honestly that “it costs 0 dollars to be kind” bullshit is bullshit. it does cost things to be kind. it costs time. it costs energy. and it isn’t always easy and it isn’t always natural. it costs so much to be kind, sometimes. but that’s the whole point. if being kind were easy, or simple, every single person would be an angel. but they’re not, and the world isn’t easy and simple. so no, it does cost something to be kind. but it’s worth it anyway.
was very close to writing a longish post on how dating norms could be improved before i realized it could be summarized by “dating norms need to get autisticer”
Sometimes ppl are so incredibly funny. A few months back I commented on a post about the German band Rammstein. Everyone was hailing them, but I said what needed to be said: That they’re Nazis and should be treated as such. I have never gotten so many angry replies to anything I said, every single one of them defending Rammstein and telling me I didn’t know shit and that patriotism is a good thing and omg how could I say something like that and that I didn’t know what the term Nazi really means and that one look at my bio made everything clear.
Three things:
First of all - my bio? What part of my bio makes anything clear about my comment? The only thing that makes anything clear is your reaction to my bio… So… ???
Secondly, all the replies to my comment came from countries like the US or Australia, telling me that patriotism is not an issue and that you can love your country blablabla… Like… Have you read about your countries’ history? Have you read the news lately? How can you love countries that treat their minorities like shit and other stuff like that? Probably because you don’t belong to a minority… Well… Also, I’m not sure, but if I remember correctly, the OP of the video is Jewish. Rammstein makes music that’s especially appealing to Nazis, they don’t ban them from their concerts (like other bands do), they don’t speak up against them, there can be seen the “Hitler Gruß” in many occasions in the audience etc… Just fyi. And one person defending them is trans. Guys, Rammstein’s lyrics are all about exclusion. I was rolling on the floor laughing my fat ass off when I saw who defended them.
And last but not least: Guys, don’t sweat it. I will still say Rammstein are Nazis and that patriotism is a bad thing regardless of how disparaging your remarks about my opinion and my bio are.
You know why?
Fun fact: I’m fucking German. I know Nazis when I see them. I went to protests against them when you didn’t even knew what the term “Antifa” means. My grandfather was one until his death in 2014. In some German states these racist, homophobic, patriotic assholes are part of the government. You still see swastika graffiti on the streets, especially near Jewish organizations and stuff.
I am so sick and tired of ppl from countries with a different history than Germany telling me what racism, patriotism, and national socialism look like. In Europe and especially in Germany, these things are taught in schools. We actually deal with our history (or at least try). And whatever is said about Rammstein in their defense is pure window dressing. They have done a lot for better PR, but behind that nothing has changed.
And if you’re still not convinced that they’re assholes, read this article:
The band named themselves after this disastrous event that killed 70 people and injured about a thousand. Especially in the beginning, the band’s props and sets at live shows showed burning debris, and the band members’ jackets were often on fire too. Every time somebody criticized them, they said it was a coincidence. Yeah. Sure.
In conclusion: Rammstein are assholes. I don’t like them. Do I tell you to not listen to them? No. It’s your decision what to do. Do I think you’re an asshole too if you listen to them? You bet I do. Am I going to shut up about it? Hell no! So, have fun insulting me for telling the truth, I don’t fucking care.
don’t you hate it when you’re being interviewed and they’re like, “tell me about yourself”?
ma'am, i do not have enough of a sense of self to accurately describe myself. in fact, i try very hard to avoid self-perception. but i swear i can do the job, please hire me
Just think, if you work hard, take on massive student loan debts, and crawl on the backs of countless others, you too can live in luxury (maybe, probably not, and if not, clearly you are a failure at life). /sarcasm
The thing about Those White People Baby Names is the way they so poetically express the tension between individuality and rigid conformity. These parents all want to name their child something unique, because they value the concept of uniqueness, yet simultaneously they abhor it in practice… ergo, 30 different spelling variations on the most normative possible names. This homogeneity-masquerading-as-diversity is inseparable from capitalist consumer culture and in fact is directly analogous to the experience of walking into a grocery store and being asked to “choose” between 50 varieties of toothpaste with the same exact ingredients, 12 brands of laundry detergent, etc.
Somebody’s third eye is WIDE the fuck open??!!!!!!!
okay so there’s actually a reasonbehind this that isn’t just “white people are terrible and really really boring!” it’s to do with Mormon culture. specifically: the fireworks you get when sexist expectations and terrible petty drama collide.
most of Those White People Baby Names are originally Mormonbaby names. they’re chosen (or invented) by women in Utah; they tend to filter out to the rest of the world through things like “mommy blogs” and “baby name books” and “parent forums.”
you know how every culture has a “hey, welcome to the world, lil baby!” ritual? the mormon version of that is called a baby blessing. the baby’s father, and a handful of other men in the family, go up in front of the congregation during a Sunday service and say a special prayer. it begins by reciting the baby’s fullname and then saying “I give you a name and a blessing.” It’s not something you can avoid doing- if you try, people will think that you’re trying to hide something. baby blessings are mandatory, and everyone in the congregation willwatch and judge you.
becauseof this, your baby’s name gets a good bit more of a spotlight in Mormon culture than it does in secular culture, and that’s sayingsomething.
Mormon women start picking out names for their hypothetical future kids in fourth or fifth grade and snipe at each other for picking “weird” or “bad” ones. it’s something that’s supposed to be in the back of your head longbefore you have a kid. and because people willjudge you if you pick a name that’s “too boring” or “too weird”, it is already an intricate dance of finding something that’s “interesting” enough to pass muster but not so “interesting” your kid won’t survive kindergarten.
and that dance becomes even more intricate when Baby Name Drama gets involved.
see, because you’re supposed to put so much time into your baby’s name, a lot of women get… overinvested, let us say. the perfect name they picked for their baby is THEIR baby’s name and NO ONE ELSE’S. if you so much as dare to BREATHE that you’re naming your baby/pet/favourite laptop the same thing, you have STOLEN their BABY’S NAME.
so here’s the thing… say you really wanted to name your daughter Amy. You love the name, it’s classic, it’s cute, it’s perfectfor your little girl-to-be… and then your sister-in-law gets pregnant and LOUDLY ANNOUNCES thatshe’snaming her baby Amy! and you know for a factthat she’s the type of person to throw a massive petty shitfit over you STEALING her BABY’S NAME. your family will take sides. herfamily will take sides.
if you want to avoid the drama, and you’re dead-set on naming your daughter-to-be Amy… well, then you name your daughter Aimee, or Aimi, or Aimy. It’s not the same name, it’s pronounced the same but it’s not the exact same name, so you can shut up, sis-in-law.
from what I understand a lot of the Crazy Name Spellings came from this root- “it’s not Kaylee, it’s Kayleigh, I swearI didn’t steal your idea”- and then once it became a trend, people named their kids that to be ~trendy~ just like they did with every other stupid trend.
but the root cause of Terrible Trendy Misspelt Baby Names has very little to do with white people being boring and conformist, and certainlynothing to do with capitalism. it’s a good old fashioned case of a) sexist expectations warping women’s behaviour into really really stupid shapes and b) Petty Small Community Drama.
This is a terrific addition to this post that I don’t think actually contradicts my main idea all that much
*missing the charging port on my phone* don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it
my two favourite things about this
everyone knows what this is
the scene was an adaptation of a scene from the original novel where instead of a charging port on a phone, it’s a winding key in a pocketwatch. I like to imagine people having this exact same kind of thought when they missed the watch keyhole 100 years ago
*person from the 1800’s missing the pocket watch keyhole* don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it
OKAY HERE’S THE THING ABOUT THE FUCKING POCKET WATCH.
Pocket watch keys were not disposably easy to get. You couldn’t walk into any Her Majesty’s Royal Station of the Petrol and have a rack of them waiting for you. They had to be purchased from a watchmaker, and by virtue of being literally part of a piece of jewelry, they were not cheap. That’s why a lot of contemporary drawings of the period will show the key hanging on the watch chain, and also why you’d want to take a great deal of care with using one—bend it and your watch is useless until you can get to a watchmaker. Likewise, the watch itself would be delicate. They were items for the well-to-do. One reason watches were carried outside, on the front of the body, was to protect them from being thrown around in your pocket with keys and coins. (Being in front protected from pickpockets and also let people see you were wealthy enough to own a fancy watch. Think of it as similar to the person who carries the absolute latest iPhone…without a case on it.) Yes, they were sturdy by modern standards—a 150-year-old pocket watch may still run and keep accurate time, if you can find a jeweler to maintain it for you!—but that doesn’t mean they were super-tough. They WERE, however, made of metal—brass or pewter for the less-moneyed element, silver or gold for the gentleman—and thus not easy to scratch if you weren’t really jamming the key in there. MOVING ON!
During this period, how you looked and presented yourself was ridiculously important and narrow; you can walk into a gas station for a new charger and be like “yeah I got drunk last night and forget whose car I left mine in” and the clerk will be like “oh that’s a mood,” but try going to a watchmaker and saying “ah yes, I tried to wind my watch after a bottle of wine” and you’re going to get SUCH A SIDE-EYE. Your reputation will go right down the gutter and along with it, your family’s; note how many times in contemporary Victorian literature you see people saying stuff like “he’s well-bred” or “from a fine family background.” Reputation was everything and it was incredibly fragile.
So when Holmes looks at Watson’s watch, what he sees is: a piece of expensive jewelry shot to shit by being carelessly thrown in a pants pocket rather than a watch-pocket, which would have held the watch firm and protected it from other metal objects. The watch also was not worn on the waistcoat in absence of a watch-pocket, implying its owner did not give a damn how he looked—UNTHINKABLE for a Victorian gentleman. Why not? Well, either he’d have to be a wild eccentric or suffering from a terrible illness. The main way to treat things like Parkinson’s at the time was “politely ignore it until it’s impossible to ignore, and then the person will take to his bed, and then he will die.” Watson’s brother was likely not an eccentric—even an eccentric would have taken care of a delicate piece of custom machinery—therefore he was probably ill. But his illness hadn’t prevented him from going out and about—hence the dinged-up appearance of the watch. A man who was bedridden would have kept the watch on his bedside table.
So we have a sick man who’s still able to get up and about, and he’s pawned this watch not once, not twice, but four times. Remember what I said before about reputation? Today shows like Pawn Stars have done a lot to destigmatize pawnshops, but in Victorian times they were…not looked on kindly. They meant you’d had Some Kind Of Misfortune and Needed Money, and to the Victorian mind, you’d probably Brought It On Yourself, which meant you’d been doing something Quite Disgraceful. (Notice the only two appearances of a pawnshop in the ACD canon are “The Pawnbroker’s Assistant,” in which said assistant is a criminal mastermind and the pawnbroker himself a greedy idiot, and the story of Watson’s watch.)
So: a damaged piece of expensive jewelry that’s only moderately easy to damage; spends frequent time in places of ill-repute; sick, but mobile; never mentioned by Watson, and thus likely embarrassing.
The man is a drunk.
The modern version doesn’t fall apart because lots of things cause hand tremors. The modern version falls apart because IT’S EXTREMELY EASY TO SCRATCH PLASTIC AND CHARGING CORDS ARE A CHEAP, COMMON ITEM.
There. I’ve wanted to get that off my chest for AGES.
I wonder if the modern equivalent would be a scratched up nice car then :o
In America, 100%, and I’d take it a step further and say a scratched up classic car—something from the 1950s that you could see had once been deeply cared for and lovingly restored, but where the care had slowly tapered off. Classic cars can go into the hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore and maintain, so that would do the job of showing he had money to spare until he didn’t. A nasty injury to the car, like an unfixed smashed-out tail light, could also suggest he’d been driving drunk.
England doesn’t have the same car culture we have, so that wouldn’t work so well (even if John were gifted or bequeathed the car, he’d have no use for it in London). I’d honestly say that would be something an actual British person could better answer for you, but yeah, a phone is nowhere near what a pocket watch would have symbolized. You want something that says “I am, at the very least, financially comfortable,” and in England (where class functions very differently than it does here), “I have a name to be proud of, probably went to public (USA: private) school, very likely related—even if only distantly—to someone in the House of Lords.” Something poorer people simply will not have and, if they suddenly had a burst of unexpected but temporary money, would not get because other things are more pressing. Honestly, I’d probably still go with a watch, and make it some expensive designer brand with a cracked face. Most people will just use their phones these days, so the additional watch says you’re looking to dress up a bit and be fancy, bolstered by the name brand. (The watch used in the most recent James Bond movie is an Omega Seamaster, at a cool $5100–just for the basic model.) But the cracked, scratched face says carelessness. Maybe the band has been repaired. Maybe John keeps it in his desk rather than wear it because he’s embarrassed, and it still has a pawn ticket on it. All of this can be translated one-to-one without losing accuracy—or giving us some bullshit about a phone charger.
This 1989 movie was bad from start to finish lol. The acting was horrible, the story was lacking and sometimes bizarreness for the sake of it, doesn’t always work. This could be easily remade into a decent horror movie if done right though.
…I’m sorry but I cannot get over how bad the main characters acting was.
