No talking on the quiet carriage. No boom box on the subway. No conversation in the queue.

Is this capitalist isolation or is this western “decorum” or what? Why do I have to shake off the instinct to cringe when I hear someone playing music through their phone speakers? Why do I worry if anyone can hear my music through my headphones? What the fuck is this pathetic silence masquerading as a “culture”

  • glimmer_twin [he/him]
    28·
    4 years ago

    Very socialist outlook, lol. Everyone should maintain their own individual bubble at all times.

    • CommieGirl69 [he/him]
      1·
      4 years ago

      i hate talking to people most of the time, it bores the fuck out of me

      that doesn't mean i want them to go hungry or i don't care about their personal suffering wtf...

      letting people go by their business is in no way "individualism", it's just respect

      • MonarchLabsOne [he/him]
        8·
        4 years ago

        Same but I think there's an argument that we are "broken" humans that can't engage with one another because of capitalism. Ergo, without capitalism, you might actually be interested in talking to others.

        The profit motive is hella fucked up.

        • CommieGirl69 [he/him]
          2·
          4 years ago

          capitalism didn't create the notion of personal space

          plus what the hell does the profit motive have to do with thinking you have the right to be blasting your music on speakers in the bus?

          • MonarchLabsOne [he/him]
            12·
            4 years ago

            This is such a Reddit-ass response that I don't even know where to start.

              • MonarchLabsOne [he/him]
                10·
                4 years ago

                Other comrades in this thread have the patience for baby socialists, but I don't. There's more important work to be done than explaining basic oppressive forces present in capitalism.

                https://hexbear.net/post/35902/comment/289417

        • Rev [none/use name]
          1·
          4 years ago

          You might, but also they might not have anything interesting to say. The pressure to make small talk and the addiction to have things constantly distract you from any deep contemplative introspection is way more prevalent.

        • glimmer_twin [he/him]
          20·
          4 years ago

          This is what I was getting at, then I got a bunch of reddit gentlesir “lmao imagine listening to the noise of the low IQ rabble whilst out in public“ responses. Interesting.

          • Rev [none/use name]
            3·
            4 years ago

            If you unilaterally take for yourself the right to pollute the space with your noise everyone in the unwilling audience you've thus taken hostage also has the unilateral right to punch you in the face and throw away your boombox. Fair is fair. Is this the kind of hostile environment you want to live in?

            • glimmer_twin [he/him]
              14·
              4 years ago

              I love that from my original post saying “why do I live in terror thinking someone might hear music playing through my earbuds, maybe the oppressive need we feel to have an eternal personal bubble around ourselves says something about our society” people have assumed I meant “WhY cAn’T i MaKe ThE lOuD BoOm BoOm??”

              • Rev [none/use name]
                2·
                4 years ago

                But where's the terror though (besides inside your head)? I've never encountered anyone being even slightly reprimanded for some sound leaking out of their headphones, much less ganging up on the "offender". Where is this magical totally silent place you live in, maybe I should relocate?

                • glimmer_twin [he/him]
                  8·
                  4 years ago

                  Dude, look at the downvotes and comments I’m getting for even raising a discussion about “is it fucked up we all want to isolate from each other as much as possible, and turn our public life (which being out on the bus or what have you inarguably is, whether we like it or not) into a further extension of our private life?”.

                  The subject of this post isn’t “I should be allowed to blast music on the train, or pester someone in the privacy of their own home”, but I’m being treated as some sort of delinquent for even suggesting it might be okay if, sometimes, maybe, we heard something we didn’t specifically choose to hear :/

                  • Rev [none/use name]
                    1·
                    4 years ago

                    Nobody's saying that it's not ok. For example in the town I live we often have a piano set up in the street or subway or what have you for random people just to sit down and play on as they pass by. It's quite lovely and no one ever complains, people even stop to have a listen occasionally. We also get street musicians or performers in the city centre on the regular. Again, onlookers are always delighted. So unless our experience of living in the West is radically different I just have no clue about the supposed totalitarian enforcement of silence that you're getting at. Like yeah, I guess people in the global south are more publicly talkative but I just don't see how any of this is an issue. And neither does the bulk of the participants in this thread it seems. Like what's preventing you from starting a conversation with random strangers on the street? Or from asking the folks in a train carriage if you can play some music and if no one has a problem busting out a tuba you've been carrying around or something? This is why I'd guess the peeps responding here assumed you're advocating for an unalienable right to sonically pollute closed spaces.

                    • quartz [she/her]
                      2·
                      4 years ago

                      If you unilaterally take for yourself the right to play piano on the sidewalk, everyone taken hostage by the ebony and ivory bars has the right to drop an acme safe on your head

                  • PaulRyansWorkoutTape [none/use name]
                    2·
                    4 years ago

                    The subject of this post isn’t “I should be allowed to blast music on the train, or pester someone in the privacy of their own home”, but I’m being treated as some sort of delinquent for even suggesting it might be okay if, sometimes, maybe, we heard something we didn’t specifically choose to hear :/

                    "I'm not saying X, I'm saying X but phrasing it with pompous moralizing"

                    You're getting downvoted because you're a selfish asshole trying to make your indifference towards other people fit into a framing where they're actually the problem.

          • MonarchLabsOne [he/him]
            1·
            4 years ago

            I agree with you. I think this is more of a critical theory topic than a general leftist shit posting one.

            The spectrum of the American left is very wide and very much affected by capitalism's oppressive forces. Folks responding to you can't fathom how the profit motive affects human behavior and interactions to the point people are generally antisocial.

            I don't know what humans would behave like without the profit motive, I don't know how long it would take to "de-program" either. It could take generations, it could take a single one.

    • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
      3·
      4 years ago

      Socialism is when everyone is an extrovert and the more extroverted they are the more socialistier it is.

    • BigDaddy [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Or maybe the west is SO uncomfortable with silence that they can't stand to sit next to a stranger in silence, they have to interject their own thoughts and feelings.

    • cum_drinker69 [any]
      1·
      4 years ago

      The most socialist thing is listening to the opinions of the reactionary populous of the US.