I don't quite know what to say. You're totally right that there are loads of (unnecessary) cheap shots. The stuff about zero chance of STDs, the warning to women potentially interested in him to be wary since "he'll be holding out for the full package"... it's all unverifiable and irrelevant, though the author wants to make it relevant because zeroing in on these symptoms makes his diagnosis, that Scott is being spoon fed bullshit, more valid. It's a logical fallacy, as if being "right" about some shit makes you right about other shit via the commutative property. The thing is, I can't help but think he's onto something. Yes, $40k in capital and a quarter equity is downright cute. But I see all the tough love cajoling as helpful, if in a backwards, semi-psychotic way. There's probably more caked-on bullshit than the nugget is worth to most people, but I light up at any advice that's something other than mindless boilerplate. I think there's something psychologically significant about my love for this sort of style, but I'm at a loss as to what exactly. The cocky self-assurance, the jedi mind-reading skills, the way that he summarizes and--most of the time--completely levels somebody with a casual observation. At first glance, it might seem that I like him because he's mean and therefore cool, but it's not that. A lot of his work actually push me towards self-improvement, towards empathy, pushing me to seek and root out narcissistic tendencies in myself. It's probably because I think he's really smart, and I want to be as smart as him.
I'm going to build a wall. Mexico is going to pay for it. See, that's insightful. It's novel. It's facile, it's idiotic, it's headstrong and it illustrates a pigheaded invulnerability to complexity and nuance, but fuckin' Clinton didn't think of it, did she? There's a fundamental allure to simplicity. There's an attraction to insightful mavericks. There's a belief that things are the way they are not because the world is a complex place full of compromise but because there's an idiot somewhere and he's in charge. So the millennials aren't living with their parents because the world is experiencing inequality and structural unemployment at a historic level, it's because they weren't raised right. Innovation and growth aren't stymied through a collapse of productivity and a paucity of resources, it's because somebody else is a coward. The problems faced by young people aren't a long-standing inevitability due to the economic choices made an inch at a time over forty years, they're a lack of pluck. insomniasexx and I had a discussion once about kidofspeed - an Estonian dude pretending to be a Ukranian chick riding through Chernobyl. Insom made the point that regardless of the artifice, she learned things about Chernobyl. I made the point that for those of us who want to learn more than what's presented, there's no jumping-off point because it's all false. False insight is not insight. There's a tale I like to tell about Leo Baranek. The basic point of it is this: trust the people who tell you they don't know. The ones that cop to not knowing easily are the ones you can believe without hesitation when they say they do. I make a point of not asserting things I'm not fairly certain of, and of couching my uncertainties in terms of hypotheses and educated guesses. If you are willing to be wrong, you learn. If you are willing to be proven wrong, you will be engaged with by smart people. If you speak from certainty you will only attract the unthinking. There's a great deal of artifice surrounding social issues. We all speak to them, we all speak around them, we all acknowledge the framework within which we work and we all move through it without questioning it. Renegades often disregard the framework. If you're young and inexperienced it looks like insight. If you're old and jaded it looks like bad manners. Do you know who gets to be entrepreneurial? Rich kids. Folx bankrolled by a rich uncle. Every ridiculous kickstarter you've ever seen? There's a relative that pays the lagging 80% so that Johnny gets to make an iWatch or whatthefuckever. But you can't just skip the line and slag on social privilege because that's a dog whistle to lots of people and besides, what the fuck are you going to do about it? Nobody wants to hear that they don't get to make movies because their daddy didn't make movies, but these opportunities will never be yours. I have a friend. He wants to know what to do with his life. I told him I had no easy solutions. It was true, but it isn't what he wanted to hear. And that's why people hate Hillary Clinton.But I see all the tough love cajoling as helpful, if in a backwards, semi-psychotic way. There's probably more caked-on bullshit than the nugget is worth to most people, but I light up at any advice that's something other than mindless boilerplate.
If Hillary had said, "I'm going to build a wall. Mexico is going to pay for it." people would have questioned it instinctively. And it's not because she's a woman. It's people people actually analyze what she says, how she says it, and how she will fulfill that promise. If Bush had said it or Obama or Romney or any recent politician - no one would have accepted that statement at face value. But they will for Trump. Why? It's so ridiculous you can't even write a substantial news article about why it's wrong. It just is. It just doesn't work like that. It's all false. And for that reason - the level of ridiculous or something bigger - it's now another weird "truth" in half the minds of the people voting for Trump because they don't have the energy to hear what it actually takes to solve their problems. Trump is giving people what they want: a solution. Just as Brexit was offered as a solution -- a solution that "would solve everyone's problems" -- so is Trump. Connect NHS and rapists and terrorists and throw some money signs on a cool graph and then tell them all that would go away if they vote exit...people will vote exit. A lot of the world is filled with depressed people right now. Are they millennials who expect everything on a silver platter without putting in the time? Yup. Are they old guys who refuse to enter the future? Absolutely. Are they blue collar workers who would rather hate black people instead of the robots that are taking their jobs? Yup. But, like most of my idiotic clients, they don't care why it's happening or what is happening or all multi-faceted steps to fix what is happening. They want a solution. And Trump has convinced a fuckload of people that he is the solution. Are his plans there? Nope. Will his plans work? Absolutely not. But when people have been offered a lot of talk and not a lot of delivery and are sick of hearing more talking in circles, saying "FUCK EVERYONE ELSE. I AM THE SOLUTION" will get you votes. People don't care about what the solution is right now. They just want someone to come in and fix it. And Hillary isn't getting up on stage, making people laugh, finding a common enemy, scoffing at folks left and right, and saying: "I'm your solution." And she can't. Because even with all her lies and hide-everything-from-the-people-of-your-country-nonsense, she's still rooted in reality and truth and she knows how to play the game - a massive necessary global game - to get what she wants, compromise when she needs to, make sure no one is going to nuke us tomorrow, and slowly but surely fix things one piece at a time. i didnt read the entire thread, just your comment. so sorry if i derailed a totally different conversation. i'm tired.
Well I feel humbled at being found to have the same mindset as a taken-advantage-of Trump supporter. But it goes to show the awesome psychological comfort of easy answers. That's a great story about Mr Baranek. I think most of us have the intuition that revealed vulnerability communicates security and self-assurance. Thanks for disabusing me further of TLP's style, which is more than a little manipulative.