this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
310 points (95.9% liked)
Greentext
3994 readers
1614 users here now
This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
- Anon is often crazy.
- Anon is often depressed.
- Anon frequently shares thoughts that are immature, offensive, or incomprehensible.
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
founded 11 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
That is a garbage reason to run immediately.
Tumblrtards are kind of infamous for magical thinking, often bordering on or just outright being delusional, being unimaginably pretentious, incredibly emotionally unstable, and absolutely loving to glom onto bandwagons of virtue signalling one-upsmanship as well as hate brigading ideas they dont understand and people that they dont like.
They often jump to conclusions ludicrously.
Here is what I mean. If a person's favorite movie /is/ Fight Club, all you have to do is then ask them 'why?'.
If you tell me your favorite movie is American Psycho, and the reason why is that you think its a gripping, iconic film criticizing the superficiality and violence of the chauvanistic capitalism of the late 80s...
...that is a lot different than if your reason is that Bateman is just so cool and crazy!
See the context of this 'advice' is ostensibly whether or not you should be a friend or partner of someone.
If you are deciding who to have in your circle by whether or not they like one of three objectively popular and excellent films, which are misunderstood by some, but not others...
...then you are actually being very shallow, and impersonal.
Superficial, even.
Right like with Rick and Morty I can tell you I loved the show for the first few seasons...
...but then its quality went down, culminating in the show eventually entirely abandoning one of its main foundational truisms:
Life is brutal, unpredictable and unfair.
The latest seasons of the show abandoned the total /randomness/ factor that defined the earliest episodes, and replaced it with much more standard... and structured plots.
The fanbase clamored over fan theories and details, anything to make there be a grand overarching plot, continuity, and eventually they got it.
But to me that is the show betraying itself. There isnt supposed to be continuity. It is supposed to be unpredictable. Most fans of the show entirely missed the point, and thus cringe ensued.
Now say what you will about my interpretation of the show here...
... but its a little more nuanced than uh, Rick is zany Pickle man.
And I dont think my interpretation indicates I am some kind of maladjusted chauvanist fascist.
But what if I answer that I liked American Psycho, not because it’s incredibly deep view masculinity of the 80’s and all that philosophical stuff, but because it’s funny.
American Psycho is my favorite comedy movie
I would think "hey you get satire!"
Honestly I would say that that is a legit, if non nuanced take. The movie is absolutely hilarious if you have a dark sense of humor, so all I would really conclude about you personally is that you have a dark sense of humor.
I might be able to infer that you are not super into politics and social theory or whatever, but, you know, I would have to get to know you better to really know that one way or another.
As an occultist, I can confirm that there isn’t a lot of thinking or magic to be found on Tumblr.
And yet you ran into the point directly.
This isn't magical thinking, as you said it yourself, either you like American psycho because of 0 media literacy (in which case we all agree you're undesirable to date for a Tumblr user)
Or you like American psycho because of the reasons you cited, which mind you aren't bad reasons to like it, but it makes you a film bro. To consider it amond your top movies means all you care about in media is how it made you think about society, and honestly if the most you've though about society was when watching American psycho then I can see why someone wouldn't want to date you.
The Tumblr rule of thumb isn't entirely about not dating bigots (though bigots do tend to be weeded out by this check which was kind of the point), it's also about avoiding dating asshats in general. What does it say about you that you like Rick and Morty because you agree that life is brutal, unpredictable and unfair? What does it say in the context of someone debating whether they should date you?
Look at all the assumptions you've made about a person over their opinions on two pieces of media. That is exactly the behaviour that was called out and you walked right into it.
No, I'll stand by it. If your favorite movie is American psycho, either you have 0 media literacy, or you're an asshat.
"Oh but people are complex and it is my right to like American psycho" yeah, sure. But if it's your favorite movie then I wouldn't take the chances of dating you. That's what it means.
Out of curiosity, what are some favorite movies that would, to you, be strong signs that you would be very interested in dating a person who told you it was their favorite movie, with no knowledge of why it is their favorite movie?
Ok so you have said that:
If I have an interpretation of American Psycho that is that it is a critique of society... than this means I am only capable of criticizing society when watching a movie.
Well for one, no, that is not personally true of me, and most importantly, that is not even kind of logically valid to assume or infer.
If I read a book and have opinions about it, does that mean I do or do not have similar opinions of similar real world situations,? Does it mean I do or do not incorporate those opinions into other parts of my personality, or job, or activism or lack thereof?
No. Obviously no. To make that leap would be a vast overgeneralization.
Sure, some people have opinions about art and media, but it doesnt affect their actual lives and actions much. Other people have strong convictions that drive much of their lives, and have consistent views on art and media to go with them. Still others may have an obviously hypocritical view of a real world situation, or not even realize the similarity of a real world situation due to ideological blinders. And others are every other possible kind of something else.
You end with literally begging the question, the answer to which was my whole original point:
Dont use overgeneralizations and assumptions to assume you know what a person thinks, when you could just actually ask them what they think.
Who the fully fuck do you actually believe like American Psycho because they like to murder? Is this the topic on hand here? You shouldn't date criminally ill murderers and that they like movies about murdering? Because I don't even think murderers do that