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I don't use Reddit outside a few niche communities that unfortunately have a presence there, but disturbing content (as in genuinely disturbing, not merely porn
by strken 3y ago
I don't use Reddit outside a few niche communities that unfortunately have a presence there, but disturbing content (as in genuinely disturbing, not merely porn and dead people) broadens one's horizons.
Here are some disturbing things I've run across that I'm glad to have seen:
The Wethouse, a documentary on an alcohol-allowed hostel for alcoholics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF5wNsfKo84 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF5wNsfKo84
Putin's essay "On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians": en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181 (it should be obvious from the literal kremlin.ru domain and the fact it's by Putin, but you want to read this one critically)
/r/deathgainers, a community of fetishists literally eating themselves to death and being egged on by other fetishists (no URL because it probably got wiped out in the drama and because it is actual porn; see also pro-anorexia communities, which for some reason tend to be banned while deathgainers are allowed)
Blindsight by Peter Watts, a hard-biology science fiction novel that raises questions about how we think: https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
The disturbing parts of the internet are more worthwhile than the Skinner boxes and can encourage more personal growth. Certainly if you're only a little concerned about the amount you drink, watching The Wethouse will change that; if you're sitting there in July of 2021 and not too worried about whether Russia will start a land war in Europe, reading Putin's essay and its echoes of blood-and-soil will change that too; if you eat too little or too much, seeing the fatal effects can be a wake-up call.
Many moderation policies would block some or all of those, though The Wethouse and Blindsight might escape. I'm glad to have seen all of them. I'm not sure whether I would have, if I had to explicitly go to the designated deviant zone and wade through thousands of gigs of porn to find them.
- Tao3300 3y agoBlindsight is disturbing? I guess the Captain did some questionable things... I liked that book a lot. It'd be a tragedy to find that being censored anywhere.
- User23 3y agoI think the more disturbing part is the implications of consciousness being a kind of globally maladaptive local optimum. And it’s neat how the aliens are basically GPT-99. That the protagonist had half his brain amputated is pretty squick too. The vampire stuff isn’t really disturbing at all.
- Tao3300 3y agoThe vampire stuff isn't disturbing per se, but: uᴉɐʇdɐɔ ǝɥʇ ʎllɐǝɹ ʇ,usᴉ ǝɹᴉdɯɐʌ ǝɥʇ
- User23 3y ago> Putin's essay "On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians": en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181 (it should be obvious from the literal kremlin.ru domain and the fact it's by Putin, but you want to read this one critically) Reading this, I find myself wondering who was the last American president who might have written an analysis on this level. Carter maybe? He was always underrated. Nixon probably too. Perhaps Obama could have, but by the time he was president it was already unthinkable for a US president to do such a thing.
- watwut 3y agoIt is agood thing that US presidents don't write ahistorical self serving bs like this. Not that they would be saints, but not being Putin is a good thing.
- RobotToaster 3y agoHave you read George Bush's autobiography?
- flagrant_taco 3y agoI wonder if George Bush ever read George Bush's autobiography
- red-iron-pine 3y agoObama was the head of the Harvard Law Review before getting active in politics, and almost certainly was a decent writer. You're also assuming that Putin actually wrote this himself. I don't think it's impossible -- he was in the KGB and FSB, analysis could be something he's trained heavily in -- but if I had to bet money it's not his writing, just his byline. Furthermore, even it it was his work it missed the mark pretty hard, and a lot of dudes are dying due to terrible assumptions made about Ukraine and it's military.
- api 3y agoBlindsight is an amazing sci-fi novel. It should be more well known. I described it as cosmic horror where the monster is a thesis from evolutionary game theory… and the big reveal is actually scary. About as high brow as you can get but manages it without being boorish or purple prose.