Oh dear, I’m already at ten of these “drops of wisdom” (take with a train load of salt). And with this one, I’m about to do another kick into a hornet’s nest. Why? I dunno, probably because I’m a fan of weird kind of self-flagellation (don’t take this out of context >:3). But this one’s probably going to be short because the idea is rather quick to grasp.
Absolute freedom is impossible. Because for freedom to be truly absolute, you must allow for someone else’s freedom to be taken away.
We all have seen some really cool sci-fi movies or series and/or played sci-fi themed games. And in all of them we have these cool gadget with voice controls, various panels of vehicles with super responsive touch screens or holographic interfaces that you can pretty much “carry around”. Like, remember first Avatar movie where one of the main characters LITERALLY grabs a file and puts it into their tablet? Cool as hell. Or Tony in Iron Man 2 where he “disassembles” the expo model to find the proper element for his mini arc reactor? Amazing spectacle to watch.
I bet some of you were thinking “how amazing would that be in real life”? To have, for example, an interface for designing where you project your model into real space and be able to toy with it? Or have a computer screens floating around and you could move them anywhere you wanted. Sure, you can do both in VR these days but it’d be better without having to wear specialised glasses, right?
Oh dear, this is something we see every day. Every single day we see and hear people screaming “My freedom is being attacked! I’m oppressed!” Now, there’s of course a significant group of people that is in fact having their freedoms under scrutiny, be it racial minorities, sexual minorities etc. And no, just because they’re not being lynched doesn’t mean everything is fine. It’s not fine at all and if you try engaging in some genuine perspective taking, you’ll start taking off your rose-tinted glasses. Why am I saying this? Because this text isn’t aimed at these people and calling them out for “whining'“. Not at all. The post I’m writing here is very much aimed at people who start screaming “My freedoms!” whenever they get called out at their miserable behaviour. They know they’re doing something bad and they got spotted. Well, my dear, “free-dumbs” (I’d use harsher language but … let’s keep, how we’d call it back then, some “institutional culture”), take a comfy seat, grab your favourite snack and listen. For I’m about to show you how you’ve become your greatest tyrant and how to get out (gosh, I’m getting reminded of the first post in this series).
Reward for selfishness is loneliness
Reward for arrogance is foolishness
Reward for greed is emptiness
We live in an era in which grabbing some form of attention, be it positive or negative. And more often than not the people that are seen the most are rather unsavoury. Yet despite their sometimes utterly henious traits, they gain worryingly larrge following which easily ignores all their faults. But what’s their end-game? What do they want? They want “more”; more people in their cult, fuel for their egos, more things to demonstrate their self-perceived superiority. But what these people don’t realise or willingly ignore is the hidden cost. They feel exceptional, invincible. Until the inevitable comes and then what? Who will help you?
Reward for selfishness is loneliness
Who will help someone who thinks only about themselves? Why would anyone risk their well-being for someone who doesn’t care?
Reward for arrogance is foolishness
Why should you need help if you’re so great? How come you’re not capable at delivering your promises despite your miraculous claims?
Reward for greed is emptiness
Who are you trying to impress with all this stuff? What do you have to offer as a person? Who are you?
I may be giving furs quite a bit of scorn but there’s definitely something amazing the fandom got me. It connected me to autistic people. And let me tell, while some can make your brain twist in unusual ways, often times poking corners of curiosity you’d never touch, they count among the absolute best people I’ve ever met. No coincidence that my dear SO is autistic and so is my best friend-sibling. Because thanks to them, I’ve grown up in ways I never thought I can. Thanks to them, I realised I’m not made of stone. Thanks to them, I matured.
And yet there are still myths and at best half-truths circulating among people, making autists look weird, “lesser” etc. And I’m about to say “Fuck this shit. Let’s tear these down.” Yes, I’m about to go through twelve myths about autism (prompted by a Mastodon post I stumbled upon), how I feel them and why they’re imo myths.
Disclaimer; I’m no psychologist and all I’m saying here is merely based on my experiences and observations
Something more positive this time around after the rather heavy stuff. We often stumble upon various motivational quotes and posts, lifting up the positive vibes and stuff like that. While I wouldn’t necessarily call them a form of toxic positivity since they don’t “push” that mindset down your throat, they’re not really effective either. Mainly because they’re just kind of placed in without a larger context which makes them fall flat. So, to not do that, I’m only going to pick two rather short quotes from my personal list and focus on these.
We sadly live in a time of a lot of unnecessary conflicts. And because we like to stand on the “right side of history”, we tend to take sides with which we sympathise with. But that choice may not be as straight-forward. And we quickly forget that there are two basic rules, at least by my book, which should be applied at the same time.
I can already see you going: “What in the Jesus and all his carpenter friends is that title?” Well, I felt “poetic”. And it’s quite poignant when you get into what I’m about to say in this chapter, this time aimed at “public idols” and their “senseless adoration”.
Public figures are not to be worshipped and/or trusted. They’re to be kept on a tight leash and made sure they do their job right. Remember, you gave them this job so you’re their boss. Not the other way around.
Social networks, with all their weirdness and rage, are ubiquitous in our lives. From the humble beginnings of the online equivalents of “clubs” or sometimes town squares to the present day outrage harvesters and dopamine distributors, messing with our health. We spend a lot of time in them, sometimes unhealthy amounts of time, stripping ourselves of our privacy. Combine all that and you pretty much get my disdain towards social networks
And yet there’s a certain charm in all this. There’s a way to find diamonds in the sea of mud. Because while there’s a lot of brain-damaging content in many ways, at the same time you can find moments of wholesomeness and in rare cases even genuine friendships. Ironically if not for social media, I wouldn’t find some of the best people in my life. So maybe I’m giving the socials a bit too much scorn. And the recent rising star BlueSky or the rather niche yet resilient Mastodon (even though I have some issues with the culture there) give me hope that social networks can be freed from the rage machine.
Recent visits to social circles (yes, I’m an idiot for inflicting this damage to myself) have been in the light of witnessing certain people and their deranged thoughts. I won’t name but I believe everyone can guess who’s on my mind. And as my already messed up blood pressure was going even more haywire I couldn’t help but scream inside my head this question: “WHY ARE YOU GIVING THAT DEGENERATE THE ATTENTION???!!!” I was and still am competely baffled by the fact that the same people who avoid certain spaces have no problem reposting the stupidity of whoever they’re avoiding just to have this dopamine rush of “owned the fucker”. Well, strap in folks for you’re probably about to discover your own stupidity.