Xander: “You have no shame.”
Cordelia: “Oh please, like shame is something to be proud of.”
Like looking into a mirror. - Talking to a Philosopher About True Detective -- Vulture:
"True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has recently talked about texts that influenced his writing of Rust, describing him as an "anti-natalist nihilism." What can we learn about Rust as a person...
We would know that he is drawn to the extreme fringes of philosophical speculation and that much of the material he is reading is unpalatable to most people. We would also know that he sought out these texts perhaps after being dissatisfied with more mainstream mediations on our place in the universe. He is not at home in the world, expects nothing from it, and has a fundamental mistrust of all discourse of hope. It is also likely that he sees hypocrisy as the norm and is attuned to delusion as the natural state of the human mind. This is perhaps why he is so good at soliciting confessions...
...there are signs of empathy in Rust that is not entirely alien to the nihilistic worldview, given the centrality of suffering, nihilism is pretty empathetic. I would say he is passionate and sensitive to those he sees as being crushed by various forms of power, which is often sustained by moral hypocrisy. I wouldn’t say hopefulness is quite the right word, but I would say a nihilist could find drive, if not meaning, from undermining those with power. We see this in his barely concealed contempt for Reverand Tuttle (and his intuition that he is a moral hypocrite) and his sympathy for the more honest and flawed former Rev. Theriot...
I would say that Rust’s pessimistic realism is expressed in his suspicion toward institutions — the police department, organized religion — and toward the narratives people build around themselves. In the latter case, he expects people to be mired in self-deception, and that allows him to dig deeper behind the masks they wear to obscure what is really going on. However, there is a price to pay for this and we see that such a bleak understanding of the world can also result in the recklessness that forms part of his character. The austere, stoic lifestyle he lives, along with the drinking, is absolutely a result of thinking along these lines. Perhaps the moment this is clearest is when he realizes, whilst watching television with his girlfriend, that such a life is just not for him. He just can’t buy into it anymore. This is why I think the "I know what I am" line is so important."
Awesome.
Bonus points for former UFC champ Georges St. Pierre's appearance as Batroc.
"One of those Grand Plans is, of course, the Let’s Move! campaign. Just tell those kids to move more... After all, we The Anointed know kids are getting fat from sitting around too much. Except that’s not what the evidence shows. Kids don’t get fat after they start sitting around. They sit around after they start getting fat.
Here’s what one study concluded:
Decreased physical activity may have little to do with the recent spike in obesity rates among U.S. adolescents, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prompted by growing concern that the increase was due to decreased physical activity associated with increased TV viewing time and other sedentary behaviors, researchers examined the patterns and time trends in physical activity and sedentary behaviors among U.S. adolescents based on nationally representative data collected since 1991. The review found signs indicating that the physical activity among adolescents increased while TV viewing decreased in recent years.
And here’s what another study concluded:
Physical inactivity appears to be the result of fatness rather than its cause. This reverse causality may explain why attempts to tackle childhood obesity by promoting physical activity have been largely unsuccessful.
So telling kids “Let’s Move!” to battle obesity isn’t supported by the actual evidence. But once again, The Anointed don’t believe they should be bothered with little annoyances like evidence that a Grand Plan will work before instituting it. If their intentions are good, then by gosh, the results will be good too...
The Anointed are so inexplicably confident that the Grand Plan will bring about The Good, they view anyone who resists having the Grand Plan imposed on them to be opposing good itself. That’s why anyone who resists the Grand Plan must be either evil or stupid.
It couldn’t be that people who oppose the Grand Plan are convinced by evidence that it’s a bad idea – The Anointed don’t come up with bad ideas. And of course, it couldn’t simply be that people who oppose the Grand Plan believe in that silly “it’s a free country” concept and don’t want other people’s ideas imposed on them, good or bad. Nope. Evil or stupid are the only explanations."
"Online "character quizzes," suddenly ultra-viral thanks to adroit Facebook-centric designs at sites like Zimbio, are all the rage. Are they fueled by narcissism? No, says Devon Maloney: it's fear: "We crave the peace of mind that comes from believing the human condition is quantifiable." Which is to say, of course, our own conditions. It's the Myers-Briggs sorting hat for a new generation, telling you what you just told it."
Worst. Data Set. Ever. - Twitter / mikegrubber:
"A friend forwarded a poll of married women on their own message board... any questions? "
"Reportedly left dumbfounded by the news that recent parolee Terry Raney had been reincarcerated on charges of assault and battery, officials at Woodbourne Correctional Facility struggled Tuesday to make sense of how the prisoner had not been rehabilitated by 15 years of constant threats, physical abuse, and periodic isolation. “It just doesn’t seem possible that an inmate could live for a decade and a half in a completely dehumanizing environment in which violent felons were constantly on the verge of attacking or even killing him and not emerge an emotionally stable, productive member of society...
“We surrounded him with a combustible mix of rival gangs and made sure that he was consumed by a round-the-clock sense of terror that the slightest misstep on his part could result in a sharpened piece of scrap metal being shoved into his neck, and yet he still leaves this facility with the same criminal thoughts and violent mindset as before? I’m truly at a loss for how this could have happened.” Gunderson then noted his additional confusion at how the man’s criminal record and the social stigma of his prison sentence had somehow failed to land him a steady job immediately upon his release.""
"Topless Computer Age."
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