Posts you had second thought about and decided not to post - put them here

Protestor, remedy thyself

It’s totally fine to complain about systematic bullshit

people love to complain, but nobody really enjoys listening to it

that's why the Blues never really took off

so I guess that's they call it the blues

I'm happy listening to people complaining about how shit their circumstances are because of hard govt austerity/exploitation poverty wages etc, that can only get more severe under capitalism. Been there, lived it and still am living it, it's comforting to know other people are pissed off and have diagnosed the root of the problem correctly.

Sounds like a very selective kind of complaint you enjoy. Let me tell you about my sinuses. I could go on about them all day.

yes it is selective, and your point is? Sorry to hear about your anuses

Probably easier to push the value incrementalism when you’re going to be dead sooner than the rest of us.

I might have had third thought about posting that one.

aimless, listening to you complain about your sinuses would be _far_ more pleasurable to me than most of the stuff i've heard you complain about.

it's one of the great pleasures of growing old, as far as i'm concerned - the ability to complain about one's deteriorating health. when i was 20, i didn't want to hear people go on for ages about their health problems, but these days, i find it delightful. i, too, have terrible issues with my sinuses. please. tell me about your sinuses, and i will tell you about my sinuses. i had turbinate reduction surgery in 2022. didn't do a goddamn thing. i could go on! i would love to go on!

I might have had third thought about posting that one.

Because it's a really shitty thing to say to/about someone with a chronic medical condition? Yeah, but... *80s sitcom music plays* ...That's Our Gyac!

Fwiw it was referring to the fact you’re several decades older than the people you’re berating, rather than having a chronic health condition which I was unaware of. Thankfully none of the people you’re berating have either chronic health conditions and less economic security to deal with them!

I'm happy listening to people complaining about how shit their circumstances are because of hard govt austerity/exploitation poverty wages etc, that can only get more severe under capitalism. Been there, lived it and still am living it, it's comforting to know other people are pissed off and have diagnosed the root of the problem correctly.

you know what i'd love most, aimless, about hearing you talk about your sinuses? i'd have no reason to dispute anything you're saying. they're _your_ sinuses. _you're_ the one who has lived experience with them. whatever you say about your sinuses, i can trust, totally and completely, that you know what you're talking about. i might be bored, but i would never, ever be offended.

i know some people object to tendency to talk about myself. understandable! it's the only topic i can speak with any authority at all about, however.

xxxp
and you are such a hothouse flower, aren't you? it's not like you ever give a shit about other people with chronic medical conditions who might not be as privileged as you in the post that started this.

otm

We need to have a Trading Places feature where posters can live in each other's circumstances for a week, learn to empathize and then post as the other person.

I think you're more thinking of Freaky Friday, I don't remember Trading Places having a speech by Eddie Murphy's character about how now he's learned life is tough for rich dudes too.

speaking of needing a better library, it does seem like the "be reasonable, accept incremental change" faction helped vote in the mayor who cut library services in order to massively increase cop budgets to fight a nonexistent crime wave and arrest NYU students.

We need to have a Trading Places feature where posters can live in each other's circumstances for a week, learn to empathize and then post as the other person.

― Halfway there but for you

see the interesting thing is that i know what life as a cishet white man is. and it turns out it's not actually because i'm a white trans woman. see, as far as i can tell, everybody has to know what life as a cishet white man is like! because they're "normal" and basically everything has to be done with their approval or shit doesn't get done.

i also wouldn't trade places with anyone for a week, if i had a choice at all about it. i'm pretty happy with who i am, overall. also, the last time i let somebody else post as me, he made death threats against a united states presidential candidate and i got kicked out of college. so _that's_ not happening again if i can help it.

If you’re not a serial killer targeting investment bankers can you even claim to be anti-capitalist?

I've def been having more fantasies of being a billionaire assassin lately

unless you’re “doing something” you’re not allowed to complain, I learned this from white men during the nfl “stand for the flag” nonsense

i don't want to kill billionaires, i just want to make them have to pay me rent

that sounds like it'd be a pretty sweet gig

I’m sorry but the “you are going to die sooner” remark is gross and also makes no sense… someone closer to death would be more likely to want faster change … because they have less time to lose?

Honestly ILX is for complaints of all kinds

Based on generational attitudes toward climate change that is appears to be untrue.

Exactly, didn’t think it was a very abstract point I was making.

Based on generational attitudes toward climate change that is appears to be untrue.

"I’m sorry but the “you are going to die sooner” remark is gross and also makes no sense… someone closer to death would be more likely to want faster change … because they have less time to lose?"

Absolutely not. Older voters who have pensions and mortgages paid off lean conservative. A lot of them go on several holidays a year and have no idea why younger people are struggling.

They voted in the system, it worked for them. A lot of them are in denial about climate change.

Honestly ILX is for complaints of all kinds

OTM

Older voters who have pensions and mortgages paid off lean conservative. A lot of them go on several holidays a year and have no idea why younger people are struggling.

How do you define "older"?

"pensions"

We need to have a Trading Places feature where posters can live in each other's circumstances for a week, learn to empathize and then post as the other person.

"I've gone off MBV"

Look, I'm just going to say something: I don't dislike unperson, as much as he may dislike me. We actually agree on some matters both politically and aesthetically, and I don't have a problem finding common ground with him when I can.

The issue is that I don't like being slandered as some sort holier-than-thou couch warrior, because while I can be pretty strident in my views in ways that are pretty well-known to everyone on this board, I am also not just spouting shit off on the internet. I *do* shit around my community. I want a better world for us all, and if that means wanting a world that doesn't exist yet, then so be it. I will keep doing what I do in the meantime while hoping that my small part might help bring about that better world.

What I refuse to accept is that working only within structures that we have now will create much change. Thinking outside of them might be idealistic, but it's also necessary.

Look, I'm just going to say something: I don't dislike unperson, as much as he may dislike me. We actually agree on some matters both politically and aesthetically, and I don't have a problem finding common ground with him when I can.

I don't dislike you either. I don't dislike anyone here on a personal level, not even gyac. When I respond to someone, I am always and only responding to their words on the screen. And I have a lot of respect for the local actions you describe. My mom does a lot of the same things — driving for Meals on Wheels, doing people's taxes for free with the United Way, probably some other stuff too. (And yet she also takes multiple vacations every year — she's off to Europe next month!) I will always feel that local action is all that can reasonably be expected of people, and where the potential for real benefit lies. Certain economic and social structures only work on a small scale. A self-selecting community, maybe a town, maybe a small and mostly ethnically homogeneous country. But the US is more than 50 countries, crudely lashed together. No one system is ever gonna work for all of them.

As if that’s the only problem currently being debated in US politics…

As if that’s the only country being discussed, posted from, or affected by climate change

We need to have a Trading Places feature where posters can live in each other's circumstances for a week, learn to empathize and then post as the other person.

ilm already full of posts about Macca sins

(xp) It's OK we're used to everything being about the US by now.

America has colonised our sub boards

I volunteer to trade places with literally anyone else

I don't want any of you talking to my family so I'm going to have to withdraw from the Freaky Friday scheme. Nothing personal

I’m not wasting my Trading Places on anyone a) not rich and b) who I’d feel bad about robbing.

If Elon Musk is in the news for giving away all his Tesla stock and then dying in a tragic Cybertruck autoasphyxiation accident, it wasn’t me.

Certain economic and social structures only work on a small scale. A self-selecting community, maybe a town, maybe a small and mostly ethnically homogeneous country.

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson)

my frustration is that the people i want to be in community with can't make it work even on a small scale. to make those economic and social structures work you have to have, well. there has to be a certain amount of _stability_. the dream of a stable, sustainable, small community - i mean it didn't work with places like oneida, and it's not gonna work any better with queer people. and look:

When I respond to someone, I am always and only responding to their words on the screen.

at the risk of engaging in tedious semantics, i don't think that's true! there's no reason to assume that people who complain about capitalism _don't_ engage in local community. everybody fills in what they don't know about people from somewhere inside their own head. in my case, i just assume as a default that everybody i talk to is also a severely traumatized polyamorous transgender communist. and then i get confused when people suggest i should try and get library funding measures on the local ballot.

for the record i think basically well of everyone here. a lot of this is that my memory isn't great and i have difficulty keeping track of people i might have grudges against. if anybody thinks poorly of me, i mean, that's their business. i've said and done some fucked up stuff, but basically i like myself and think i'm a good person - to the extent that i'm not gonna go out of my way to try and change anybody else's opinions of me.

I volunteer to trade places with literally anyone else

― ain't nothin but a brie thing, baby (Neanderthal)

neando, i like you enough that if it was actually possible i might just take you up on that. you deserve a week's vacation.

everybody fills in what they don't know about people from somewhere inside their own head. in my case, i just assume as a default that everybody i talk to is also a severely traumatized polyamorous transgender communist.

I'm 6'2", but I don't think of myself as tall, so I walk around subconsciously expecting other men to be as tall as me, and then I meet them and am often left thinking, Wow, you're really short! What's up with that? It's a dumb thing to think/believe/expect, but I can't seem to shake it.

lol thank you for helping us fill in our concept of you

you should kick. you afraid of you?

To the non US posters, my reference to US Politics was not intended to center the US, but to refer to where this conflict originated… also, it sounds like old people get a much better deal where you live… speaking as someone who is likely to die sooner than ilx’s millennials… I have a shit ton of anxiety about the affordability of health care, the social security system, and affordable housing that is accessible for people with mobility problems… because those are things that I am going to be dealing with sooner and I think a lot has to change pretty damn quickly

just looking at the first paragraph, the title of the journal, and the masthead reminded me how long I've been out of academia because I don't know what the title of the magazine means (I probably did at one point, or maybe it's newer trendy term that I'm too old to know), I did recognize the name of a former professor whose class I rarely showed up for, and I confess at first it made me think of the bird vomit eating thing ... reverse peristalsis.

but it has an @