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No, Romanian Cops Did Not Find Andrew Tate Because of a Pizza Box

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Re: No, Romanian Cops Did Not Find Andrew Tate Because of a Pizza Box

#91
post #82

I’m just happy I had no idea who this person was. Turning into my dad has been a blessing…

I literally only heard of him because Greta's burn was big enough to trend across my screen. He's apparently a big enough loser to make her look cool by comparison.

>... “students” are told that attracting “comments and controversy” is the key to success: “What you ideally want is a mix of 60-70% fans and 40-30% haters. You want arguments, you want war.” [Guardian]

Seems the publicity thing was working. The arrests maybe less so.

Re: No, Romanian Cops Did Not Find Andrew Tate Because of a Pizza Box

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say that my dad has darkness at the center of his being. At a certain point there's a real lack of political power in the US-- specifically, I am thinking of Mark Fisher's understanding of Capitalist Realism. In that system, it feels as if nothing material will ever change, and so all that is left is the aesthetic and apolitical hatred of other groups of people. My dad was a substitute teacher who mostly t…

I don’t know enough about your situation so not talking about your dad specifically… but there must be something else involved here than just culture war and political powerlessness. Eg going to church and laughing at people who die from AIDS are not easily compatible (or at least _should not_ be easily compatible) parts of one’s life.

He specifically laughed at gay people who had aids as he regarded it as their fault.

He later apologized.

https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-rush-limbaugh-mock-a...

Re: No, Romanian Cops Did Not Find Andrew Tate Because of a Pizza Box

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say that my dad has darkness at the center of his being. At a certain point there's a real lack of political power in the US-- specifically, I am thinking of Mark Fisher's understanding of Capitalist Realism. In that system, it feels as if nothing material will ever change, and so all that is left is the aesthetic and apolitical hatred of other groups of people. My dad was a substitute teacher who mostly t…

I don’t know enough about your situation so not talking about your dad specifically… but there must be something else involved here than just culture war and political powerlessness. Eg going to church and laughing at people who die from AIDS are not easily compatible (or at least _should not_ be easily compatible) parts of one’s life.

Well, I can't disagree that there is not some deep hypocrisy in being both a christian and mocking dying people.

In my experience, this combination of things are quite common. Their (Episcopal) church started doing a different communion process simply because it was revealed that the organist was out and parishioners did not want to share a common cup with him.

There are a lot of ways of describing why that doesn't seem cruel to those folks. To me, "culture war and political powerlessness" could be short hand for a number of things, ranging from neurosis to Žižek-ian "Ideology" to the contradictions of capitalism or the unworkability of philosophical idealism at the core of liberal practices.

It's a fact that these seemingly incompatible positions have gone together, though. So I suppose you could just say folks are "evil" but, that feels like it misses some nuance.

Re: No, Romanian Cops Did Not Find Andrew Tate Because of a Pizza Box

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know enough about your situation so not talking about your dad specifically… but there must be something else involved here than just culture war and political powerlessness. Eg going to church and laughing at people who die from AIDS are not easily compatible (or at least _should not_ be easily compatible) parts of one’s life.

Well, I can't disagree that there is not some deep hypocrisy in being both a christian and mocking dying people. In my experience, this combination of things are quite common. Their (Episcopal) church started doing a different communion process simply because it was revealed that the organist was out and parishioners did not want to share a common cup with him. There are a lot of ways of describing why that doesn't s…

Thanks for your analysis. To clarify my earlier remark: there must be something _personal_ that is at play here. While political, social, cultural dissonances are all often very visible and clearly externalized, personal grievances and deep confusion can be left unseen.

(Again, to be sure - not talking about your dad specifically since I am just a stranger on the Internet.)

I am hinting at depression of a kind a person experiences late in their life when all hope for change and personal growth starts to fade away. But I also don't want to limit the discussion to this observation only, there are other emotional and intellectual hardships involved: resentment, unhappiness, feeling of injustice, etc.

Re: No, Romanian Cops Did Not Find Andrew Tate Because of a Pizza Box

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Mirror message of "propping women up" is empathically not "encouraging violence against women". 2. I think it's broadly understood why he and the like are popular. You artificially divide population into groups, then persuade one that the other group is somehow at fault for your ills. It's a phenomenally successful strategy - as much as it is abhorrent. It particularly prays on the various kinds of downtrodden, an…

P. S. Fwiw, I've oscillated significantly re trump election and voters over last 6 years and still do : On one hand, it is important to show empathy, engage in conversation, focus on common points, and truly try to understand someone's circumstances, thoughts, reasons, and goals. We are all humans and we have needs and there's probably more that we have alike. Isolation and shunning and snooty patronizing are not pro…

These "oscillations" are compatible in my view. Empathy does not equal enablement - a maxim that is at the core of a lot of confusion in the modern-day culture war. Hearing the opposing view, communicating in a kind and responsive way isn't supposed to lead to an implementation of false ideas.

Trump is a sociopath who quite successfully exploited the anxieties of millions of people... but their grievances do matter - it's in all of our interest to lift everyone up, not dismiss or even humiliate half of the country. However, we should also recognize that Trump is not the way to accomplish that, he does not offer any solutions, he just mirrors and magnifies the worst parts of the human condition.

Re: No, Romanian Cops Did Not Find Andrew Tate Because of a Pizza Box

#96
post #70

I’m just happy I had no idea who this person was. Turning into my dad has been a blessing…

I wish I could say the same. A few months ago, my daughter's girl school used his as the poster boy for misogyny in their anti-bullying training program, so I looked him up. Distinctly unpleasant person, and according to Wikipedia he claims to have converted to Islam, so now he is also tarring my religion by association. The problem is, trolls like him thrive off publicity, presumably ad impression revenue-sharing fr…

> anything that mentions the Kardashians, football, the Olympics, unfunny April Fool's pranks and other topics of utter uninterestingness is automatically deleted and doesn't waste a nanosecond of my time

That sounds like a fantastic setup. As a suggestion: I've found that blocking all images on the news works wonders as well not to get sucked into clickbait.

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