Re: OT: Dogbert's New Ruling Class Newsletter, April, 2005


"Scott Stephens" <scottxs@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6cedneOKg50cCP3fRVn-jg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Kryten wrote:

> No, its *you* that say I am misunderstanding Scott Adams "humour" as
> politically-motivated derision.

Correct.

> eh eh, oh no, ..., No! You wouldn't want to insult me or insinuate I'm a
> neurotic, tormented, Nazi, fascist, paranoid, militant loon, now would
> you? ;-)

Nope, because you could well be on the news as yet another serial killer.
Man leaves trail of dead cartoonists and comedians!

> Not *lots* of people, Kryten. Just *certain* people, Kryten. ;-)

And they're all going down on a little mental list of people you hate with
murderous intensity.

> Perhaps because I'm paranoid?

Yep, that's one conclusion.

> Perhaps its death rays from the Black Helicopters.

Pass the tinfoil helmets.

> Scott Adams mocks individuals and religion

If those individuals or religions do really stupid things they deserve to be
mocked.

> it pretty much nails him as left-leaning, because the left is behind the
> efforts to purge "values" and morality from the culture.

So other people are not up to your own high standards.
And it's not because they are all individual and made up their own minds,
but in fact a huge communist conspiracy...


> If, as you say, he is the smartest entity in the universe, why do you
> question his will?

I don't, because I don't believe there are any supernatural beings like
that.

> I've heard it explained this way; God allowing evil things to happen is
> like a painful inoculation that makes a child cry, but is for their own
> good.

What good does an innocent murder victim gain?

If anyone else benefits, that would be unjust.

> God is much smarter than any parent, and we comparably, are more ignorant
> as an infant.

IMHO he doesn't exist.

> Pain is a relative sensation. Some people are very sensitive, other,
> having endured tremendous hardship, no long let little things bother them.
> I'm sure some people would lose their minds and suicide if there TV were
> broken.

If a guy knows someone is being murdered or raped, and tells the court "I
didn't get involved because they'll start wanting me to fix their TVs next",
that guy would rightly be considered a bad guy. Sensible people have a sense
of proportion, life is not all nothing vs. everything.

> How could a good God tell an innocent, crying child their broken toy
> didn't rank, didn't merit attention and action? Isn't that pretty much
> what people start out as, and at the core still are? Big crying babies
> that expect to be satisfied?

No, not most people I've met.


> I didn't know you were a fundamentalist.

I'm not. If you asked me how many gods are false, I would say all of them.

> I often wonder how I could be so stupid as to have believed all that
> stuff, until I catch myself taking for granted its true, like I was taught
> as a child.

But now you've grown up, you can believe there is a huge commie conspiracy
manifesting itself through comedians and cartoons?

> So denouncing political propaganda and pornography ranks with murder and
> theft?

No, just listing some example bad behaviour.

You see it as political propaganda, I don't think many other people do.

> If you don't believe in the Divine 10 commandments

I don't believe they came from God, but that does not allow

Things are good or bad by their nature, not because God says so.

> what do you consider "good"?

Avoiding murder, incest, rape etc at the extreme end and not ranting abuse
at strangers on the internet somewhat down the scale.

> What everybody believes is "normal"?

By and large most normal people might concur with the shortlist above.

> If everybody voted to institute slavery and murder Jews, would you say
> "Amen brothers!" and start following the herd?

Of course not, but then normal people aren't voting for that.

If they did, you'd have good reasons against it.


> But, Alas, you force me to do a web search and I find (the horror!) I'm
> wrong and you're right!
>
> http://www.allscifi.com/Topics/Info_3599.asp
> mission to blow up unstable planets
> detonate unstable, dangerous stars
> detonate dying suns
> destroy "unstable planets" which might threaten future colonization
> (http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Highrise/3756/jc/dks.htm)

If you've made a mistake about a movie, maybe you could have made a mistake
about comedy?
Just a thought.


> I picked a bad for instance. But there are militant, genocidal, nihilistic
> aliens. I know there are! Saberhagens Berserkers, Dr. Who's Daleks. I'm
> sure there is more. The universe is no doubt full of them!

Of course, they are there as mere plot devices for the sake of an
interesting movie that people would go to see. Stories are often portrayals
of good versus evil. The good life forms need some evil ones to win over.

Would anyone pay to see Daleks turning up with hot tea and cream cakes?
<dalek voice>WOULD YOU LIKE MILK AND SUGAR, HUMAN?</dalek voice>
It is so laughable that somebody made an advert suggesting their product
might even make daleks nice. They had a pair of daleks following some Hare
Krishna devotees down the high street, chanting <dalek voice>LOVE AND PEACE!
LOVE AND PEACE!</dalek voice>.

So there it is, nasty aliens are not there as part of a conspiracy to
disrupt interplanetary genocide, but to fill movie seats.


You could write a script where the aliens are commie bastards who try to
take over the world not by a special-effects laden shoot-em-ups but by
subliminal political propaganda disguised as cartoons. The hero of the movie
is one the few to notice the vast numbers of commies being elected all over
America.

I don't think you'd be able to sell the script. Hollywood can sell aliens in
spaceships, but not commie conspiracies. Not since Commies 'R' USSR went
tits up.


> It didn't work for me, I tried it, wasn't happy, and didn't get on with
> most people.

Okay, so you fail to get on with people and it is overwhelmingly their
fault?

> That was tragic. I wonder how many people join the military, and shortly
> lose their virginity to the first camp whores, in spite of their better
> judgment, so as not to endure the ridicule of their comrades? I would like
> to think that couldn't of happened to me, but I was so horny and eager to
> smoke and drink with the pack as a young man, I'm not so sure.

Ah, so you have something in common with Nietzsche.

> I'm expressing my convictions, denouncing the destroyers of civilization.
> Perhaps some people don't recognize degrading pornography and subtle
> political propaganda when they see it.

I seen people being antisocial and stupid here, but I don't blame it on a
conspiracy.

They're just jerks!

> If I don't agree with you, I'm not a polite citizen of the net,

Nobody objects to you disagreeing, only your vehement claims of communist
propaganda.


> and if I don't laugh at what you call a joke, take it at face value, I'm
> not "normal"?

Dude, you are not normal.
And not in a healthy polite way either.


> I don't want to be "normal".

It has been noticed.

> Nietzsche was intense and creepy.
> I like intense and creepy.

It has been noticed.

Much as you enjoy being that way, other people do not enjoy being subjected
to it.

> I would get scared if physical threats were made.

Well, most people get nervous around socially inappropriate behaviour.
If you're having a good natured chat about electronics, someone cracks a
joke over the barbeque, and a complete stranger hurls abuse about how you're
an evil ***,

> I would tune out.

Well can't you just tune out humour/comedy/propaganda?

> find a fundamentalist Islamic group to accuse of militant intolerance,
> not rowdy Libertarian Americans!

Maybe they think they're just being rowdy.

> But being intense over core values I hold as a virtue.
> Not taking things seriously that aught to be taken seriously, like
> politics and philosophy, consequently art and expression, I think is a
> vice.

Maybe if people didn't take politics seriously, there might be a lot less
hurling abuse and bullets:

"Adolf, excellent ranting, it was so funny. Love that silly moustache, and
those ridiculous ideas about mass murder. That would really make it hard to
find a decent bagel or a comedian here. Calm down and have some more beer
and sausage"

> I'm not the only one to cuss and spew labels around.

No, but you may have the least justification.

> I don't make deceitful insinuations like you have about me.

I'm not insinuating anything.
I'm merely suggesting that you might want to ask your friends if they think
you might be a little out of order. That's assuming you haven't been so
intense and creepy that the only friends you have left are in
alt.conspiracy.commie-bastards.

> Yep. We understand one another. I don't want your "help" being "normal".


> I like my opinions, my intensity, and my creepy =)

I'm sure you do.

I'm sure other people do not.

> You want to hear ranting about jokes and humour?

No.

> Go find an ethnic or religious minority, one of the sacrosanct victim
> classes, and make an ethnic joke. See what happens! Insist you were just
> good-natured teasing them!

Nope, because I have the social skills not to tell jokes like that with
people I don't know well.


> Some people just don't take a joke well, because they've been victimized.
> I've been (still probably am) persecuted for being different.

In what way? Your picture shows a someone who looks like a white middle
class Anglo-Saxon conservative American male. Not a well know minority
group.

If your being persecuted for the intense and creepy behaviour you don't want
to change, then maybe they feel you deserve it.

>> I've not seen anyone say "right on Scott, you've spotted the commie
>> bastards too!"
>
> Shall I go find some? I suspect I could go to libertarian, Objectivist and
> religious forums, make some people aware of Scott Adams "jokes" about
> individuals and religious, who would then post a "right on!".


> But I'm comfortable standing alone. In fact, I'm proud I can!

Well if you enjoy being an intense and creepy guy standing alone,
perhaps you could do it somewhere alone?

> I'm proud I'm sensitive to subtly too!

Some people are hypersensitive to peanuts.
One whiff and they go into massive shock.
It is not a good thing, nor is it an evil conspiracy by peanut selling
organisations.

> I often do. So few, so very few can appreciate Nietzsche or Rand's heroic
> sense of life, rationality and morality.

Maybe because they mainly appeal to a minority of people who want to be
intense and creepy.

Most people don't consider it a good lifestyle choice.

> Perhaps there are better things for both of us to do than pointlessly
> argue.

You could try arguing with a trained psychiatric counsellor.
He could be a commie *** wanting to cure you of anti-communism,
but more likely he will let carry on as long as you pay him.
Maybe you can convince him of the conspiracy, using your superior intellect
and logic.

> I think my scowling is cathartic

As much as you think it makes you feel better, it isn't making anyone else
feel that way.
Getting it out of your system puts it into ours.

> Just admonish me to be polite and respectful.

It hasn't helped so far, and you've said you want to carry on as you are.

> Don't waste your time insinuating I'm nuts because I don't share your
> taste in "humour" and philosophy.

Lots of people have different tastes, that doesn't make them nuts.

Having an extreme over-reaction to lightweight humour is.

For example, would you read Charlie Brown as a boy exploring the childhood
trials and joys of everyman, or as the persistent abusive social humiliation
of a kid for the entertainment of a cruel public?

Or Garfield - a big fat cat bloated by a parasitic relationship,
representing the burden imposed by socialist welfare systems. Why that
little orange commie hairy ***!

The Flintstones: a savage parody of the all-American way of life, portraying
them as cavemen! Outrageous! Commie *** cartoon animators Hannavich
Barberaski!

> Yep, I do! That's me! Creepy and intense! =)

Do you really think you can go on being that way and still feel you should
be liked and respected?

Or does being disliked make you feel more of a heroic martyr?

>> Everyone has plenty of their own *** to deal with.
>
> Well, you've dealt with me, haven't you? ;-)

I don't think you're ***, but a guy who is unhappy, angry and alone.

I've taken the time to converse with you (so you are less alone) and
politely suggest that it you might not actually be the focus of a massive
conspiracy to erode the values of the world as you wish it to be.

If you choose to continue being as you are then that is your responsibility.

If you want the right to find certain cartoons violently offensive, okay.
Equally, everyone else has the right to find them quietly enjoyable without
a torrent of intimidating aggressive abuse.



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