#am i angry about a centrist ass take? that’s what having an opinion is like

[jynjackets]

cassian andor 🤝 hadder ponta

- rebels (spirit and lofty interpretation count right?)

- men

- have a mother

- rebel insurgent (one is headcanon)

- brunette

- they would be friends because they have equal amounts of characterization for me to make that determination (hc)

- treated as solely love interests even though one is written with the entire intention to be a love interest but i’m going to say the treatment by fans of a lead and a supporting stereotype are comparable for centrist blind feminism i mean men’s rights

[nullset2]

Open Letter on Hate

I got to call out something that I'm noticing in my day to day in my city, Seattle, because I think that, if not spoken about, it will get out of hand in a very bad way; that something, ladies and gentlemen, is a certain feeling of societal unrest related to the tech industry's impact on the community that, ever so slightly, shows the rear of its ugly head in succint yet cutting ways in everyday life.

Now, first point of disclosure, I'm not one of those Social Justice types and you shall see no clothes-tearing of biblical proportions here; yet, I think that we, and by that I mean Humanity as a whole, we MUST progress towards a more accepting and more emphathetic society. I honestly believe that it is a horribly hard challenge to shed the ugliness of tribalism and groupthink in the modern US, and that as a whole we're currently faced with horrendous Ecological, Social and Political challenges, which we must solve. To constantly try to move the modern narrative to move that agenda forward is necessary.

However, I also know that the establishment is there for a reason, and it would be stupid of me to ignore that or to try to antagonize it. So, call me a centrist if you will, as in, all sides of thought have a lot to be criticized for.

Second, I realize that I come from a position of privilege, which some of you will happily brandish against me (oh, I can just feel the angry keystrokes coming my way already...).

Oh, how I hate that term.

I am an information professional in 2019, a field very, very highly sought after for people and where people generally do well. So I will not claim to have all the answers, lest some of my unconscious biases were to show, but as somebody who knows what happens in both sides of society and that is actually trying to change, I still feel compelled to write my impressions in order to get people thinking.

I may be an information professional yet it wasn't "just given" to me in any shape or form, you know? This stuff costed me years, and years of dedication, capice?

Hopefully you can call me out if I say something uncalled for --remember, this is the cornerstone of cultured discourse, I say something, you say something back if I messed up, from which I learn, and by continuing that process, we reach the Truth. Things will get better as long as we keep talking, and the moment you leave the discussion table because of some high and mighty political belief that precludes basic human decency, then we're done.

So, ok, let's get onto the point: it seems that, as the generation born in the 80s and 90s in the modern, globalized world reaches maturity and as they start to realize that they're Hungry, they're feeling a little bit left to die by a variety of societal forces related to the expansion of the tech industry in the US.

Some call it an economical gap, citing the 1% and whatnot... or some even worse types will start bringing out conspiranoic thoughts that I just would rather not dive into.

In any way, all of this leads to a bunch of... well, just plainly, hate. Hate for each other, hate for the establishment, hate for the goverment, hate for the enterprise. Just undistilled, raw hate.

And this then surfaces lots of ugly things: who would had thought that racism, nazism, white supremacy, sexism and discrimination would be alive and well in 2019? 2019 is one of those year-dates that I imagined would be amazing when we'd get there back in the 90s when I was more impressionable. The mere idea of a 2019 made all of those awful terms sound like a bunch of things that were "of the past"; old horror tales coming from a society less informed, less emphatetic, dumber, and less capable of rational thought than whatever was to come. I thought that with the slow advent of the massively-online, always-on, low-barrier-of-entry Internet, powered through the amazingness of the World, its people and their Cultures, we would reach a better state at Large. Mind you, in a lot of ways we have, don't get me wrong. It may be sucky --yet, it's the best it's ever been, and I truly do appreciate that. And yes, leading the world and taking it upon your shoulders is a terrible and painful task, so it's not easy by any means.

If somebody decides to change sex for example, and shows up tomorrow at your office, and somebody decides to not recognize them, that person will get fired on the spot. Do you realize how impossible that sounds compared to the world of two decades ago?

But, unable to channel that frustration to correct use, confused out of their mind, feeling disenfranchised, there's tons of adults lashing against everything while they're desperately clinging to whatever seems fit to take them out of their misery, be it the necessity to emulate the false semblance of the "Greater" America of yore, the necessity to come together in tribes or factions and make an "us versus them" out of everything, or a general feeling of anger about everything. It's insane and irrational and founded in just pure fear.

Believe me, I've been yelled hate at while walking down the University district just because I'm --obviously-- one of the people moving in. My cleaner yesterday angrily let me know that she used to live on the 8th, and had to move 2 hours of commute away due to the hiking rent prices in downtown Seattle, close to Stevens Pass. I can easily assure you: you got deeper issues than money if you actually have to move that far away to make rent.

But anyway.

I will be the first to recognize it though: most techies fucking suck. Yes, I would also feel pretty slighted if it turned out that my neighbor now is now some brown dude who won't even say hello when I try to talk to him because he refuses to interact socially beyond obligation in anything that's not his native language, fantasizing every day about going back to their home country and retiring for good the soonest possible.

Techies may also be hard to make friends with because of their narrow vision of the world, their lack of time to actually develop social skills... and basically, their inability to take on some ass like god intended.

"My coverage % is my reason to live!", said no one ever.

Yes, guys, get over yourselves.

It's just Java. Calm down.

That's what leads to stickers such as the ones that you see in the picture above being plastered all over the US. Lots of tech companies have brought a lot of new people in town, whose pay grade, suddenly, makes property owners close to the corporate campuses very happy but a lot of renters disgruntled. Not only rent, but cost of living is raising all over the place.

Just ask my SF friends.

I mean, I appreciate that people are trying to speak up against what's happening because I would fucking do it if I was in their position. I have found a certain appreciation for that kind of counterculture (you cannot have a healthy society without counterculture, which is something I think most young children these days are dropping the ball hard on, by the way). It's people trying to speak up, reach out and actually make a point and that's a force of nature in regards to change. It is exactly what we need.

Yet, bottom line, I know that everyone that was born here and grew here deserves respect, so again, I cannot truly say this without my biases showing, and I'm sorry about that, but I am not about being fed a bunch of hate either.

But let's not make it about me.

Let's exception at the vapid finger-pointing. A lot of people are pointing fingers at Sillicon Valley, or megacorporations, or the Wealthy, or... anybody moving to the US themselves don't really stop to consider what the other side is going through.

We're all in the same boat, y'all. We can be friends.

I mean don't get me wrong, I understand where people are coming from. I imagine it sucks to see your city change so fast within your lifetime.

But hear me out, and I say this as somebody who knows that the struggle is real. I know that the rate of change is increasing and it seems awful and like it's not ever stopping, but in my opinion that's not only a consequence of the socioeconomical order. I think it's a logical conclusion of how we have more information to go by now. You have to understand that all of us are competing on a worldwide arena now.

No matter how bad things may be, I think a lot of the hate is just rooted in the fear of change, and only those who understand that we will never get to live slow, ways-set-in-stone, 50 years with the same job lives every again, and embrace it, will always come out on top.

It sucks but embrace it and then maybe, all together, we can make a better thing out of it.

If there's tons of people coming in taking in expensive jobs, why don't you try to play on the same level field? If college is expensive and a machination of an evil system trying to systematically castrate people out of their own volition and enterprise, then why do you still resent people that went to college? Again, I paid for every single cent of my college tuition, don't assume the worse in others all the time. Why couldn't you? Even if it sucks, why didn't you at least try?

No, but it all falls back into anger and fear at the big bad corporations making their lives hell and people will purchase stickers to shit on others... and then they turn around and 1-click buy their stickers online while continuing to avoid going out and watching yet another video on the tube site. Capice?

Again, it sucks, and I know why it sucks, but stopping in your tracks to cry is barely any use. Change careers, learn, and learn, and learn. Adapt and try to play to your advantages. Your tongue is your ally if you use it well. The rate of change is increasing, are you going to surf the wave or will you stay on the shore?

I mean, listen. Don't be the victim. You don't wanna be the victim, believe me. I've seen families ripped apart, torn to shreds because of that. It numbs people. Even though so many things suck, you gotta try to pull through, and not everyone gets the luxury of getting that drilled into their minds by someone else so I'm gonna dad you. Pull yourself together, it's not about the techies, it's not about the corps, or at least it shouldn't be at least or should it?. It can be about you though. That's the only thing you can control, yourself.

Hey, and YOU, as a techie, you don't get off scot-free either.

If you know that you're working in something inhumane or exploitative or terrible in a corporation, don't give in to it. Don't be someone who just takes your boss' agenda in without questioning if that is so. Raise your voice and don't be complacent. Refuse to be fed the vision of the world where you're supposed to just be subservient. And you know, treat the locals with respect. Don't isolate yourself away in your own techie tribe because you're too much of an socially inept, incompetent person to collaborate and integrate. Fucking integrate ffs. Bring money back in to the system and participate in the culture. When in Rome, you know? It feels comfortable to just adscribe things to being "oh, but it's because they don't understand us. It's because they got it in for us. Oh, it's because they're trying to shun us away.". What are you really doing for them, though, and why does that them doesn't become us anyway? Don't be a bad techie, understand your position and act well on it.

And bottom line, at least from my side I want you to know. Seattle, I am trying. I hope you can at least understand that.

Mother 3 warned me about this thirteen years ago when I played a pirated copy of it in japanese, without the translation patch in a shitty GBA emulator in 2006 in the middle of bum fucking nowhere and I didn't even know that it was telling me about what was to come. That's how much ahead of its time that game was.

[theweeklyration]

The Weekly Ration; Issue #1

Welcome to Working Title!  This is a Rip-Off (read rip-off) of FlyDay by Sean Callahan.  After he announced he was taking a break on Friday, I did feel a little blah about it and a minuscule amount of "oh shut up Sean" about it.  To be fair, he's felt that way about me on multiple occasions and we'd never tell each other this till month's after the event because we are passive aggressive gentlemen.  Anyways here's a piece I worked on that really hurt me because I had to research the subject matter.

Investigating the Trash Heap that is the douche-fuck, steroid chugging, centrist bait for unfunny fuck bois at open mics,  piece of shit Joe Rogan with no ad-hominems (toward Joe Rogan) except the title where I get to berate his stupid fucking face.

Ad-hominem.  In philosophy and debate it is told to us that as soon as you use an Ad-hominem you lose the argument.  The theory is as soon as you get into name-calling you become too passionate with hate or distaste that your stand-points fall apart because they are based in anger.  You can have an argument solid with foundations, truths, and thought out research but as soon as you call someone a poopy head you lose.  You get nothing. ��Good day sir.  I personally think this old standpoint is invalid as a passionate argument coming out of the mouth of someone who isn't a robot has more umph to it.  But this is the driving force of these kind of argument freelancers.  With the title out of the way that clearly shows I lose, I present the rest of this article that hurt me and I'll show you on the doll.

Let's begin by explaining what a Joe Rogan is.  A Joe Rogan is a 51 yr. Comedian, MMA Commentator, Actor, and Podcast Guru.  He has a high ranking podcast with a very impressive record of being no. 1 or in the top 5 on Itunes and several other podcast streaming sites continuously for years.  On his podcast he goes into depth with interviews with people of all different walks of life ranging from angry white guys to angrier white guys.  To his credit, I'm only 80% jesting.  To his credit he is a good interviewer for the type of podcast he is presenting.  He's had some interviews that made me see perceived monsters as human and golden gods as flawed specimens.  In the rare times I've checked out his podcast, his interview with fucking angry red-tinted moron and fuck face Alex Jones (see title) actually had Alex Jones out-of-character and being a fairly down-to-earth alright guy.  Until he called liberals pyschic vampires (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkMnwFZyNrw&t=23s), but I imagine doing a show like InfoWars will irreparably have long lasting side effects.

As does doing The Joe Rogan Experience.  Joe Rogan is very into hallucinogens and will appear on his show stoned numerous times, more than not.  He talks about their mental health benefits and existential properties that have helped him and recommends them to his guests, audience, and everyone in the world essentially.  I am very in favor of the good hallucinogens do and support that narrative.  He even talks about the benefits of a deprivation tank which I want to try for myself and encourage anyone to as well.  However, the goal of most "trips" is to destroy your own ego and perceived world view so as to attain a higher plateau of thought.  Joe ignores that side of the journey and with child-like wonder just says "whoa dude".  I mean, it is pretty "whoa dude", but that's not the end goal of those journeys.  You want to come out changed, your perspective advanced, and less depressed.   Joe fails to go past the "oh shiny" phase of trippy drugs, even DMT and Ayahuasca which puts most people on their ass and forever humbled to reality.  His blase approach to taking "whoa dude" drugs has even lead to him emboldening contrarian, damaging viewpoints.

Joe Rogan is essentially a libertarian,although if asked he says he is not affiliated with any political party.  This stance is held-up by many of his viewers/listeners and is basically the "well I'm not them" argument.  It's having your cake and giving it to the 1%.  That stance makes him and many with this worldview, see themselves as bullet-proof and hyperbolic Supermans who can give a platform to any sort of ideological monstrosity because "well I'm not them", "whoa dude", or "I don't know about all of that."  Interviewing Milo Yolopoopmouse (read YolilelaleeTrump) and "hearing him out" as he talks about "Daddy Trump"(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ8KSh9bd6w)without calling out Milo's fascist viewpoints only makes more Milo YugiOh!cards.  This is where Joe gains so many followers.  Joe Rogan, who "doesn't affilate with any political party" finds himself emboldening centrists.   

Centrism is the agnosticism of politics with much more dangerous, physical, and desperate real world applications.  Agnostics question, compare and contrast while Centrists, at least of late, are just stirring up ill-will and trying to come out of as the better person.  The "I don't give a shit" approach to something like an existential question of God ultimately doesn't have nearly the same impact of seeing an Anti-Fa Militant and a Proud Boy fighting with the response "both sides are bad."  Fence sitting on God, fine.  Fence sitting on the abject horror of quickly rising fascist dictatorship, not fine.  Very not fine.  One of the least fine things you can be doing in this or any other year.

This centrism has found him an allegiance of militant fans who take what he says and doesn't say to the extremes.  Because Joe is so dismissive or non-argumentative with the ideologues he brings on his show it empowers his viewers/listeners to continue their movements.  Joe may hate Trump like any other breathing person with a speck of human decency, but he has Trump fans who have more blood push into their sexual organs when Alex Jones and Milo are guests.  Joe may hate racism, but "hearing out" a radical racist gives entitlement to NRA supporters who have wet dreams of home invasions.  Joe may think you need to get laid,  but having an Incel rant about outright misogyny leads to an asexual self-made eunuch plot his revenge.  Take a fucking stand is what I'm saying.  Just because you yell a lot on your show doesn't mean you're arguing.

I avoid arguing about Joe Rogan as much as I can, however, I am a comedian as well.  I go to open mics regularly, get booked on shows, and want to basically not work so I do comedy.  I've been doing it for over 4 years now, and I love every moment of it.  No surprise, when I first got into comedy I found Joe Rogan endearing and "sticking it to the soy boy beta cucks" (that exact term is from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.  Obviously 4 years ago it wasn't really around but I'd be sure to say that phrase if it existed back then).  But as with numerous examples in this article and more I can't type as my eye is already twitching enough, I found definite faults with Joe and didn't see him as the hilarious contrarian I once did.

Because I realized he's not even contrarian, he's opinion-lite.  He's centrist.  He's straw man argument.  If this or the rest of this article (obviously disregarding the title) feel ad-hominem now, my only excuse is I'm not very good at this and this is my first time writing one of these articles in several years.  Something that makes me chuckle to this day was a clueless, middle-aged guy trying comedy for his first time.  He came up to the deck, trying to bond, form a connection with us.  His opening remarks were "Wow, Joey Coco Diaz and Joe Rogan are here on the same night!  HOW DO I CHOOSE?" which didn't lead to the glad-handing and praise he wanted but a quick "Joey Diaz" from most of the deck.  We returned to staring at our phones and avoiding eye contact with eachother.  We're comics, we're anti-social weirdos who want to be loved by strangers but only when we have a mic in our hands.  He felt crushed while simultaneously thinking we don't like comedy, which is only true of most of us.  

If you want the anger and passion you hear from Joe Rogan but with a punch and bravado I suggest Doug Stanhope.  Doug Stanhope "doesn't give a shit" but he has real umph and vigor.  He has a contrarian viewpoint to almost anything, is hyperbolic, and hypocritical.  He's everything Joe Rogan wants to be but far more in-depth, entertaining, and outright funny.  Contrarian and definitely not a centrist trying to hide centrism with yelling and looking cool.  Now if you excuse me I have to run away from these new comics.

Hope you enjoyed the first of many of these weekly installments.  If you are interested in becoming part of TheWeeklyRation Comrades you can email me at Kyjot.bunny@gmail.com to get the weeks installment two days earlier on Friday as part of the mass-mailer.  Otherwise you can continue following this blog where it’ll be posted on Sundays.  This is a project of mine that I was directly inspired to do by Sean Callahan, my best friend and wonderful writer who did a weekly mailer called “Happy Flyday”.  Thank you for your interest!