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

"Scott Stephens" <scottxs@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:c4udnQ8okbWeif3fRVn-3Q@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Kryten wrote:
>
> There is a phenomena (I'm not making this up, I'll site references) in
> abusive psychology known as the "Double Whammy". First the target is
> subtly insulted. If they protest, you claim to be "just joking".

So all the people who buy his books and enjoy them for wry humour are in
fact being subtly insulted. So subtly that they don't notice it?

> The 2nd insult is being accused of not being able to discern what is
> serious and what is a joke

Well that had crossed my mind.
Not that I wish to insult you.


> I find certain people often do this, not overtly realizing they do it. If
> they don't claim to be "just joking", they claim they were misunderstood.

So you you've met lots of people who have cracked a joke, you've found an
offensive meaning, told them so, they've said "just joking" or "you've
misunderstood".

Maybe they are all out to be nasty to you for some inexplicable reason.

Maybe they were just joking and you assumed some malicious reasons.

Do you find these folks avoid talking to you afterwards?
Maybe they're all out to ostracise you, but then again maybe they are just
all tired of being accused of being abusive communist bastards if they crack
a joke.

> But their intent to insult is all too clear.

To your mind maybe.

> Both Scott Adams and Whoopy Goldberg have publicly advocated ridicule of
> political or religious opponents

Let's face it, most political and religious figures are rightly worthy of
ridicule.

> But suffice to say if God shows up to fix any one problem, where does he
> stop fixing things?

Erm, whenever he sees fit - being the smartest entity in the universe.

I'm not expecting God to fix everything down to a broken TV.

Just the biggies. War, disease, rape, murder, incest, mental illness...

> When we're all God little house pets, that's when.

> One thing religions teach is we have a job, a duty. If we don't do it, God
> isn't going to come clean up our mess. God doesn't submit to extortion, or
> ransom hostages. Nor should men.

Well he did wipe out an entire city (Sodom) for the sin of sodomy.
Seems a bit over the top, if they were mutually consenting.
There must have been some innocent kids there.

As for Gomorrah, nobody even knows what the sin of gomorrahy is these days.


> Believing in nothing is no way to live life.

Just because one rejects implausible beliefs (God, Santa Claus, alternative
medicine) doesn't mean one believes in nothing else. I don't believe in God
but I do believe in living a good life: I don't murder people, steal, or
hurl abuse at strangers sharing something they found funny.

> That is the situation I came to understand. They go around dropping big
> nuclear bombs on planets, such as the one they got the alien from.

The end of the story hinges on the bomb conversation, so they had to have a
reason for carrying them.

> I don't have a miserable view of all humanity, on the contrary, humanity
> as potential greater than my imagination.

Only at the moment it seems to consist of people who piss you off.
>From university professors to cartoonists, they're all commie nihilist
bastards.


> Don't think, just laugh? Don't take life (yourself) seriously? That's no
> way to live.

Works for me, I'm happy, I get on with most people.

It's a question of balance. You have to find it between taking nothing
seriously, and taking everything too seriously.

> No, once again, I have supplied evidence these are scoffers abusing an
> entertainment media for political/philosophical purposes using degrading
> art.

Evidence that does not convince this member of the jury.

>> Strange. Well adjusted humans just see a cartoon ridiculing stupidity.
>
> "Well adjusted" to what? Corruption? Nihilism? Communism?

Well adjusted to reading a cartoon and being amused,
instead of seeing commie nihilist plots.

> Nietzsche experienced a lot of horror, yet still depicts heroic life.

The main horror of having syphilis eating his body was self inflicted.
That's not heroism.

> It isn't fair to judge the past century by the standards of our century.

I think in many cases, it is.
For example, murder and religious/political homicide are unethical now, and
I feel entirely at ease judging Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc as very bad
people indeed.

> If you read the romantic literature of Nietzsche and Rand, Scott Adams art
> looks like child-drawn pornographic stick figures. Their literature
> depicts life as hard, but heroic, great, worthwhile. Adams and the
> scoffers tell you life is small, dirty and worthless and meaningless.

I read the strips and see a cartoon. I smile.

We've all met stupid bosses and workmates. Not all of them are like that,
but sensible people doing sensible things don't make good material for
humour.

> But you'll note the survivalists in Atlas Shrugged swore an oath not to
> expect others to live for them.

I'm less optimistic about the survivalists outside of fiction.

>> You just seem to be so terribly unhappy with the world for some reason.
>
> Fraud, meanness and stupidity. Evil.

There's a lot of it about.
If you let it turn you into a scowling unhappy bitter twisted soul, hurling
abuse into your computer, then you've let the disease manifest a symptom.

> "Normal people"? Is that a worthy aspiration, to be "Normal"? Is one
> "Normal" by polling one's peers to make value judgments and conforming?

Normal as in being a polite citizen of the net and being able to take a joke
at face value.

Normal as in not being intense and creepy.

Just imagine if you posted a link to something that tickled you, only to
have someone ranting what an evil *** you are. It must be quite scary
and disconcerting. I mean, how can they tell that you are not a dangerous
paranoid angry abusive psychopath?

>> We'd like to try nudging you to a door for you to turn the key.
>
> Take care you don't "nudge" a porcupine that wants to be left free and
> independent.

There you are again. I mean a polite helping hand, you see a bullying shove
to conformity.

By all means remain free and independent.

Just less ranting at people trying to share things that made them laugh.





> I don't believe people that value being "normal" are really happy anyways.
> If they are happy, it happiness borrowed on others, not created in
> themselves. Like a laugh-track on a crappy TV show, it gets old and stale
> fast.

I know that depressed people see nothing wrong with their own world view and
it is everybody else who is wrong. If other people are happy it's because
they're too stupid to know better and their happiness isn't real anyway.
That would mean they'd got something right and you hadn't.



> And you say "We"? Are "We" royalty Kryten? Or do you want to make me feel
> alone and isolated, and you represent popular opinion?

Hmm, well 'we' meaning everyone who isn't leaping to agree with your
postings.
I've not seen anyone say "right on Scott, you've spotted the commie bastards
too!"
On the other hand, quite a few people opine you are reading far too much
into simple cartoons.

I'm not trying to make you feel alone and isolated, maybe you already feel
that way.

Hurling abuse at people isn't going to improve your lot.

If I wanted to make you feel alone and isolated, I could do my bit by
ignoring you.

However, I've been through bad times when I felt knee deep in assholes, and
I've known people scowl themselves into nervous breakdowns. They recover,
but are never as strong as they were before. Just like a cup handle that's
been repaired.

So on the contrary, I have spent some of my life engaging you in dialogue
hoping you'll become happier, and that as you feel less inclined to vent
your spleen then it will make everyone happier.

> Is Kryten from "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe"?

No, that was Marvin. He is often referred to as the paranoid android, but in
fact he was just clinically depressed. Constantly pointing out how smart he
was and moaning how he hated everything.

> I'll try to be more polite and civil

Try to be happy. It is the front line in the war against the forces of
unhappiness.

In your case, this will be a bit harder if cartoons and comedians offend
you.

If everyone is out espousing communism, get out there and enjoy the
all-American dream.
Enjoy the ball game, drive a nice car down route 66, listen to Springsteen,
read Playboy magazine (for the articles only of course).

> but I'm going to call a left-leaning nihilistic scoffer a left-leaning
> nihilistic scoffer (if not a communist).

That's like an alcoholic saying I'll try not to be an abusive drunk but I'm
going to carry on being abusive when I see fit. Except without the alcohol
involved.

If you don't like what you read, then read something else.
If you found yourself wading through sewage, you don't stay there wallowing
in it cursing everyone, or go on the net telling everyone what a huge pool
of *** you have found. Get out, clean it off, go someplace nicer. Use your
superior intellect to find some real happiness, then tell everyone about it.

Everyone has plenty of their own *** to deal with.

Usually a lot more serious than cartoonists.



.