Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[pisskop]

No, you must consume.  It will not be so bad after it gets lodged up there.

[Rolan7]

Pff, I just watched the Amazing Atheist [mixed feelings] inhale something through his nose.  Was probably as good or slightly better.

We're 300lb masses of flab that tear down trees to assert that we want more furniture.

Mind if I sig for a week or two?

[Akura]

This is probably gonna sound weird but how the fuck does everyone know what Cinder looks like?

Photo share thread

...I had to go search that to confirm if Cinder was indeed actually cute instead of people just saying it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yes.

[BlackHeartKabal]

There's nearly zero ambiguity to the fact that Cinder is impossibly adorable.

[Lord Shonus]

I currently live in an extended-family-owned apartment that my immediate family lived in almost thirty years ago, when I was very small. Nothing particularly unusual about that. I just nearly knocked myself out headed to my bedroom to turn my alarm clock off (it's set to ensure I'm awake to go to work, and tonight's my night off) because in my partially inebriated state, muscle memory led me to try walking through the bedroom closet's living room door as a shortcut - a doorway that has been boarded up for twenty years.

[Descan]

There's nearly zero ambiguity to the fact that Cinder is impossibly adorable.

he's just so thai-knee

[Rolepgeek]

Tomatoes and nightshade belong to the same family. Tomatoes aren't a subspecies of nightshade or vice-versa.

I mean, we belong to the same family as gorillas. We aren't 300lb masses of muscle that tear down trees to assert dominance. We're 300lb masses of flab that tear down trees to assert that we want more furniture.

(they're related)

And WE're related [gorillas and humans].  We don't have the 300lb, but we sure do accomplish more with less.  It's not even brain size, it's brain dedication to a meta-ness.

Are we...
One level of singularity?

...
I do want to believe we're the progenitors for a future race.  We're like the apes for a new creation that will outstrip us.  Probably without malice, because malice is irrational.

Maybe I'm imagining too far.

Malice is completely rational.

Destroying others means there's more resources for you and yours.

Just ask Moloch.

[Flying Dice]

The guy two doors down from me got passed over for a promotion at work he was pushing for in favor of a (black) external hire, so I was treated today to a 15 minute long rant about how the government is putting "s**cs and j******s" into positions of power by affirmative action to replace white people because "they or someone in their family is dependent on welfare and they're less likely to cause trouble for the government." The idea itself'd be crazy enough to post here on it's own, but it's doubly WTF because this definitely isn't the kind of thing I expected out of this guy.

It ain't #meritocracy if it ain't #white.

That's the problem with a meritocracy, innit? Every incompetent fuckwit thinks that they ain't, so they're opposed to it by being opposed to reality and blame everything that's in arm's reach. Meanwhile people who know they're average on a good day will do anything they can to tear it down, because no system is good unless it serves you and your interests first even if it's at the expense of society at large, right?

[Frumple]

... by chapter six or seven or so, I have been introduced to the magnificent evil paper crane. Well, author, you've convinced me to keep reading this tale of a man somewhat traumatized by a tiny paper crane. Congratulations.

Thing's apparently called world of cultivation, since I'm usually not enough of a jackass to mention a work and not its title, so long as the content isn't too egregious.

[heydude6]

That's the problem with a meritocracy, innit? Every incompetent fuckwit thinks that they ain't, so they're opposed to it by being opposed to reality and blame everything that's in arm's reach. Meanwhile people who know they're average on a good day will do anything they can to tear it down, because no system is good unless it serves you and your interests first even if it's at the expense of society at large, right?

So basically, what you're saying is that true meritocracy is impossible because there are more incompetent people than competent ones, and that they're the ones who will tear it down in order to create a system that's suited for them.

You know, I never thought of it that way and wow... that's depressing.

[Egan_BW]

Enough cynicism! Nearly everyone is competent at something, and anyone who's a complete idiot can learn. If most people in the human race were just dumb, we would not have gotten this far.

[Neonivek]

The ideal relationship is that Peasants provide Kings with wealth in order for them to defend the peasants.

A meritocracy sees the Kings wealth and power and goes "Well King you are better then the peasants so you deserve more wealth" and looks at the peasants and goes "Well you deserve less wealth and less protection because your not as amazing as the King".

And that is just one problem.

The ultimate problem is that a Meritocracy is... Elitism in disguise. It fails to recognize that society is built on the backs of those who aren't so special AND that it is their hard work that allows the "Elite" the opportunity to do what they do. None of the scientists at NASA would ever get to the moon if they had to farm their own food. Yet a Meritocracy doesn't recognize that. It wants to basically reward people twice.

I COULD say that a proper Meritocracy would step on the disabled and disadvantaged... But that is like saying a Capitalistic society would value human trafficking.

Now I understand what Meritocracy is a response to. Which is people who are in the elite for no other reason then they were born that way. Yet it doesn't actually deal with that problem because it still relies on perception.

[heydude6]

The ideal relationship is that Peasants provide Kings with wealth in order for them to defend the peasants.

Isn't that what feudalism was, and didn't that suck?

Regardless, I'm glad we're having this discussion because everyone is touting meritocracy as the ideal (partly because it's common sense at the moment) and I find these alternative views to be very enlightening.

[Baffler]

That's the problem with a meritocracy, innit? Every incompetent fuckwit thinks that they ain't, so they're opposed to it by being opposed to reality and blame everything that's in arm's reach. Meanwhile people who know they're average on a good day will do anything they can to tear it down, because no system is good unless it serves you and your interests first even if it's at the expense of society at large, right?

So basically, what you're saying is that true meritocracy is impossible because there are more incompetent people than competent ones, and that they're the ones who will tear it down in order to create a system that's suited for them.

You know, I never thought of it that way and wow... that's depressing.

No comrade. This is the argument the petite bourgeoisie use to justify the scraps they are thrown by our capitalist overlords in return for keeping the whole corrupt edifice from crashing down around their ears as they so richly deserve. Do not fall for their tricks.

Enough cynicism! Nearly everyone is competent at something, and anyone who's a complete idiot can learn. If most people in the human race were just dumb, we would not have gotten this far.

More seriously, this. There's no such thing as a useless person, though even I'll admit that some people are more useful than others. The question is whether or not they can be blamed for it.

[heydude6]

Eh, I was just interested in this because I've read a lot about all the ways meritocracy can be subverted (most of them involve some form of charisma) and I find it kind of depressing. The idea that meritocracy might not actually be that important in a perfect society lessens the blow a little.

It also means that we can stop focusing on fixing meritocracy and instead try to think of a society that fits the the needs of those who's skills are valued by society, as well as those whose skills are less valued.