How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness)
This week’s book:
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
Picking up where I left off with Seneca’s letters to his friend and student, Lucilius Junior, an official in Sicily.
Following is a paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of the letter. Seneca’s text appears in bold, my replies are in normal text.
ON PLEASURE AND JOY
1. I received great pleasure from your letter; kindly allow me to use these words in their everyday meaning, without insisting upon their Stoic import. For we Stoics hold that pleasure is a vice. Very likely it is a vice; but we are accustomed to use the word when we wish to indicate a happy state of mind.
There are different ways to see pleasure and enjoyment. Pleasure by itself is not a vice, but allowing the desire for pleasure to control your decisions is.
2. I am aware that if we test words by our formula,[1] even pleasure is a thing of ill repute, and joy can be attained only by the wise. For “joy” is an elation of spirit, – of a spirit which trusts in the goodness and truth of its own possessions. The common usage, however, is that we derive great “joy” from a friend’s position as consul, or from his marriage, or from the birth of his child; but these events, so far from being matters of joy, are more often the beginnings of sorrow to come. No, it is a characteristic of real joy that it never ceases, and never changes into its opposite.[2]
In the strictest sense, joy was reserved for the masters that had no attachments to anything outside of their control, but to most people joy was a simple feeling of happiness. To a master Stoic this pointed to attachments to externals outside of that control. Since I am not a robot, I see the value in both meanings, and think a life without the second meaning would be empty and pointless.
3. Accordingly, when our Vergil speaks of The evil joys of the mind,[3]his words are eloquent, but not strictly appropriate. For no “joy” can be evil. He has given the name “joy” to pleasures, and has thus expressed his meaning. For he has conveyed the idea that men take delight in their own evil.
I have known people that had no regard for others as much as they were concerned with their own selfish pursuits. When I was younger, I hung out with this type of person, but as I grew older and more discerning I intentionally developed a better class of friend.
4. Nevertheless, I was not wrong in saying that I received great “pleasure” from your letter; for although an ignorant[4] man may derive “joy” if the cause be an honorable one, yet, since his emotion is wayward, and is likely soon to take another direction, I call it “pleasure”; for it is inspired by an opinion concerning a spurious good; it exceeds control and is carried to excess. But, to return to the subject, let me tell you what delighted me in your letter. You have your words under control. You are not carried away by your language, or borne beyond the limits which you have determined upon.
It seems the letter he received from Lucilius was straightforward and not unnecessarily flowery. As a non-flowery writer, I can appreciate when other writers know how to get to the point instead of trying to impress with their eloquence.
5. Many writers are tempted by the charm of some alluring phrase to some topic other than that which they had set themselves to discuss. But this has not been so in your case; all your words are compact, and suited to the subject, You say all that you wish, and you mean still more than you say. This is a proof of the importance of your subject matter, showing that your mind, as well as your words, contains nothing superfluous or bombastic.
I don’t need to know everything that was eaten at a feast when I’m reading a story. I also don’t need mind reading thrown into the history books I read, just tell me what they did, and spare me your explanation for why you think they did it. I can’t remember now which book it was, but since the culture had no written language, the author’s constant attempts to explain why certain decisions were made got old really fast.
6. I do, however,[5] find some metaphors, not, indeed, daring ones, but the kind which have stood the test of use. I find similes also; of course, if anyone forbids us to use them, maintaining that poets alone have that privilege, he has not, apparently, read any of our ancient prose writers, who had not yet learned to affect a style that should win applause. For those writers, whose eloquence was simple and directed only towards proving their case, are full of comparisons; and I think that these are necessary, not for the same reason which makes them necessary for the poets, but in order that they may serve as props to our feebleness, to bring both speaker and listener face to face with the subject under discussion.
Using similes and metaphors to help explain complex subjects in simpler language can be a great tool. It’s not in writing, but Dave Smith is very good at doing this to get his point across.
7. For example, I am at this very moment reading Sextius;[6] he is a keen man, and a philosopher who, though he writes in Greek, has the Roman standard of ethics. One of his similes appealed especially to me, that of an army marching in hollow square,[7] in a place where the enemy might be expected to appear from any quarter, ready for battle. “This,” said he, “is just what the wise man ought to do; he should have all his fighting qualities deployed on every side, so that wherever the attack threatens, there his supports may be ready to hand and may obey the captain’s command without confusion.” This is what we notice in armies which serve under great leaders; we see how all the troops simultaneously understand their general’s orders, since they are so arranged that a signal given by one man passes down the ranks of cavalry and infantry at the same moment.
8. This, he declares, is still more necessary for men like ourselves; for soldiers have often feared an enemy without reason, and the march which they thought most dangerous has in fact been most secure; but folly brings no repose, fear haunts it both in the van and in the rear of the column, and both flanks are in a panic. Folly is pursued, and confronted, by peril. It blenches at everything; it is unprepared; it is frightened even by auxiliary troops.[8] But the wise man is fortified against all inroads; he is alert; he will not retreat before the attack of poverty, or of sorrow, or of disgrace, or of pain. He will walk undaunted both against them and among them.
It is good to be as prepared as possible for a disaster from any quarter. If not prepared, it is easy to scare yourself with thoughts of the disaster right around the corner that might not even be there. I am mostly prepared, but not as well as I would like to be. Sure enough, the areas I feel prepared in do not worry me, but the ones I feel under prepared for make me nervous.
9. We human beings are fettered and weakened by many vices; we have wallowed in them for a long time, and it is hard for us to be cleansed. We are not merely defiled; we are dyed by them. But, to refrain from passing from one figure[9] to another, I will raise this question, which I often consider in my own heart: why is it that folly holds us with such an insistent grasp? It is, primarily, because we do not combat it strongly enough, because we do not struggle towards salvation with all our might; secondly, because we do not put sufficient trust in the discoveries of the wise, and do not drink in their words with open hearts; we approach this great problem in too trifling a spirit.
I have been doing better lately with sleeping on time and getting up early to work out. I still struggle with it and spend too long watching playoff hockey and then have to rush to get to bed and not read as much as I would like to.
10. But how can a man learn, in the struggle against his vices, an amount that is enough, if the time which he gives to learning is only the amount left over from his vices? None of us goes deep below the surface. We skim the top only, and we regard the smattering of time spent in the search for wisdom as enough and to spare for a busy man.
I am working on this particular shortcoming, I read some of Epictetus every night before I sleep. It’s probably not enough to make me wise, but I aim to be a little less dumb than I was before.
11. What hinders us most of all is that we are too readily satisfied with ourselves; if we meet with someone who calls us good men, or sensible men, or holy men, we see ourselves in his description. Not content with praise in moderation, we accept everything that shameless flattery heaps upon us, as if it were our due. We agree with those who declare us to be the best and wisest of men, although we know that they are given to much lying. And we are so self-complacent that we desire praise for certain actions when we are especially addicted to the very opposite. Yonder person hears himself called “most gentle” when he is inflicting tortures, or “most generous” when he is engaged in looting, or “most temperate” when he is in the midst of drunkenness and lust. Thus it follows that we are unwilling to be reformed, just because we believe ourselves to be the best of men.
I still have a pretty high opinion of myself, even after trying to do an honest review of my flaws. I don’t get compliments often, but when I do it’s usually work related. It is nice, but I try to remind myself that I’m easily replaceable.
12. Alexander was roaming as far as India, ravaging tribes that were but little known, even to their neighbors. During the blockade of a certain city, while he was reconnoitering the walls and hunting for the weakest spot in the fortifications, he was wounded by an arrow. Nevertheless, he long continued the siege, intent on finishing what he had begun. The pain of his wound, however, as the surface became dry and as the flow of blood was checked, increased; his leg gradually became numb as he sat his horse; and finally, when he was forced to withdraw, he exclaimed: “All men swear that I am the son of Jupiter, but this wound cries out that I am mortal.”[10]
All humans have weak points. Just because someone appears to have their life under control, that impression could be a facade. I try not to be too impressed with myself and not do things to impress others.
13. Let us also act in the same way. Each man, according to his lot in life, is stultified by flattery. We should say to him who flatters us: “You call me a man of sense, but I understand how many of the things which I crave are useless, and how many of the things which I desire will do me harm. I have not even the knowledge, which satiety teaches to animals, of what should be the measure of my food or my drink. I do not yet know how much I can hold.”
I do have several things that I desire that are useless. My truck comes to mind, I am currently redoing the interior and installing a vinyl carpet. This is a lot of work and money for something that does not affect the function of the truck at all.
14. I shall now show you how you may know that you are not wise. The wise man is joyful, happy and calm, unshaken; he lives on a plane with the gods. Now go, question yourself; if you are never downcast, if your mind is not harassed by any apprehension, through anticipation of what is to come, if day and night your soul keeps on its even and unswerving course, upright and content with itself, then you have attained to the greatest good that mortals can possess. If, however, you seek pleasures of all kinds in all directions, you must know that you are as far short of wisdom as you are short of joy. Joy is the goal which you desire to reach, but you are wandering from the path, if you expect to reach your goal while you are in the midst of riches and official titles, – in other words, if you seek joy in the midst of cares. These objects for which you strive so eagerly, as if they would give you happiness and pleasure, are merely causes of grief.
While I do strive to be more calm and unshaken, there is still a long distance from where I am to where I am trying to be. I do not seek pleasure of all sorts and it is not a driver of all my decisions. I understand that working for things outside of my control is a fool’s game, but I still play it.
15. All men of this stamp, I maintain, are pressing on in pursuit of joy, but they do not know where they may obtain a joy that is both great and enduring. One person seeks it in feasting and self-indulgence; another, in canvassing for honors and in being surrounded by a throng of clients; another, in his mistress; another, in idle display of culture and in literature that has no power to heal; all these men are led astray by delights which are deceptive and short-lived – like drunkenness for example, which pays for a single hour of hilarious madness by a sickness of many days, or like applause and the popularity of enthusiastic approval which are gained, and atoned for, at the cost of great mental disquietude.
I seek joy in getting in shape, yet I stayed up too late last night and slept in this morning. I paid for the extra time by not being able to do the thing I had planned, but these are rare occurrences lately. The better I do at working out, the less tempting it is to stay up, but in my defense, it was a good hockey game.
16. Reflect, therefore, on this, that the effect of wisdom is a joy that is unbroken and continuous.[11] The mind of the wise man is like the ultra-lunar firmament;[12] eternal calm pervades that region. You have, then, a reason for wishing to be wise, if the wise man is never deprived of joy. This joy springs only from the knowledge that you possess the virtues. None but the brave, the just, the self-restrained, can rejoice.
True joy can be had if I stop worrying about the things I can’t control. This is a very simple concept and I think I’ve written it down a hundred times. Why do I still get irritated at things that don’t care if I’m angry and getting angry will probably make it worse?
17. And when you query: “What do you mean? Do not the foolish and the wicked also rejoice?” I reply, no more than lions who have caught their prey. When men have wearied themselves with wine and lust, when night fails them before their debauch is done, when the pleasures which they have heaped upon a body that is too small to hold them begin to fester, at such times they utter in their wretchedness those lines of Vergil:[13]
Thou knowest how, amid false-glittering joys.
We spent that last of nights.
Celebrating empty pleasure is no accomplishment. last weekend I drank too much ans stayed up way too late. All day Sunday, I had a bumping headache and did not get half the work done on my truck that I had planned. Sometimes I still hate myself.
18. Pleasure-lovers spend every night amid false-glittering joys, and just as if it were their last. But the joy which comes to the gods, and to those who imitate the gods, is not broken off, nor does it cease; but it would surely cease were it borrowed from without. Just because it is not in the power of another to bestow, neither is it subject to another’s whims. That which Fortune has not given, she cannot take away. Farewell.
Nobody can make me as happy and tranquil as I can do for myself. I am lucky in the fact that my wife does give me a great deal of happiness and peace, but that didn’t stop me from anger when the frame of my dash basically disintegrated as I was replacing the heater core.
Music this week is from the last true Queensryche album. In high school, this was my favorite one, but now it’s probably #4. I saw them on tour in 1990 or ’91 and they did this entire album. That was a great evening.
My ranking:
#1 Rage For Order
#2 Warning
#3 Queensryche (EP)
#4 Operation: Mindcrime
All of these are excellent albums, IMO these are 4 of the best metal albums from anyone.
Anything after this is not Queensryche.
I don’t know which is more impressive, the musicianship or the singing.
In high school when I could still do a decent Geoff Tate impression, I would sing “Why am I here and for how long?” at the top of my lungs in the stairway.
Before reading the post, I just want to put this out there. I think the following things are mostly discrete emotions/circumstances:
* joy
* pleasure
* happiness
* contentment
Now I will read the post to see if I totally stepped in it.
You most definitely did not step in it. This is a big theme in Buddhism as well: the difference between short-term pleasure and long-term joy (or happiness?)
At the risk of stepping on my own thesis, then, I’m perfectly happy with contentment.
RCDean and I have had conversations about this before. I think “happiness” or whatever the media is pushing as happiness, doesn’t really exist.
You mean like the sign I see every morning showing a beautiful girl pool side at the MGM saying “This is happiness” might just well be selling me a bucket of cow dung?
Contentment I think is a ‘struggle’ point between my wife and myself. I am perfectly content being silent or being on my own. It doesn’t mean I do not find contentment in being with my wife or the things we do together; its just I can find the joy/hapiness/etc in either.
“Money doesn’t buy happiness.” No. Money is a tool to make surviving less difficult and thus, more likely to attain contentment/pleasure/joy/happiness.
I mean, if you’re spending all your time surviving, you don’t have time to be philosophical. But there is the rare person who can find joy wherever they are, in whatever circumstance they’re in. I read this comment on ZH once: “You can be happy as anybody in your own back yard.” Still pondering that years later.
I don’t know if this ability to have joy is innate, but I see it as a sort of nirvana. Contentment is one step below that, in my ranking system. I value “pleasure” over “happiness” because I can firmly feel pleasure, contentment, and joy, but happiness…I dunno. Is it supposed to be fleeting? Is it supposed to be permanent? Pleasure is fleeting by definition. Contentment is a state of being. Joy is an attitude you bring.
I don’t have a back yard.
/deliberately obtuse
Money can buy happiness, but only to a point
Look at the second chart labeled diminishing returns. This particular study notes minimal increased happiness after $160k, but it is still positive.
I’ve seen another study that I can’t find that noted things decline and actually become negative with amounts over this. At that point you are worrying over the money itself. The marginal dollar brings anxiety. This continues until you make so much more money that you can pay people to manage your money and worry over it for you. At that point marginal happiness increases until you reach absurd levels of wealth and it again tapers off. However, it never became negative like it did when you becoming “working rich”.
To quote that famous economist and philosopher, David Lee Roth, “Maybe I can’t buy happiness, but I can buy a yacht big enough to sail right up next to it.”
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy drugs and hookers.
Money can buy stimulation, no question. What kind you choose and how you process it (Pleasure? Happiness? Self-loathing?) has nothing to do with money.
https://frinkiac.com/caption/S05E08/146045
I agree. I think part of it is short term vs. long term, and part of it is external vs. internal. The “happiness” pushed on us is supposed to come from buying something, or doing something, or some victory in an argument, or your political team winning something. All of that is short lived and depends on something external which we can’t always control. “That which Fortune has not given, she cannot take away”, or “Easy come, easy go”.
Admittedly idealized counterpoint [TW: obligatory show tune]: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RUMDwF4CAfM
I know I’m being totally pedantic about this, but it’s something I’ve thought a great deal about. All those years dealing with that house (and That Other Thing [insert your own hardship here]), I can firmly say I was not “happy,” pleasured, content, and most definitely not joyful. Now, I’ve found some contentment not having to deal with the house, and for now, not having to deal with That Other Thing. I can even enjoy pleasurable moments. As long as I am disciplined in my lifely duties, I can maintain a status of contentment and find pleasure in small achievements and moments.
Oh well.
Happy is a state of mind.
Content is a state of being.
Happiness is necessary for contentment, but not sufficient.
I find it to be the other way around, but maybe I’m just parsing these words too finely.
Happy is an emotion.
Content is an attitude.
I find no causal link between the two.
Both are positive mental states. I have difficulty imaging being content and unhappy, or happy and discontented.
Makes sense to me.
I’ve experienced pleasure, and I’m generally content. Happiness is a fleeting thing to me – winning a soccer game, or completing a work task that had been more difficult than expected. Joy, I’m not so sure about – not that it exists, but whether I’ve truly experienced it. I can’t recall anything that really hit that level. Though I’ve never really hit the opposite extreme either. Some days I fell like I’m doomed (limited?) to live in the “middle” of the emotional range. My girlfriend, OTOH, has a much broader range, and it’s interesting to watch it.
My average emotional range is deadened and phlegmatic. I find I am happiest immediately after having finished a project with tangible results that I did particularly well, be it painting a mini or writing a book. My great lament is that the happiness is soon interrupted by me nitpicking every flaw in the end result.
On a daily basis, I would call myself contented, bordering on happy.
I get pleasure from rowing gears on my truck, finishing a project on a vehicle, listening to music, drinking beer, ect.ect.ect.
True joy was my wedding day, my kids being born, my niece’s wedding and her son.
I don’t know if that’s how it should be described but that’s what fits in my mind.
That being said, I don’t smile much and have been told that I look angry by friends of my wife and she explains that is just me happy.
What’s the male equivalent of Resting Bitch Face? 😉
Angry eye brows
I don’t smile when happy. I smile mostly when feeling awkward or embarassed. Of course, people mistake this for amusement and just have to point out “oh look, you’re smiling”. I am rarely closer to violence than in those moments.
I suppose I do smile when I laugh. But you can hear me laugh. A silent smile is not a happy sign.
I think that sums up the consensus of all of humanity ron
Mrs. Animal, speaking as the person who knows me best in all the known universe, reminds the readers that I only have four mental states:
Happy
Angry
Hungry
Horny
Along with, possibly, some combinations of the four.
some combinations of the four.
Hongry?
I’m more worried about the Hapngry
Of. Course.
For we Stoics hold that pleasure is a vice.
That’s just dumb.
That doesn’t sound right. My read on stoics has been that pleasure is not a vice, but something you should be indifferent to. And that pleasure without virtue is meaningless and hollow.
It’s only a vice if it is the major driver of decisions or lifestyle.
My take on it as well. Of course it doesn’t help that we live in an addiction generating society. Whether it’s food, porn, video games, Tik Tok videos, or the older vices of alcohol and gambling, everyone is trying to take your money by getting you hooked on their product.
Society may help the addiction game along, but ultimately, it is human nature; some just do very well at selling it.
It’s not as if we make it particularly challenging.
Moderation is key.
I’m often not joyful.
I’ve become insightful enough to recognize it and consciously try to squash my worries over the past or things outside of my control. Sometimes it works.
*snicker*
Loved “Operation Mindcrime”. Great album.
Clicked your link and Dio – Rainbow In The Dark was the next track.
I had heard a few of their songs before that one came out, but wasn’t a huge fan.
That was the first CD of theirs I bought and it still gets played on occasion.
Empire was such a disappointment.
This was a particularly good one, thank you for sharing.
OT – Just wrapped up a change to an application. This application’s out of the box functionality for certain failure notifications fails to include enough information (it omits the server name so we had to guess where it happened) but the script that generates the email is simple enough to add it in. So simple that I kept wondering why someone at my pay grade was responsible for it. Then I look back at my old team and how much they struggled with the “Simple” tasks I’d left them copious documentation on. I find it difficult to remind myself that it’s not the copy-pasing of %computername% into a script that they’re paying for, it’s that the moment management brought up the deficiency in notification I went “oh, we could just update these particular scripts here and fix that” then knew our change control process sufficiently to shepherd it through with no hiccups.
I think I undervalue things that I find easy. Because if I can do them, it must be easy for everybody.
I’m pretty sure that’s a common blind spot. There are things I find trivial that impress others, and I’m not sure why. Then there are other things that some claim are simple that are definitely *not* so simple for me.
I know that flip side too.
Video Tutorial : “Just put a dot of white paint in the corner of the model’s eye, and a smalle dot opposite.”
Me : “That ‘eye’ is less than a milimeter across at the bottom of a socket, past intricate helmet details and an armor gorget. How am I supposed to ‘just’ dot it when I can’t even figure out how to get the brush in there?”
I suck at writing simplified instructions for upgrading equipment, but I am great at figuring out the “official” instructions and performing the upgrade.
My boss always tells me just because it’s easy for you, it’s not easy for everyone.
I’m in this camp everyday at work.
“Because if I can do them, it must be easy for everybody.”
This is why people who are naturally talented at something are usually not good teachers of that thing.
*raises hand*
Also, I had a biology professor once who FLUUUUUVED his subject. He loved it so much he wanted YOU to love it too! You could tell he was seriously into it, which was sad because he was a really nice guy, but a seriously crap teacher. At the time, I couldn’t imagine I’d turn out just like that.
Daily Quordle 487
4️⃣6️⃣
5️⃣7️⃣
Strength through self control seems to be a common theme. Mastering your passions and emotions, not ignoring or submitting to them, is the key to happiness and peace.
Good stuff, Ron!
I’ve also been enjoying the musical deep-dives.
“ I do have several things that I desire that are useless. My truck comes to mind, I am currently redoing the interior and installing a vinyl carpet. This is a lot of work and money for something that does not affect the function of the truck at all.”
Guilty as charged over here. By the way, have you got any M6 stainless eyehooks? I’m at a standstill over here on Operation Tent on the Jeep until those arrive tomorrow.
And NOW I’m wondering where gratitude fits in.
It’s a discipline. Like strength training.
Such a useful tool for a better life.
Yep, it needs to be exercised, similar to grace
Since GT posted show tunes….
Get ready for (moar) anti-gun propaganda.
The Norman Lear Center at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism has issued new guidelines for the use of guns in Hollywood. “Trigger Warning: Gun Guidelines for the Media is a new resource guide created to better understand the presence of gun use in the entertainment industry.”
The report shows how Hollywood encourages writers and directors to manipulate public opinion on topics they hold dear, including gun-control. The guide shares, “But film and television have the power to shape public perception, normalize habits, and even effect policy, which is why the way we talk about and depict guns and gun violence matters so much.”
Seems to be comprised of a the normal bullshit narratives you should have come to expect.
They coulda used some gun control around Alec Baldwin.
Guns are the road to happiness.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nIR6AAjEg5U
They certainly are for me. Happiness, productivity, self-improvement…
Good luck reigning in the shoot em up blockbusters. Although we are in the age of companies putting ESG ahead of pleasing customers and making money.
On topic: I evidently don’t show joy or happiness very well, according to everyone else’s standards. I’m very much a hard-core, “live-in-my-head”, INTJ type. And can be perfectly happy while quiet and alone. This isn’t really socially acceptable. I can do deep/personal conversations with like 1 person, with overt happiness. Everybody else gets “the look”, etc.
Off topic: The deadthread had the article about Chinese ships pillaging WW2 shipwrecks for low-background steel. Been going on for years. So, remembering that “nations are not people”, so this won’t sound especially libertarian, if I were the USN or RN, I’d park a sub nearby and deal with it with torpedoes. Or SBS/UDT-types with limpet mines. I’m not kidding. That’s a warship and war grave with pirates attacking it on the high seas while it’s unable to defend itself. Kill them all.
I’m still trying to figure out how cutting up wrecks at the bottom of the sea for scrap could possibly be cost-effective.
Low-background steel.
Elaborate, please.
Low background steel, also known as ultra-low background steel, is a type of steel that has extremely low levels of radioactivity. It is used in sensitive scientific experiments that require minimal interference from background radiation. The production of low background steel involves careful selection of raw materials and rigorous purification procedures to remove any radioactive contaminants. This type of steel is commonly used in applications such as particle physics experiments, neutrino detectors, and other high-precision scientific instruments where even small amounts of background radiation can interfere with the results.
-per BAI chat
Thank you everybody for the answers.
I’ll have to agree with Pine_Tree, add another couple of shipwrecks to the sea where they try to plunder these. We can make it without the looting.
Steel mined and processed before atmospheric atomic bombs/testing.
This has much lower background radiation in the steel than modern steel.
Thus, it is desirable for certain sensitive applications.
In short, it’s cheaper to pull it off the bottom of the ocean that to make it now.
Here’s the thread PT was referring to. The guy breaks it down nicely.
https://twitter.com/CyberPunkCortes/status/1662105701982896128
Furry Convention Disrupted by Florida Governor’s New Law
Furry convention no longer allowing entrance to children, which makes one wonder what happens at these conventions to make them think they would run afoul of a law that bans children at “any show, exhibition, or other presentation in front of a live audience which, in whole or in part, depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities as those terms are defined in s. 847.001, lewd conduct, or the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.”
“We try and fuck children” seems to be the only answer to that question but more likely they are “making a statement!”
Are there that many children that want to go to a furry convention?
Probably none. But their fucked up groomer parents want them there.
There might be those who do not understand what’s happening and simply see animal costumes.
Go ahead…starting searching “underage furries”
I dare ya.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/535/091/d97.jpg
XX graduated from high school in 2021 when she was 17. At least 2 years before that, she was complaining to me about the “furries.” I asked her specifically if it was cosplay or sexual. She said both. So, minors are proclaiming their fetishes in high school.
And her general attitude is, “Please stop telling me who you’re having sex with and how.”
I suspect she and I could have been friends in HS.
She’s a funny girl. I’m convinced she was born an adult. Hated high school, didn’t like her peers, loves and loved by adults.
She ever seen Daria? Heathers*?
*I wasn’t too crazy about Veronica, just that she was the least bad lead
You’re unfamiliar with the terms “yiff” and “clop?”
You really want the poor summer child to go search on that?
Preserve what shreds of innocence some glibs have.
1st, yes
2nd, no
Furries are a topic I generally stay away from.
I was until now, thank you.
See, I wasn’t even going to go there… but now that you have. There’s also plushies.
Yes, and I will keep it so if possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7mEB2wnDLQ
There is sex, or at least some degree of sexually explicit behavior, at every convention everywhere. I don’t think that furries mess with kids any more or less than any other kink-based subculture.
Logically, you’d do the same thing for cons that you do with concerts – some shows are all-ages, some are 18+ or have 18+ sections. This isn’t a tough concept.
Well, I’ve probably been to a couple of dozen conventions, and there was no sex or sexually explicit behavior at the conventions themselves. Were people hooking up outside of the convention, in their rooms? Sure. As it should be, they kept their sexual behavior private.
Granted these were business conventions. But how many hobby/shared interest conventions have strippers, say, or simulated sex shows, or even seminars or presentations on sex, as a scheduled event? Does the NRA, for example, at its annual convention?
I’ve seen people wearing extremely stripperific outfits as cosplay at several conventions, if that counts. Some are good to see, others spawned a con drinking game with my friends called Ugh. See someone who makes you cringe and go “Ughhh”, point them out to the table, and everyone who reacts drinks. If you can describe them so you get a reaction without the person looking, that person chugs.
“Does the NRA, for example, at its annual convention?”
God, if only…
I wasn’t really talking about business conventions; I figured the context of the discussion would make such an explanation unnecessary.
Side thought – would the AVN Expo count as a business convention? A lot of business does get done there…
Anyway, I’ve attended a handful of furry/anthro cons, and quite a few others focused on different-but-overlaping kinks. Most were totally adult-only. The all-ages ones had a fairly strict ‘no nudity on the show floor’ policy. Some would have an adults-only room, some didn’t bother. This hasn’t been all that different from sci-fi, comic, or anime cons that I’ve hung around.
To sum up, this entire topic is a giant imaginary hobgoblin.
I seem to recall stories of people drilling glaciers and the polar caps to get ice/water from before the atomic age. Again, this was driven by science projects of some sort or other.
Just throwing this quote out here. Make of it what you will.
“I use the term happiness to refer to the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile.”
― Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want
For me, it’s “Nothing is acutely wrong for me or f/f right now.” 🤷♀️
And something is blooming and/or there’s a good smell in the air.
I think I undervalue things that I find easy. Because if I can do them, it must be easy for everybody.
I look at things from the other end, and say (mostly) jokingly “How hard can it be? Look at the people who get paid to do it.”
OT question for Animal:
Ran out of stuff on my Kindle so I’m re-reading Terra Nova. About half way through a question popped up: Is the name of the character Four Bears a play on words (forebears)?
“Ran out of stuff on my Kindle”
*perks ears up, cocks head quizzically*
The wireless antenna broke years ago, and he never figured out how to sideload files.
Not intentionally. Honestly I never thought about that. I just made up the name.
Lol.
Relevant Shiek
I really hope this is fake.
Sick fucks.
#71 – Mandatory reporting kicks in, right?
I doubt it, it’s probably an anonymous questionnaire.
Probably so. But any answers other than “I haven’t been fucked yet” should trigger an investigation.
But yeah, these are probably anonymous and aggregated. The purpose is to justify continued grooming by the schools – “See, X% of our students are trans/non-binary/questioning. That’s why we have grooming sessions – to reach out to them, since their parents are probably bigoted barbarians.”
School system response when not many kids say they’re trans.
If I had grade school kids, I’d likely end up in prison.
Yep. I’d have to figure out homeschooling or some kind of parochial school that doesn’t do that shit.
https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1704,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/138/762/957/original/7d10e39b1e940cf5.jpg
I’m going to assume that CO still has a statutory rape law on the books.
And, I’m going to assume that the school officials behind this are subject to mandatory reporting laws.
So is failure to report a civil or criminal violation?
Typically a misdemeanor, if memory serves.
Now we just need a prosecutor to charge the school board with hundreds of misdemeanors.
Should be simple.
It’s not statutory rape if both kids are the same age.
/small town middle school
That’s what the investigation is for.
Depends on the state, I believe.
As I recall, the law in Az was very severe when we lived there 30 years ago.
I was somewhat relieved when we left and brought our teenagers back to Iowa.
Not to mention all the false positives from naïve kids pranking.
Mean, perhaps, but this is funny as hell!
hehe
*Lights Tres signal*
Totally wood. She’s a tad small for my tastes but I could make it work.
Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch Double Down On Transgender Insanity, Sponsor Pride Parades Across The U.S.
This is clearly the path forward.
Real men of genius for sure.
I’ll say there’s a difference between sponsoring pride parades and tying your brand to someone in girlface and then calling your core market “fratty”.
There is supposed to be.
Not clear that pride organizations want there to be a difference at this point.
Is there? From what I can tell, the point (or at least a point) of pride parades for quite some time has been to shock or offend the normies.
https://frinkiac.com/caption/S07E23/215865
(err, better: https://frinkiac.com/caption/S07E23/218367 )
BroDudes nationwide: “I’ll have a Coors Light.”
You sure?
Beats me, I haven’t drunk a sex-in-a-canoe beer in decades.
Well they threw their influencer under the bus for doing what they asked and no surprise pissed off people.
This would not be the middle path I would have walked for reasons already mentioned, but they probably could have found a way to continue to support the LG part of the community without pissing off the pisssing off their other customers.
InBev is a big company.
I’m sure they could have interviewed hundreds of LGB employees and put out a nice little video showing support in advance of pride month.
But, nope, let’s go put everything on the back of a tik tok star instead.
Moj – the word the Greek skeptics used was ataraxia for the desired state of mind. Not quite any of the words you were looking at.
But I don’t want “freedom from passions.” I like my passions. They bring me joy.
I think that the term ‘passions’ might be losing a bit in the translation. ‘Preoccupation’ may be a closer match.
@Tonio, @Swiss – more content submitted. Remembered an illo and main page description this time around.