Annoying

Converse

Chill Annoying, Clowns

Because someone I follow linked to it, I made the mistake of reading part of an Ian Welsh piece. I couldn’t even finish the whole thing it was so insane, but what’s so repetitive about Welsh and those types is how they believe absolutely everything bad that occurs in the world is the fault of the US. Everything.

Buddy, America just does not have that much power. Clowns like Welsh buy into American exceptionalism just as much as far-right neocons and über-patriots. For many of them it’s that they secretly wish they were Americans and it drives them mad that they are not. Or at least it did before Trump. In their view, no other country has agency or desires or goals; it’s all America puppeteering them or that every action is solely a reaction to what the US does.

Like, come on. That’s not even remotely plausible. I only wish we had that much sway in the world.

Zombie Brains

Chill Annoying, Clowns

Flying Was Already the Worst. Then America Stopped Using Headphones.

I have no fucking idea why this trend started, but seems to be worse in Gen Z. I think it’s due to a complete lack of social skills caused by their isolation and smartphone obsession; they see only their phone and the “people” in it as real. The rest of the world does not exist in the same way to them.

And it’s not just conversations, either. Many people listen to music and TV shows at top volume in airports, on flights, and other public places.

Anyone who doesn’t use headphones in public should be tased repeatedly. And then kneecapped if that fails to work.

Without Representation

Chill Annoying

When you include income tax, sales tax, property tax, vehicle tax and other various taxes, approximately 58% of my earned income goes to taxes1. I just did the calculation.

That sure seems like a lot, doesn’t it? And in the US we get hit with about the same taxes as European countries and get much, much less for it. And it’s almost always lower quality, too.

Also seems like a bad deal.

  1. This does not include capital gains.

Taxation Situation

Chill Annoying

I know it’s because I’m lucky enough to be in a high tax bracket, but it’s weird when you get paid and more of your income goes to taxes than you actually receive.

Kinda doesn’t seem fair when you consider how little billionaires are actually taxed relatively1.

  1. Yes, I know all the reasons/excuses for why this is the case.

Quad

Chill Annoying

I think I could’ve been a good to great scientist, but my inability to handle most practical math kept me out of that field.

It was for the better. I doubt I would’ve been happy in academia, especially now. But there must be a lot of people like me — kept out of fields in which they’d prosper because they can’t figure out the quadratic equation.

Police Call

Chill Annoying

What is the male perspective/counterpoint to the female “mental load” or “emotional labour”?

Men don’t do emotional labor because to many women, any man showing any emotion (other than perhaps anger) is a huge and immediate turn-off that dooms you forever in her eyes.

Women police men’s emotions very heavily, more than other men do (after high school anyway). And men react to this logically enough by not showing any.

Little Teapot

Chill Annoying, War

The claim that somehow Russia had to invade Ukraine because of NATO also comes down to the notion that Ukraine does not exist.

Anyone who believes that Russia invaded Ukraine due to NATO is just spouting Russian propaganda. And sounding foolish the whole damn time.

Vladimir Putin gives us no reason to believe that he fears a NATO invasion. If Russian leaders feared such an eventuality, the last thing they would have done would have been to undertake a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as they did in 2022. That amounts to sacrificing most of their army inside a country that is not a NATO member. If Russians feared a NATO invasion, they would not have created a situation in which Finland and Sweden join NATO, which they have done.

Pro tip: If you want to understand global geopolitics, start with not being an unpaid Russian shill. That’s not enough of course, but it’s a good starting place.

Doctor Law

Chill Annoying, Clowns

Alright Fellas, What’s the craziest thing a woman ever said to you?

Damn, the current top-voted comment is the same thing a terrible, narcissistic ex said to me: “You’re not ambitious enough.”

Which is insane. Because at the time, I was probably one of the youngest infrastructure managers of a medium-size corporation in the US at 26, I had been a paratrooper in the US army and also did successful day trading. I paid 80%+ of all the bills (including hers), by the way.

The real issue was that she was joined at the hip with her equally-poisonous mother and to dear old mom if her daughter’s boyfriend wasn’t a doctor or a lawyer, he was no one.

Therefore it didn’t matter how much money I made or how successful I was. Not a doctor or lawyer == failure. “Not ambitious enough.”

Glad that relationship ended, but I should’ve called it quits way sooner. Lesson learned the hard way (by having plates thrown at my head).

Going Aus

Chill Annoying, Lying Liars

One of the reasons the liberals and left deservedly receive a lot of hate is that they play idiotic words and numbers games like this to “prove” how smart they are.

What a fucking assclown douchebag the guy who wrote that tardicle is. He is both falling for the “austerity” propaganda and the perfect vector for said propaganda. Here’s a clue-by-four, goofus: “austerity” was never intended to slash spending — it was always a program calculated very precisely to privatize the resources of the state, to enrich those seen as worthy with redirected government largesse and to enforce neoliberal values both in monetary and ideological terms.

Spending has nothing to do with this, other than it’s important to the neoliberal project that public funds intended for the common weal be redirected to “deserving” private ends and hands and away from public provision.

As someone in the comments points out, during this alleged time of absent austerity the NHS was gutted, uni was made vastly more expensive, and other important services were worsened greatly by diminished funding and by privatization. Which, of course, was the actual goal of austerity — and not any decrease in spending.

Are people born this stupid or does that transformation happen in college? Fuck.

Sperate

Chill Annoying

I don’t know about women, but the reason men do this is that women are extremely allergic to anything with even the slightest hint of desperation. I swear, they can smell it upwind at 10,000 meters.

So if you’re a man, you have to pretend as hard as you can that you don’t really want a relationship, you’re absolutely perfect like you are, that no, you don’t even know what the word “lonely” means, thank you. And you must do that to even have a shot.

Read Up

Chill Annoying, Clowns

Happy Anniversary. You Suck!

From being a photojournalist and then a blogger for many years, I know that only about 10% of people will read your entire article and of those maybe 5% will understand it. And that is no matter how clearly you write or how much you stress your thesis.

So I don’t really care that much about those who “hate” me as they are hating some version of me that doesn’t exist based on an article or post they did not read fully and if they did, they did not understand.

Not my problem.