Watched somebody die today

[sparky]

One of those in the wrong place at the wrong time things.

Really bad car accident. The car flipped up into the air and then rolled a bunch of times into a tree, where it was promptly severed into 2 pieces.

Sadly, so was the person.

I'm still not right.

Was this your first or most devastating confrontation with mortality?

good Q

for most of us, the only mortality we experience before our own, is our family

fact is, we rarely experience morbilidy as well, being that we tend towards being a neat superficially oriented society

i guess that's what makes rolling up to severe physical trauma such an emotional one as well

~S~

 

[manifold]

Dante...do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that no one likes you?

If so, then your suspicion is correct.

It's amazing how consistent your camp is regarding arrogance. You're the only ones I've seen who constantly try to speak for everyone and one cannot deny it is the logical extension of your affinity for quantity over quality. You're the kind of dummfuk that would trade a hundred dollar bill for 50 pennies then brag you made more money because you traded one image of a president's face for fifty of them.

 

[xotoxi]

Dante...do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that no one likes you?

If so, then your suspicion is correct.

I like him.

He may be the biggest asshole I've ever encountered online, but of the handful of times someone online has managed to get me to challange my own understanding and views on things, he's probably responsible for half of them.

For me that's worth putting up with the assholery.

I remember reading about it in your best-selling novel Mindcontrol: My Personal Indoctrination by Dante.

It was a fascinating read.

 

[Paulie]

One of those in the wrong place at the wrong time things.

Really bad car accident. The car flipped up into the air and then rolled a bunch of times into a tree, where it was promptly severed into 2 pieces.

Sadly, so was the person.

I'm still not right.

Was this your first or most devastating confrontation with mortality?

I made another post here where I mentioned that I was at a triple fatality car accident for one of my first calls as a volunteer firefighter when I was a teenager. That was pretty rough, but I didn't actually watch those people die like I did this time.

So this one was a little weirder.

 

[Ravi]

Dante...do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that no one likes you?

If so, then your suspicion is correct.

I like him.

He may be the biggest asshole I've ever encountered online, but of the handful of times someone online has managed to get me to challange my own understanding and views on things, he's probably responsible for half of them.

For me that's worth putting up with the assholery.

Do you like like him, or do you just like him?

 

[JW Frogen]

I have walked through fields of the innocent dead.

It taught me life is not about me.

It is a lesson I have to constantly re-learn, though I have to keep re-learning it.

 

[CurveLight]

Dante...do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that no one likes you?

If so, then your suspicion is correct.

It's amazing how consistent your camp is regarding arrogance. You're the only ones I've seen who constantly try to speak for everyone and one cannot deny it is the logical extension of your affinity for quantity over quality. You're the kind of dummfuk that would trade a hundred dollar bill for 50 pennies then brag you made more money because you traded one image of a president's face for fifty of them.

SWEET!!!

I have a "CAMP"!!!

Do I have full control over all of the people in my camp? Or are they free to come and go as they please?

If I had it my way, I would chose the former.

Your camp is utilitarian so it is control by quantity in that you can say whatever you want knowing nobody will call you out and even when you've been proven you guys circle the wagons and pretend nothing happened then repeat the whole process. It's a very lazy life because you never have to actually justify your positions. You repeat whatever latest lines the msm puts out and if anyone disagrees you call them stoopid. You're like a bunch of dirt poor trailer park Cheney candy corns lost in a field of insecurities.

 

[xotoxi]

It's amazing how consistent your camp is regarding arrogance. You're the only ones I've seen who constantly try to speak for everyone and one cannot deny it is the logical extension of your affinity for quantity over quality. You're the kind of dummfuk that would trade a hundred dollar bill for 50 pennies then brag you made more money because you traded one image of a president's face for fifty of them.

SWEET!!!

I have a "CAMP"!!!

Do I have full control over all of the people in my camp? Or are they free to come and go as they please?

If I had it my way, I would chose the former.

Your camp is utilitarian so it is control by quantity in that you can say whatever you want knowing nobody will call you out and even when you've been proven you guys circle the wagons and pretend nothing happened then repeat the whole process. It's a very lazy life because you never have to actually justify your positions. You repeat whatever latest lines the msm puts out and if anyone disagrees you call them stoopid. You're like a bunch of dirt poor trailer park Cheney candy corns lost in a field of insecurities.

My camp has WAGONS???

Cool!

GO WEST, YOUNG MAN!

 

[Ravi]

If this is Xo's camp, I'd love to be in it.

 

[CurveLight]

One of those in the wrong place at the wrong time things.

Really bad car accident. The car flipped up into the air and then rolled a bunch of times into a tree, where it was promptly severed into 2 pieces.

Sadly, so was the person.

I'm still not right.

Was this your first or most devastating confrontation with mortality?

I made another post here where I mentioned that I was at a triple fatality car accident for one of my first calls as a volunteer firefighter when I was a teenager. That was pretty rough, but I didn't actually watch those people die like I did this time.

So this one was a little weirder.

In some ways it is almost more difficult to see a stranger die because in those moments your mind will typically be consumed by broken denial. Part of that is realizing even though you did not know that person you had a lot in common. Namely, mortality. This is not saying anything about you personally but only a common human process of realizing we are not in as much control as we like to believe and that death, regardless of the specifics, is absolutely unavoidable. This has a lot to do with why your witnessing this accident is quite different than arriving on scene after the people had already died. Seeing it happen is horrible in terms of feeling helpless because even though you were right there it was going to happen no matter where you were, and there was nothing you could do to help.

You seem like a pretty solid person so just keep doing what you have been. Living and enjoying life is the best gift you can give yourself and others.

 

[xotoxi]

If this is Xo's camp, I'd love to be in it.

This is it:

 

[CurveLight]

One of those in the wrong place at the wrong time things.

Really bad car accident. The car flipped up into the air and then rolled a bunch of times into a tree, where it was promptly severed into 2 pieces.

Sadly, so was the person.

I'm still not right.

Was this your first or most devastating confrontation with mortality?

good Q

for most of us, the only mortality we experience before our own, is our family

fact is, we rarely experience morbilidy as well, being that we tend towards being a neat superficially oriented society

i guess that's what makes rolling up to severe physical trauma such an emotional one as well

~S~

Have you heard of the claim that says "the media has desensitized us?" I think it's a revealing claim because it shows just how far off base we are. In order to be desensitized there must first exist sensitivity. We live in such a shielded world of fantasy that the media only reflects our selfishness. It does not cause nor create what we have built ourselves.

 

[Foxfyre]

Was this your first or most devastating confrontation with mortality?

good Q

for most of us, the only mortality we experience before our own, is our family

fact is, we rarely experience morbilidy as well, being that we tend towards being a neat superficially oriented society

i guess that's what makes rolling up to severe physical trauma such an emotional one as well

~S~

Have you heard of the claim that says "the media has desensitized us?" I think it's a revealing claim because it shows just how far off base we are. In order to be desensitized there must first exist sensitivity. We live in such a shielded world of fantasy that the media only reflects our selfishness. It does not cause nor create what we have built ourselves.

Not just the media. It is everything from the movies, novels, video games, and a general coursening of language and civility within society in general. Each time we see blood, gore, violence, man's inhumanity to man as entertainment or business as usual, again and again that part of us that inately rejects such things dies a little I think. And we become desensitized and less repulsed or offended or bothered by it until it becomes normal to us and we can just shrug it off, ignore it, or make fun of it, or even come to embrace it.

And I'm not saying that is a good thing.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Dante...do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that no one likes you?

If so, then your suspicion is correct.

The dreaded "We" tactic, up close and personally as ugly as xotoxi's thread killing, trollish behavior.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Dante...do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that no one likes you?

If so, then your suspicion is correct.

It's amazing how consistent your camp is regarding arrogance. You're the only ones I've seen who constantly try to speak for everyone and one cannot deny it is the logical extension of your affinity for quantity over quality. You're the kind of dummfuk that would trade a hundred dollar bill for 50 pennies then brag you made more money because you traded one image of a president's face for fifty of them.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Dante...do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that no one likes you?

If so, then your suspicion is correct.

It's amazing how consistent your camp is regarding arrogance. You're the only ones I've seen who constantly try to speak for everyone and one cannot deny it is the logical extension of your affinity for quantity over quality. You're the kind of dummfuk that would trade a hundred dollar bill for 50 pennies then brag you made more money because you traded one image of a president's face for fifty of them.

SWEET!!!

I have a "CAMP"!!!

Do I have full control over all of the people in my camp? Or are they free to come and go as they please?

If I had it my way, I would chose the former.

the only thing you have is an inflated sense of belonging.

 

[CurveLight]

good Q

for most of us, the only mortality we experience before our own, is our family

fact is, we rarely experience morbilidy as well, being that we tend towards being a neat superficially oriented society

i guess that's what makes rolling up to severe physical trauma such an emotional one as well

~S~

Have you heard of the claim that says "the media has desensitized us?" I think it's a revealing claim because it shows just how far off base we are. In order to be desensitized there must first exist sensitivity. We live in such a shielded world of fantasy that the media only reflects our selfishness. It does not cause nor create what we have built ourselves.

Not just the media. It is everything from the movies, novels, video games, and a general coursening of language and civility within society in general. Each time we see blood, gore, violence, man's inhumanity to man as entertainment or business as usual, again and again that part of us that inately rejects such things dies a little I think. And we become desensitized and less repulsed or offended or bothered by it until it becomes normal to us and we can just shrug it off, ignore it, or make fun of it, or even come to embrace it.

And I'm not saying that is a good thing.

That is the theory I'm rejecting. We do not become "desensitized" by the examples you provided because we live in such luxury we never are faced with being sensitive. Have you ever read the piece on Simulacra and Simulacrum? (Matrix fans should know this one....)

 

[Foxfyre]

Have you heard of the claim that says "the media has desensitized us?" I think it's a revealing claim because it shows just how far off base we are. In order to be desensitized there must first exist sensitivity. We live in such a shielded world of fantasy that the media only reflects our selfishness. It does not cause nor create what we have built ourselves.

Not just the media. It is everything from the movies, novels, video games, and a general coursening of language and civility within society in general. Each time we see blood, gore, violence, man's inhumanity to man as entertainment or business as usual, again and again that part of us that inately rejects such things dies a little I think. And we become desensitized and less repulsed or offended or bothered by it until it becomes normal to us and we can just shrug it off, ignore it, or make fun of it, or even come to embrace it.

And I'm not saying that is a good thing.

That is the theory I'm rejecting. We do not become "desensitized" by the examples you provided because we live in such luxury we never are faced with being sensitive. Have you ever read the piece on Simulacra and Simulacrum? (Matrix fans should know this one....)

I did misread your earlier point, and I apologize. I try not to do that.

But despite being a diehard Matrix fan, I don't agree that we are desensitized by virtue of being born into luxury, at least as compared with most of the world. I know too many people who are more than sensitive to the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned, etc. and who feel a keen responsibility to help relieve their suffering. I know too many people who get no pleasure from gratituous violence, pain, and suffering in film etc. and are sickened, distressed, and/or offended by it.

But I have also witnessed the desensitizing that such influences can affect in people too. And I still don't see that as a good thing.

 

[CurveLight]

Not just the media. It is everything from the movies, novels, video games, and a general coursening of language and civility within society in general. Each time we see blood, gore, violence, man's inhumanity to man as entertainment or business as usual, again and again that part of us that inately rejects such things dies a little I think. And we become desensitized and less repulsed or offended or bothered by it until it becomes normal to us and we can just shrug it off, ignore it, or make fun of it, or even come to embrace it.

And I'm not saying that is a good thing.

That is the theory I'm rejecting. We do not become "desensitized" by the examples you provided because we live in such luxury we never are faced with being sensitive. Have you ever read the piece on Simulacra and Simulacrum? (Matrix fans should know this one....)

I did misread your earlier point, and I apologize. I try not to do that.

But despite being a diehard Matrix fan, I don't agree that we are desensitized by virtue of being born into luxury, at least as compared with most of the world. I know too many people who are more than sensitive to the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned, etc. and who feel a keen responsibility to help relieve their suffering. I know too many people who get no pleasure from gratituous violence, pain, and suffering in film etc. and are sickened, distressed, and/or offended by it.

But I have also witnessed the desensitizing that such influences can affect in people too. And I still don't see that as a good thing.

No hassles...we all misunderstand posts sometimes. The Matrix reference is about the hollowed book where neo kept his illegal programs and the cash he made from them.
http://www.en.allexperts.com/e/s/si/simulacra_and_simulation.htm

(how many ironies there)

Anyways, I don't doubt you know many people as you've described but I'm not sure that level of anecdotal evidence is worthy of climbing the mountain of dominating cultural fixations. My main beef with the desensitized theory is it provides a socially acceptable scapegoat where admitting awareness of the theory is seen and often accepted as being on par with tangible action. It's actually another piece of simulacra that keeps the fantasy world in tact while creating the appearance of fighting against the system. Sort of like a mini evil version of the Oracle. Granted, rough comparison but the central theme is at play: how do you know who or what to trust?


Regarding innate versus learned traits.....who the fuck knows? Nature is a bullshit term in itself so we often assume something is innate if we cannot explain it's empirical path. We try to excuse our cultural hegemony of apathy by saying we are born caring but the evul enturtainment world has corrupted us. I say it doesn't matter what that world produces because it cannot justify nor excuse our selfishness. Every Empire in human history is guilty of this and it has always been a major factor for their Fall.

 

[xotoxi]

Dante...do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that no one likes you?

If so, then your suspicion is correct.

The dreaded "We" tactic, up close and personally as ugly as xotoxi's thread killing, trollish behavior.

Your jealousy is apparent, seeing that you could not kill a thread even if you tried.

In order to kill a thread, one must be able to write a post that others actually READ.