Comments on: Arguing with Reality

By: Tike

Tike — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:38:01 +0000

These topics are so confusing but this helepd me get the job done.

By: Arguing With Reality (Bearing the Unbearable) | RyanHoliday.net

Arguing With Reality (Bearing the Unbearable) | RyanHoliday.net — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:36:26 +0000

[...] Just because you can’t bear it, doesn’t mean that it’s not the case. To think otherwise, is to argue with reality. [...]

By: Greta

Greta — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:58:05 +0000

I told my garndmother how you helped. She said, “bake them a cake!”

By: Projecting Rules « RyanHoliday.net

Projecting Rules « RyanHoliday.net — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:23:00 +0000

[...] Consider the logic in applying the “Bechdel Test” to Christopher Nolan movies, or to any movie for that matter. The fact that it’s often also called the “Bechdel Rule” is illustrative. Essentially, this is to assert an arbitrary benchmark, apply it retroactively and then angrily wonder why it wasn’t respected. Such behavior is voting on reality. [...]

By: JanusthePhoenix

JanusthePhoenix — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:46:17 +0000

I read this post weeks ago when you first posted it, and I find myself reminded of it almost every day since. I like that phrase, ‘voting on reality’; catchy and accurate. I moved to a rural state from California, and it seems that nobody really understands there that so-called “liberalism” happens when cities get bigger, not because of some malicious counter-culture to their old time ways. They don’t get that their cities WILL get more crowded, have stricter police, more department stores and such as long as it keeps growing, whether they like it or not. A similar phenomenon exists with the growth of online higher education and the inevitable decline of overpriced B&M universities.

Anyway, thanks for that post.

By: 109

109 — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:01:49 +0000

Reality as a singular noun does not make any sense to me. What the hell is reality anyway?

By: Jack Escobar

Jack Escobar — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:27:07 +0000

I really like your description of these sorts of arguments as ‘self-absorbed helplessness’–it’s a neat bit of irony. When somebody takes the time to type out walls of words about this or that social trend, underlying their action is a deep-seated need for control that they can’t have. (You could replace every word of every linked post and comment with “Oh, if only those bastards would listen to ME!” and lose very little of the actual content.) The half-assed grab for power/intellectual currency tends to point out how little of it they actually have.

Expressing that thought as a blog comment is also a great reminder of how discussing all the stupid, mindless things that ‘they’ do is really more of an observation on what -I- do.

By: Amrin

Amrin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:57:52 +0000

Great post.

Thanks

By: Rat Fink

Rat Fink — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:39:29 +0000

If you look at the 10 words that guy wants to see more of, you know he’s -really- asinine. Especially if you notice some of his justifications for dislikes could be applied to the words he likes.

Thought provoking posts like this are what make you one of the top Rudius writers. I never really thought about why excessive small-talk about the weather genuinely pains me, but this gives me some insight.

By: T. AKA Ricky Raw

T. AKA Ricky Raw — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:01:49 +0000

You should read Malcolm Gladwell’s review of the book “Free” by Chris Anderson and Seth Godin’s response to Gladwell’s review. It touches on many of the same topics. Basically, Gladwell lists all the reasons why the things Anderson is predicting shouldn’t be allowed to come to be, and it’s pretty persuasive. Godin’s response, rather than a bunch of reasons why Anderson’s predictions are or aren’t a good thing, instead sidesteps that issue altogether and says it basically doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong, what matters is that it’s inevitable and we have to figure out how to adapt to it. It’s such a simply point that it basically made me realize how much of blogging in general and my blogging in particular is intellectual masturbation about things that ultimately don’t matter in the big picture.

After reading Godin’s piece, I try to focus less on railing about how things should be and more on adapting to things that are inevitable.