Good news, everyone! The good folks on the RedditorOfTheDay subreddit picked our friend AnnArchist to be Redditor of the Day yesterday. He filled out a little questionnaire for the RedditorOfTheDay folks listing all sorts of fun facts about himself.
In addition to moderating the Men’s Rights subreddit and posting hilarious videos of women getting beaten up to the beatingwomen subreddit, AnnArchist (who is a dude, despite the name) also enjoys: Skyrim, bass fishing, sports talk radio, chicken tacos, and football!
His biggest pet peeve:
People who want to interfere with other people’s happiness.
His biggest worry about Reddit?
I just hope the community doesn’t grow so quickly that we lose the quality debate and discussion that has kept many of the users around reddit for a long time.
Over on ShitRedditSays, fxexular has helpfully catalogued some of AnnArchist’s contribution to the “quality debate and discussion.” Like his considered opinion on one female judge:
I hope someone kills her.
And his opinion of an alleged false rape accuser:
I hope she was harassed. Fuck I hope her house was firebombed. Lets be clear, I really will applaud anyone who does anything to her, be it slash her tires or slash her throat.
You can find even more of these charming nuggets in my post about him here.
In his answers to the RedditorOfTheDay questionnaire, AnnArchist reveals himself to be a truly sensitive soul. Here, he shares a painful moment from his past:
When I was a senior in HS and when my friend and I saw … the plane fly into the twin towers our first reaction was laughter rather than OMG thats a tragedy. Yea, we’re fucked up. I TPed my High School that night. I’m a horrible person.
Oh, and did I mention that he’s the creator, sole moderator, and basically the only contributor to the NSFW4 subreddit, devoted to posting pictures and videos too horrific and offensive to post anywhere else on Reddit?
Godspeed, AnnArchist! Thank you for making the world a better place!
NOTE: This post is almost entirely made up of sarcasm.
To add to Molly Ren’s list of good TV shows, we like Boardwalk Empire and Breaking Bad ’round here. Actually, Breaking Bad had some really amazing episodes last season. Like, breathtakingly good.
I rewatch all of Six Feet Under every couple years or so, but I suppose it’s getting so it’s not recent anymore. Well, +1 for the classics, then.
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Censorship.pdf
Some examples of bowdlerization
Bee – Oh, Breaking Bad is AMAZING.
Also Twin Peaks. (How did I manage to forget Twin Peaks???)
Count me in on the Breaking Bad love. And I’m just getting through it.
…
Wait, what are we talking about? Ah well, keep at it. It’s entertaining AND educational. 😀
Eek…many responses, should have not been away for so long >_> sorry for the tl;dr
The industrial revolution comes to mind. NASA from the 50s-80s (specifically when they explored space) Everything besides our technological advancements seems to have gone downhill post year 2000. Again this is just pure opinion. I may also have nostalgia goggles on.
One area I think we’ve still kept up with is art though. Painting and drawing specifically. It just doesn’t get as widespread appreciation as the classic painters did. Now its just appreciated by people in related industries or who consider it a hobby. If you look at video game concept art, or concept art from animated films, there is a lot of technical skill there. Painting..GOOD painting, in Photoshop is still not regarded as something that takes skill so that could also be why non-industry people or even other artists don’t regard it with as much “wow” as they would classic painters. They consider it cheating, and while some elements can be seen as such, it still takes a lot of talent, hard work and skill to create something like this: http://www.flashcoo.com/cartoon/cg_artwork_wallpapers_02_1600x1200/html/wallpaper32.html
I’m still a n00b at philosophy and I hope that my posts didn’t come off as pretentious or that I think I’m smarter than everyone because that’s totally not what I meant. If anything I don’t think I’m smart enough and since graduating college I’ve been on this quest for knowledge. Philosophy seemed like a good start because I’m always analyzing and questioning things in my head anyway. I’m interested in Existentialism particularly because many of my personal “obstacles” can relate to existentialist philosophy. I was really close to buying a book my Nietzsche this week, but I’ve read some misogynistic quotes by him and seeing how so many guys online seem to use his works as justification to be an asshole (Roissy comes to mind for example) its rather off-putting. I bought Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals by Kant instead.
Actually what you just said about philosophy excluding women, slaves, non-elites…that’s actually left me feeling a bit bitter towards exploring it further. The large number of misogynistic quotes from philosophers is just so discouraging, though understandable considering the era they came from. It’s not surprising that philosophy departments are still very sexist. Especially after seeing this: http://www.newfoundations.com/Clabaugh/CuttingEdge/Exterminating.html
That’s the first time anyone has ever told me I see things through rose covered glasses, usually people tell me I’m too negative. Anyway, I see your point. It could also be that as with most things, only the sensational or stupid news/people tend to get the most attention. The past seems to be good at covering up their stupidities. I wonder if our era will do the same for the Kardashians, Twilight books, Sarah Palin and Bush.
Viscaria stated I haven’t read a US history textbook. I’ve read, you know, textbooks. >_>
I am not sure if you are Canadian or not. I am American from New York. Most Americans know very little about Canada. If you ask an American the Capital of Canada and they will say Toronto or Montreal when it is really Ottawa. Many Americans know very little about Canadian provinces such as Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfounland, Prince Edward Island, etc. Some Americans even think Canadians live in igloos.
Conversely, Some Canadians resent The United States because Canada is about a tenth of the population of and a lot of USA culture infiltrates Canada.
I know this because I am a huge Ice Hockey fan. In Vancouver this past spring, people were booing the Star Spangled Banner before the Canucks played the Boston Bruins.
Are Canadians different than Americans? I mean both countries share a common border but in my opinion I think Canadians are more reserved than Americans. Canadians are more laid back than Americans. But I love the Canadian anthem “O Canada”.
I wrote this because there is a lot of commenting on this thread about Canadians and Americans. I see some people here use the term ‘USIAN”. I understand that but I prefer to use “American hence, “The United States of America”.
Molly, me too! WTF is going there? Waaaay too much going on. Oh well, let go and let Sutter.
But heroicman is Samuel, right? Has this been confirmed?
@Quackers: I think Kant is the one who claimed that no woman could ever be GENIUS! I wouldn’t have remembered that off the top of my head normally but one of my best students is writing her paper on Virginia Woolf’s ‘responses’ in Mrs. Dalloway to Kantian and Althusserian theories–so after you read Kant, you might want to check out Virginia Woolf! I’m not against anybody reading ANYTHING–and admire you for continuing to learn after college–but I admit to getting a bit grumpy about the “nobody’s doing anything as good as the dead white men did” which is, pretty much, what too simple an evocation of the “classics” comes down to in the end. (And pretty much straight and white dead white men, though not as much.)
And I don’t quite give the “man of his time” pass because it’s not as if all men forever were all equally misogynistic or sexist — John Stuart Mills for example, living earlier than Immanuel Kant, was a major philosopher who spoke out about human rights, against slavery and for women’s rights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill
Bee, I’m not sure. I can never tell Samuel and Simon apart.
Say what you will about the merits of those three examples (I sure do!), but on the bright side that’s a list of women who have, respectively, a high-profile television career, an incredibly popular and influential series of books and movies, and substantial political influence among conservative men including a Vice-Presidential nomination.
Obviously those particular women are all incredibly undeserving of all that as individuals, but it says something about our era that such women can even exist. 🙂 /silver lining
@Quackers: The past seems to be good at covering up their stupidities
Well, unless they’re coming out zombie fashion, I don’t see how the past is doing the cover ups.
It’s the filtering effect, but it’s also ideology at work (i.e. the whole myffic narrative of “Western Civilization.”). If you’re interested in a scholar who analyzes how “history” is mistaught in the US, check out James Loewen’s work (http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/). If you’re interested in a fantastic work by socialist historian, check out work by Howard Zinn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn
That is, a lot of these “stupidities” are known, but purposely excluded from the “glory glory USA patriot” version of U.S. History (Texas is particularly notorious for running potential textbooks through an evangelical ideological filter–i.e. demanding biology textbooks cover creationism, etc.)
http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1ARAB_enUS452US452&aq=2&oq=Texas+textbooks&gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=texas+textbooks+controversy
he writes like samuel but i dont see any reflexive demonizing of his libido
John Stuart Mills is my homeboy. Whenever I read his books I always end up reading bits out loud, much to the annoyance of my friends and companions.
The People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn is pretty cool, too, as is Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me. I’d really recommend those to anyone who wants a less biased (or differently biased!) view of US history.
Bagelsan: One comment I remember trading with feminist friends during the 1980s is that feminism would have arrived in a certain sense of the word when women were as free to be mediocre as men and still SUCCEED!
However, a lot of the ire directed at Meyer and Palin (I don’t know anything about Kardashions except that explains why we’ve been hearing so much background noise about “Cadassians” lately) does have sexist and misogynistic overtones: that is, attacks on them because they’re women, not on the merit of their work or ideas.
I think I checked samuel and heroicman earlier and they are posting from thousands of miles apart, at least according to their IP addresses.
Then in those three women, feminism has truly arrived! 😀
Mill: 20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873
Kant: 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804
VOIP: *headdesk* Damn, you’re right–misspoke there bigtime!
Numbers hate me, and I suck at remembering dates–I shoulda checked!
Ah, well, still, not that all apart in time!
@heroicman:
Yes, I’m Canadian; and I would argue that it’s true that most Americans don’t know as much about Canada as the reverse, but given the population and importance on the world stage of the two countries it’s not unexpected.
There are cultural differences between the two nations, but there are also a great deal of similarities. And, come to that, there are many cultural differences between different regions within the countries of Canada and the United States. Culture might be very different, say, in rural Alabama than San Francisco.
I tend to avoid saying “Canadians are” or “USians are” since it relies on both essentialism and gross generalities, and is usually used to strengthen in-group out-group boundaries. In the part of the thread you quoted, I was only discussing what I had heard about some US history curricula, not its people or their attitudes. Even at that, I was careful to explain that I was only working from hearsay.
@ithiliana
I have read Mrs. Dalloway for a class in school, although it was awhile ago so I don’t really remember much. I’m familiar with her essay A Room of One’s Own as well. Great one that is. My favorite feminist lit would have to be The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Oh and alongside Kant’s book I also found a copy of Mary Wollstonecraft’s The Vindication of the Rights of Women. Looking forward to reading that one.
I think I like John Stuart Mill already haha. It’s always nice hearing about early male supporters of women’s rights. I also enjoyed The Education of Women by Daniel Defoe, although all the talk about breeding was a bit off putting. He even mentioned “softness” which reminded me of Meller haha http://grammar.about.com/od/classicessays/a/educwomendefoe.htm
a man born in 1660 still had more progressive views than Meller though, imagine that!
@ithiliana
Also thanks for the links, I will check them out!
The People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn is pretty cool, too, – That’;s the book that made me all “I’ma gonna be a historian!” *warm fuzzies*
Viscaria commented” There are cultural differences between the two nations, but there are also a great deal of similarities. And, come to that, there are many cultural differences between different regions within the countries of Canada and the United States. Culture might be very different, say, in rural Alabama than San Francisco.”
Good point Viscaria. A Canadian from Manitoba may be closer culturally with A North Dakotan than the North Dakotan would be with an American from South Carolina.