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Stop overstimulating your mind with digital entertainment

quintusertorius.com

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Re: Stop overstimulating your mind with digital entertainment

#101

Post by lliamander »

burnished wrote: post #35
blacktriangle wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize that lots of popular old music was written by all races? Stop trying to see racism everywhere where where there is none, it'll do wonders for your blood pressure.

Even recent music history is steeped in racism. Its not imagining racism to notice that some peoples views and tastes 'just happen' to only include white people.

"Imagining racism" is pretty much exactly what I would call the way you are judging other people's tastes in music.

Why people like what they like is complicated. Often it's connected with what the people around them listened to. There is also research suggesting that aesthetic preferences can be tied to certain personality traits (which themselves are somewhat heritable).

To suggest that one might prefer music by white people is the result of conscious animus towards non-whites is reductionist in the extreme, and provides essentially no useful insight.

And even if that preference is rooted in racism, is what someone prefers to listen to in the privacy of their own home really something that should be a collective concern? I really doubt it.

Regardless of the motive, calling someone's tastes is music "racist" is probably the least effective way to get them to try out other kinds of music.

Re: Stop overstimulating your mind with digital entertainment

#103

Post by randomopining »

raziel2701 wrote: post #40

I struggle when I stay in a room alone with my thoughts. I start feeling heat in my head and desperation starts to kick in even though it's not physically painful. It's such a strange thing, my mind just wants to be distracted, kind of like a substance addiction. I've never taken it seriously to further investigate what's going on in there. I wonder if others experience something similar? I can tolerate a few minutes…

Force yourself to sit in silence and meditate. There is no easy solution. Just do it.

Re: Stop overstimulating your mind with digital entertainment

#104

Post by jpeter »

RootReducer wrote: post #8

This is ridiculously preachy. I do think the overall thesis is correct, in that boredom can be a powerful force for creativity and inspiration, but paragraphs like this make the article completely off-putting: "If you want to let music inspire you and enjoy its real beauty, I have few very simple rules: Classical Music and no “skipping”. Then I will trust my appetite." I do like sitting down and actually focusing on…

"The quality of music. Modern music is like junk food. Produced and processed industrially. Pushed to consumers through aggressive marketing To gorge on classical music results almost impossible as it is while eating for example meat or fish."

Re: Stop overstimulating your mind with digital entertainment

#105

Post by Bancakes »

dang wrote: post #96
Bancakes wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm responding to the allegation that white people are disproportionately prevalent and influential. We're not.

You posted religious flamewar in one thread and racial flamewar in a second thread, all on the same day. That's not at all what this site is for and we ban accounts that abuse it like this. We have to, because otherwise flamewars will burn it to a crisp, and scorched earth is not interesting ( https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... ). If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.co…

Okay, I respect your dedication as an admin. I don't think it's flamewars but I agree hacker news should not become 4chan. I'll stick to the guide lines better.

Re: Stop overstimulating your mind with digital entertainment

#106

Post by the_only_law »

RootReducer wrote: post #8

This is ridiculously preachy. I do think the overall thesis is correct, in that boredom can be a powerful force for creativity and inspiration, but paragraphs like this make the article completely off-putting: "If you want to let music inspire you and enjoy its real beauty, I have few very simple rules: Classical Music and no “skipping”. Then I will trust my appetite." I do like sitting down and actually focusing on…

This may be an unpopular opinion and sound ad-hominem, but in my experience with people, this overdone “modern music bad, classical music good” shtick is a signal of intellectual posturing.

Re: Stop overstimulating your mind with digital entertainment

#108

Post by lliamander »

krapp wrote: post #52
burnished wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even recent music history is steeped in racism. Its not imagining racism to notice that some peoples views and tastes 'just happen' to only include white people.

See: Music Theory and White Supremacy by Adam Neely[0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr3quGh7pJA The TL;DR for people who will be immediately triggered by the title and not bother to view is that Western music theory was intentionally designed around white supremacist ideals. It is exclusionary of the ideas and contributions of non-European cultures, and purposely so, as it deems them inferior.

I haven't finished this video yet, but its thesis so far seems rather absurd. It mentions a variety of music styles produced heavily[0] by white people (country, rock, EDM) which are not well suited to analysis by music theory, but then goes on to claim that music theory is about promoting "whiteness". This is a rather large hole, one I'm doubtful will be closed.

[0] if not exclusively.

Re: Stop overstimulating your mind with digital entertainment

#109

Post by 34679 »

Apocryphon wrote: post #86
34679 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I notice you don't decry the lack of female representation in classical music. Is that because you're sexist?

There isn't a lack of female representation in classical music. There were fewer composers or performers before modern times, but hardly unknown. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_composers_by_bi... https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/page/1900 https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/great-women-...

One can also find lists of prominent non-white composers:

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/black-composers-who...

https://adaptistration.com/2018/06/04/the-composer-diversity...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_composers_of_African_d...

Re: Stop overstimulating your mind with digital entertainment

#110

Post by mixmastamyk »

Apocryphon wrote: post #94
mixmastamyk wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Middle-brow dismissal. It is often mentioned in the guidelines here that we should respond to the best interpretation of a post, rather than the worst. I understand it is not post of the year, but a bit of reading between the lines needs to be done. What is this person trying to tell us? Rather than rushing to find flaws (and perceived flaws) as quickly as possible.

The best interpretation of this post is in its warnings against digital submersion, but when it veers into cultural critique it itself is being very middlebrow and dismissive ("just listen to classical music! Modern music sucks!") There is a good post in here about how externalizing negative emotion to the internet is indeed addictive behavior, an emotional crutch. Unfortunately this one ain't it. Not to mention it's…

nihil sub sole novum, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nihil_sub_sole_novum
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