoted place in which reasoned debate is pretty much impossible; as such, I won't vainly attempt to stimulate any.

I don't think it's correct to describe addiction as an illness; insofar as, if you put a gun to someone's head, he would be able to stop. What we call addiction is really just the human state in which the compulsion for excess is harder (or much harder) to restrain than it is for most people. There's always a choice involved, and, as such, "addiction" is always to some extent self-indulgence. However, to observe this isn't to preclude sympathy for human frailty; and the view that PSH was merely being gleefully feckless and selfish is almost certainly highly reductive (especially given that he had managed to stay dry for 20 years.)

― Freedom, Friday, 15 December 2017 12:01 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

addict concern trolls are the fucking worst, seriously go fuck off and be responsible somewhere else FREEDUMB

― brimstead, Friday, 15 December 2017 16:18 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Given that I am someone who up until quite recently was in the habit of drinking about five bottles of wine a day (and indeed was doing do so around the time you were having your masturbation session recorded above), that characterisation doesn't make much sense. I didn't mention it at the time because I didn't anticipate the degree to which emotional incontinence and masturbatory grandstanding were going to dominate the discussion.

if you put a gun to someone's head, he would be able to stop
it isn't as simple as this btw, idiot

― brimstead, Friday, 15 December 2017 16:21 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It actually is that simple. If you can successfully threaten someone to stop doing something, then clearly they are doing it in the first place of their own volition and not because of an illness that they can't control.

wins otm

Addicts also feel shame for what they do and how it affects their family, no need to demonize the addict

Glad there's some reasonable responses here

― In a slipshod style (Ross), Friday, 15 December 2017 17:50 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The reason addicts feel shame about what they do is because they - unlike the majority of people on here who infantilise them - recognise the self-inflicted nature of their situation. Otherwise, what you are saying is an argumentfor addicts of being of sound mind, not the opposite.

people literally go through physical hell, intense pain, vomiting etc etc withdrawing off opiods

― Joan Digimon (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 December 2017 16:31 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

chronic alcoholics get the shakes when they don't have alcohol in their system

― Joan Digimon (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 December 2017 16:32 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Joan, the examples you mention show that addiction, at a certain level, can lead to a situation in which refraining from consuming a certain drug is highly unpleasant, but even here the compulsion doesn't become uncontrollable, which I think would be a necessary basis for it to be considered an illness. Again, to observe this isn't to diminish the hideousness of the experience, but the distinction is a necessary one for the sake of accurate analysis.

― Freedom, Friday, 15 December 2017 18:41 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

", but even here the compulsion doesn't become uncontrollable,"

you are a true idiot with little to no firsthand experience with addiction, clearly.

― akm, Friday, 15 December 2017 18:46 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Apart from this being the deeply smug dismissal of a plain empirical truth, it is interesting to note that both akm and brimstead both called me an idiot, but did so for reasons that directly contradict one another. Brimstead said that I'm an idiot for saying that because addicts have agency in what they do, addiction shouldn't be considered an illness, because apparently it isn't that simple. (In other words, brimstead accepts implicitly that addicts do have agency.) Akm on the other hand called me an idiot for arguing at all that addicts have agency. While holding to my view of the impenetrable bigotry of most people on here about this subject, I would be genuinely curious to know what the consensus is about this, as these positions plainly cannot both be true.

There are extreme cases with, for example, the DTs, where withdrawal literally can be fatal, but those cases would, I think, be the exception.

― Freedom, Friday, 15 December 2017 18:45 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why does it being fatal or not make any difference?

― Joan Digimon (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 December 2017 18:49 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It would have been good to elaborate on this at the time, but from the initial responses to it I saw that I was dealing with a quite uniquely insufferable group of people, so opted to bow out. To reiterate, I believe addiction isn't an illness because I think (based primarily on my own experience as an alcoholic) that addicts fundamentally do not lose their agency over the course of their addiction. In this instance, I was entertaining the idea that circumstances where alcohol withdrawal is potentially fatal might be a possible exception to this rule; because this is one circumstance in which a genuine claim for the necessity of the continued use of a substance could be made, rather than it being merely something that one might choose to do to provide a soft landing back into full abstinence. However - and this is something that became more clarified for me as I myself started to experience increasingly terrifying symptoms - this is the wrong way of looking at it. In such circumstances, you don't lose agency and if it may be advisable to continuing drinking to slowly wind down your consumption, you are doing so essentially to treat a kind of physical sickness that is a consequence of deliberate subsequent abuse, rather than treating addiction as such. Moreover, insofar as, as with withdrawal symptoms in general, the only ultimate solution is abstinence, its function is inherently transitional. The notion of addiction as an illness implies an abiding condition and this is plainly not that. Notwithstanding these intricacies, the fundamental point is that none of this contradicts my view that addiction as a mental illness, bringing into being an uncontrollable impulse to take a substance, does not exist.

Not so long ago (subsequent to the discussion above, but a healthy distance from the present moment), I hit more or less rock or bottom in my alcoholism. My intake of a given day was sometimes reaching the equivalent of six bottles of wine. I was becoming increasingly physically strung out; almost any ordinary task required the most monumental mental and physical effort; I was having a panic attack on a daily basis; I was drinking myself to sleep, which would last rarely more than two hours before I'd wake again. I eventually stopped and on my first day of withdrawal, my tremors were so bad I thought I was going to go into convulsions on several occasions. In the end, it took me about three weeks to return to some kind of physical normality. In this period I was recovering from the physical damage caused by self-inflicted alcoholism; I wasn't recovering from addiction. I had spent several years wildly over-indulging in alcohol of my own volition, and I paid the price. For sure, I had my "demons" that drew me to alcohol; but ultimately, whatever the terrors and torments that were consuming my mind, I drank because I could, not because I had to. I have all the same demons now that I had then; but I'd rather put up with them than drink, because I don't want to return to the same hellish situation (or worse). If addiction were truly an illness, truly an uncontrollable impulse, the idea that you could be deterred from it by a bad experience would be plainly absurd. I could explain away my drinking of the last several years by saying that it was an illness that I couldn't really control; or I could admit the truth, which is that if the same physical meltdown had happened to me 2 or 3 or 4 years ago, I would have been motivated to stop then as well. I really liked doing it, and I wanted to continue doing it; and as such I was inclined to test how much I could get away with. I was lucky that the consequences weren't worse than they were. That is the reality of addiction.

Fwiw I took your point straight away about valid emotional response re ppl caught in the fallout, as long as we all agree "freedom" is a dumb cunt it's all good 🙂

― sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Friday, 15 December 2017 18:58 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Charming.

I didn't say that it being fatal or not was the key factor; I was just giving an extreme example of where the label of illness might be applicable.

Unfortunately the posting of dictionary definitions is really only acceptable in the imbecile forums you need to fuck off to, but: you do not know what "illness" means
― sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Friday, 15 December 2017 19:02 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Given that, as I've illustrated, the bulk of the criticisms of my views on this thread consist of incoherent bullshit pieties punctuated with insults, that's pretty rich. I partially misspoke once, if even that. Meanwhile, for example, the semi-literate brimstead can barely form a coherent sentence, and receives no criticism, because mindless drivel is fine so long as it's in the service of the consensus dogma.

there's no problem shutting down conversations when it's just concern trolls/bad faith

― brimstead, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:24 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can almost see this piece of human filth snivelling while typing.

it's ok to not have an opinion on things you don't fucking understand

― brimstead, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:26 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, the only people who truly understand addiction are not those who actually have personal experience of it, but rather those who can most sanctimoniously parrot conventional wisdom about it.

that's what i assumed based on some of these posts, but i shouldn't assume things about posters i know nothing about. people that are addicts or who have addicts in their lives often express similar sentiments, and rightfully so. it's fucking horrible and confusing. BUT if you have no real experience in it I stand by my statement: Fuck off

― flappy bird, Friday, 15 December 2017 19:30 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If brimstead takes the medal for obnoxiousness, this post takes it for incoherence. If addicts and people close to addicts "rightfully" say these things, then you agree with me and think the consensus on this thread is wrong. But for some reason I also need to fuck off for saying what you accept is the truth about addiction. The fact that in the wake of all the bile directed at me, not a single word of criticism was made of this post is yet another indication of the total vacuity and mindlessness of the consensus stance on here. Contrary to flappy bird, I think the attitude here can be summed up something like this: "Whether you have experience with addiction or not, either accept our infantilising, pseudo-compassionate view of addicts, or fuck off. Alternatively, if you don't accept it, disguise this by telling anyone else who doesn't to fuck off."

you should stop caring about this!

― brimstead, Friday, 15 December 2017 16:22 (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This really sums up it up. It's almost as if the truth about this subject doesn't even matter; displays of piety and general bluster are everything.

That is all.

Freedom, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 02:11 (five years ago) link

I stepped away from this thread about a year ago

Looks to me like you stepped in it again.

A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 02:33 (five years ago) link

wait is this James Frey y/n

an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 02:49 (five years ago) link

freedom isn't mad, they're laughing actually

global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 03:07 (five years ago) link

the time off really seems to have done you a world of good

Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 03:07 (five years ago) link

freedom ain't free

macropuente (map), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 04:03 (five years ago) link

That is all

Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 04:47 (five years ago) link

Good night and good luck

macropuente (map), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 04:50 (five years ago) link

So you aren’t owned?

I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 06:15 (five years ago) link

reacquainting myself with the almost cartoonish obnoxiousness and intellectual dishonesty of many of my opponents, I am compelled to return to the matter.

New board description?

I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 06:17 (five years ago) link

i'm with silby on the new description, its perfect

boobie, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 19:38 (five years ago) link

good to see ignatius j reilly is alive and well after all these years

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 21:04 (five years ago) link

one month passes...

boomingest post

david waster phallus (darraghmac), Thursday, 31 January 2019 01:59 (five years ago) link

The posts Freedom quotes on Dec 10th do not cast ilxor.com in a very good light.

Addiction has been the defining characteristic of my adult life, including homelessness, rehabs, jails, the whole bit, and I'm still not out of it. Obviously the question of whether my using substances is a choice I make, or the action of a disease which robs me of all agency, is of great interest to me, but I don't know the answer. Nobody does. I will say, the longer my struggle has dragged on, I have moved closer to embracing the disease model, based mostly on the lengths that I have gone to to help myself, the shit I've tried... It doesn't make sense I'd throw it all away, time after time. But that said, it does always feel like a choice I'm making when I use, if that even means anything.

Even Freedom argues that the addict should be shown patience and sympathy, regardless, and I agree heartily. I've had some friends & family help me and love me the whole way, and others give me the big fuck you. I try to be endlessly patient and compassionate with addicts I know, even when it's hard, that feels right to me.

calumy (rip van wanko), Thursday, 31 January 2019 02:31 (five years ago) link


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