Nynemi

Trying to make sense of reality.

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." - Louis Brandeis

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

Yes, people who are open to the idea of aborting their child for convenience do have a more negative attitude toward life in general.

If you view it as your holy duty to care for your child, you'll feel fulfilled doing that job.

If you view parenthood as something that is supposed to be convenient for you, you'll end up resentful.

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

Blaming feminism and blaming women are two very different things.

It's lazy to blame the economy. People on average had to work much harder and lived under much greater poverty throughout history compared to today.

The problem we face today isn't physical, it's spiritual. It's more likely that the problem stems from life being too easy rather than too hard. Too many distractions, too much to do, too many options, everybody is aimless. Lack of religion means no higher purpose to strive toward. Everybody can mute their boredom with a smartphone screen instead of finding something that gives them lasting meaning. Social media overstimulates our brains with a slew of negativity from hedonistic and solipsistic ideas. And yes, feminism also played a role in that, pitting men and women against each other, encouraging careers over families.

You can't put all the blame on feminism, but it is not totally innocent in creating this hyper-individualistic society either.

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

One of the big problems (among many) with the climate change narrative is that all the good evidence for it (if it exists) is buried underneath a vast mountain of unconvincing arguments.

I am by no means an expert on the topic but I have done probably more research than the average person, and if I try to completely remove my emotions and biases and assess the evidence objectively, I cannot in good conscience say that I've ever heard any good reasons to believe the climate change narrative. I literally cannot think of a single example of convincing evidence that I've seen.

That doesn't mean that there is no good evidence, I just haven't seen it.

All that I see is either illogical nonsense or fearmongering propaganda. Their arguments boil down to "Look at those scary colors of this one weather event!" and "All the smart people believe it, so just shut up and step in line". None of that is convincing to me.

Again, just because their arguments are bad doesn't mean they aren't correct or at least directionally accurate in their assessment, but I also can't trust that they are. Maybe the evidence is out there somewhere, I know way too little about the subject to make the claim that it isn't. But if I haven't seen that good evidence, most other people (on both sides) probably haven't seen it either.

[Jarvis Aeneas @JarvisAeneas]

I’m starting to think that I’m the only right-winger on this platform who believes that climate change is a real phenomenon.

Not saying it hasn’t been exaggerated in the media, but I just don’t see how you can wholesale reject it.

[Stephen Taylor @stephen_taylor]

The socialist mind cannot comprehend this

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

@LizzyStarrrdust One of the dumbest and most pervasive ideas that feminism has brought onto society (and even a lot of conservative minded people have somewhat internalized) is that looking with desire at a woman's body is the same thing as reducing her to her body.

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

@allie__voss I think social media shapes that worldview much more than porn does.

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

The argument is that lying is bad. You should be skeptical of people who lie to you for political gain. They usually don't have people's best interest at heart and are just self-serving narcissists.

Even if those people point to a real problem, that doesn't mean those narcissists should automatically be regarding as trustworthy and handed all the power to shape politics.

People deliberately glance over the fact that she was an activist precisely because they know that makes the story sound less sympathetic. They lie about these stories to make them sound more sympathetic in order to guilt trip people into accepting completely different demands that don't have anything to do with the original problem.

The argument is that we should be aware that this is happening and we should be wary of these people and their demands.

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

If women love their men so deeply and profoundly, then why is it too much to ask to have sex with him?

The point of a relationship is that you should try to make your partner happy. If he wants sex, you should provide it, not because you have to, or because he doesn't value anything else about you, but simply because you should want to make him happy because you love him.

Every decent man will be utmost understanding if the woman can't have sex because of a medical issue or something like that, but if you refuse sex for a petty reason, the problem is not the lack of sex, the problem is your petty attitude.

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

@avidseries Your theory is in conflict with the fact that as women became less "oppressed", they didn't become more happy as a result.

The premise is wrong that unlimited money/food/... equals "ideal circumstances". It's not unlikely that this perverts preferences (see mouse utopia).

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

@justalexoki I have never seen this pattern outside of American English. Whoever is responsible for this rule should be tarred and feathered.

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

To state the obvious: You can have empathy for a group without being part of that group yourself. You can defend justice and advocate for just laws, even if they don't affect you personally.

This type of comment on "the rich" is so common, it confuses me what the motivation behind it is. I see three possibilities:

1) It's an actual lack of understanding for the concepts of empathy and justice. They're in such a tribal us vs. them mentality that they lost all ability to understand non-tribal ways of thinking. The idea of not hating this other group and not wanting to steal their property is inconceivable to them.

2) They think "tax the rich" is such a non-controversial, totally self-explanatory good and just thing that nobody, literally nobody except evil, greedy billionaires could ever disagree with it. The idea that people could have a different opinion about what a good and just economic policy looks like is inconceivable to them.

3) They just pretend pretend to be dumb in service of political virtue signaling.

[Rushi @rushicrypto]

“tax the rich” offends too many people in a country where 82% of adults make less than $100k a year

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

@dissidentwest I don't even know what kind of videos he makes, I've never seen anything from him in my YouTube recommendations.

I only ever hear his name and how big of a content creator he is, but where? In a parallel universe?

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

@RealDianeYap What's wrong with writing essays? Is that an unattractive hobby too?

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

The fundamental assumption in the anti-gaming attitude is that skill in gaming, contrary to other hobbies, is "useless" and "not real". And that is taken as self-evidently true.

But why are violinists and chess players more virtuous than a D&D master? What's the philosophical argument for this other than current societal standards?

Neither of these things help you "conquer the real world" in any meaningful way. Playing the violin conquers a particular real world object, if that is your standard, but playing chess doesn't do that either.

Plenty of hobbies that are seen as virtuous aren't doing anything "real", like reading Shakespeare. You could say reading literature teaches you about human nature or other aspects of reality and is useful in that regard, but then the same principle applies to video games too. They can also teach you abstract concepts, creativity, and logical thinking skills that are useful in the real world.

Does reading Shakespeare teach you more than the average video game? Probably. But the argument that one of these things is 100% real, useful, and virtuous and the other isn't, doesn't seem to be coherent.

[Gabriel Hudelson @GabrielHudelson]

5- some have found this entire conversation to be proof that women hold men to standards that men do not hold women to. “Men don’t judge women’s hobbies!��

But all of these same principles apply to women’s hobbies. A woman who scrolls Instagram for hours is subject to the same scrutiny as a man who is a gamer.

The point is that we should not be relativists who pretend that being a 40 year-old master of Dungeons & Dragons has the same value as being a 40 year-old virtuoso violinist or black belt in karate.

6- reality is an important part of this equation. When it comes to fantasy, we should be able to acknowledge that however great you may be in the fantastic realms, that greatness is pretend.

A man who is good at fishing is actually good at something in the real world. A man who is good at video games is not. To pretend that encyclopedic knowledge of the Marvel character universe is just as profitable as encyclopedic knowledge of survival skills or chess strategy is to pretend that the fake and the real are of equal value.

But this is obviously false.

In a fundamental level, we were designed as men to conquer in the real world. Video games offer an easy substitute. In this way, as pointed out by @autocorrect2_0, they are similar to p*rn- an easy way to satisfy a fundamental desire without actually earning the real thing.

If your hobby is a way to escape from the real world, that is not a good thing.

Men – brothers – you were made for more than to win virtual accolades. Maybe you throw in an hour or two of gaming every week to connect with friends – OK great, I’m not talking to you.

But if gaming is where your greatness lies, and in the real world, you haven’t gotten around to doing much… You were made for more than this.

7- There is something about the fantastic and the pretend that’s extremely gripping for us. We binge Netflix, but we don’t binge sitting down and painting a picture. Video games give the sensation of conquest without the blood and sweat of conquering. Movies give the thrill of condensed emotions without requiring any effort to earn them.

This makes modern forms of entertainment very addictive. Does that make them sinful? No, but it does mean that we need to have our eyes open, and keep them in their proper place.

8- when it comes to attractiveness, it makes perfect sense from a biblical perspective why gaming would not be attractive to females. And any culture where it becomes attractive to females would be concerning for a simple reason – masculinity is supposed to do stuff. It is supposed to build and conquer and sweat and bleed.

Femininity is supposed to be attracted to masculinity.

If pouring your time into something with no risk and no real reward is attractive to a woman, what is it that this woman values?

If the women of a culture would prefer their men to have safe indoor hobbies that won’t get them in any danger or cost them any effort, and the men are OK with that, that is a deeply effeminate and broken culture, and it won’t last long. (2/3)

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

The wrong assumption here is that gaming is a waste of time while other hobbies aren't.

One of my hobbies is photography. Total waste of time. I will never need this skill for anything else other than the hobby itself.

Another one of my hobbies is language learning. The countless hours I spent learning Icelandic... total waste of time. I will never need this skill. I just did it for fun.

The ick probably simply comes from the fact that acquiring skill in video games is easy and fun. It's understandable why hobbies that require effort and discipline seem more desirable and why especially women find that attractive. But that feeling is to a large degree irrational. How hard a skill is to acquire is in no relation to it's usefulness.

Objectively speaking, I don't think that the accomplishments I made in video games are any more or less meaningful than my accomplishments in other hobbies.

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

Why is reading a fictional story in a book "respectable", but playing inside a fictional story in a video game is not?
Why does fishing "make you better" but solving puzzles in a video game does not?
Why is it a good hobby to build something, but not if you're building something in a video game?

Two of my hobbies are learning languages and playing Minecraft. A lot of people would say one of those is clearly the more "respectable" hobby. But if you'd ask me which one of those two "made me better" (improved creativity/knowledge/problem solving/...), if I'm completely honest I'm genuinely not sure. Certainly both improved my mental fitness in different ways, but surprisingly I think Minecraft might actually have the upper hand.

I feel like most of the anti-gaming attitude boils down to people not understanding what playing video games is like and having this cartoonish stereotype in their head about gaming being nothing other than slowly rotting in front of a screen. In reality gaming actually encourages creativity, learning, and problem solving probably more than most other hobbies.

Besides that, gaming doesn't need to do that in order to be a valid hobby. Not every second of your waking life has to be spent doing something that "makes you better". You can also just do things for fun from time to time. I feel like gaming is scrutinized in a way that no other activity ever is. For some reason people demand things from gaming that they don't demand from any other hobby or form of entertainment.

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

Why is reading a fictional story in a book "respectable", but playing inside a fictional story in a video game is not?
Why does fishing "make you better" but solving puzzles in a video game does not?
Why is it a good hobby to build something, but not if you're building something in a video game?

Two of my hobbies are learning languages and playing Minecraft. A lot of people would say one of those is clearly the more "respectable" hobby. But if you'd ask me which one of those two "made me better" (improved creativity/knowledge/problem solving/...), if I'm completely honest I'm genuinely not sure. Certainly both improved my mental fitness in different ways, but surprisingly I think Minecraft might actually have the upper hand.

I feel like most of the anti-gaming attitude boils down to people not understanding what playing video games is like and having this cartoonish stereotype in their head about gaming being nothing other than slowly rotting in front of a screen. In reality gaming actually encourages creativity, learning, and problem solving probably more than most other hobbies.

Besides that, gaming doesn't need to do that in order to be a valid hobby. Not every second of your waking life has to be spent doing something that "makes you better". You can also just do things for fun from time to time. I feel like gaming is scrutinized in a way that no other activity ever is. For some reason people demand things from gaming that they don't demand from any other hobby or form of entertainment.

[Ethel Braithwaite @Ethelbrait1941]

Never stop saying "dozen" and "half dozen". Never stop using the word you read in an old novella. Never stop using your regional jargon. Don't succumb to an internationalized English stripped of its whimsy and romanticism in the name of streamlining global commerce.

[Jesse Genet @jessegenet]

An under discussed topic of our time is that having a larger percentage of adults be childless alters our culture.

Fertility decline doesn’t just equal less babies, it translates into less empathy… a coarser culture.

[Nynemi @Nynemi]

I genuinely do not understand where this widespread contempt for video games comes from.

It's just entertainment like any other. Saying a man playing video games is unattractive is like saying a man watching movies is unattractive.

Why is it fine if a man builds things in his garage for fun, but building things in Minecraft for fun is unattractive? What's the distinction here?

I understand why *too much* gaming is unattractive, when you're neglecting other things because of it... but *all* gaming? Is it just a vibes thing because of the stereotype that video games are for children, or that gamers are lazy?

Also, I find this mentality of wanting to control the behavior/hobbies of your spouse really weird.

If you don't find it attractive, that's fine! You don't have to! Men don't find everything women do attractive either. But it should be possible to still at least tolerate it. It would be pretty selfish to shame your spouse into giving up something they enjoy simply because it's "unattractive" to you.

The world doesn't revolve around you. Your loved ones will sometimes enjoy things that aren't attractive to you. As an adult you should be able to accept this reality and let your loved ones enjoy life instead of wanting to control them.

[Lizzie Marbach @LizzieMarbach]

I know this is unpopular, but it will always be unattractive for a grown man to play video games.

Some women might be understanding or pretend like they don’t care that you spend hours playing, but they do.

It is extremely unattractive to women and will never not be. 🤷🏼‍♀️