MetaFilter

This is pretty much the single best opportunity, romantically, you're going to get in your life.

OHH PUHHLEEEEEZE stop being so condescending!

Yes, cultures are different, and yes, dating cultures are different. Still, that doesn't mean that dating a Chinese girl = instant marriage request. If she's willing to move to a foreign country for graduate school and live alone with a single male roommate, I'd say that she's also... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by suedehead at 9:39 AM on November 24, 2009

Okay, I came to the thread late, hindsight is 20/20, and given similar RL circumstances I would likely have bungled this worse than the OP... but to me, that question epitomized the raw ideal of "overthinking a plate of beans."

There was a lot of talk in the thread about "potential cross-cultural miscommunication", but the problem turned out to be that they were communicating in the most inefficient manner possible, using symbols rather than plain... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by The Confessor at 2:31 AM on November 24, 2009

One thing the Ikea instructions don't tell you until the very last page is that you're going to have to tap 48 tiny little brads into the furniture's backing.

I like to think that whomever it was that came up with the idea for load bearing cardboard is, at once, both a genius and history's worst monster.
posted to MetaTalk by quin at 8:54 PM on November 23, 2009

Instead of favoriting the seven messages that I'd like to endorse, let me summarize the conversation you really need to have with this girl asap:1. "I'm so sorry, I am a gigantic stupid idiot and I lied to you because I am shy and embarrassed.."

2. "The real reason I think I should move out is that I am so attracted to you that I do not know what to do."

3. "I have always wanted to date you but I do not know how... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by rokusan at 11:44 PM on November 22, 2009 marked best answer

Are you the dumbest shittiest dumbshit that ever shitted some dumb?
posted by shakespeherian

No, no, no, no NO! You are doing it ALL WRONG!

*ahem*

Shall I compare thee to a shitty dumb?
Thou art more dumbshit and more shittyshit:
Rough dumbs do shit the dumbing shits of dumb,
And summer's lease hath all too shit a dumb:
Sometime too dumb the... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by UbuRoivas at 12:18 PM on November 23, 2009

I love the idea that preachers who have sex with parishioners are pure and innocent, while the females are, naturally, deviant seductresses and home-wrecking whores. I mean, you didn't state that, of course, but the implication is there and I'm sure that sort of internalizing is just something I don't "get" as a lapsed Christian.
posted to MetaFilter by billysumday at 1:31 PM on November 23, 2009

St. Alia of the Bunnies: Billy Graham

Look, I went to the same goddam college Bill Graham did, and I've got to tell you, that place is fucked up as far as gender relations go. And I'm not even talking about feminism or equality or glass ceilings. Boys and girls don't talk to each other like regular people, and it's entirely because of the fraidypants attitude towards coed interaction that anywhere else is considered entirely... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shakespeherian at 12:42 PM on November 23, 2009

I can't shake the nagging feeling that there really might be churches - particularly in the US - where stuff like this is produced in all seriousness.

As an Anglican theology Ph.D. student once told me, "Hey man, they're evangelical! It's an irony-free zone out there!"
posted to MetaFilter by deanc at 12:16 PM on November 23, 2009

I do NOT want my boobs on anyone's chest but my own (or my hubby's) and if I HAVE to hug a guy (hopefully not that often, honestly) it darn well better be a side hug.

So you don't mind lesbian hugs?

And honestly, all your side hug does is make the guy think about your boobs. If you just did a regular hug, he wouldn't think about it at all. But when you deliberately avoid the contact, he knows why and now he's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 12:13 PM on November 23, 2009

I do NOT want my boobs on anyone's chest but my own

You know, I think your problem could probably be solved by wearing some sort of shirt, or a sweater.
posted to MetaFilter by billysumday at 12:12 PM on November 23, 2009

I don't know about a Jesus diet, but 10 years ago I ordered a bunch of communion wafers direct from the factory and snacked on them like chips. Kind of like eating styrofoam, I know, but I had to try it out anyway. Never did dip them though.
posted to MetaFilter by crapmatic at 10:52 AM on November 23, 2009

God gives Peter a dream about nonkosher food and is all like 'Don't call unclean what I have called clean, but just so's you know, Pete, I ain't really talking about shellfish but actually about that gentile that you won't let into your house because you're being a dick, I mean come on, Peter, read the rest of this fucking chapter.'

In other words, Peter originally misunderstands the dream as being about food, when it's actually about how God doesn't... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by EarBucket at 7:19 AM on November 23, 2009

St. Alia of the Bunnies: The Bible specifically teaches it is wrong to say it is wrong to eat meat , in the NT no less, btw.

I... what? There are only two passages that I can think you might be referring to, and in one Paul says 'Yo dawg it's cool to eat meat that was sacrificed to idols because those idols don't got shit on God but if it really bothers your friends a lot then just keep that shit on the down low' and in the other God gives Peter a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shakespeherian at 7:02 AM on November 23, 2009

The Bible specifically teaches it is wrong to say it is wrong to eat meat , in the NT no less, btw.

It's true that there are passages in the Bible to back this up, but can we please stop appealing to the Bible in this way. The Bible, yay verily, even the NT, was written by a variety of authors throughout a period of many years. Almost any ethical demand expressed in one book can be justified by a passage in another book. Sometimes the same book. In... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by reverend cuttle at 6:38 AM on November 23, 2009

The Bible specifically teaches it is wrong to say it is wrong to eat meat , in the NT no less, btw.

I'm not sure that's correct. Paul says it's wrong to tell people it's a sin to eat meat that was previously sacrificed to idols, but that's more about not taking your own cultural prejudices and putting them in God's mouth.
posted to MetaFilter by EarBucket at 5:58 AM on November 23, 2009

Not to Treaty of Whestphalia the discussion in this thread... but just to reassert that I love MetaFilter above all other online communities, I'll post the full list here for y'all to pick over at your lesiure. Backstory to the creation of the list, and a description of methods, etc. can be found in the header of this Reddit thread. Hope you enjoy it.

Originally List, posted May, 2008

... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jjjjjjjijjjjjjj at 9:11 AM on November 23, 2009

If wouldn't be wikipedia if some of the articles hadn't been deleted for being too interesting.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 7:48 AM on November 23, 2009

This is actually quite good, folks. Read the damned thing.

And I frankly find the oddly vast breadth of his references mesmerizing. I was smirking a bit when he started talking about Boy Scouts, but any article that mentions Richard M. Stallman in glowing terms and references Donna Hathaway and Roberta Flack is a winner, in my book. Yes, he has a very wrong-headed two paragraphs regarding the feminist movement in there, but anyone who's been out and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by koeselitz at 4:05 PM on November 22, 2009

I'm deeply amused that the first commenter in this thread has more than 26,000 metafilter comments for which he has made zero dollars and says "There is never going to be a limitless supply of human labor.".
posted to MetaFilter by srboisvert at 8:09 AM on November 22, 2009

On the serious side of things: Ladies in hetero relationships, your man does not want to hear you vent about your problems. This is not because he is unsympathetic or does not care-- quite the opposite, in fact. For a man, problems must be solved. To learn about a problem that directly impacts his woman (whom he must protect at all costs) is exactly the same as being assigned the task of resolving it. This is fine when the problem is, say, a burnt-out light bulb, because the... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Faint of Butt at 1:27 PM on November 20, 2009

Well, as the OP, I'm not thrilled at where it headed, either. If we've learned anything, it's that men seem really, really obsessed with their penises and people are okay with stereotyping themselves. A lot of it's funny, though, and I'm glad people are enjoying it. Plus, hidden in all those generalizations are little nuggets of goodness -- maybe a few secrets there that make us interesting to one another.
posted to MetaTalk by lunalaguna at 7:22 PM on November 20, 2009

Genesis 38:9 - And Onan knoweth that the favorite is not reckoned his; and Metatalk hath come to pass, if he hath favorited unto his brother's post, that he hath flagged it to the ground, so as not to give favorites to his brother.
posted to MetaTalk by Blazecock Pileon at 8:51 PM on November 19, 2009

"Is it possible to drink a gallon of milk in an hour?"

in days past, a vest-wearing black bearded friend and I were heavy into the weights.

thus, we were heavy into large scale guzzling and gulping.

such consumption was abetted by the steaming, pumping machines of the cafeteria; god, to relive the caloric galore.

here dualities die with time: one of us had the idea to attempt the gallon... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by past at 2:19 PM on November 18, 2009

Man, Metafilter needs a time machine. I wish I could see the threads that would have been when the intellectuals first caught on to Buster Keaton.

"Hey, you seen that Buster Keaton flick?"
"I've seen a few. He's the dummy who isn't as good as Charlie Chaplin, right?"
"He's no dummy. You ever notice how the environment he is in is absurd, and how everything happens as a result of accident? It's essentially... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mccarty.tim at 7:11 PM on November 19, 2009

Interesting -- I actually don't like her music that much as music (it's not in my itunes or ipod, and I've only played remixes at clubs that really change the originals), but I love her shtick.
posted by empath at 1:07 PM on November 18

Disco shtick?

I love Lady Gaga pretty unashamedly, but I have to say I almost cried a little when I read the FPP. I've been avoiding learning her real name and now you've just made... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fiercecupcake at 12:14 PM on November 18, 2009

As a casual observer/listener to pop music (along with many other styles), I have to agree with the posters who observe that "Lady Gaga" and the character's career is very much by design -- and impressively so.

A common theme in interviews and comments by Ms. Germanotta has been her interest in the manufacture of popular culture and the various faces of aestheticism. She touches on some of these concepts in an NYU paper from 2004.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by thebordella at 9:45 AM on November 18, 2009

The thing that's crazy about this is that this is still basically her first album! I don't have a clue where she goes from here.
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 9:27 AM on November 18, 2009

It seems she can get away even when spelling it out plainly.

Spelling it out, hell, she's directly rubbing their faces in it.

In the Bad Romance video, she plays a traficked prostitute, but as she is sold, she is dressed as different pop stars. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse, and probably some others I'm not catching; young women who were shoehorned by their handlers into larger than... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by louche mustachio at 8:56 AM on November 18, 2009

And the kicker is she's using her considerable skills to turn out not necessarily terrible tunes and making huge sums off people who aren't in on the joke.

It's really amazing how she can thread the needle of selling vapid pop music to 13 year olds while somehow also making it intellectually interesting.
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 8:50 AM on November 18, 2009

yay, i get to share some bean plating i did last night in response to someone on another message board who said her lyrics were high-school level bad poetry...


------------
I'm going to go out on a limb here and overthink Lady Gaga's overall oeuvre. Its pretty clear that she's had a fascination with fame, fashion and celebrity from the beginning, and her new album is just continuing along those lines.

But let's start with... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 8:37 AM on November 18, 2009

No of course I'm not trying to suggest that. I'm just making an inquiry (psycho-semiotic) about how one might categorize what seem at first glance to be two very different kinds of things.

One's an obsession with a childish game, one's an obsession with children.

One's tied up with the Heysel stadium disaster, Dutch fans chanting "throw the Jews in the oven" when a traditionally Jewish club visits, Facist footballers... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by rodgerd at 11:34 PM on November 19, 2009

Possibly 11 hours too late, but it's like a rock in my shoe, so....

Am I to pretend sidhedevil and her friends aren't here and that they don't start mocking class issues whenever I mention them*?

I don't know sidhedevil, or her friends, and I think I've been on LiveJournal exactly once in my life to read about a friend's tomato garden, but I'd like you to know that I [silently] mock you every time you mention class issues.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by mudpuppie at 9:39 AM on November 19, 2009

Well, hopefully Methylviolet is only taking a break, but if not, I don't really care. I'm not seeing anything here that would make a person feel unwelcome. Perhaps the opinions held by some might annoy or offend, but they are individuals and this is a website on the internet. Bailing on it because of a deleted post to the blue or to people's reaction to said post is like no longer going to the library because they carry Playboy or Glenn Beck's latest or some asshole patron insist you not check... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by cjorgensen at 6:10 AM on November 19, 2009

Well done to us. This is what I was talking about when I asked WTF in the
post.

I think you mean well done to you, since you're the one who made a metatalk thread out of a post that was destined for deletion and obscurity.
posted to MetaTalk by dortmunder at 5:44 AM on November 19, 2009

> I do believe that as we go forward there is probably going to be some cohesion to our posts, our discussions, or assumptions. If I'm wrong about this, whatever, but I don't think I'm actually wrong.

I hope you're wrong about this because I don't want to be part of a MetaFilter where every post has to be "on message" and that message is decided by the people who complain most stridently in MetaTalk. There are enough of us here that there... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by nowonmai at 11:44 PM on November 18, 2009

kalessin, a discussion of what bothered people about the video is exactly in line with the purpose of MetaFilter discussions in the blue.

A discussion of what bothered people about the presence of the video in the post is what MetaTalk is for.
posted to MetaTalk by NortonDC at 10:05 PM on November 18, 2009

Would you be less embarrassed for a Metafilter whose moderators ignored vociferous negative feedback about a post?

In this case, yes. It's not like it's photographs of a guy fucking a chicken.
posted to MetaTalk by NortonDC at 10:00 PM on November 18, 2009

The deletion and the reasoning behind it make MetaFilter look more foolish and juvenile than the post did, and there's no good reason that the discussion of what bothered people about the video couldn't have happened in the original thread.

Even if it's bad art, I'm embarrassed for MetaFilter that its moderators don't trust its membership enough to allow discussion of a provocative artwork in the blue.
posted to MetaTalk by NortonDC at 9:44 PM on November 18, 2009

I used to write a column on local music for an arts and entertainment rag. Years prior, a local venue, The Half-Ass (or "East Quad Music Co-Op Presents the Halfway Inn" to give full appellation) had featured G. G. Allin for several months, and I mentioned that in my column, which was mostly about how shock art was eternally new to college freshmen, but incredibly dull once you realized that being earnestly shocking was an artistic dead end. The line went something like, "G.G.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by klangklangston at 9:28 PM on November 18, 2009

Answer two is that video games are purely visceral experiences, not nuanced narratives like (good) movies. By which I mean to say, they're more about immersing you in a world that you react to directly than they are telling you a story you passively absorb.

I disagree with this analysis.

First, the exact same argument was made about film for the first twenty or thirty years of its existence. People routinely argued that, while... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Netzapper at 7:33 PM on November 18, 2009

A lot of people are pretty unhappy about the airport scene in MW2, so I don't know that it's being treated much differently, though perhaps by different people. Even my friends who are playing it found it pretty uncomfortable, FWIW.

The point of that scene is to make you feel uncomfortable. I felt uncomfortable as I played it. I also respect that the message there was, "Shooting people isn't always fun, is it, gamerboi?... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Netzapper at 6:50 PM on November 18, 2009

Forgive me if this is a derail, but this has been bugging me.

A few days ago, I made an FPP about the "No Russian" level in the video game "Modern Warfare 2." At the heart of the issue is the graphic depiction of violence against innocent people. And it may just be my impression, but it seems like most of the reaction to that rhetorical question was: "Good lord, calm down, it's just pixels on a screen. Of course it's not real people this is... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by jbickers at 6:04 PM on November 18, 2009

That is a really disgusting rape in that animation, and I'm gonna let you be oppressed by rape culture, but ECONOMIC CLASS IS THE WORST KIND OF OPPRESSION OF ALL TIME

OF ALL TIME
posted to MetaTalk by idiopath at 5:54 PM on November 18, 2009

Netzapper, a conservative came up with one I like a lot: American Nazis don't have power. Does that mean they're not racist?
posted to MetaTalk by shetterly at 5:34 PM on November 18, 2009

I keep trying to forget about this thread and walk away and yet I keep being bothered by something about it, which I'd like to try and put my finger on. I do think it was right to delete the original post, not because the cartoon is bad, nor out of reasons of sensitivity but because of the poor framing. I do not think the cartoon is brilliant by any means, but I don't think it is bad either, and I do think that a bit of warning and a bit of context might have made posting it acceptable.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by motty at 2:45 PM on November 18, 2009

Regarding community standards, the piling-on of dortmunder is ugly and I hope it stops.
posted to MetaTalk by Blazecock Pileon at 2:32 PM on November 18, 2009

What's your game?

You're disingenuous. You talk about community standards, and then claim to not want to discuss community standards, and then say you're not trying to influence community standards, and then call yourself an activist, implying you have a cause, which means you do want to influcence community standards, and they you say you only identify as an activist when you feel like it, and then you accuse me of having a chip on my shoulder.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by dortmunder at 2:05 PM on November 18, 2009

dortmunder, I've been an activist all this time, I just chose not to identify as one.

Spare me.
posted to MetaTalk by dortmunder at 1:56 PM on November 18, 2009

dortmunder, I think you're being aggressive in a pretty obnoxious way.

It's just that kalessin spent the day (you don't know the half of it) trying to deny he had any sort of agenda at all re: community standards on Metafilter, and then comes out and describes himself as an activist, which pisses me off. Had he made some sort of public acknowledgement of that early on, I wouldn't be so irritated. So yeah, I'm being obnoxious. If you've got an agenda state it up front.
posted to MetaTalk by dortmunder at 1:15 PM on November 18, 2009

Yes, we often know how the joke is or is meant to be funny, it's true, but we are often more interested in speaking about communal expectations of tact because some of the folks that we are advocates for (and who for whatever reason may not be interested in speaking up for themselves) because we are concerned for them, both in general and in specific.

Activism and advocacy are also sometimes mixed up with "white knight" syndromes and... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by dortmunder at 1:01 PM on November 18, 2009