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Is reality that harsh? Certainly there are immutable truths to be found, and of those, a certain subset aren't pleasant. But by and large in my experience, real
by FussyZeus 7y ago
Is reality that harsh? Certainly there are immutable truths to be found, and of those, a certain subset aren't pleasant. But by and large in my experience, reality is largely neutral. What's often much harsher than any reality are the status quos of societal systems, and though they may be difficult to mutate, they are mutable.
As much as I detest things like the Men's Rights movement and MGTOW and other such groups, they've sprung up largely to fill the void left by the various (and rightful) excisions made into masculinity by progressive politics. We've learned how much of what was traditionally defined as masculine was not only sexist, but also just straight up harmful, both to men and everyone else. The problem is we set about destroying these elements of masculinity without then replacing them with something else, and nature abhors a vacuum. So now we have large sects of male demographics leaning into the toxicity, because having a bad identity is better than having no identity.
If I have one serious complaint with progressives, it's that the majority seem to regard men as privileged so far beyond everyone else that they have no legitimate complaints, and it's bullshit. And not only is it bullshit, it's ultimately self-defeating. With each lonely young man who is ignored and cast out of any kind of progressive minded group, the alt-right and MRA activists gain another pawn, easily radicalized against those who hate him when he himself has done nothing wrong.
So no, I don't think reality is that harsh. I think humans are harsh.
- seph-reed 7y ago> Is reality that harsh? This is not a story of how utopias are made. Write that story in your head, then compare and contrast. Maybe read up on 20th century torture. I lived the good life for a while, then I got pushed to the fringe, and now I'm somewhere in between. The worst I saw was nothing compared to the worst there has been, but it was bad enough to make one thing very, very clear: happiness stands on the back of suffering. You may think that your question is innocent, that your optimism is an answer. In reality, you're just spitting in the face of less fortunate people. Imagine looking an abused child in the eyes and saying "is reality that harsh?" Or saying that to homeless people. Maybe go find a couple HK protesters who have vanished, I'm sure they're having a great time. Good worlds don't let this shit happen. It's not a few people slipping through the cracks, it's a fucking dystopia.
- PavlovsCat 7y agoThose are things humans do to other humans, it's not the emptyness of space, the harsh reality of the universe, doing that to us. To "stand guard" at the edge of humanity as if to ward of some outside intrusion of evil just doesn't make sense. There is still plenty of suffering to be had even if all humans were excellent to each other, but that would take so much bite out of it.
- seph-reed 7y agoThe outside of the bubble isn't space. It sounds like you're on the tail end of existentialism, which is good. It does keep going for a while passed that. Seems like you may be heading towards Absurdism. If so, I recommend Optimistic Nihilism instead. It's much less of a kick in the shins to the envious tortured souls you never notice watching you.
- PavlovsCat 7y agoThe person you responded to said they think reality isn't harsh, humans are, and you replied with a bunch of harsh things humans do as if that contradicted their comment, which it doesn't. Yet you're contradicting yourself: > In the moment it sucks, but over time I look back and see a beautiful existence. vs. > Imagine looking an abused child in the eyes and saying "is reality that harsh?"
- seph-reed 7y ago1. Humans aren't some exception to reality. 2. Beauty can exist in harsh realities.
- FussyZeus 7y agoI find it interesting you namecheck Optimistic Nihilism because that's largely where I'm at. And I'm sorry but you just aren't presenting much here that's intrinsic, naturally occurring harshness but instead the manifestations of cruel people, which is exactly what I posted about in the first place. I don't think the world is that cruel. I think people, both individually and as a group, are tremendously cruel and capable of terrible things that in turn make the world cruel. In short, to borrow the words of Rorschach from Watchmen, “...God didn't kill that little girl. Fate didn't butcher her and destiny didn't feed her to those dogs. If God saw what any of us did that night he didn't seem to mind. From then on I knew... God doesn't make the world this way. We do.”