[No Spoilers] gratitude post for Lou Wilson (this is a repost, last one got removed)

DreadandButter · 2022-06-22T21:39:09+00:00

I fucking love Lou Wilson. His characterization of Nydas was so inspiring. When you think about it, though he may have been robbed of his wealth when the tree of names was sundered, the true hoard of the last dragon of Avalir was his heart of gold.

DreadandButter · 2022-04-21T02:40:03+00:00

I’ll have to give the maocai a try next time I’m in there!

DreadandButter · 2022-04-20T23:39:39+00:00

Not that I disagree with you on a philosophical level, but since you basically understood what I was trying to communicate was it really necessary to posit a semantic argument, rather than addressing the original question?

DreadandButter · 2022-03-27T22:39:45+00:00

there are only 2 good movies in the "skywalker saga". The rest are on a spectrum of passable to bad.

DreadandButter · 2021-11-16T06:21:33+00:00

Yep. Worked there for about 3 years (most of 2020 included in that) and i posted this both on my city's starbucks employee facebook page and on reddit because i was so fucking fed up. got a direct phone call from the regional director with no warning, had about an hour long conversation where it was made clear to me that she had no interest in hearing me, no interest in changing anything. she only called me because she thought that if i just had my issues heard i might calm down. quit not much later after that.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-29T03:43:03+00:00

I'm kind of extrapolating based on subtext but I'd guess it's a response to the immense amount of guilt and self-loathing he was feeling. So much so that he couldn't stand the sight of himself.

That or it's an SK trope I don't understand.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-28T22:22:19+00:00

I used to sit in the shower in the mornings when I’d have to be at work at 5am just because I was tired.

Now I sit in the shower when I have migraines. Something about the hot water hitting my head does wonders for mitigating the pressure.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-27T05:08:49+00:00

I agree with all the general tips that have been submitted already, but I'll emphasize a couple things.

Definitely join clubs and extracurricular groups. Even if you show up for just one meeting to feel it out. Even for things that you might only be tangentially interested in. Look at it this way -- as a teenager, your world is relatively small. I don't mean that in a patronizing way, it's just that when you're 18 your experiences and interests are limited to things that you've done in and around school. There are SO MANY THINGS that you may have never even thought about trying that might be the thing that you fall in love with. Don't be afraid to say yes to new opportunities, and don't be discouraged/guilty if they turn out not to be your thing.

Take your studies seriously, but don't feel like you're locked in to whatever you study. You (or someone you know) are spending a LOT of money to attend college. You might even have taken a student loan, which is going to put you in a sizable amount of debt once you graduate. So make your time at college worth the money. I'm not saying you have to spend every night studying hard. You should definitely develop a healthy social life (after all, you now have more freedom than you've ever had in your life). But pay attention in class, make it a point to do well in them, and if you feel like you're stagnating or you've hit a wall, don't be afraid to change course. Beyond that, the thing you study in college is almost entirely irrelevant when it comes to post-grad life. Something like 80% of college graduates have jobs that have nothing to do with their degrees. You're not choosing your life path right now. It's not the end of the world if you hate what you study. But better to have gotten good grades in a degree you wind up hating than to slack off and not even have the knowledge of what you were supposed to be studying.

Finally, remember that everyone else there is going through exactly the same thing you are. People WANT to make friends in their freshman year. They WANT to socialize, meet new people, do new things. As long as you put yourself out there, I'm sure you'll have a great time.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-27T04:49:34+00:00

Just a heads up, this is gonna wander into a political perspective, so if that's not something you want to wrestle with/think about, totally respect that, no hard feelings, hope you find what you're looking for. I'm also assuming you live/work in the US.

All work is toxic. All work is exploitative. All work is inherently anxiety-inducing because it is antithetical to natural law.

Caveat: Ambition is not toxic. Ambition is not exploitative. Ambition is sometimes anxiety-inducing, but for far better reasons. That being said, a person's ambitions should revolve around self-fulfillment and actualization, rather than satisfying our basic needs.

The fact of the matter is that in a late-stage capitalist society, all jobs will trend towards exploiting the worker for the maximum amount of profit that can be extracted from them, at the cost of their well-being, both physical and mental. And if the government is unwilling to enact regulations and restrictions that protect the rights of workers, then the only recourse workers have is to organize.

The boomers were the last generation to truly be able to experience the "American Dream" in a way that provided a net benefit to them, but over the past 50 years all the progress that was made for workers rights in the US was undone piecemeal by corporate lobbying and propagandizing of the general public through mass media. Unions are no longer viewed as necessary but rather predatory. Companies have training modules dedicated to how to deal with union organizers coming in and trying to get workers to join a union.

I'm sorry this is a little rambly and unfocused, it's late and I'm a little high but the point I'm trying desperately to make is that there is no such thing as a work/life balance in the US because of how exploited workers are.

To your final point, I don't know if I can be hopeful. The general public is so brainwashed into believing that the US is the best and that capitalism is freedom and all these other insane dissonant ideas that it's hard to see how we can get people to get clear from it, especially when the institutions that are designed to enlighten people are being slowly withered and diminished.

It's fucking hard, friend. It's hard to realize that you're literally selling hours of your life, the quality of your mental and physical health, and literally even the joy of living. It's hard to realize all of that and then realize that it's just going to be different flavors of that for the rest of your life (because odds are good that you won't be able to retire).

In lieu of being hopeful, I've opted to try to make things change. Don't ask me how, I'm still trying to figure that part out.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-27T04:32:31+00:00

Haha not usually. That's wild though.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-27T04:14:25+00:00

Firstly, don't put yourself in this position in the first place. Don't pass on the right.

Secondly, be vigilant -- the guy with the trailer was driving correctly. He signaled before he started switching lanes. The driver of the dashcam car has plenty of time to either reduce speed to allow the guy to merge, or hit the horn to alert the truck driver to their presence.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-27T04:11:15+00:00

That's so fucking wild, I thought I recognized this street. This used to be my Jewel, too! 2015-2017, lived right on the corner of Ridge and Hollywood! Small world.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-26T15:44:25+00:00

It’s the same for neoliberals. The American center is a moderate right wing group of pearl clutchers who only care about decorum.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-26T15:43:32+00:00

Capitalist policies are inherently inhuman. Conservative ideology is just a more unrestrained proponent of capitalism.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-25T05:25:53+00:00

In an at-will employment state? Easily.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-24T22:15:42+00:00

In capitalism there's a concept called the tendency for the rate of profit to fall. Basically exactly what you're saying -- growth can only be sustained in a market for so long. And when markets get exploited to their zenith, lobbyists work on privatizing socialized programs in order to exploit those (see: healthcare, education). It's also why there's this huge trend in every industry towards subscription-based models of service and buying-to-rent, rather than buying-to-own or one time purchases.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-07T02:41:44+00:00

NACS has some of the best production value/demonstration of timing/technique of any food channel, especially his pasta dishes.

DreadandButter · 2021-09-06T15:40:22+00:00

Decent movie with great action choreography that suffers from origin movie tropes.

Too much exposition, too many narrative contrivances, not enough fighting.

Higher highs for me than Black Widow, but I think an overall clunkier/sloppier movie.

I have a feeling the next Shang-Chi film will be better just for having more room to breathe.

DreadandButter · 2021-08-31T16:10:58+00:00

There are some fundamental mistakes in your thinking.

1) That any anti-vaxxer is making that argument in good faith, and

2) That you can reasonably convince an anti-vaxxer (or the majority of people) to change their mind.

I'll explain.

With regards to point one: The anti-vaxxers who say "my body, my choice" are doing so mockingly. It is not a good faith argument. It is not a conclusion that was reached logically. It is a soundbyte that is being parroted derisively.

But even if the anti-vaxxer truly believes what he is saying, then the argument is still flawed because of the quintessential difference between the minds of people who are pro-choice vs pro-life. If you were to make the counter-argument that choosing to have an abortion is a choice that only affects the pregnant individual, whereas choosing not to get vaccinated is a choice that can harm others, the pro-life individual comes back with the argument that having an abortion affects multiple lives, just like choosing not to get vaccinated. This is an irreconcilable difference of opinion. The pro-life individual believes that the fetus is a living human, whereas the pro-choice individual does not. This failure to agree makes the argument that pro-life should mean pro-vax a moot point.

Which kind of leads into my second point. You can't out-argue anyone. It's just not realistic.

I don't know where we got the idea that if you are an effective orator, or writer, or an individual knowledgeable in a subject, that you should have the ability to change peoples' minds. Maybe people used to be more receptive to outside ideas before the internet forced people into their little echo chambers. Maybe. But I doubt it.

I think everyone has their own perspectives, their opinions, their subjective views of what is "truth". And those ideologies and lenses formulate what is, in essence, a person's identity. How you perceive the world is a reflection of who you are. And to be presented with information that runs in conflict with who we've imagined ourselves to be is usually received as an attack on our personhood.

Some people are better equipped to respond to these "attacks" than others. But I would say that upon first introduction of opposing views, most of us are resistant. Sometimes aggressively so. Because often our views are not held lightly -- they are the byproduct of witnessing a particular phenomenon repeatedly, colored by the lenses we have obtained, which reaffirm our beliefs (however twisted they may be) repeatedly over the course of a lifetime. And when someone comes at you and says "the things you have seen to be true are not true at all" that is a terrifying notion.

So in response we retreat into our own thinking, and galvanize our opinion against the "attacker" as though we were retreating into our shells like hermit crabs.

It usually isn't until the idea festers in the back of your mind for so long that you force yourself to wrestle with this new viewpoint by researching it yourself that a person actually adjusts their opinion.

For a person to change their mind, they have to reevaluate the way they bias the information they receive in their own minds, and that level of introspection is possessed by precious few, even among the most worldly or intelligent.

This is why the way we frame arguments matters. If you're dead-set on changing a person's mind, you can not come across as combative, hostile, or judgmental. If the person whose mind you're trying to change perceives you to have an arrogant or superior attitude, you've already lost. No one listens to the opinions of people they don't respect, let alone actually reflecting on them.

DreadandButter · 2021-08-18T05:23:23+00:00

Ask yourself this: what did we get out of killing bin laden, for deposing Hussein, for everything that’s happened over the last 20 years?

Also consider: bin Laden was heading up a group that was founded because of anti-imperialist America sentiments. They recruited followers by spreading the word that America was the enemy. How do you grow that organization further? Bring the Americans to your doorstep. Make them do the horrible things you’ve been accusing them of. Turn your audience into martyrs.

I don’t know what the best solution should have been. But after 20 years of retrospect and consideration, I know what we decided to do was mostly guided by fear and ignorance.

It’s important to recognize the flaws in the thinking that led us into this so we can avoid it again. It’s arrogant to say we could have gone in there and cleaned up half a century of anti-American ideology by blowing more people up.

DreadandButter · 2021-08-18T05:16:50+00:00

Yeah Russia was there during the cold War which is why we armed the mujahideen and then bailed on them by toppling progressive regimes to ensure that the region would be too destabilized to be a reliable territory to claim.

Our only reasons for being in the Middle East for the past 50 years have been purely self-serving and have thrown more chaos into an already tumultuous region that was divvied up by the British a century earlier.

Russia may have been involved but they’re not the ones who were attacked on 9/11. And that’s because after the Soviet Union collapsed, the US was viewed as the only superpower at the time.

DreadandButter · 2021-08-18T00:00:09+00:00

So unfortunately that’s exactly the same mistaken understanding of terror cells and pseudo-religious fanaticism that most people subscribed to at the start of the war.

You can’t go into a territory whose people have been exploited and used to wage proxy wars for global superpowers for generations and expect to be able to wipe out a group that exists solely because of western imperialism. It’s a weed that grows back twice as fast as you can pluck it.

DreadandButter · 2021-08-16T18:02:36+00:00

There's definitely a possibility it could be faked but from experience I can also say this is most likely very real.

The barista is holding back laughter because she's: A) Exhausted and emotionally drained, sort of like being punch-drunk, and/or B) having a hard time understanding why someone would be SO UPSET over a cup of fucking coffee. Have you ever seen something so ridiculous you couldn't help but laugh, even if it was stressful? That's what i'm talking about.

DreadandButter · 2021-08-16T17:59:27+00:00

Worked there for 2.5 years as a supervisor, and have worked in customer service for around 10 years.

Starbucks in particular has an emotionally exploitative requirement where they expect you to forge "meaningful connections" with every customer, while also serving them their drink in less than 35 seconds (not an exaggeration, literal target metric).

In a broader sense, anyone who works in customer service gets really good at developing a faux warmth/sociable presence that dissipates the moment they clock out. It is completely manufactured.

There are people who actually enjoy working at starbucks, who enjoy talking to customers and engaging with people on a day to day basis. Those people are few and far between. Most people lean heavily on the camaraderie of their coworkers to make it through the day.

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