Chapotony Chatano here, internet's busiest hogposter, and it's time for another edition of "Let's Argue", where we're on the internet, we accept your hot takes, unpopular opinions, and tough questions, and we struggle sesh over all of them. Leeeeet's, GO!
i read theory and i'm about as far from a bougie college kid as you can get
?????
how is that media, and how is that in any way an analysis?
i just spotted the things you could bet on when I was putting a tenner on the cheeto to winYes... betting sites are another medium ... by which to extrapolate information.
It's all good, we're all just hypocritical libs here. Welcome to the club.
Calling out people you know irl for being racist is hard. I haven't had any good results from it at all. Just losing friends and making family members like me less. I don't think it's made anyone less racist.
It's worked with people I know online, though. I don't know why it works online but not irl. Maybe it's just me.
That's what I've been trying to do, but it hasn't worked for me. Sometimes they'll agree with me when I'm calling them out, but then they'll go right back to saying the same things, like they were only agreeing to get me to stop talking.
I know it's made friends-of-friends dislike me, talk behind my back, but, and this is the key, they stopped being racist around me.
Keeping that shit to themselves might mean they don't get less racist, but it certainly keeps them from shitting up other people's brains.
Hey you're not alone there! I just got into this with my actual fascist cousin. I don't stand a chance at changing him, he's too far gone. But it does help to at least make him state his vile points out loud in the open.
Nobody changes immediately. I was shitlib getting canned for woke stuff to I guess bully people and I got called out a bunch before I learned a lesson, and it never happened in the immediate conversation. Happened in the background... In weeks.
Anarchism will always be more popular in america than Communism because Americans have a tremendous distrust of institutions but love rebels/underdog
Then you should definitely read a history book, perhaps even several
I think the war on terror has reversed that dynamic, now rebels/underdogs are the terrorists and Americans identify more with the state and media depending on whether they support the blue or red team
American libertarianism died with Trump
That's why I always start by alluding to being an anarchist but then just dump a broad range of theory on them every chance I get. Gotta have a well rounded diet of radicalism.
I tell people I am a KMLMWCC, tell them to read Lenin and Hunger Games, and then do not elaborate further.
Has a 50% winrate so far, in that 1 of 2 people I've tried it on haven't avoided any further contact.
I was actually thinking about the popularity of The Hunger Games as part of my original statement. People like Katniss because she is independent and a fighter; she hates the Capital but doesn't trust 13 for a second and she is mostly proven right
I am gonna be real and say I know nothing about Hunger Games that couldn't be gleaned from just seeing the first movie once, but people tend to get that metaphor so here we are lol.
Yeah I'm a centrist -- I think Anarchists and MLs both have plenty of good ideas.
Oh, I know - I'm an ML and believe it's the only viable way forward, but anarchists are still comrades, and they know how to get shit done.
I think that just because this is a take that is present in the US doesn't mean it's a take caused by being present in the US
If this website was an actual threat to capital it would have been shut down by now
the idea of a website being a threat to capital is the fucking funniest thing to me. websites don't change economic systems, fucking PEOPLE do
What if the web site gained sentience and crashed all the stock markets
I think the only frame of reference we have for attempting to shut down a website due to it being a threat to capital would be wikileaks.
This is unbroken ground. I see this as the internet equivalent of starting a newspaper, except the modern newspaper has evolved from Lenin's time when he wrote about the need to do that and has now become new-media, social media sites being most dominant of all.
I wouldn't say those were threats to capital-the-system really either. Just the usual threats to money that companies overzealously attacked.
Then we'll know we're on to something when they try to shut this place down or coup the administrators.
I don’t know if I could ever fully trust an American leftist to care about other countries before their own. I feel the level of America-First brainwashing sticks with you, even if you become a leftist. I’ve seen some shit takes from american leftists about foreign policy for sure.
As a third world leftist, idk why I'm on this site sometimes. This is not a hot take, it's a top take and it's fully true. Keep educating them, keep yelling at them to get better etc.
i just like looking at the collapse of the country that turned my parents country into a dictatorship and my country into a lib oligarchy
Yeah I try my best to educate. It’s hard cause American history is very simplistic in general, and I find a lot of Americans struggle with more complex histories (like the Balkans, China, etc.) and what to make of it all.
We are not well versed in geopolitics generally. And when we are, most sources are american centric.
Absolutely true. If you're a US leftist and your first consideration on candidacy if you still care about that is domestic politics then you're blind to the fact that US foreign policy A) matters more and B) will affect vastly more people.
The amount of 'why should I care about x-country, it doesn't affect me'-takes I've seen on this website is way too damn high.
Even if there might be some truth to that statement, it is emblematic of a typically American disinterest in understanding others. The rest of the world certainly cannot afford to be disinterested in the US.
It's just privilege at it's finest. Or people getting upset to say even American people in poverty will NEVER understand someone in a third world in poverty. Like your need for healthcare really isn't the most important thing in politics.
Specifically, making your own music.
It's not that hard to get into. If you don't want to learn an instrument, you can just like pirate ableton live and dive right on in.
But learning an instrument is a great stress reducer, it's meditative, you use new creative parts of your brain. Plus you get to be the asshole that plays music, when requested, sometimes.
All around it's awesome to make your own music.
Also learn some fucking music theory dorks. It helps a lot. It's boring sometimes, but man it helps. https://www.musictheory.net/
I had a real problem overthinking shit when I first started writing music and went into it 'theory first' and made really sterile sounding crap. But now I've kind of fell into a system where I go with my intuition, noodle around, and find a melody or chord progression that sounds nice. Then I apply theory and figure out what key my noodling is in so I can further expand the idea by adding harmonies over a melody, or fit a melody over a chord progression, etc. It just really expedites the process and gives you a base understanding of how music operates so you can kind of "guess in the right area" instead of being completely fucking aimless.
Make sure to learn broad and modern music theory, and not fall into the trap of ""music theory"" just being "european classical theory from the 17th century", as it very often is in academia. Most people never learn outside of the very narrow world of western theory, or even narrower european theory.
Good ref : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr3quGh7pJA (Music Theory and White Supremacy)
That's a good suggestion. I never meant to imply that western music theory is the only way to view and analyze music. It's just the way that I was taught to view it and what has worked for me so far. It's also the more widespread and available resource when you're trying to teach yourself how to understand music.
Oh yea didn't mean to imply you were being narrow-minded, it's something i've realized recently myself about a lot of academic music theory. It's not the end-all be-all, and even just a nice dose of jazz theory is a lot better than just the pure classic western theory books.
No offense taken! I enjoyed that video and the response from Adam Neely.
Oh FUCK i linked the response and not the actual video, dammiiiitttttt
I "learned" guitar on my own. Eventually I got to place where I got frustrated because I wasn't progressing. I quit about 10 years ago. After watching the Adam Neely post and finding 12 Tone on Youtube I decided to give it another try. I'm actually enjoying relearning how to play and how to think about what I'm playing.
Sorry for this, but I grew up as a sports guy. I taught myself how to golf. I generated a technique that allowed my to hit the ball in the air and land around the green. I had to take a PE course to get into to university so I chose golf. The instructor pretty much told me everything I was doing was wrong. So he started me from the beginning; this is how you grip a club, don't sway, twist, pretend you're tossing a watermelon on your backswing... I still suck at golf but at least I can more or less know where my shot's going. Same with guitar, I have an idea why I hit a certain note.
Golf probably isn't going to go over well here, but I'll take the heat. (I only play 3 par btw)
Nah, that analogy is pretty much right on the money. Intuition can get you incredibly far with music, but understanding WHY something works when it does work just makes life so much easier.
It's funny, I kind of had the same experience but backwards. I started learning music by taking Bass lessons, went to school for music, and got to the point where I could sight read music pretty damn well... but I was absolutely horrible at improvising or coming up with my own material and was petrified whenever anyone from class asked me to 'jam'. It's only the past couple of years that I've really dived into being creative and coming up with my own stuff, and ironically enough a ton of music theory stuff that I had learned in the past makes way more sense now that I actually have to apply it. I'm still crap, but it's getting better!
I always oscilate between loving and hating the theoretical framework. I think the healthiest approach towards it is as a tool to understand why some progressions work, but not why they should be there. Ultimately it's more like grammar to a language, and true poetry is never grounded in a search for the best application of grammar rules.
For me, if we stick to harmony, a lot of times it's an incidental result of chromatic movement. You can then circlejerk over how I just played an Eb9dim5 and it's functioning like a subdominant tritone-replacement. But, more likely, I just moved this way with the bass, and moved the voicing a bit from what was already there, thinking about where I want to land, and complicated chord machine goes brrr.
That is way better put then I ever could, but that's pretty much exactly how I try to think about it. In my eyes, if something works and sounds good in music, then you don't really need to question it too much even if it doesn't "make sense" when you try to apply the amount of music theory that you do know to it. I always figure it would probably make sense in someone elses eyes that knows more theory than I do, haha.
i think raccoons wants to be domesticated like cats but they just haven't figured out how to go about it yet
They definitely could be. It wouldn't even take that long. I could do it but those cowards at the DNR keep telling me that "it's a wild animal, it belongs in nature". SHUT UP JOSH WE WOULDN'T HAVE LLAMAS IF YOU WERE IN CHARGE IN PERU IN 1800bce!
If llamas would have been more like "let's go through their trash and make them worry about rabies", maybe they wouldn't be so cucked that some Incas got the idea that hey, we can easily take those fuckers in a fight, let's make them pull our ploughs and wear their hair for a poncho.
Llamas are pretty BA though maybe the Incas couldn't take them in a fight. Maybe the Llamas domesticated the Incas, like cats did with Cretans and Egyptians?
Cats managed to get a much better deal. Do you see lots of cats getting shaved or being made to pull shit?
true. Cats were like "We'll eat all the rats in your granaries" and last week I was like "What the hell do I keep you around for Mr. Timbits? I don't have rats or a granary" and he just puked on the rug so I gave him scritches because that's what hte brain parasites demand.
Yes. Perhaps the path is not as clear – remember that local politics affects most people more directly than the presidency, and congress + senate after that if you're still relying on electoralism. Every person you help, the homeless dude on the subway, the struggling friend – you make their life meaningfully better in the now. Mutual aid! If you're terrified about the descent into fascism, build bonds with neighbours and friends, especially with the pandemic, these matter. Local coops, unionising workplace, checking out theory initiatives, code schools what not. Keep fighting, keep posting, keep talking to your community.
I don't mean to be a read theory cunt, but reading theory will genuinely help you process these things. Studying mechanisms of change in societies will make you feel more comfortable about the path forward. Hopefully this post is not sectarian.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
- Dylan Thomas
I honestly don't think so. The descent into fascism is too quiet and too slow for regular people to notice. They will keep funnelling us into a smaller and smaller box until it's a coffin.
Go off-grid. I'm part of the way there.
Off grid won't save you. There won't be any return to normal in our life times, climate change will squeeze more and more people and eventually soldiers will roll up to your little off grid farm, which isn't actually "off grid" because spy satellites and drones can find you any time they want, and start demanding you turn over your surplus.
"Going off grid" is just spitting in to the wind.
I agree and no one else in my life gets it. I never drive with the radio on, on long hauls alone I'll listen to a podcast but never music.
It kinda makes me feel like that one guy from Footloose that banned dancing.
No, I've just literally never enjoyed music even as a kid.
I dont make a big deal of it when I'm driving with someone else, I'll let them play whatever and change the balance so I cant hear it in my side over the road noise. But I'll turn it off if my passenger falls asleep.
I dont know what it is or why, it's like my one weird thing. I cant stand music.
lol, I did get to do a framing job in the middle of nowhere once. No FM or AM radio was available, just me and a coworker, the sun and the wind and some power tools for like a week. Coworker forgot his ipod at home and didnt want to drive back to get it. It was the best auditory time I've ever had. Maybe I'll farm out where theres no radio signals one day, lol.
That sucks. It's a rare disability, not studied much because it's not as bad as other stuff.
Radio is usually pretty shit, though. I like music, but I can't stand most radio stations. You're not missing much.
Well there is a massive difference between musical genres. I do think there is some level of ability that must be acknowledged, to me it is undeniable that classical musicians are incredibly talented artists in general. You may not like classical, I don't enjoy some of it either.
But when you compare [insert generic pop artist here] to Rachmaninoff or Beethoven, I mean you must acknowledge the massive level in skill and dedication required to reach those levels. Being a concert pianist, let alone a composer is literally a lifetime endeavor.
Being a pop musician? Make sure you have a good voice, auto-tune, have someone else perform all the instruments/compose/do all the mixing for you. Done. The modern music industry is certainly easier to get into, it is not a bad thing necessarily.
So I guess yes you could say certain genres and/or artists are massively overrated mostly due to their popularity and/or being novel artists, the right song at the right time.
But then some genres and artists don't get enough recognition, I don't particularly care about Rock but the pioneering in electric guitar techniques back then should be acknowledged. Again Jimmy Hendrix isn't Liszt, but he deserves all the recognition he got.
No bait here, just encouraging the influx of new people to engage with the shitposting vanguard
