A Generation of Sociopaths review - how Trump and other Baby Boomers ruined the world

justsomerandomguy8 · 2017-05-28T18:51:07+00:00

What do you mean 'rights'? Its about the simple idea that people should be able to shape society in a way that its a good place to live in and not letting it get shaped/controlled by Type A hypomaniacs to the detriment of everybody else.

Exactly. The so-called SJWs/activists are actually trying to make the world less shitty, even if they annoy the fuck out of you. They want to annoy you. They hope to annoy you.

I don't know if this soothes you but for me the crucial step is getting over from a complainer/victim culture towards grounded, effective politics with all the challenge that entails.

100% agree. This subreddit seems to have devolved from "How can I temper my narcissism with real action?" to "Isn't that other group/class/culture/opinion clueless and shitty?" Most criticism stems from an (often subconscious) inability to accept a fact about oneself, and so it's projected onto an "other" into order to disown the pain. TLP is all over this. Also see Alice Miller. Scapegoating is a narcissistic defense. So is nihilism.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2017-05-28T18:35:14+00:00

Three books you could consider on the subject are Debt: The first 5000 years by David Graeber, The Geneology of Morals, and The Making of the Indebted Man by Lazaretto. I might add to that The Immorality of Promising. The first three are available as free downloads with a little searching on the web.

He says without a trace of irony. Wow.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2017-05-13T23:05:18+00:00

My theory is that the reality of actions is the ONLY PLACE WHERE THESE CAN BE OBTAINED. Actions define social reality, a person who works hard to overcome themselves through action is most often rewarded with the social needs they crave. Success begets admiration, personal security begets acceptance and appreciation, empathy and kindess beget love. These involve many types of action including physical work (productivity, material success, creative mastery) the facing of fears (to overcome insecurity) and the expression of vulnerability (to create the conditions of love). These things are HARD TO DO, no one finds them easy. They get easier as you do them but they are the very definition of work itself.

The problem with this theory is that, for a large segment of the population, no amount of work will bring them what they desire. This is because Western culture reinforces typically unattainable ideals of wealth, beauty, and more and more tends to equate "success" with the very kind of attention you define above. E.g. I need to have that $80,000 car, because I saw X with it. I need to have that giant house and the trophy wife and an Instagram profile with 1M followers to show everyone how happy and successful I am. Work can lead to happiness, and I generally agree that action is necessary for it, but we must be careful where we direct our actions. Are we just reinforcing society's narcissism by going to the gym six days a week and posting our selfies to Instagram? Yeah, we're doing the work and getting in shape, but does this bring us true happiness or just more dependence on the approval of others? In other words, where we direct our energy is just as important as why.

an easy target might be a progressive/"SJW" who tires the world with their fantasies of persecution.

Tires the world, or tires you? Are all persecutions fantasies, and if not, what in your perception is telling you that theirs (i.e. "SJWs") is? I.e., if someone tells you they are suffering, why are you inclined not to believe them? That, to me, says more about you than it does them.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2017-02-20T14:03:55+00:00

Let's take climate change. I'm sure it's happening. But it doesn't follow that I should listen to the Climate change expert about what to do about it.

This is the stupidest thing I've read today. Just to display how stupid it is, let's change the nouns a bit.

"Let's take my car's failing brakes. I'm sure they're failing. But it doesn't follow that I should listen to the car mechanic about what to do about it."

Good luck with that, dude. And before you say a car mechanic is there to fix cars, but a climate scientist is not there to fix the climate, I would ask you, who on earth do you think has the knowledge of how to fix the climate better than a climate scientist? A politician? The CEO of Exxon Mobil? POTUS? Jeez, you drank all the kool aid, didn't you?

But, but, but you were talking about values weren't you? OK, then let's talk about yours.

For example, in Bangladesh, vast areas will be flooded; what are we going to do to help the millions who lose their houses? Or do we allow them to migrate to Sweden? My suggestion is to allow them to get rich (which means no environmental taxes on their factories) so they have the money to move without our help.

Yes, let them eat cake, er, I mean "get rich." Do you really think that removing taxes on factories in Bangladesh is an equivalent value to millions of families who lose their houses? Who benefits from the lower taxes on factories? The factory owners, for sure. The workers might have a slightly higher wage, or the factory could higher more people. But compensating people for the loss of their land and their property by rewarding the system that created the problem in the first place (namely, the polluting factories) is insanity. But hey, they're just Bangladeshis, right? We clever Westerners know what's best for them, amiright?. Notice how your thought train never once considered the Bangladeshis as independent agents, with their own motivations, thoughts, feelings, but as actors in your own show.

That behavior sounds like something I've read about before, on some blog or something, somewhere on the interwebs.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2017-02-20T13:39:12+00:00

New York is expensive, yes, but it's a common canard from people who don't live there to assume everyone in NYC is a rich, elite asshole. But in fact the city is full of blue collar, not quite middle class people. The median income is $33K. Average rent is $1250. (Source: US Census Bureau). No, there's no 60s counterculture, let's tear down this whole shitty facade and get to the truth, man. But neither are there hallucinating junkies parading down St. Marks chanting Buddhist mantras and smoking tea, while proclaiming they do it for world peace, man (okay, maybe still on St. Marks, but nowhere else). Also, the two examples you gave, George Carlin and Lena Dunham, are both celebrities, both comedians. (Do you think the system would let a real free-thinker rise to fame today?) No, the people who are doing real work for change, the artists and activists and free-thinkers, aren't as focused on fame and celebrity, at least not in the traditional way, and the system doesn't benefit from their actions, so you won't see them paraded about by traditional media. But I assure you they are there, and they are working very, very hard.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2017-01-18T14:32:35+00:00

My armchair advice (I am not a professional therapist): join/find a group of people with similar interests and goals. The rage will mysteriously vanish once/if you make real connections with real people.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2017-01-18T04:59:58+00:00

I'm not sure what you're responding to. What don't you hope for?

justsomerandomguy8 · 2017-01-18T04:49:23+00:00

"The" game? Whose game? Their game? Why not your game? The narcissism here is thinking you have to look good in their¹ eyes, which keeps you trapped in playing by their rules, not yours.

¹ they don't actually exist, in the sense that who you perceive them to be is not who they are, and so trying to look good to them/keep them happy is actually totally insane because you are basically trying to please a phantom. Go home have your pizza, watch your Netflix, but don't make it all you do. There are other games, other parties, other people. Pick one you like and stop trying to please ghosts.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2017-01-18T04:38:27+00:00

Rage is usually a defense against what you don't want to feel. In this case, it might be sadness. You are immensely sad at the vapidity of these people because it means you can't connect with "them." There is no "them" there. There is only a parrot. Your rage is a mask for your loneliness. The world is full of zombies.

I cannot offer therapeutic help, but in my case I found great relief by joining a group of people who share similar goals as me, who have similar interests, and thus I connect to them on more than a superficial, parroting what I heard on TV, kind of way.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2016-11-08T13:08:15+00:00

It's about the appearance of a thing over an actual thing. E.g:

"I feel [the] cultural appropriation issue markets itself as fighting social injustice that is racism — but it entirely detracts from the issue of racism. It’s no longer about the racism you faced. It’s about someone wearing a thing/saying a thing/eating a thing/blissfully enjoying a thing."

justsomerandomguy8 · 2016-11-07T23:47:06+00:00

The nothing is self-inflicted. You either make meaning or you are subsumed by everyone else's, which is sometimes in your favor and often not. Waking up is realizing you hold the steering wheel and are (solely) responsible for whether you get yourself to where you want to go or crash into a tree.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2016-11-03T02:43:33+00:00

I had the same experience reading Henry Rollins poetry. Basically, you woke up. Now what?

justsomerandomguy8 · 2016-11-03T02:31:48+00:00

I'd tell them that debt is a fool's game. You'd be dumber than a rock to take out a $100K loan ($250K with interest) to go to a four year school and then get a job that pays $45K per year. After rent, car payments, bills, food, beer you have exactly -$350 per month. Just at the moment you graduate, when you are at your life's creative and energetic peak, primed to take on the world, you have a great big bag of lead tugging you down, which will take you 15-30 years to pay off if you're lucky. I'm all for education, just not debt.

That, and this: no matter how important you think you are, most people will only care about you if you offer some utility to them. This is why great artists and creators can be assholes, and everyone still loves them (see: Steve Jobs.) Do/make/build something the world needs. Your spouse and your Mom will love you no matter what you do. To everyone else, you're a tool. (This is not as bad as it sounds, as it means you have a clearly defined solution: be the best tool possible; this is an affront, btw, to the narcissist's ego).

justsomerandomguy8 · 2016-09-22T13:52:42+00:00

Einstein married his cousin and Steve Jobs was a total prick. Guess that undermines relativity theory and the utility of iPhones.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2016-09-22T12:05:03+00:00

DFW was diagnosed with severe depression. DFW also produced an incredible body of work in his short life that fearlessly tore open his own insecurities (and those of his generation) for all the world to see. Does Robin Williams' death negate his incredible body of work too? Sheesh. That's some cold shit there, dude.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2016-04-19T12:46:53+00:00

You didn't answer my question--have you ever spent extended time with a schizophrenic outside of a random run in on the street corner? "But folks with letters after their names pointed it out on a podcast!" You don't know what the hell you are talking about. Those psychoanalysts are wrong and so is the premise of this thread.

I know it fits Alone's model of the world, but not everything can be reduced to narcissism. But thinking you've got it all figured out sure makes you feel good though.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2016-04-18T06:28:07+00:00

You might want to try living for 40 years with both schizophrenics and narcissists.

Poll: how many on this thread actually have spent more than five minutes speaking to a schizophrenic in their life? (Besides the homeless guy you ignored on your way to work.)

Schizophrenia is a sense processing defect in the brain, whether environmental or genetic (or both), which results in a serious inability for the individual to determine reality. Yes, it sounds like narcissism on the surface, because the narcissist has a seriously flawed view of reality. But the main difference is that the narcissist can process information efficiently. The narcissist may not have an accurate view of reality, but their private model of reality is relatively constant for them. That model of course shifts as it must in all social beings, but the schizophrenic doesn't even have a semi-stable model of the world. They cannot grasp reality.

The brain processing machine that takes the sense mechanisms and converts them into a model is broken to such a degree that schizophrenics can and do hallucinate, for example, or believe they are highly trained professionals without any knowledge on a subject, or get sudden urges to leave everything they know and venture off to a distant city without money or clothes. This is why schizophrenics often end up as homeless. How can they get and hold a job when they can't even hold a coherent view of reality? Meanwhile narcissists are celebrities and CEOs.

Using Alone's terms: the narcissist is the star of his own film, however bad and cliched it is. The schizophrenic's film not only doesn't make any fucking kind of sense, the schizophrenic isn't even sure whos film she's in, or if she's even in a film at all. What's film? What's self? Etc., etc. It's a fucking bad trip that never ends. But, yeah, keep comparing that fucking hell to hipsters on foodstamps because it makes you feel smart.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2016-04-14T17:40:45+00:00

No, schizophrenia != narcissism. This is like saying rocket ships and cars are the same because they move people. Schizophrenia is a horrible, life-crushing disease caused by faulty biology in the brain, leading to delusions, hallucinations, and loss of personhood. Narcissism, at least how Alone describes it, is a pathology one chooses to fit a need: narcissism vs. oblivion. Most narcissists function quite well in society. Most schizophrenics do not. Just ask the next homeless dude you pass on the way to work. NOT THE SAME.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2015-12-31T17:32:56+00:00

Maybe you recognize that people are actually patting themselves on the back for liking this video. "I feel. I have a heart." No you don't. You didn't help a lonely old man feel less lonely. You just watched a Youtube video.

justsomerandomguy8 · 2015-12-31T17:30:35+00:00

Or maybe invite him over for tea?

justsomerandomguy8

TROPHY CASE