Thread for mundane ironists

Social Forums Non-Philosophical Chat
1222

Cynic

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” François de La Rochefoucauld

Unless, of course, they are right. On the other hand, right about what?

“If you’re too open-minded; your brains will fall out.” Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The fucking liberals, right?

“Some people are in such utter darkness that they will burn you just to see a light. Try not to take it personally.” Kamand Kojouri

Just out of curiosity, what is the equivalent of that here?

“My congratulations to you, sir. Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good. ” Samuel Johnson

Just out of curiosity, what is the equivalent of that here?

“They speak very well of you".
“They speak very well of everybody.”
“That so bad?”
"Yes. It means you can’t trust them.” Iain M. Banks

Has anyone here actually tried though?
If so, you’re up.

“Go to Old Delhi, and look at the way they keep chickens there in the market. Hundred of pale hens and brightly colored roosters, stuffed tightly into wire-mesh cages. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them. They know they are next, yet they cannot rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop. The very same thing is done with humans in this country.” Aravind Adiga

And what country might that be, he wondered.
Though not for long.

1223

The Killer

The Killer: Of those who like to put their faith in mankind’s inherent goodness, I have to ask- based on what, exactly?

Give it a shot.

The Killer: : Of the many lies told by the U.S. military-industrial complex, my favorite is still their claim that sleep deprivation didn’t qualify as torture.

What’s yours?

The Killer: My process is purely logistical, narrowly focused by design. I’m not here to take sides. It’s not my place to formulate any opinion. No one who can afford me, needs to waste time winning me to some cause. I serve no god, or country. I fly no flag. If I’m effective, it’s because of one, simple fact: I. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck.

Can you say that?

The Killer It’s amazing how physically exhausting it can be to do nothing. If you are unable to endure boredom, this work is not for you.

Same here, he suggested.

The Killer: Forbid empathy. Empathy is weakness. Weakness is vulnerability.

Same here, he suggested.

There are more than fifty thousand storage facilities in the U.S. I have units in six. I like to imagine, once the automatic payments have dried up, the episode of Storage Wars, where they cut the lock on one of mine, and get a look inside.

You just never know what will be in there.

1224

The Killer

The Killer: A hundred and forty million human beings are born every year, give or take. Worldwide population is approximately 7.8 billion. Every second, 1.8 people die. While 4.2, are born into that very, same, second. Nothing I’ve ever done will make any dent in these metrics.

Good to know?

The Killer: I’ve come to realize that the moment when it’s time to act, is not when risk is greatest. The real problems arise in the days, hours, and minutes leading up to the task, and the minutes, hours, and days, after. It all comes down to preparation. Attention to detail. Redundancies. Redundancies. And redundancies.

Not unlike posting here. if only up in the clouds.

The Killer: It’s the idle hours that most often lead a man to ruin. It’s not Dylan Thomas, but it oughta be.

You tell me.

The Killer: Take comfort in the fact that seventy to eighty percent of wrongful convictions are the direct result of eyewitness testimony. Still, it only takes a few episodes of Dateline to know there are countless ways to trip oneself up. If you can think of a dozen, you’re a genius. I’m no genius.

You first.

The Killer: From the beginning of history, the few have always exploited the many. This is the cornerstone of civilization. The blood in the mortar that binds all bricks. Whatever it takes, make sure you’re one of the few, not one of the many.

One of the very few here, in fact.

The Killer: Consider yourself lucky if our paths never cross. Except, luck isn’t real. Nor is karma. Or sadly, justice. As much as I’d like to pretend these concepts exist, they just don’t.

Uh, he thinks too much? Unlike the character in… Shame?

1225

The Killer

The Expert: This could have been a hit-and-run, carjacking, me falling on the ice, and yet, here you are. If I screamed, right now, I’d still end up dead. You would make it out, most likely. But not clean, you wouldn’t. Why take this risk?
The Killer: Desperate for conversation?

If you get his drift.

The Killer: Skepticism is often mistaken for cynicism. Most people refuse to believe that the Great Beyond is no more than a cold, infinite, void. But I accept it, along with the freedom that comes from acknowledging that truth.

See, I told you.

The Killer: Well, this… this is new. WWJWBD: What would John Wilkes Booth do?

I guess we’ll never know.

I find music a useful distraction. A focus tool. Keeps the inner voice from wandering.

The Smiths by and large.

Popeye the Sailor probably said it best: “I am what I am.” I’m not exceptional. I’m just… apart.

No fucking doubt about that.

The Killer: It’s a dog-eat-dog world, to reuse the apt cliché. Every man for himself. Kill or be killed. Survival of the fittest. Isn’t it all just human nature?

I know, I know: what if it really is?

Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, murdered at least forty-nine women over two decades. He couldn’t spell “cat”, if you spotted him the A and the T.

What to make of that, right?

1226

.

Pookie.. :woman_shrugging:

1227

The House of Cards

Francis Underwood: Such a waste of talent. He chose money over power. In this town, a mistake nearly everyone makes. Money is the McMansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after 10 years. Power is the old stone building that stands for centuries. I cannot respect someone who doesn’t see the difference.

In other words, money doesn’t talk, it screams. Bloody murder, if necessary..

Francis Underwood: A great man once said, everything is about sex. Except sex. Sex is about power.

Fuck that?

Francis Underwood: There are two kinds of pain. The sort of pain that makes you strong, or useless pain. The sort of pain that’s only suffering. I have no patience for useless things.

Unless, of course, that’s not an option.

Francis Underwood: For those of us climbing to the top of the food chain, there can be no mercy. There is but one rule: hunt or be hunted.

Hard to Trump that, he suspected.

Francis Underwood: Proximity to power deludes some into thinking they wield it.

Bummer?

Francis Underwood: The road to power is paved with hypocrisy. And casualties.

To ban or not to ban? Here, for example.

1228

Rust Cohle:

Life’s barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you get good at.

How about we not go there.

If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then, brother, that person is a piece of shit - and I’d like to get as many of them out in the open as possible.

I tried that myself as you recall.

I’d consider myself a realist, all right? But in philosophical terms I’m what’s called a pessimist… I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware. Nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law…

Good to know?

We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, that accretion of sensory experience and feelings, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody’s nobody…

Essentially as it were.

I think the honorable thing for our species to do is to deny our programming. Stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction; one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.

Sort of, let’s say.

There is no such thing as forgiveness. People just have short memories.

Either that or something else entirely.