The Open Thread is a place for open discussion among my readers. Post anything you feel like sharing! From now on, the Open Thread will no longer be monthly. Instead, there will be a new Open Thread whenever it is adequate. The stage is yours. Go ahead!
The latest Open Thread is made ‘sticky’ to improve access.
Please consider throwing a few coins into the tip jar, and buy my books! They are great. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Jordan Peterson’s weird family empire:
https://torontolife.com/city/jordan-petersons-weird-family-empire/
This is one of the most bizarre articles I have read in a long time. I should perhaps also add that I have not followed Jordan “Benzos” Peterson for years. The article is long but worth the time. Just look at this:
I laughed out loud when I read about “akathisia” and “electric cattle prod”. According to leftist dirt-rag Wikipedia, it is just a fancy name for restlessness. Yet, if Peterson or anyone in his family describes it as “being constantly stabbed with an electric cattle prod”, we better take it at face value, just like his whore-daughter’s b.s. diet. I really wonder who had cast the Final Fantasy spell “electrocute” on him. Of course, after the electric cattle prod ceased functioning, he felt like “like being whipped, constantly”. I get the impression that he does not know what he is talking about, but it is fine as long as it is “real in his mind”.
At first I thought Jordan Peterson’s admissions were good and he contributed more positives than negatives. But at some point he tipped over and it led to such bullshit as snake helix equals DNA, Russian special treatment for his benzo addiction, meat diet, manipulation by his daughter, MGTOW weasels, simping for life etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqTTojTija8
Frankly,I can never pile enough harsh criticism towards our shitty mainstream Education system. I think more than PUA,more than almost every other scam ideology out there,the fact that our own government forces us to waste almost 2 decades of our entire lives in this inefficient and un-evolved system that promotes the killing of creativity and individuality in our children wastes more youths and primes than almost anything else.
As I’ve written elsewhere,I am frankly convinced many would-have-been great innovators in our children die a silent death in the dreaded mainstream education system we have in place.
Imagine if we made school as efficient as can be,and our youth can already start forging a path to make something of themselves early on rather than what we see nowadays where most guys only manage to do so somewhere in their late twenties or thirties. (if at all.)
My sister was a school teacher. I remember telling her that the system is designed to make students good followers. She readily agreed, as if that’s a good thing.
I remember a book called “Rebel Yell” which describes the class clown phenomenon. Basically saying that the class clown is simply expressing individuality and rejecting the restrictive, rigid system of mainstream education. I was a class clown. Student centered education is not a new concept. Plato used to say that he taught his students nothing. That he brought out what was already in them. If you look at paintings of Plato, his students are at the top of the hill, while Plato is at the bottom. We’ve wasted a lot of potential with our authoritarian system.
Women shouldn’t be allowed to teach past kindergarten, they just don’t have what it takes (for example, they have no accountability and therefore cannot help children to develop it).
Funny you should mention that, CP. My sister was basically demoted to teaching Kindergarten. Norm MacDonald used to joke that all you need to be a teacher is to be one year more educated than the grade level your teaching.
Some funny material from Norm about teachers.
RIP, Norm:
https://youtu.be/qLLCRQl_-Jk?si=gq8H0n0pEGQWOigD
Are you familiar with Montessori education? It eschews the authoritarianism of schools and provides kids with the freedom to explore their own interests, at their own pace, and at whatever depth they desire. It is arguably preferable to the Prussian-style system the mainstream follows, which is intended to produce obedient workers.
I went to a Montessori School during my elementary years(before I went to the all-boys school in high school,which sadly wasn’t any better),but sadly classes weren’t carried out the way it was supposed to as advertised. What we largely got instead was the typical traditional classroom learning structure,with just a sprinkle of deviation (i.e. Doing Laboratory work in Chemistry,Educational Video games in Computer classes,etc.). What was supposed to be what made Montessori unique to the traditional classroom format BECAME LITTLE SPRINKLES IN THE CURRICULUM!
I can tell from the small taste in those sprinkles that there’s something worthwhile in the actual authentic curriculum. The computer classes were where I first learned to touch type,which I refined through the use of my PC back home.
I think where fault lies is just plain laziness on the part of the administrators and teachers. The traditional authoritative classroom format just happens to be the most convenient way for teachers to take control of the classroom for obvious reasons. Of course,they still needed a way to differentiate themselves from the typical classroom,so they left a little of the actual good stuff in.
Sadly,easy and convenient teaching doesn’t lead to easy and effective learning. I’ve sang the praises of the Finland Education model before in the past,but I’ve unfortunately come to learn from speaking with a few citizens online,that not every school is guaranteed to follow that teaching model.
Some have turned back to Prussian-style authoritarian classroom model,which again I very much suspect is out of a desire to make teaching convenient. More convenient for the teacher to hand out mountains of homework to students to eat up their free time instead of knowing how to best impart your knowledge to the students on your paid time,eh? At least the teachers in my country can make the excuse that they’re poorly paid and so aren’t incentivized to make an effort. What’s their excuse?
I suspect its also because of Ego. The authoritarian model is ego-boosting for the teacher. The teachers I’ve encountered in school almost universally (I’ve met a few cool ones thankfully) do NOT like being corrected. Instead of praising the student for actually knowing the subject enough to find a blind spot,they are lambasted in front of the classroom for being “arrogant and egotistical”. (the irony!) I talked about one such case I ran into even in college on your old post about Stupid Teachers.
As I’ve said,I’m sure the genuine curriculum Montessori education has something to offer,but sadly this shows that just because an establishment has a title on it,doesn’t mean they claim to be what they are in good faith. The need for background checks remain.
Of my graduating class in high school, teaching was a very popular destination for the bottom-tier performers, which would be comical if it was not true. The typical teacher is someone who has no natural authority but due to their position, they can play-act being an inspiring leader. Of course, if a student challenges them or, worse, points out that they are wrong about something, they resort to full-on authoritarianism.
@CyclePath
I’ve spoken before that,if you are of a meek disposition,becoming a school teacher (especially if its high school) is probably one of the worst occupations you could go for. Youngsters will often try to test how little respect they could get away with. I still remember that morbidly obese female teacher I had in elementary,and one of the male students shot a toy arrow at her ginormous ass,sending running away crying and the principal (who is female,but is much better at commanding presence despite being petite and pretty. Too bad she hit the wall quickly,probably from the stress.) having to take over.
I’m not saying that was right. Absolutely not. But I have to think why on earth she chose to become a school teacher. If she’s been fat all her life,surely she is no stranger to having been bullied over her weight. There’s a reason “Kids are cruel” is a cliche.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KidsAreCruel
Honestly,if you can’t command respect and you HAVE to choose teaching as a job,you are much better off becoming a private (preferably online) tutor. There’s that saying that people’s IQ tends to go down several notches while obnoxiousness goes the same amount up while in a group.
I’ve dealt with obnoxious disrespect with boys in a group,yet were quiet as a mouse (or worse…buddy-buddy up to me. ugh) when having to deal with me one on one. Fortunately,even in a group,they never mustered the courage to actually attack me. One,because I never put myself in an area where they can do so easily and get away with it. (they would have to attack me in school,I always ignored invitations to “take it outside” after the first time I was stupid to take it.) and two,because I suspect they sensed that if they dared try to lay a hand on me,I would be ready and more than willing to seriously hurt any one of them that I can.
Dealing with multiple opponents sadly isn’t like in Action Movies. You are at a serious disadvantage in that situation. Multiple dedicated attackers will win 99% of the time against a single person. (that is,if they stay and fight. You should be fighting to escape) “Dedicated” in this case means willing to take damage for the team.
However,the reason people join together is for the security blanket it provides,especially young punks. Nobody is eager to be the guy who has to take damage for the team. Nobody wants to risk going to the hospital to make sure you do. If you are capable and willing (or better yet; “eager”. Its true that a tinge of crazy is an absolute advantage in violence) to dish out serious damage,that security blanket disappears.
In elementary,I’ve literally frightened 3 punks from trying to gang up on me. they could do nothing but bark insults at me from afar and would scamper back whenever I tried walking near. All I had to do from then on was walk away,ignore the posturing and get on a tricycle. Which I did.
What’s the point of me telling this self-gratifying story? People talk about how multiple attacker situations are hopeless cases,with good reason,but it doesn’t mean you have to lay down and die in that situation.
I think I’ve talked to you before why I harbored an interest in training martial arts/combat sports. I’d say situations like these more than validate my choice.
@Aaron
Very true. They are control freaks, except adults don’t respect them. So they lead children. They probably couldn’t even fit in as a drone with other adults.
I had a male 6th grade teacher that got really irritated with my class clowning. Even squeezing my shoulder to the point of pain. Once I wasn’t even clowning, just trying to get clarification on directions for an assignment. He said, “don’t blame me for your stupidity.”. Nice, eh?
In preschool once I and the others were acting up a lot. The teacher grabbed me by the hair, pulled me across the room and threw me outside on the ground. Then had the nerve to tell my mom how bad I was that day.
I wish I knew what a lawsuit was back then. Hell, they could have criminally prosecuted that bitch.
“Teaching was a very popular destination for the bottom-tier performers”
– My god,I can’t even comprehend the chutzpah it takes to think that you’re qualified to teach people about subject matters that you yourself barely know anything about.
Honestly,from this conversation,I think I’m seeing some pretty big similarities between crappy school teachers and terrible martial arts instructors.
https://chirontraining.blogspot.com/2008/10/punishing-success.html
https://chirontraining.blogspot.com/2008/12/teaching-perhaps.html
They don’t join the occupation to fulfill the duty that these roles are ideally supposed to provide for the people. They join to stroke their weak ego. You don’t have that many other occupations (or at least as easily accessible) where your “students” show as much obedience,reverence,and submission.
And if they don’t comply with your self ego stroking program,you just punish them at your leisure. See teachers lambasting a student for correcting them,or a martial arts instructor savagely beating up a student for doing too well against him in sparring like in that first link I shared.
I suppose that’s just the unfortunate thing about unsavory characters commonly being attracted to positions of power.
Either that,or they just joined to get a paycheck and don’t actually care about doing a good job,but I’d say that’s largely the result of terrible education/schooling and parenting. Children who weren’t given good guidance grow up to become lost and desperate adults,some of them choosing to become a teacher because they can’t do much else and the barrier to entry is so low. And that’s where the vicious cycle begins.
I feel the fact that so few teachers care to give real help to nerds (who have the greatest potential to help advance society) who are being bullied proves a lot of what I say above. They don’t truly care about the students. Teachers are ideally supposed to help guide children to grow up to become productive members of society. They are supposed to be fundamental to building a thriving society.
I’d say how our society has devalued the teaching position (with the low barrier to entry and shit pay leading to teachers who don’t care.) plays another big part to its decay.
I think that most teachers are unable to help nerds because the former are only of average intelligence and show little interest in their subject. I had teachers in mathematics who would have been completely lost without their solutions booklet and could not properly explain concepts.
The great philosopher, Mr. Miagi 🙂
https://youtu.be/phdkomQxo9Q?si=8-nu2zOZLquK0KPF
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/w6p_RzFITU4
“Normal Average Guy”
Gotta love the Apex Fallacy in full display here. ????
miHoYo, the company behind Genshin Impact, just released a new game, Zenless Zone Zero:
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/zenless-zone-zero-c7c151
It is an action-RPG full of hot waifus, serviceable gameplay, and decent graphics that even run adequately on a potato PC. It is free to play as well, with gacha of course. From the looks of it, it has a great start. I really wonder how they do it. From my point of view, miHoYo really needs to put a few ugly women, gays, and trannies into this game instead of coomer bait like this:
Within a few days, Zenless Zone Zero achieved 50 million downloads:
https://x.com/ZZZ_EN/status/1809527720768074217
As it turns out, releasing a high-quality product that the audience wants is a recipe for success.
The challenge in this game is not falling asleep, unfortunately. Would smack my hypothetical son if I found him playing this.
This is unfortunate. I have not tried it out myself yet but player sentiment is quite positive. I would not mind getting Mark_MSX’s take on it.
Mark_MSX seems to wear his preferences on his sleeve, so I would highly doubt he would rate any gatcha game positively. He seems to harbor a disdain for RPG elements in action games in general. He’d rather that ZZZ (hence the sleep joke) grant the player all possible abilities and powerups from the start instead of pulling a lever and leaving it to chance, or however the game works.
Jokes aside, as for my own actual criticism I obviously haven’t actually played the game, or any pay-to-win games for that matter. At first glance it just seems like more style over substance goyslop to me. A lot of people seem to rate Cardi B as a brilliant musician, and Cheetos as a great snack as well. What the developers are creating is certainly no small feat, I will admit. And the big bouncy waifu tits are a nice touch. However, this reminds me of that Sandlot quote, “heroes get remembered but legends never die.”
Just from what little I’ve gleaned from looking up streams:
-6 hour tutorial
-episodic mid-tier anime story releases
-plays more like a visual novel than an action RPG
-filled with hip-hop music
-silly puzzles
-seemingly superficial combat system
Karen: I don’t feel safe in my own neighborhood any more
Chad: You literally voted for this
https://nitter.poast.org/LeoKearse/status/1809373986587082825#m
Comments are gold. The woman being quoted was shamed into removing the race of the perps because “that’s not the point.” One especially nuanced thinker blamed Andrew Tate for the “rise in misogyny.”
I imagine that by now Wikipedia simultaneously dismisses Rotherham as a “far-right conspiracy theory ™” and blames it entirely on cishet white male Christian nationalists.
Good and hard, as Mencken said.
Josh Moon, the owner of Kiwi Farms, which is one of the last bastions of free speech online, wrote a long article on the war big money fights to suppress inconvenient truths. In short, it is a combination of corruption, favoritism, and power tripping:
https://madattheinternet.substack.com/p/online-censorships-institutional
I don’t know if you guys consider Candice Owens an agent provocateur but who the hell speaks this much truth?
https://youtu.be/0xVBL2CQkGY?si=607tCJR2WsP-V6bx
The Guardian laments that looksmaxxing is going mainstream:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/15/from-bone-smashing-to-chin-extensions-how-looksmaxxing-is-reshaping-young-mens-faces
The writers behind this leftist dirt rag are very concerned about men wanting to improve themselves. In a recent article, they claim that the “sigma male” is a laughing stock and that, most remarkably, personality types neither exist, nor are they fixed. This seems contradictory, so which is it , faggots?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/12/the-sad-stupid-rise-of-the-sigma-male-how-toxic-masculinity-took-over-social-media
To be fair,James Sapphire (whom I’ve posted about before here) is the perfect example of youngsters taking looksmaxxing way too far. Obsessed over his looks and went to extreme measures to try to fix problems that didn’t even exist (because his naivety made him take forum gremlins too seriously…) despite already receiving way more female validation/attention that most boys his age could only dream of.
I feel like the healthiest approach to go by is to just see our looks as a means to end. If the women we generally want are attracted to us and we are benefitting from the “Halo Effect” when meeting and interacting with people,then we are in a good place. Keep self-improving of course,but don’t resort to riskier methods.
I think Alek has mentioned that he doesn’t even like looking in the mirror. Same goes for me,actually. (I do like looking at my newly developed muscles from time to time though) Yet,I have gotten a fair amount of female attention and compliments (not as much as young James) and have no desire whatsoever to get facial surgery. I might consider a hair transplant in the future though if I can afford it. (I would probably prioritize LASIK/PRK though) My hair still looks fine for the most part,but is definitely showing bad signs. Point is,I’m in a good spot and I don’t see the need to fix what isn’t even broken.
You don’t have to be in love with the guy who looks back at you in the mirror. I think its important to be proud of the guy looking back at you (I’m certainly proud of the newly developed muscle. Hopefully I can get back to the gym soon though,they are starting to shrink.),but you don’t need to be seeing the ideal man.
I want to say this though…I think young boys being obsessed over seeing their abs is a bad thing. I’ve talked before about how a big part of the reason I’m a fan of the idea of getting youngsters on the fitness train is “Muscle Memory”. Once you’ve built up that foundation,you’ll have an investment you can enjoy for the rest of your life with much less work. Alek himself has said that he’s recently regained nearly all of his prime muscle with relatively minimal work in a couple of months,despite being in his 40’s. This is what I’m talking about!
Back when I hanged out in a fitness discord server,we had to explain this so many times to visiting youngsters. Don’t obsess over your abs right now and risk not developing to the fullest (if I’m not mistaken,a caloric surplus in your growing years doesn’t just benefit physical development,but even brain development!). For now,focus on getting as big,strong,and athletic as you can be. You can start uncovering your abs when you become a young adult.
A lot of these boys are like 110 lbs skinny who are somehow deathly afraid of accidentally becoming obese. lol. Its a lot harder to get fat (especially in these folks’ position) when you’re resistance training,playing sports,and eating nutritiously well on a daily basis. I suspect I probably would have never gotten fat (maybe slightly chubby) had I been fortunate enough to start with this kind of foundation,lol.
I’ve come to believe that looksmaxxing only really benefits you if you have at least 2/3 going for you:
-Above average height
-Above average bone structure (face)
-Above average frame (shoulder width etc.)
If you’re a short, ugly framelet (extreme example) then it’s best to realize this and find something better to do with your time, like career, hobbies and prostitutes. This blog was the first place I ever remember that discussed the importance of height and looks. Now that looksmaxxing is apparently mainstream, it just seems to mean that the new standard will be higher is all. As in, the new 5/10 is a 6. Nothing really changes, and in the end looksmaxxing is very gynocentric (women have more resources/independence and just keep raising their standards, and men comply). It reminds me of that utopian mouse study where they just groomed themselves and shit all day.
“in the end looksmaxxing is very gynocentric (women have more resources/independence and just keep raising their standards, and men comply).”
Agreed. I think you guys have talked before about how in the distant past,female attraction criteria wasn’t really as much of a factor in men’s life decisions. Men back then worked to accumulate Power (Status and Resources) for the purpose of fending off or even dominating other men and taking their resources/territories. If you worked out,you did it to become physically imposing in further extension of that goal.
Of course,if you were successful at jockeying for Status and Resources,one of the big perks were that women flocked to you giving you access to the best mating options. But that was how Men self-improved back in the day. Figuring out how to develop a pretty boy face were not what men were concerned over. in fact,that was probably the last thing you wanted back then as it would have reduced your ability to be masculinely imposing. Can you imagine The Godfather caring,let alone obsessing,over looking pretty? lol.
On Open Thread #349,I said this:
_________
I think a good rule of thumb when it comes to putting effort into pursuing the development of any skill is to see if it serves you in a variety of ways. Money and Status do way more for your life than just getting you laid. Same goes for the Gym. Meditation as well.
Taking comedian classes when the only reason you’re interested in it at all is to make chicks laugh (because you think that makes them attracted to you) is a waste of time. That being said,I can definitely see the value of taking Acting Classes for general purposes. There’s definitely many uses for being able to put on a poker face and pretending to be calm when you’re actually scared/unconfident deep down.
________
Unfortunately,I think the less genetically blessed you are (as you’ve mentioned),the less “margin of error” you have when choosing your path to self-improvement. If you are a short framelet with poor muscle building genetics for example,you don’t want to spend too much of your time and energy in the gym just to end up with relatively less-than-mediocre results. That’s an opportunity cost that could have gone to focusing on accumulating money/status/career advancement,etc.
Of the time you DO spend working out,in that position,I think you would get best ROI prioritizing developing athleticism over aesthetics. Since you’re working out so that you aren’t weak and defenseless,making predators (and bullies) looking for an easy victim a lot more hesitant to target you. Hopefully in the process you cultivate a more respectable physical image of yourself for general social interaction,or at least get to the point where people don’t negatively react to you based on your looks anymore. (negative halo)
Being ugly to the point of attracting negative attention from nasty folks and people wanting you out of their sight is one of the few sad cases I’d definitely be pro-cosmetic surgery. Going from ugly to invisible normie would be a definite upgrade in overall QoL here. I suppose we can be glad this is a thought experiment and not a position we have to seriously consider thinking about.
I still think “Limb Lengthening Surgery” is never worth it though! I would have to think being reduced to a cripple in daily life overshadows any additional points of attractiveness you might gain for the extra inches of height. and can you imagine trying to defend yourself if you’re ever attacked after this permanently debilitating surgery? the thought is pretty horrifying to me personally.
https://youtu.be/4uy9mgef2Yw?si=wAQqnEXbDuyvF5Xp
Wheatwaffles on 80:20 pareto distribution.