ZAROZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. ZARDOZ HAS AGAIN REVIEWED THE ADVICE COLUMN BY THE BRUTAL “DEAR PRUDENCE”. YOU MAY READ THE INADEQUATE ANSWERS SHE GIVE HERE.
ZARDOZ WILL GIVE HIS ADVICE, SO HIS CHOSEN ONES ARE NOT LED ASTRAY!
Dear Prudence,
For medical reasons, I cannot drive. Happily, my husband enjoys driving and can be counted on to get us where we need to go. I’m very fortunate; he never complains, and he’s a very skilled driver. Unfortunately, he’s not a safe driver. He always pushes the speed limit, frequently at dangerously high speeds of over 100 mph. He perceives other drivers as threats and aggressively weaves through traffic to outmaneuver them. He’s been involved in no shortage of road-rage close calls as a result, even with me in the car screaming at him, begging him, pleading with him to slow down.
More than once, I’ve genuinely feared for my life and called 911, but I hung up when he slowed down. This is the only way his anger manifests, but when it does, it is truly terrifying. He’s put my life, and the lives of other people on the road, at risk of death more times than I can count. We’ve fought so many times over this. I’ve brought it up while he’s driving, while he’s not driving, while we’re having dinner, in “we need to talk”–style conversations. I’ve cried. He’s made half-hearted promises to change but never followed through.
I love him. He’s the only man I’ve ever been with who otherwise completely “gets” me. He’s supportive of me in all my endeavors. Our physical chemistry is great. I don’t want to leave him. But I also don’t have the option of taking over the driver’s seat, and I don’t want to die in a fiery car crash. The fact that he dismisses my fears and tells me I’m overreacting when all of our friends are terrified of his driving just strikes me as a terrible disconnect. How can I make him see that the risks that he takes as a driver are unacceptable, once and for all?
—Terrified Passenger
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS TERRIFIED CHOSEN PASSENGER. ZARDOZ IS PLEASED WITH THE BRUTAL HUSBAND’S DRIVING. IF IT THREATENS LIFE OF THE BRUTALS WHO PLAGUE THE EARTH – IT MUST BE PERMITTED…NO, ENCOURAGED. CEASE YOUR ATTEMPTS TO CALL ENFORCERS. ACCOMPANY YOUR HUSBAND IN HIS AUTO. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
Dear Prudence,
In February I had a manic episode and was hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. During my mania I sent a colleague a romantic message (to which he sent a terse reply), followed by a couple of aggressive emails. While I was in the hospital I sent him messages apologizing for my behavior, and after I’d been out for a month, I sent him a letter. I haven’t heard from him at all.
I am torn because I don’t know how he feels. What can I do to forgive myself for my mania if he has no interest in forgiving me?
—Letting Go of Bipolar Behavior
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO HIS CHOSEN BI-POLAR ONE. WERE YOU NOT RAISED UP FROM BRUTALITY TO KILL BRUTALS, WHO MULTIPLY AND ARE LEGION? YOU MUST EMBRACE YOUR MANIA – AND MANIFEST IT IN VIOLENCE AGAINST YOUR FELLOW BRUTALS. YOU MUST FIND THE BRUTAL REJECTOR OF YOUR ADVANCE AND KILL! ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
Dear Prudence,
My husband is in the process of coming out as trans. This means that I, a heretofore assumed straight male, am also coming out as bisexual. I’m so happy that this is something that my partner and I can experience together. But I am dreading coming out to my image-obsessed mother. My mom is a truth-suppression machine. As a teenager, she compelled me to live with the secret of my father’s arrest for sex crimes. When I was in college, I made the mistake of being honest with her about my atheism, which led to her attempt to manipulate and even intimidate me into hiding this as well. Truth be told, she succeeded in part. Although I told a few friends and family members, against her wishes, it was almost two years before I went public. She felt free to tell anyone she felt like talking to. But I was supposed to take these “shameful” secrets to my grave.
My mother’s family is hostile to the LGBT community, and I have little doubt that her reaction to the dual revelations that her daughter-in-law is actually her son-in-law, and yes, her son is equally happy being married to another man, will be to try to sweep everything under the rug. Our relationship is barely starting to mend as things are. I won’t be able forgive her for this again, especially since she hasn’t asked for forgiveness for the last two times she did this to me, although I told her very clearly how I had been hurt. I am desperate for any way to forestall her knee-jerk reaction, but I can’t not tell my family forever. What should I do?
—Happy With Him, Not Sure About Her
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO HIS NOT SURE CHOSEN ONE. ZARDOZ WILL STRETCH THE BOUNDARIES OF HIS ARTHUR FRAYN PROVIDED INTELLIGENCE AND ASSUME THIS IS “REAL”. ZARDOZ HAS CONSULTED THE ETERNALS IN THE VORTEX AND THE ETERNAL MAY ADVISES:
“For the sake of science, I will keep this knowledge from the others, for the time being. But you must follow me, obey me, be circumspect, make no disruption, quietly do whatever work is given you. I will watch over you.”
YOU MUST FOLLOW THIS COMMAND. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
Dear Prudence,
I recently got new health insurance (a bare-bones HMO plan). I want to get the birth control arm implant, but none of the doctors in my network offer this procedure, nor will my insurance authorize me to go elsewhere to get it done. I can get the pill or an IUD for free under my insurance, but I’ve had a lot of problems with IUDs before and hate taking a pill every day and making frequent visits to the pharmacy. I want something long-term that I can “set and forget.” I could pay out of pocket for the implant at a Planned Parenthood, but it would cost $800. I could dip into my savings to make it work, but it would hurt. My long-term boyfriend makes more than twice what I do, and I know if I asked him outright to help pay for half, he’d oblige, but I don’t know if that’s a reasonable request. I know not having a baby is worth well over $400 to him, but since I could technically afford it, it feels like mooching. Should I suck it up and pay for it myself or ask him to chip in?
—Babies Ain’t Cheap, Either
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO HIS CHEAP, CHOSEN ONE. HAS ZADOZ NOT REPEATEDLY ADVISED YOU, THE PENIS IS EVIL?! THE PENIS SHOOTS SEEDS, AND MAKES NEW LIFE TO POISON THE EARTH WITH A PLAGUE OF MEN, AS ONCE IT WAS. IF YOUR “LONG-TERM BOYFRIEND” BRUTAL WILL NOT PAY TO PREVENT THE MAKING OF NEW LIFE, THEN USE THE GIFT OF THE GUN. FOR THE GUN SHOOTS DEATH AND PURIFIES THE EARTH OF THE FILTH OF BRUTALS. GO FORTH AND GET THE SHOT, OR KILL. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
Babies Ain’t Cheap, Either
“I want consequence-free sex and want to force you to pay for it.”
I knew someone who got one of those arm implants under Obamacare and was worried that Trump might repeal it and then she’d have to pay for it herself.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that he’s already paying for everything else they do together. Might as well ask him to kick in for this, too.
There’s a cheaper way to do it anyway.
One simple Nipponese word – bukkake. Problem solved.
Is the arm implant different than the fist implant?
According to my research it sure is.
Sounds like it’s more invasive.
That person didn’t really seem to want to force others to pay for her birth control. In fact, she was hesitant to even ask her boyfriend to chip in voluntarily. So that’s not really a fair characterization of her.
Yup.
“He’s the only man I’ve ever been with who otherwise completely “gets” me.”
Which would explain the passive-aggressive murder/suicide attempts.
Nice job Zardoz! The chick better update her resume.
I’ll take skewed situation recaps for 800.
I’m thinking only a couple of those are even remotely real.
So ZARD…. I mean Swiss, is ZARDOZ one Being? or a Group Like STEVE SMITH, Because Everybody is STEVE SMITH now,
Sorta like Nazis?
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CONFUSED CHOSEN ONE. ZARDOZ IS OF THE VORTEX, DIRECTED BY THE TABERNACLE, CREATED BY ARTHUR FRAYN. ZARDOZ HAS LIFTED YOU FROM BRUTALITY TO COMMENT. GO FORTH AND SNARK! ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
HAIL! ZARDOZ KEEPER OF THE GLIB!
*cowers in the corner* “I’ll try to be good…”
“and hate taking a pill every day and making frequent visits to the pharmacy. I want something long-term that I can “set and forget.” I could pay out of pocket for the implant at a Planned Parenthood, but it would cost $800. I could dip into my savings to make it work, but it would hurt.”
You know what hurts worse? Raising Kids, it’s Fucking expensive!
All the work, none of the pain, who raises these Creatures?
Maybe she can get a G-tube and be on tube feeds because “like making three meals everyday is so annoying. I just want a nutrition system that I can set and forget”
“My husband is in the process of coming out as trans. This means that I, a heretofore assumed straight male, am also coming out as bisexual. ”
Am I the only one confused by that sentence?
nope
Nope.
I’m thinking that when you want to make shit up for attention, you should at least get your story half way making sense.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS PERCEPTIVE CHOSEN ONE. HENCE ZARDOZ’S SKEPTICISM, AND DOUBT IN THE VERACITY OF THE BRUTAL “DEAR PRUDENCE” COLUMN. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
BRUTALS GROW RESTLESS, ZARDOZ, NEEDZ MOAR ALCOHOL.
I think he’s calling his wife a husband since she says she is a guy now. Either that or he is a guy married to another guy and everyone assumes he’s still straight. Or maybe he’s a she too.
All those things make about as much sense.
I had to read it a couple of times, but I think the letter writer is a dude who married a chick who now wants to be a dude. And of course, like every other dude, his reaction to this news is “k guess I’m gay now lol.”
That one went over my head, but I think it means he is married to who everybody else thinks is his roommate?
I think he’s married to a chick, who’s becoming a guy, so he’s already using the pronoun switch, hence ‘husband’ and planning on coming out as bisexual.
Aaaah, ok. That kind of makes sense now.
If you were woke, you’d have gotten that right off. Guess I’m not woke either.
Whats not to get? One is out of xer mind and the other is enabling xer.*
*I never learned how these new pronoun work.
What, you don’t identify as Latinx?
“I identify as a member of the Sane-American community, an oppressed minority if there ever was one.”
*pulls out purple crayon.*
*scribbles “John Titor” on list*
Titor just dodged a bullet. It could have been a Sharpie!
No, you aren’t. The person who wrote it is also confused.
This is great.
Yes.
The party for my birthday is a day early. We’re playing stump now.
Happy Birthday, Doom!
In your honor, I flushed the Spitfire’s cooling system, replaced radiator hoses, changed the oil, and washed it.
Now I will raise a couple to your good health!
Drive time?
It
Happy Birthday. Stump on!
Happy birthday
I’ll be a real adult tomorrow.
18? 21? 26? 30?
26. I think I’m one of the youngest here.
Happy B-day, but 26 is way to young to be a real adult, hell I turned 47* a few days back and very few people I know would consider me a ‘real adult’.
*or so they tell me, I really don’t remember the first seven or eight years all that clearly.
I don’t think I count yet
I’m the same age. There are more younger than 30 people here than you’d expect.
65.
Happy Birthday!
I hope you receive many pairs of hip sunglasses!
LOL
Hmm. My daughter’s was yesterday….which is totally unrelated. Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday!
Happy B-Day, Doom. My orphans are on their way, bearing gifts.
GIFTS
Aren’t your orphans the gifts?
I get to keep them?!
Happy Birthday bro. I raise my drink to you.
Vodka, grapefruit juice, Perrier lime over ice.
Happy Birthday!
Thanks everyone
Happy Birfday!
My husband is in the process of coming out as trans. This means that I, a heretofore assumed straight male, am also coming out as bisexual…the dual revelations that her daughter-in-law is actually her son-in-law, and yes, her son is equally happy being married to another man.
Confusing as hell for people to speak in this way. So what I can gather his “husband” is a female. The writer is male, and therefore would be “gay.” The sort of gay guy that fucks a woman.
Maybe this is the new way to get woke cred. This guy will basically just screw his wife like a normal guy while claiming to be part of oppressed trans and gay groups.
I made the mistake of being honest with her about my atheism, which led to her attempt to manipulate and even intimidate me into hiding this as well. Truth be told, she succeeded in part. Although I told a few friends and family members, against her wishes, it was almost two years before I went public.
Outside of a few friends and family who would care? There’s no public to come out to.
This letter screams “look at me!”
Actually he said he is Bi now. So what I would take that as meaning is that he’s now going to continue to fuck the wife (who’s actually a woman, but is going to play a dude), even though she’s going to have a beard, deep voice, hairy boobless chest and maybe a dick. I love my wife, but not that much. We could still be friends although I would be pretty unhappy about the whole deal.
Couch surfing and take-out boxes for the win!
Dear Zardoz,
My girlfriend is a dirty little whore. It’s great when we’re together, but I can’t watch her 24/7.
Also, I want to bang her sister.
What should I do?
If be happy to meet privately with your girlfriend and set her straight. I can also talk to her sister and feel her out as well and get back to you.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS DEBAUCHED CHOSEN ONE. YOU MUST REFRAIN! THE PENIS IS EVIL. THE GUN IS GOOD. SHOOT BOTH.
ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
IF YOUR “LONG-TERM BOYFRIEND” BRUTAL WILL NOT PAY TO PREVENT THE MAKING OF NEW LIFE, THEN USE THE GIFT OF THE GUN. FOR THE GUN SHOOTS DEATH AND PURIFIES THE EARTH OF THE FILTH OF BRUTALS. GO FORTH AND GET THE SHOT, OR KILL. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
Perhaps she should consider shooting him in the penis.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CLEVER CHOSEN (((ONE))). YOU HAVE PLEASED ZARDOZ WITH YOUR EXCELLENT SUGGESTION. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
I lost the plot here before the second sentence was completed. Who is what is what? are they 2 men to begin with? Its like some zen gender riddle that has no logical answer.
Two gay men. One pretends to be female but wants to tell everyone that he is really a man because he’ll get lots of victim/hero points. The one that doesn’t pretend to be a woman is scared of his mother.
Everyone including his mother probably already know the truth but pretend not to since it’s easier.
except he specifically said, “”I, a heretofore assumed straight male”””
– e.g. he’s married to a man who is turning into a woman but somehow is going from straight to bi (rather than gay to bi)
He’s married to a man who is pretending to be a woman therefore everyone assumes he’s straight because they all think he’s married to a woman. That’s the only way the story makes any sense to the extent that is possible.
If hrs married to a man pretending to be a woman then isn’t “he” already straight?
I mean already trans.
Yes, he’s already trans. Now he wants to make that public.
For the record, you have parsed this wrong. His wife is a FTM (female-to-male) transgender.
I read it as a straight hetero couple, the wife now identifies as a man, so now the husband identifies as bi, because he’s now regularly banging his husband. So without making it clear how far along the trans path his newly identified husband is, but since Xe just came out, it’s unlikely they’ve even started on hormones. So the writer is basically just a bi guy who regularly has sex with a man with vagina. Or as 99% of the planet would call it, he’s just banging a butch chick.
ooooh, i get it. “assumed straight'”. he’s gay but other people assumed…
(sigh)
and daddy was a sex criminal.
I suspect the correct answer to his question is something like, “HAVE MURDER-SUICIDE PACT, HAVE GUS VAN SANT MAKE MOVIE OF YOUR STORY”
Or have a parade where you and your friend are King and Queen. Invite everyone including the media and the local High School marching band. Revel in your victim/hero status. Throw mama under the bus.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS ANSWERING CHOSEN ONE. YOUR ANSWER IS ALSO CORRECT. IN FACT, ZARDOZ MIGHT PREFER BOTH ALLEGED BRUTALS TO BE CLEANSED, THUSLY. ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
Ok, now I am more confused. The consensus above is that it is a hetero couple where the wife wants to be a dude. Jesus, I need a drink.
Women don’t become dudes unless they’re lesbians so that scenerio wouldn’t work.
But if the wife becomes a dude, that then makes the heretofore assumed straight male, am also coming out as bisexual work.
I initially assumed it was two gay dudes but nobody knew they were married.
Husband is now married to a “man” and therefore is “bisexual” because he likes women and “men.” The fact that the “man” he’s into used to be a woman doesn’t matter.
The number of ads on craigslist from FTMs who want to be fucked with a penis in the “front hole” would like to have some words with you.
the fact you know what goes on in that section of craigslist is more revealing than ken’s kollege klasses
If only google translate did progspeak.
what’s more confusing progspeak or pidgin?
Why not both?
We am so wowk.
Wok am dem dat be have dem snake in de pants dat dem done have medic man make em be gon and get dem one self de snatch.
Good God. My translator broke.
I larfed heartily.
Canadian.
I’ve never been too sure about that situation–whether guys that were in a relationship with a m-f transsexual were all straight as arrows, somewhere else on the rainbow spectrum, . . . ?
For a lot of guys (from the ancient Romans, present day Muslims, modern day prisons, or 19th century buggery in the Royal British Navy), what we think of as “gay”, they think it’s that–only if you’re on the bottom.
Being gay to them isn’t about being attracted to men or women so much as it’s about whether you’re pitching or catching. When you go public with the fact that you’re married to a m-f transsexual, I suppose one of those definitions conflicts with the other. Public perception is that you’re bi–even if you think of it more as the jailhouse definition.
I worked with a guy once that took it a step further saying it was only gay if you pushed back.
I worked with a guy who said if you are ever raped by another dude, the only way to take the upper hand in the situation and display dominance was to push back repeatedly while yelling “WHO IS FUCKING WHO KNOW?”
*NOW
Don’t go camping with that guy.
STEVE SMITH BEG TO DIFFER, HE WANT TO CAMP WITH!
“You got a purdy mouth”.
And a spiffy pair of ultra-tall gum-boots!
Appropriate, given the author of the article
Seems like there is a lot of struggle there for definition. Let me give it a try.
Keep your dick away from dudes and you are straight. Otherwise, you aren’t. The problem comes when people try to apply moral value to one or the other. That’s easy too. Consenting adults only. Otherwise, the noose.
DEAR ZARDOZ,
After reading this letter, I’ve decided I can’t even anymore…
Should I off myself by hanging myself in the closet?
Or drinking Clorox?
Or should I just take a walk and enjoy the quiet for a while?
A quiet walk in the woods? So suicide by STEVE SMITH?
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO HIS SELF-CLEANSING CHOSEN ONE. A OR B. BOTH WORK FOR ZARDOZ.
ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
What I’m liking about this deal is that now we have a deity who speaks to us mortals on the internet. I mean, it really is something new. Back in the old days, about the best you could hope for is some old dude going up on a mountain and talking to the deity, after you had to wonder in the desert for 40 years. Typically it was just volcanoes killing everyone in the village even though you sacrificed some virgins, or some type of plague. We’ve came a long ways.
Incidentally, when I was in college and needed the diversity credit, the Native American Studies class was full, so I ended up in a human sexuality class.
In Human Sexuality, they taught us that homosexual and heterosexual didn’t exist before the advent of psychology. Homosexual apparently existed first. Psychologists studied it as a psychological disorder, so they invented “heterosexual” as the norm against which the homosexual “disorder” occurred.
This isn’t to say that homosexual acts didn’t occur before the advent of psychology–it’s just that homosexual wasn’t a group identity and heterosexual wasn’t either. All sexual practices outside of procreation within marriage were considered aberrant or perverse. Actually, wanting too much sex inside of marriage was considered to be more or less the same disorder–along with masturbation, pre-marital sex, being so preoccupied with sex that you went to a brothel, etc. Everything sexual outside of procreative and in marriage–including homosexual sex–was considered plain old “adultery” or perversion.
And it’s interesting that in a whole lot of cultures and for a large swath of history, what we think of as same sex attraction or “gay” wasn’t what people used to think of as gay before the advent of psychology. Back then, it was like in prison–you weren’t gay unless you were catching rather than pitching.
In ancient Rome, screwing your male slave wasn’t considered unmanly.
If they caught you letting your slave screw you, the punishment was death.
In the future archaeologists will study our news and report our culture didn’t distinguish between men and women sexually and people would change gender or have no gender at all.
The writings of the elites may not reflect the actual culture.
It’s not ‘the writings of the elites’, it’s a consistent classical view of homosexual activity that is still present in numerous cultures. The Saudis, for example, still run on the “It’s only gay if you’re the bottom rather than the top” logic. In the West the view only really shifted with the advent of Christianity, where the actual act became the problem rather than the masculine/feminine distinction.
Again, it isn’t about advent of Christianity. It was the advent of psychology.
Long after Christianity, that attitude still predominated. For Christians, it’s about adultery. Even if you only define adultery as sex outside of marriage, homosexual activity, sodomy, masturbation, etc. were all thought of as sex outside the procreative potential of marriage.
We don’t think of a how much of an impact things like psychology have on our culture, but it’s real. Think of what the world would seem like to people who didn’t understand their dreams as a psychological projection of their unconscious. A belief in the supernatural would be much easier if you experienced a supernatural world every night.
The advent of psychology changed the way we perceived the world around us–and not always for the better. It was psychology that created the whole heterosexual/homosexual divide. I suspect we’d be better off if such false distinctions didn’t exist.
You’re gay because you have sex with men.
No, I’m not because I pitch rather than catch!
What difference should it make?
What I was actually said is that Christianity changed the dynamic from the masculine-feminine distinction where assuming the feminine role was negative to the act itself being negative. The reasons for the act being negative might not match up with the view of homosexuality now, but they did fundamentally change the way that homosexual acts were viewed.
At least in the case of the Romans, which I’m more familiar with, the attitude that taking it is effeminate but giving it isn’t predates Christianity.
You can see it in a number of their plays. You can see it in Catullus’ work especially.
If you read Catullus, much of it sounds like a rapper dissing other rappers, and a bunch of it is about who does and doesn’t take it in the ass.
Like I said, if there’s a cross cultural definition of “gayness” that predominates throughout history, the one where it’s determined by whether you pitch or catch seems to predominate everywhere–from American prisons in the 21 century to pre-Christian Rome.
There is a Native American tribe that has four genders in their language, where Indo-European languages typically just have Masculine, and Neuter. English got rid of that, mostly, back when they dropped the ending so the Anglo-Saxons and Danish could understand each other, but they still have that in German, Romance languages, etc.
Anyway, in this Native American language, they have four genders, what we’d call masculine, what we’d call feminine, what we might call gay, and what we might call lesbian. Probably not coincidentally, they had four genders in their culture. When you got to your naming ceremony to become an adult, you picked your gender.
Ask the old timers if it’s okay for men to have sex with each other, and they might tell you it should be punishable by death. However, they don’t think of what we call gay men as men. They think of them as another gender. So when a man has sex with a what we call a gay man (a receiver), there isn’t anything wrong with that.
Point is, that seems to be the standard way of things. Our system is new and different and it’s mostly about elitists doing social engineering and trying to use the government to inflict it on everybody. Our way of seeing things seems to be the norm–only to us. This isn’t the say it’s always been.
At least in the case of the Romans, which I’m more familiar with, the attitude that taking it is effeminate but giving it isn’t predates Christianity.
Yes, that’s my point, the core Roman (and Greek, and various other pagan groups, etc.) idea of homosexual activity was about the masculine/feminine dynamic, whereas later Christian views on sex shifted the dynamic more to the act itself altogether being negative. Cicero rips on Mark Antony for being the bumboy of a wealthy aristocrat in his youth for example. Officers were killed if they buggered their soldiers because it was seen as feminizing a very masculine profession that would displease Mars.
There still obviously wasn’t a concept of ‘homosexuality’ but the actual views on the act shifted as a result of Christian views in regards to extramarital/excessive sex. That’s why you start to see things like the banning of male prostitutes as Rome Christianized.
The elites were the ones who could write. So it is. I don’t see much evidence that homosexuality has ever been more than a subculture that exists everywhere. I know it’s popular in certain ideological circle jerks to claim Christianity was responsible for coming up with the idea that homosexual sex was off putting to most people but I would have to see some compelling evidence. Most men find two men kissing to be disgusting, and they didn’t all grow up in a church getting whacked by a bible, or go to church at all.
If you believe that Christianity is fake then it means this attitude came from a culture or person. And if the attitude existed prior to Christianity, then it couldn’t have been the cause. The laws in Christianity came from the culture, not the other way. Unless you believe god actually inspired the Bible.
As for the Saudi’s, they outlaw all homosexual sex, not just bottoms so that doesn’t exactly support your point of it being accepted if not for Christianity. While some people may distinguish the difference between tops and bottoms in Saudi, just as they do here that doesn’t mean the entire culture does or even a majority does. Which means it’s a subculture- as it always has been.
-Rejects all historical accounts as ‘the writing of the elites’
-Demands compelling evidence.
Pick one and stick with it.
I know it’s popular in certain ideological circle jerks to claim Christianity was responsible for coming up with the idea that homosexual sex was off putting to most people but I would have to see some compelling evidence.
Great. Read accounts of Christians trying to covert pagans. Orthodox bishops in early pagan Russia wrote rather commonly about having to curb with homosexual activity in their communities. Oh wait, sorry, that’s that pesky ‘writing of the elites/compelling evidence’ again.
Most men find two men kissing to be disgusting,
Most people find brushing your teeth with urine to be disgusting, but the Romans did it. Most people see pedophilia as disgusting, yet historically…And so on and so on. This is not an argument, it’s just profound historical ignorance.
As for the Saudi’s, they outlaw all homosexual sex, not just bottoms so that doesn’t exactly support your point of it being accepted
Wow, it’s almost like the government isn’t the same as the culture.
While some people may distinguish the difference between tops and bottoms in Saudi, just as they do here that doesn’t mean the entire culture does or even a majority does.
“Some people”= the majority of classical history, but hey, let’s ignore the actual writings of people from the actual period and listen to some modern guy project his views on people from over two thousand years ago.
It’s not accurate to suggest that ISIS or the Saudi government are somehow indicative of the thinking of Muslims from the western tip of Morocco to the eastern tip of Indonesia.
I don’t want to mention any particular ethnicity specifically, but the practices of some groups in North Africa and even Afghanistan are more in line with the doer not being “gay”–only the receiver.
Different cultural norms can be shocking. Sometimes the only thing we know about other cultures is the things that are most unlike our own culture. Most of us know nothing about Korean culture–but I bet we all know that they eat dog. Why do we know that and nothing else? I suspect it’s because it’s so unlike our culture, where we treat dogs like they’re part of the family. To us, eating dog isn’t just like cannibalism; it’s like eating a member of the family.
Read up on the practice of homosexuality in North Africa or the boyfriends of various warlords and Taliban allies in Afghanistan if you want. I suspect the reason ISIS is so harsh towards homosexuals in certain parts of the Muslim world is because in certain parts of the Muslims world homosexuals are not hard to find.
Not that hard to find? Yeah, that’s one way to put it.
Good God what a bunch of horseshit. Looking over all of the cultures of the world throughout history there is simply nothing we can imagine that isnt/wasnt considered normal or aberrant to someone at some time.
What part is horseshit specifically?
Well, as I said, there is no set morality when it comes to sexuality. There isnt anything that hasn’t been considered normal by some culture at some time while that same practice was considered aberrant by other cultures at the same time.
All of these attempts to cement some particular definition are really just attempts to apply moral value to sexual practices. Generally when someone tries to split hairs defining some practice they are trying to morally justify some practice that they themselves prefer.
“There is no one that if you knew all of their sexual proclivities you would not consider a pervert.”
“A pervert is someone who likes something you dont.”
-both paraphrased Sam Clemens.
You know what’s sexually normal in the most primitive tribes that still exist on the planet? Trying to genocide entire other tribes, but sparing some of the women so that everyone in your tribe can rape the hell out of them. Id love to listen to a few enlightened gender study groups in academia discussing this. There’s some rape culture for them.
I guarantee the first thing they would do is point out that God instructed the Jews to do that very thing in the old testament, i.e. Christianity is evil, everyone else gets a pass.
Ah, the Number 6 Dance.
It certainly brings up some real questions that no one is talking about.
I remember when the argument about same sex marriage was that if it were legal, it wouldn’t have any impact on anyone who wasn’t gay. Why should I care if two guys want to get married?
Now, rumor has it that average people in Canada voicing opposition to gay marriage need to be worried about being prosecuted for hate speech. Whether that’s factually correct, the chilling effect as I’ve seen it referenced appears to be real.
Gay rights won’t effect anyone else who isn’t gay–unless you’re in the catering business and your religious convictions are such that you won’t cater gay weddings.
I still oppose using the government to discriminate against people because of their “orientation”, but from what I learned in gay rights, human sexuality class, I’m not sure “orientation” is a legitimate group whose right to protection outweighs the First Amendment rights of Christian fundamentalists, stupid or otherwise.
It looks to me like this LGBTQI+ group is an artificial construction of self-admittedly disparate parts–created by psychologists in the infancy of the discipline originally to stigmatize and pathologize them.
It doesn’t matter to me whether their orientation is genetic or chosen; religion and Second Amendment rights aren’t genetic either. But if you’re going to give a group some special rights because they’re in that group, someone might need to convince me, first, that we are talking about a group of people, here. I’m not sure we are. In the ways many of them are different from each other, they’re the same as heterosexuals. If there’s a group, maybe it’s LGBTQI+ and then add an “H” for heterosexual, too–why not?
Sorry Ken, my internet keeps going out for some reason.
I see that we are talking about two different things. You have a point. When it comes to the culture wars, you are correct. The SJ/culture warriors dont really give a shit about gays or trannys. They are making a frontal assault on western culture, no doubt about that.
I was simply talking about real people and their behavior. That is a constant throughout history.
next in “Ken’s Konfession Korner” = “It was late and I was drunk and i thought, ‘what the heck, as long as no one knows'”
“Homosexual apparently existed first.”
For obvious reasons, I don’t buy that. I’m not saying that homosexualism is not ancient, I’m just saying it wasn’t first or dominant.
I think what Ken is saying is that the defined classes ‘homosexual’ and ‘heterosexual’ did not exist until modern psychology defined them into existence. The practices always existed but people didn’t think of others as ‘straight’ or ‘gay’ prior to that, if I am understanding him correctly. That seems like exactly the kind of thing a human sexuality class would teach.
Like many things in our modern world we think we are privy to because of our modern enlightenment, we simply aren’t. There is nothing new under the sun. Or, as…uh….some ancient greek dude said five thousand years ago “The only thing new is what is new to you.”
I’m sure people were called cocksuckers or equivalent since the beginning of time. A distinction without a difference.
What I was responding to is that I thought he was saying the class was trying to claim that homosexualism came first. But I apparently read that wrong, and they were saying that the ‘term’ came first.
Psychologists at the time were first studying sexual deviancy. Some of them studied masturbation. Some of them studied “nymphomaniacs”. Some of them found there was a group of men who had sex with other men.
They developed an academic classification for that, “homosexual”, just like they did for “paranoia”, etc. They wanted to cure it just like they wanted to find a cure for schizophrenia, but they also wanted to understand it. This was all new territory. Psychology was brand spanking new.
Once they defined the outlier, “homosexual”, there became a new normal, “heterosexual”.
It’s the old “exception that proves the rule” process. Sometimes we notice the exception to the rule before we notice that there’s a rule. That’s the way this happened.
They had names for the practice before all this. It was called “immorality”, “buggery”, etc. The act wasn’t new.
The idea of a social identity tied to this stuff was new–and it came with psychology.
If you read letters between male friends and, especially, female friends before the advent of psychology, you would think they were all gays and lesbians. Because they were unaware of the social construction of a gay and lesbian identity, they were uninhibited by the fear of being labeled as such.
I guess in a lot of ways, people were defined by their behavior, in their sexuality, and less so by any sense of socially constructed identity as it pertains to sex.
Nowadays, you get an identity, first, and you sexual actions are considered a subset of that by many.
I should add that “heterosexuality” was originally considered a sickness.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170315-the-invention-of-heterosexuality
That roughly tracks the public dissemination of the ideas of these new identities.
In the Victorian era, the only “normal” sex was that within marriage for the purpose of procreation–even among Protestants. People who wanted more sex than that–even within marriage–were considered abnormal or “heterosexuals”.
As psychology grew in importance, the idea that homosexuality was abnormal and heterosexuality was normal predominated. The old Victorian ideas about marriage and its purpose often came to the forefront in the gay marriage debate–“Marriage is between a man and a woman because only a man and woman can procreate!” If I heard that once, I heard it a million times.
Psychologists came to realize that people were having a lot more sex outside of marriage than anyone realized, and it became harder and harder to hold to the idea that only sex between married couples for procreation was “normal”. So heterosexual became the “norm” and homosexual became the pathology.
During my mania I sent a colleague a romantic message (to which he sent a terse reply)
So you are ugly as well as bi-polar. Bummer.
Indeed. At least if you’re hot the crazy-hot matrix works to your advantage.
I thought it would turn out like that old joke letter to Ann Landers. The writer goes on and on about all the rapists and child molesters in her family and ends by asking if she should reveal to her boyfriend that her brother is attending Ohio State.
Not a bad weekend. Already 2 up on my review schedule – nice to get ahead of the game this time. Something a little weirder and more experimental this week.
The Third Sign* of the End Times
(#1 – bonnie tyler singing ‘total eclipse’ during eclipse, #2 ménage à rhino)
i …. don’t….. sigh
As usual I am late. Looking over those letters I dont see anyone there that I would not advise to go ahead and kill themselves.
I was friends with a girl in a nursing environment and we had a co-worker whose boyfriend had a “predilection” so to speak. He wanted her to pee on him from time to time after intercourse and then (Trigger Warning) he asked her to shit in his mouth. My co-worker was aghast but the next words from her friend’s mouth were for the ages, “Should I do it?” That became our go-to buzzword for ten years whenever one of us hatched a really bad plan. “Should I do it?” “By all means!” “Indubitably!” “No argument, here!” People are gross and disgusting, even the norms.
That first letter reminds me of a little anecdote- My girlfriend and I were coming back from somewhere, and I did a nice slide job on a semi. When I dropped down to the inside lane to pass him, I had a good six or seven feet of clearance between my right headlight and the left rear corner of the trailer. She wasn’t panicked or mad; she just looked over at me and said, “You probably shouldn’t drive one of those cars that brakes on its own. You’d get killed for sure.”
PSA: don’t write articles in Notepad
I’m writing a new article and I had the first draft on Notepad, no auto save but I habitually save anyway. So I go to save and hit ctrl A, by mistake, then enter, without looking, POOF! gone. I notice that the original doc is there so I go to open it, but Notepad wants to save, I hit enter, the whole file is permanently Gone. Rewrite!
Been there a few times, and felt physically nauseous when I realized a bunch of work was gone for good. On the plus side, the rewrite usually goes a lot faster and tends to be better than what you lost.
Ctrl-Z. Learn it and love it.
Not in Notepad, but as Fatty pointed out Rev 4.0 is in fact better
Save often, stay sane. Ancient Chinese secret.
My husband is in the process of coming out as trans. This means that I, a heretofore assumed straight male, am also coming out as bisexual. I’m so happy that this is something that my partner and I can experience together.
That’s… special.
Y’know, I kinda liked ZARDOZ a lot more when he was constantly buzzed on weed. He needs to chill more.
The penis may be evil, the gun may be good, but the weed’s where it’s at, d00d.
Plus, he’s sorta phoning it in these days, y’know?
^^
If you people are unraveling this correctly, this “heretofore heterosexual” male’s wife has decided to be a man, making him gay. Should we pretend it took him ( pegging doesn’t count, I suppose) by surprise?
Whatever .
From the way I read it, it seems he’s known the whole time. The issue is that his “wife” is going to come out as a trans man, which requires him to come out of the closet too.
So this fucking hurricane. When the Navy “fixed” the GFS after it fucked up spectacularly post-Sandy, they got slightly better at path accuracy… but completely and totally fucked up storm strength. Every storm either doesn’t develop or completely bombs out. The model runs on Irma have it getting stronger than Wilma, which is particularly insane, given that it’s likely not possible for a storm to get stronger in the Atlantic basin than Wilma did. Fuck, I’m pretty sure this last one has it stronger than Typhoon Tip.
Something something global warming.
Whoever linked to Rogan interviewing Peterson and Weinstein deserves a firm bum tap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G59zsjM2UI&app=desktop
“good hustle”
I’m used to being referred to as “whoever” by my wife, but you too, Rufus?
Totally.
She also looks at me as if I just came out of a whale’s asshole whenever she hears some of the shit that comes out of my mouth.
Huh. Seems to be common. My wife does that and also says “Gustave who?” to third parties.
I honestly thought those were all mock letters submitted by you guys until I got to the comments. Then I went back and clicked on the link. Then I understood the meth epidemic.
Educator calls for better understanding of black history in Japan
Japanese aren’t racist, they’re ignorant. Group X is _____________ because I they don’t see the world they way I do.
I like this ‘Insist on being ignorant’ phrase because it points to his own ignorance about Americans. Projectionist extraordinaire?
“I’m speaking of the kind of racism that made a Donald Trump presidency not only possible but inevitable, the kind that bolsters those Confederate flag-waving white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, just days ago.”
It did?
Anyway, sounds like something up HM’s alley. I have my thoughts but would rather hear more substantial minds weight in first.
I’m a coward tonight.
The Japanese aren’t going to play what Rubin calls the “grievance olympics” game if they aren’t going to come out on top.
There’s also a tinge of narcissism when it comes to black scholars.
The way I see it, what is the incentive to know more than we already do about Africa? We have our hands full with Europe and Asia as it is – the bedrock of the majority of the great achievements.
It just strikes me as ‘never a bridesmaid’ whining.
I think, in North America anyway, we’re already aware and accept the contribution of blacks – at this point no different than what other cultural groups brought to the table.
It does strike as being endless grievances.
Rhetorical question – Met any “woke” Native Americans lately? Anger is the vibe and the vibe is the tribe.
Victim status is all the rage and seems to be a neat cottage industry.
I’m either 1/4, 1/8 or 1/16th Cree (depending upon whose story you’d like to believe) and we just lived like normal suburbanites, for the most part. I’ve lived on reserves because work made me do it. Cesspools of humanity. You’ve never seen cruelty unless you’ve lived among the savages.
I went to a prep school where part of the groups included Miq’Maqs and Mohawks.
Tuition for students (including blacks!) back in the 90s: $16 000.
Natives: What’s the symbol for free?
Something, something “it’s the least we could do” law.
the irony? trump isn’t racist at all. the people like bannon he hangs out with which the media gets so frothed up about actually call themselves “Western Chauvinists”
Boy, talk about a tell.
Donald Trump has been in the public eye for fifty years? Forty years? Not once, ever, before he ran for office did he give any hint of being a racist nor have anyone accuse him of being one. He runs for office and the lefties go crazy throwing ketsup on him. Really, who buys that shit?
*bonus for anyone who gets the ketsup reference.
Just think what your dog acts like when you move the leash from the counter to the drawer. That’s the establishment having a stroke because against all odds, Hillary did not win the election. The media is busying itself chewing the knobs off of the dryer, soiling the carpet, chasing the cats and strewing the garbage hither and yon. I’d say that they should be hit across the snout with a rolled up newspaper but with the bias we have seen since November it would be like feeding them some raw bacon.
Wo. Wo, wo, WO CAMEL.
Wo.
Ketsup?
I, along with Mr. Burns, thought it was either ‘catsup’ or ‘ketchup’.
That’s a Yosemite Sam reference!
Great horny toads! Who?!
“The charge of racism is like Ketsup for the left. They put it on everything they dont like.”
– Thomas Sowell
C’mon guys
“we need to talk” style conversations… Ponder this on the Tree Of Woe!
Do I AC?
Too late.
I don’t really feel like a poem though.