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Does anyone know who is the author? Apart from "Molly Brodak". Is it this[1] person, perhaps? [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Brodak https://en.m.wik

Does anyone know who is the author? Apart from "Molly Brodak". Is it this[1] person, perhaps? [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Brodak https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Brodak

zarathustreal 3y ago
Tangentially related for anyone that needs to hear it: evaluate the content in context, the author is irrelevant
- krisoft 3y ago
  > evaluate the content in context, the author is irrelevant But the author is part of that context. Especially with this kind of content where one explains how they think people should behave we can ask the question if the author embodied the guidelines they are talking about, and if so where did it took them. Did they had an enviable life full of things the reader would find valuable?
  - zarathustreal 3y ago
    I disagree. The speaker is not part of the context when evaluating the correctness of a given assertion. This is a fundamental fact, for example when the speaker is unknown. If it helps, in situations where you’re reading something controversial or where you’d be tempted to make unfounded inferences based on the speaker, you can simply pretend that you’ve “discovered” the assertion rather than that someone has said it to you. Granted, it can be a bit unnerving to accept something without a human being willing to stand with you to defend it when you reach the limits of objective reality (such as the issue of varying perspective). Typically the advice here is to “stand up for what you believe in” - but honestly that’s overrated when survival is on the line (and you potentially haven’t yet absorbed the info as part of your identity).
    - krisoft 3y ago
      > The speaker is not part of the context when evaluating the correctness of a given assertion. On a philosophical level this sounds true. On a practical level evaluating correctness has costs. If you tell me the James Webb Space Telescope detected this and that i won’t launch my own space telescope to verify it. I need to figure out if I trust you as a source. There if you are a crackpot journalist with seemingly no connection to JWST my trust will decrease, at least until i find independent sources. And that is a hard scientific claim where in theory one can conduct an independent experiment and judge the facts for certain. The kind of claim this one is on about is much harder to verify. It is of the form “live by these rules and you will have a better life”. There both the interpretation of the “rules” and the “better life” is fuzzy. And even if you get it right in your own experiment it will take years until you see results. Just on a practical level. Imagine that a thin and sporty person tells you that the secret of them maintaining their healty weight is starting every day by eating two scoops of ice cream. Now imagine that the same statement is said by an obese person. In both cases it takes the same amount of effort to evaluate the correctness of their statement but which case is going to make you want to investigate it more deeply?
CipherThrowaway 3y ago
Yeah, it's her. This piece is linked from her blog at: https://sibilantfricative.wordpress.com/ https://sibilantfricative.wordpress.com/ First paragraph of the OP and I knew in my bones it was written by someone with a personality disorder. Since her death, her husband published his memoir in 2023. The serial cheating, open suicide ideation, unresolved childhood trauma and general toxicity to herself and others is completely consistent with the tone of the article.
- greenie_beans 3y ago
  that's the exact opposite of my takeaway from the memoir. that book was written with intense love and i encourage anybody to read it, one of the best books to come out in a decade.
  - CipherThrowaway 3y ago
    The two things we said aren't conflicting.
    - greenie_beans 3y ago
      it appears you took the tabloid stuff and ran with it as a reason to disregard anything she says due to mental illness. at least that's how your first comment seems. including all of your comments against her in this post, you clearly have a bone to pick and i disagree with all of them. but that's all i'm gonna say about that, except, maybe you should listen to what she has to say in the article and also read the book "molly" by blake butler and have your views on love challenged.
      - CipherThrowaway 3y ago
        I went by the reviews - I don't intend to read the book. Her husband believes she suffered from borderline personality disorder. Have you had a friend or family member with BPD, or another cluster-B PD? These are clinical standards for self-absorption and toxic personality traits. In their relationships, cluster-Bs select for supplicants who will love them despite their toxicity. What you're saying about the memoir is consistent with this. Her mental health conditions aren't a reason to disregard everything she says, but she is providing social and interpersonal advice here, in a way that is likely to encode the dysfunctional schema and disordered thinking she suffered from in life. For an opinion piece that is about how to empathize with other people, I think it is relevant information that the author probably had a clinical impairment in their own ability to empathize with and understand others.
greenie_beans 3y ago
i posted this article. molly brodak was a poet. she took her life in 2020. if you enjoyed this, then you might like http://thefanzine.com/how-not-to-apologize/ http://thefanzine.com/how-not-to-apologize/ also, search around for her poem "molly brodak" by molly brodak.
- Gerard0 3y ago
  Thank you! Will check it out!

Does anyone know who is the author? Apart from "Molly Brodak". Is it this[1] person, perhaps? [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Brodak https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Brodak

zarathustreal 3y ago

Tangentially related for anyone that needs to hear it: evaluate the content in context, the author is irrelevant

krisoft 3y ago
> evaluate the content in context, the author is irrelevant But the author is part of that context. Especially with this kind of content where one explains how they think people should behave we can ask the question if the author embodied the guidelines they are talking about, and if so where did it took them. Did they had an enviable life full of things the reader would find valuable?
- zarathustreal 3y ago
  I disagree. The speaker is not part of the context when evaluating the correctness of a given assertion. This is a fundamental fact, for example when the speaker is unknown. If it helps, in situations where you’re reading something controversial or where you’d be tempted to make unfounded inferences based on the speaker, you can simply pretend that you’ve “discovered” the assertion rather than that someone has said it to you. Granted, it can be a bit unnerving to accept something without a human being willing to stand with you to defend it when you reach the limits of objective reality (such as the issue of varying perspective). Typically the advice here is to “stand up for what you believe in” - but honestly that’s overrated when survival is on the line (and you potentially haven’t yet absorbed the info as part of your identity).
  - krisoft 3y ago
    > The speaker is not part of the context when evaluating the correctness of a given assertion. On a philosophical level this sounds true. On a practical level evaluating correctness has costs. If you tell me the James Webb Space Telescope detected this and that i won’t launch my own space telescope to verify it. I need to figure out if I trust you as a source. There if you are a crackpot journalist with seemingly no connection to JWST my trust will decrease, at least until i find independent sources. And that is a hard scientific claim where in theory one can conduct an independent experiment and judge the facts for certain. The kind of claim this one is on about is much harder to verify. It is of the form “live by these rules and you will have a better life”. There both the interpretation of the “rules” and the “better life” is fuzzy. And even if you get it right in your own experiment it will take years until you see results. Just on a practical level. Imagine that a thin and sporty person tells you that the secret of them maintaining their healty weight is starting every day by eating two scoops of ice cream. Now imagine that the same statement is said by an obese person. In both cases it takes the same amount of effort to evaluate the correctness of their statement but which case is going to make you want to investigate it more deeply?

CipherThrowaway 3y ago

Yeah, it's her. This piece is linked from her blog at: https://sibilantfricative.wordpress.com/ https://sibilantfricative.wordpress.com/ First paragraph of the OP and I knew in my bones it was written by someone with a personality disorder. Since her death, her husband published his memoir in 2023. The serial cheating, open suicide ideation, unresolved childhood trauma and general toxicity to herself and others is completely consistent with the tone of the article.

greenie_beans 3y ago
that's the exact opposite of my takeaway from the memoir. that book was written with intense love and i encourage anybody to read it, one of the best books to come out in a decade.
- CipherThrowaway 3y ago
  The two things we said aren't conflicting.
  - greenie_beans 3y ago
    it appears you took the tabloid stuff and ran with it as a reason to disregard anything she says due to mental illness. at least that's how your first comment seems. including all of your comments against her in this post, you clearly have a bone to pick and i disagree with all of them. but that's all i'm gonna say about that, except, maybe you should listen to what she has to say in the article and also read the book "molly" by blake butler and have your views on love challenged.
    - CipherThrowaway 3y ago
      I went by the reviews - I don't intend to read the book. Her husband believes she suffered from borderline personality disorder. Have you had a friend or family member with BPD, or another cluster-B PD? These are clinical standards for self-absorption and toxic personality traits. In their relationships, cluster-Bs select for supplicants who will love them despite their toxicity. What you're saying about the memoir is consistent with this. Her mental health conditions aren't a reason to disregard everything she says, but she is providing social and interpersonal advice here, in a way that is likely to encode the dysfunctional schema and disordered thinking she suffered from in life. For an opinion piece that is about how to empathize with other people, I think it is relevant information that the author probably had a clinical impairment in their own ability to empathize with and understand others.

greenie_beans 3y ago

i posted this article. molly brodak was a poet. she took her life in 2020. if you enjoyed this, then you might like http://thefanzine.com/how-not-to-apologize/ http://thefanzine.com/how-not-to-apologize/ also, search around for her poem "molly brodak" by molly brodak.

Gerard0 3y ago
Thank you! Will check it out!