Atlas Ministry of Purity Crimes Self-Reporting Thread

[Gustaf]

Satire from people who do not at all understand the people they're satirizing is one of the most painful attempts at humour out there. My eyes hurt.

[Gustaf]

You guys should really stop embarrassing yourselves with this.

[Gustaf]

What's embarrassing about this thread is that it displays severe ignorance. All of the "jokes" in it are only funny if one is some combination of dumb and sexist. I.e. one thinks, for example, that objecting to sexual harassment means thinking "men can't talk to women". And so on.

[Gustaf]

What's embarrassing about this thread is that it displays severe ignorance. All of the "jokes" in it are only funny if one is some combination of dumb and sexist. I.e. one thinks, for example, that objecting to sexual harassment means thinking "men can't talk to women". And so on.

I don't want my women talking to people in general

Huh? I don't even know what you're trying to say here.

[Gustaf]

What's embarrassing about this thread is that it displays severe ignorance. All of the "jokes" in it are only funny if one is some combination of dumb and sexist. I.e. one thinks, for example, that objecting to sexual harassment means thinking "men can't talk to women". And so on.

A priest and a rabbi would  have no problem walking into a bar together! This is an outrage. Distortion of facts will not be forgotten by The Regime.

Eh...I think you sort of missed my point. It wasn't that jokes need to conform to reality. Or even be inoffensive - I love jokes that a lot of people find offensive. But if your joke about how anti-racist people are really dumb because political correctness has gone mad!1 is only funny to someone who is a bigoted racist then you're probably better off not telling the joke. And the same goes for sexism. It's not a terribly complex issue.

[Gustaf]

What's embarrassing about this thread is that it displays severe ignorance. All of the "jokes" in it are only funny if one is some combination of dumb and sexist. I.e. one thinks, for example, that objecting to sexual harassment means thinking "men can't talk to women". And so on.

A priest and a rabbi would  have no problem walking into a bar together! This is an outrage. Distortion of facts will not be forgotten by The Regime.

Eh...I think you sort of missed my point. It wasn't that jokes need to conform to reality. Or even be inoffensive - I love jokes that a lot of people find offensive. But if your joke about how anti-racist people are really dumb because political correctness has gone mad!1 is only funny to someone who is a bigoted racist then you're probably better off not telling the joke. And the same goes for sexism. It's not a terribly complex issue.

The idea that someone has to be a sexist to find satire about anti-sexism amusing is itself a worthy subject of satire.

Do you guys do anything other than mischaracterize other peoples' posts? What you just said is not what I said. I explicitly said something different and if you re-read the post (or just use common sense) maybe you'd get it. I joke about sexism all the time. In fact, one of my jokes on sexism was posted in this very thread. Amusingly, it seems that none of the misogynists understood it. Which isn't entirely surprising of course. It's sort of like when conservatives think the Onion is real.

[Gustaf]

Oh cool, we're at the stage of a Gustaf argument where he starts attacking people who disagree with him for not understanding the understated genius of his posts.

Also I look forward to reading Simfan's latest treatise later today when I get a chance.

I'd rather say we're at the stage where you can't back up your lies and thus resort to some weird attack on me as a person.

If you think you can actually make sense of what you posted, be my guest. I genuinely have no idea what you thought you were saying with that quote.

[Gustaf]

What's embarrassing about this thread is that it displays severe ignorance. All of the "jokes" in it are only funny if one is some combination of dumb and sexist. I.e. one thinks, for example, that objecting to sexual harassment means thinking "men can't talk to women". And so on.

A priest and a rabbi would  have no problem walking into a bar together! This is an outrage. Distortion of facts will not be forgotten by The Regime.

Eh...I think you sort of missed my point. It wasn't that jokes need to conform to reality. Or even be inoffensive - I love jokes that a lot of people find offensive. But if your joke about how anti-racist people are really dumb because political correctness has gone mad!1 is only funny to someone who is a bigoted racist then you're probably better off not telling the joke. And the same goes for sexism. It's not a terribly complex issue.

The idea that someone has to be a sexist to find satire about anti-sexism amusing is itself a worthy subject of satire.

Do you guys do anything other than mischaracterize other peoples' posts? What you just said is not what I said. I explicitly said something different and if you re-read the post (or just use common sense) maybe you'd get it. I joke about sexism all the time. In fact, one of my jokes on sexism was posted in this very thread. Amusingly, it seems that none of the misogynists understood it. Which isn't entirely surprising of course. It's sort of like when conservatives think the Onion is real.

So your jokes on anit-sexist extremists are funny to people who aren't sexist but other people's aren't?  Ok. I don't get it why, but at least I can respect that it is out of egoism rather than ideology.

Jesus, this isn't THAT complicated. When Memphis says that catcalling women is a normal form of interaction and women should have to take it I call him sexist. If he then makes a joke about how the CRAZY feminazis don't allow people to say hi to a woman anymore, that is only a funny joke to someone who believes that catcalling women is ok. A normal person like me would realize that catcalling a woman isn't the same as talking to them normally. The notion of these anti-sex extremists is obviously false to anyone who isn't a sexist. Just because I oppose rape, pedophilia and sexual harassment I'm not some anti-sex prudish buzzkill. The idea that those things are linked is sexist and offensive.

I was making fun of sexists in my post. In the same way that making fun of anti-racists is only funny to racist people making fun of sexists may not be funny to sexists. It may not be funny anyway if the joke is poor, of course. But the treatment of it suggests that people didn't even get the point, which I suspect is due to their own sexism.

Anyway, I love insane and offensive humour and I've made jokes on all kinds of taboo subjects. But all of these jokes comes from a perspective of fundamentally being a good person. If I joke about racism the point of the joke will fundamentally be that we laugh at racists because they're dumb. A joke that is about laughing at black people because they're dumb is a different thing. I feel a bit silly explaining this difference but I guess it was required.

[Gustaf]

So then Gustaf, how did I mischaracterize what you said?  You believe that satirizing anti-racists is only funny to racists, and that satirizing anti-sexists is only funny to sexists, correct?  That's frankly absurd. Just because people oppose an awful ideology doesn't mean they are without fault in they way they respond to it.

No I'm not saying that. I'm saying that in this case making fun of this anti-sexism is sexist. I'm not saying it holds true in every instance. I joke about checking my privilege all the time for instance. But those jokes are made in a way where I do realize that I have privilege.

See, the joke in this thread is that crazy anti-sexists think everything is sexist. Saying hi to a woman is sexist. Today I said hi to a woman, look at me, I'm a sexist. Haha.

The problem with that is that no one has ever actually said anything close to that. The people making these jokes were called out for actual sexism. Things like defending rape. Things like defending catcalling. They're trying to blur the lines between perfectly acceptable things (like saying hi to a woman in a normal fashion) and really bad things like sexual harassment. This is, frankly, pretty vile because it's an attempt to normalize violations of people. This is a very real problem because things like rape or sexual harassment happen more because people view it as normal or as part of normal interaction between the sexes.

These jokes fall into a category of jokes that aren't really jokes (as evidenced by how extremely painful most of them are). They're about making an ideological point and asserting a power structure. It's similar to jokes about racial minorities, for example, which are more about asserting dominance than about trying to be funny (at least in many cases).

TL;DR version: these jokes are only funny to people who think that criticizing catcalling is basically the same thing as saying a friendly hello. I can think of other jokes about causes I support that wouldn't be premised on a bad ideology and in fact I make such jokes all the time. But if a joke only makes sense to a sexist you're probably better off not making it.

[Gustaf]

Did you already take the GRE Simfan? How much did you get?

No, not yet. I was talking about my plans to take it and preparing.

Well good luck on that! I fear that when I'll know your results it will be another punch in the guts for my ego. I know Foucaulf got an insanely good one (something like 168/170) which made me feel like sh*t, I've no doubt you can do as well.

Well I've taken tips from him so let's hope so. If I can replicate my SAT results everything should be fine.

I took the GRE a few years ago. I think the key is to not make mistakes while still being fast. The math isn't particularly hard in itself but  the time pressure can get to you if you let it.

[Gustaf]

Did you already take the GRE Simfan? How much did you get?

No, not yet. I was talking about my plans to take it and preparing.

Well good luck on that! I fear that when I'll know your results it will be another punch in the guts for my ego. I know Foucaulf got an insanely good one (something like 168/170) which made me feel like sh*t, I've no doubt you can do as well.

Well I've taken tips from him so let's hope so. If I can replicate my SAT results everything should be fine.

I took the GRE a few years ago. I think the key is to not make mistakes while still being fast. The math isn't particularly hard in itself but  the time pressure can get to you if you let it.

May I ask you how much you got? I don't want to look like a hypercompetitive asshole, but the issue is that I'd like to know if the kind of score that I have can give me a shot at the universities I'd like to attend.

Of course! I took it in the old system though. I got 800/800 in math, 680/800 on verbal and 5.5/6 on the essay style. I don't remember what the transformation becomes in the new system but I think I was about top 5% in all 3 with that score.

[Gustaf]

Traininthedistance, I had the exact same experience. The math was fairly easy which is why, ironically, my perfect math score was actually a worse percentile than either of my two other scores (I think 7% aced the math when I did it).

While I'm no native speaker I consider myself pretty good at English and the verbal was just filled with words I had never seen in my life before. Hardly anyone got above say 750, not to mention getting a full 800.

[Gustaf]

I remember being annoyed at my math score being downgraded - all the 800s in the old system became less than perfect scores in the new system.

[Gustaf]

IMO, they works much better than he and should replace he in that context, as it has already done in speech.

It has done so in some speech, but it is awkward owing to the disagreement in number between the plural personal pronoun and the typically singular antecedent.  I check myself if I find myself ready to create such an awkward construction.  I really don't have a problem with referring to male authors as he, female authors as she, and unknown ones as "he", or "he or she", or, as is done in some texts, s/he or (s)he. 

Also, the argument that nautical terms are racist on the basis that "underprivileged minority kids have never sailed a boat before" is specious at best.  I have never visited Saturn, how can I possibly be expected to know that it has crystalline ammonia in its upper atmosphere?  Or that its surface winds are faster even than those on Jupiter?  (which I also haven't visited) 

Economics textbooks always have example people who are she. Sweden has gotten a gender neutral pronoun which works pretty well for when you don't know the gender.

The class thing is easy to exaggerate but I guess there is some point to whether questions refer to concepts that are more specific to one group. If it were all rare fruits in Africa or something it might also be harder for someone who has never been there. But I suspect the dominant issue is that those from the upper classes will on average simply have a larger vocabulary.

[Gustaf]

This thread has become completely bizarre, especially because different people are simultaneously acting as if it's about completely different things. Which is all a good thing of course.

I mostly came on to say that mulled wine is a sad Anglo-Saxon excuse for glögg. Also, Deus is being a bit creepy again but I can't be bothered. Glögg is more important.

[Gustaf]

"As a major winter storm continued its advance toward New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio advised residents Monday to make peace with whatever higher power they call God, for all shall meet their death in the coming tempest. “The furious hoarfrost bearing down upon us knows neither mercy nor reason, and all within the five boroughs will perish, cowering in their brittle dwellings,” said de Blasio"

http://www.theonion.com/articles/nyc-mayor-reconcile-yourselves-with-your-god-for-a,37850/

[Gustaf]

Project Management is a scourge on humanity.

[Gustaf]

what, you think projects are just gonna manage themselves??!

No, but I think studying that subject probably makes you less equipped to do anything.

My friend who is an engineer had to take a course in that and struggled enormously with it, not being a competent bullsh*tter like me. I gave some BS paragraphs which he cited as coming from my forthcoming article in the Journal of Grasping at Straws. That was his only A in the course. That's project management.

If King promises to troll them I support this though, ftr.