From: oldernow@dev.null   
      
   On 2024-04-20, D  wrote:   
      
   >> It was nice to be reminded of Robert Anton Wilson in the   
   >> second Wikipedia page, as I gobbled up everything I could   
   >> find by him at some point in the 1990s.   
   >   
   > On yes, the master! The Illuminatus trilogy is one of my   
   > all time favourite books! I even met him once in a book   
   > shop in Stockholm and had him sign one of my copies of the   
   > principia discordia. It was a bit of a crash with reality   
   > though, because I expected this lively funny guy and in   
   > stead he was actually quite grumpy. ;)   
      
   Heh! Just like me in USENET! :-)   
      
   Yep, I recall days when I wanted to enshrine his books in a   
   lit glass case. And now I'm not sure I have any of them, as   
   I went through a period after divorce when all I retained   
   was what fit in my Honda Civic, plus a bike on a single   
   bike rack. So only the "toppermost of the poppermost"   
   (quote from a Beatles movie) books made the trip.   
      
   Leaving a former life is quite the minimalism kickstarter. :-)   
      
   >> Actually, my wife's ex is Swedish, and he's such a shit   
   >> poor excuse for a human being that other Swedes might have   
   >> to work overtime just to get me back up to being unbiased   
   >> in the matter.... :-)   
   >   
   > Interesting! Could you tell me more? I'm curious if it is   
   > some kind of typical swedish shittiness or just general   
   > human shittiness?   
      
   Well, I somewhat misspoke, because I'd forgotten at time   
   of writing that his a Swedish/Italian mix. Add to that   
   having grown up a "New Yorker" (hailing from "Ossining,   
   NY" in the so-called "upstate New York" region), and he   
   was quite the out-of-place bird when his parents moved   
   the family to my wife's midwestern US home town.   
      
   But not only was he a developing behavioral nightmare, but   
   something about his and her genetics led to two daughters   
   with some weird auto-immune disease, and an only son that   
   died from it when it was something like seven.   
      
   But looking at her ex and some of his direct family members   
   (which I have to suffer through at events involving my wife's   
   kids), there's clearly something wrong with them. It's just   
   visually obvious. But, of course, that kind of thing winds   
   up masked in youth, and my wife got suckered in.   
      
   But back to your question, I don't know what behaviors are   
   included in "typical swedish shittiness", so I'll go with   
   "above-average human shittiness". :-)   
      
   >>> Well, as you surely know, the only solution is to scream   
   >>> twice as much and twice as loud. That's the only way to   
   >>> settle things peacefully and rationally. ;)   
   >>   
   >> I tend to think there is no solution, so if I don't take   
   >> it personally, I let it go. But if I do foolishly take it   
   >> personally, I embark on a mission to frustrate the living   
   >> hell out of what has become an opponent, and enjoy watching   
   >> them completely fall apart....   
   >>   
   >> I'm not proud of that. I'm just telling you what happens. :-)   
   >   
   > Well, that's a noble art form in itself. ;) Depending on   
   > which end you're at it can be quite fun actually. ;)   
      
      
      
   :-)   
      
   > Life is hard on men with strong wives. ;)   
      
   *Or*: Evolution is lovingly, graciously kind in blessing   
   men with wives guaranteed to evolve them to perfection!   
      
   > I think that is also a sickness in modern democracy. I   
   > know many who would for the least worst, or vote against   
   > the worst, but I know very few who vote for something they   
   > actually would like. So that was a part of my journey to   
   > not voting at all. I had a time when I voted for what I'd   
   > like, such as the swedish libertarian party who got I think   
   > 2000 votes or so. I tried voting at the municipal level and   
   > blank vote on the national levels due to too many clowns   
   > there, but after corona, I kind of lost all faith I ever   
   > had in democracy, so stopped completely during/after that.   
   >   
   > If I want to provoke people I tell them I don't vote. They   
   > then say that I'm anti-democratic, and then I can tease   
   > them in two ways. Either I can tell them that democracy   
   > is not a system based on forcing people to vote, so one   
   > option I have in a democracy is not to vote if I don't   
   > feel like it and that is my right just as much as it   
   > is their right to vote.  Also, if people don't vote if   
   > they are dissatisfied with the system, that will send a   
   > strong signal. If people vote despite being dissatisfied,   
   > the system will never change.   
   >   
   > The other way I like to provoke people who chastice me   
   > for not voting is to tell them that I am a pacifist and   
   > that by voting I risk imposing my will on others with the   
   > threat of force (the government). That is unethical and   
   > is why I cannot vote.   
   >   
   > A third way, yet again great for provoking some people,   
   > is to say that I fix my life with lawyers, bending the   
   > law when I see no risk and all gain, and voting with my   
   > feet. That means I can live the way I want to without   
   > forcing other to adopt my life style.   
   >   
   > And finally... I _do_ partake in the democratic dance   
   > through my discussions with people and by grooming a   
   > journalist or two in order to get them to write about   
   > subjects I care about.   
   >   
   > There you go, the "crypto" (as in hidden) democrat (as in   
   > _not_ the US kind of democrat). ;)   
      
   My , you're a Real Life Troll's troll! :P   
      
   I can sum my position up this way:   
      
   I believe voting couldn't possibly lead to solving the   
   consequences of our being assholes, because not only is   
   no system a match for our assholism, but such a process   
   could, at best, merely put a more assholish asshole (see   
   also: whereas cream rises to the top, shit sinks to the   
   bottom...) in charge of addressing the purely symptomatic   
   consequences of assholism, which, of course, is paramount   
   to putting a wolf in charge of the sheep.   
      
   *However*, being an asshole myself, it's damned fun seeing   
   someone elected morph the already derangement-syndrome'd   
   into even greater babbling hysterical morons than they   
   already are.   
      
   Something like that.... ;-)   
      
   >> And it has much less to do with their "positions" than   
   >> the fact that sometime in the 1990s I started noticing   
   >> that Democrats were beginning to blame everything on me   
   >> for being "old", "white", and "male".   
   >   
   > Hah, so you too? And here I thought they blamed it all   
   > on me!   
      
   We're evil! *EVIL*, I say!   
      
   In my case, The Most Evil Skin Pigmentation Of All (sounds   
   like the title of a song that could become an anthem these   
   days, no?) hitched a sub-dermal ride, then turned "stage   
   down" even farther within to team up with the concept of   
   my age *and* the PURELY SATANIC y-chromosome, said three   
   amigos then drilling down into MY VERY BEING to DEMONICALLY   
   drive all my behavior in ways horrifically detrimental to   
   all others not possessing ANY of those HORRIFICALLY EVIL   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)