http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/pond-scum
"The hypocrisy is not that Thoreau aspired to solitude and self-sufficiency but kept going home for cookies and company. That's just the gap between aspiration and execution, plus the variability in our needs and moods from one moment to the next- eminently human experiences, which, had Thoreau engaged with them, would have made for a far more interesting and useful book. The hypocrisy is that Thoreau lived a complicated life but pretended to live a simple one. Worse, he preached at others to live as he did not, while berating them for their own compromises and complexities."
I love that Kathryn Schulz called the piece "Pond Scum."
Showing posts with label fuck thoreau. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fuck thoreau. Show all posts
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Friday, July 11, 2014
The Life Of A Hater Hater
I am a hater hater. What does this mean, exactly? It means that I can't stand people who hate for no reason other than to hate. Chapelle's Show's Haters Ball is my nightmare. Studies have shown there are people who are predisposed to hate, and that's a shame. They take offense to impersonal things that happen halfway around the world. But the problem with being a "hater" is not that they hate. It's that they hate for the wrong reasons, or with the wrong evidence. Either way, they don't care. Haters choose to always hate. Haters carry a wholly pessimistic worldview, but also a very self-centered one. Haters internalize. What they hate on is incorrect. What they don't is acceptable. It's based on the hater's opinion, and they refuse to see it as so. They see it as fact. Where's the empathy?
I'm talking about haters because Lebron James just announced he's going back to Cleveland to play for the Cavs. I am stoked. I woke up to that news and I've been watching SportsCenter all morning, even though I did not want to. It's an important story. "Where were you when you heard Lebron was returning home to the Cavaliers?" I was in Mammoth, excited that the city of Cleveland is ready to welcome him back. One of the pundits said it right. "Cleveland was the only place that offered him redemption." In a lot of people's eyes, he needed to be redeemed. Those were haters. They became haters. But many of them won't be haters anymore. They'll forgive. The true haters will keep their back turned on Lebron. Some of them never liked him in the first place. He's one of the greatest basketball players of all time, one of the most tremendous athletes I've ever seen.
Pasha tweeted, wondering if he could still hate Lebron because the Cavs knock out the Wizards. He's good now. That's a valid reason. I hate the Seahawks, because they're in the Niners' division. Pete Carrol coached USC, and he's smiles the smarmiest smile. Hate for a reason is perfectly fine. You can't choose to hate for the sake of hating. Cleveland burned Lebron jerseys when he left. They hated him, because he left. I don't agree with thoughts of "betrayal," but I understand the hate. Now, they're sorry. But Miami fans are all "betrayed," and are hating. That I don't get as much. Come on. He came, he left. That's just standard pro sports. The history and emotion doesn't exist like that.
The only reason I ever wanted the Heat to win championships was so the haters would get what was coming to them. Also, the Spurs are boring. Mostly, though, I loved Lebron because everyone else hated him.
The other thing I want to talk about is all these chicks being vilified for posting pictures of themselves hunting in Africa. Oh my god, you fucks, you can't attack a girl for posting her big game pics. The Texas Tech cheerleader shot a lion. They're majestic! Well, the way that kind of hunting works is that you pay. And that money goes back into supporting wildlife conservation and stopping poaching. It's not the Wild West out there, where you get to shoot buffalo from the train. Poaching is like warfare, and it's important for the economy to have hunting occur. Don't call a woman a coward for shooting something. Don't become indignant about something you know nothing about. I support hunting. Sure, I'd like to see it all be bows and arrows. They're are ways to improve everything. But you don't get to call for a human's head because it doesn't agree with your "morals," ones you don't have until there's controversy and it's time to jump on the hate bandwagon.
And the Belgian shot a prey animal! That stuff is edible, that stuff is acceptable beyond belief, and that's important. Haters don't get the concept of culling the herd. Killing healthy, powerful lions can be bad. I has stayed away from all the vitriol for the Texas Tech girl until now, but I looked it up. Male lion, controlled area, killed to make sure he doesn't kill any cubs. That's a thing that happens so that the male can make sure HIS cubs are the survivors. It's not like the lions are super aware of their numbers or the system of evolution and survival. It's a progeny thing to them only. But remember how they brought back the wolves in Yosemite, and then they ate and scared the deer, bringing back a better, thriving version of the Yosemite ecosystem? African savannah can be corrupted too if you have too many antelope. So shoot 'em. Give the money and the dead to the local community. Everyone thinks they're so cultured and advanced for condemning any and all hunting. No. You're simply wrong.
I am not a preservationist. I am a conversationist. If you want to leave everything "pristine," you're getting mad at beavers and fungi. Everyone can agree that sounds ridiculous. Humans are in the animal kingdom. We should be one with it, not apart from it. We can be above it on either side: We shouldn't crush it beneath our feet, and we shouldn't be high and mighty as its protectors. We need to accept our role as part of it, as it.
But fuck Thoreau though. I don't hate how I hate him.
I'm talking about haters because Lebron James just announced he's going back to Cleveland to play for the Cavs. I am stoked. I woke up to that news and I've been watching SportsCenter all morning, even though I did not want to. It's an important story. "Where were you when you heard Lebron was returning home to the Cavaliers?" I was in Mammoth, excited that the city of Cleveland is ready to welcome him back. One of the pundits said it right. "Cleveland was the only place that offered him redemption." In a lot of people's eyes, he needed to be redeemed. Those were haters. They became haters. But many of them won't be haters anymore. They'll forgive. The true haters will keep their back turned on Lebron. Some of them never liked him in the first place. He's one of the greatest basketball players of all time, one of the most tremendous athletes I've ever seen.
Pasha tweeted, wondering if he could still hate Lebron because the Cavs knock out the Wizards. He's good now. That's a valid reason. I hate the Seahawks, because they're in the Niners' division. Pete Carrol coached USC, and he's smiles the smarmiest smile. Hate for a reason is perfectly fine. You can't choose to hate for the sake of hating. Cleveland burned Lebron jerseys when he left. They hated him, because he left. I don't agree with thoughts of "betrayal," but I understand the hate. Now, they're sorry. But Miami fans are all "betrayed," and are hating. That I don't get as much. Come on. He came, he left. That's just standard pro sports. The history and emotion doesn't exist like that.
The only reason I ever wanted the Heat to win championships was so the haters would get what was coming to them. Also, the Spurs are boring. Mostly, though, I loved Lebron because everyone else hated him.
The other thing I want to talk about is all these chicks being vilified for posting pictures of themselves hunting in Africa. Oh my god, you fucks, you can't attack a girl for posting her big game pics. The Texas Tech cheerleader shot a lion. They're majestic! Well, the way that kind of hunting works is that you pay. And that money goes back into supporting wildlife conservation and stopping poaching. It's not the Wild West out there, where you get to shoot buffalo from the train. Poaching is like warfare, and it's important for the economy to have hunting occur. Don't call a woman a coward for shooting something. Don't become indignant about something you know nothing about. I support hunting. Sure, I'd like to see it all be bows and arrows. They're are ways to improve everything. But you don't get to call for a human's head because it doesn't agree with your "morals," ones you don't have until there's controversy and it's time to jump on the hate bandwagon.
And the Belgian shot a prey animal! That stuff is edible, that stuff is acceptable beyond belief, and that's important. Haters don't get the concept of culling the herd. Killing healthy, powerful lions can be bad. I has stayed away from all the vitriol for the Texas Tech girl until now, but I looked it up. Male lion, controlled area, killed to make sure he doesn't kill any cubs. That's a thing that happens so that the male can make sure HIS cubs are the survivors. It's not like the lions are super aware of their numbers or the system of evolution and survival. It's a progeny thing to them only. But remember how they brought back the wolves in Yosemite, and then they ate and scared the deer, bringing back a better, thriving version of the Yosemite ecosystem? African savannah can be corrupted too if you have too many antelope. So shoot 'em. Give the money and the dead to the local community. Everyone thinks they're so cultured and advanced for condemning any and all hunting. No. You're simply wrong.
I am not a preservationist. I am a conversationist. If you want to leave everything "pristine," you're getting mad at beavers and fungi. Everyone can agree that sounds ridiculous. Humans are in the animal kingdom. We should be one with it, not apart from it. We can be above it on either side: We shouldn't crush it beneath our feet, and we shouldn't be high and mighty as its protectors. We need to accept our role as part of it, as it.
But fuck Thoreau though. I don't hate how I hate him.
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Thoreau (Is the Worst)
I read another post off of Brain Pickings, which I love, about Henry David Thoreau, who I do not, and who I think is the original hipster. Thoreau is a hipster in the negative sense. I really couldn't stand him by the end of Walden. He wrote a whole book about living by himself in the woods when he was like a mile out of town and made his mom do his laundry for him. Anyone who looks up to Thoreau is mistaken. He's a fraud, not "one of the masters of the art of living," as Ms. Maria Popova put it. He's a pretentious hypocrite and I do not like him. I mean, what do you expect from someone with the worst facial hair neckbeard of all time. He is not a role model in any way. Except for hipsters.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)