meh

FD: We can see the cat. Do you have an ETA on animal control?

Dispatch: Twenty minutes.

FD: Alright, we think we can get the cat.

Dispatch: Copy, we'll let animal control know.

FD several minutes later: We've got the cat.

Dispatch: Copy, do you still want--

FD, interrupting: Update, the cat DOES NOT like us.

Dispatch: ...so you do still want animal control, then?"

FD: Yes. Tell them the cat is in the engine.

Dispatch: ...are you also in the engine?

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

"I did feel a little alienated that it wasnt in English. But then I thought it over for a second and realized... that was the point. And that was what made it art."

I get a lot of 'and everyone clapped' reblogs to my posts. And its mainly on posts that are about very normal, positive things that happened to me. I think its normal for a dude in his 70s to decide its okay if something is in a different language.

I think being cynical and responding to everything with sarcasm feels smart. Theres a guy I work with that is like this- every response to everything is very sarcastic because its easy humor. But he's done it so much that ive noticed part of the secret:

He uses a series of canned sarcastic phrases ('no, really? Who could have predicted this?' Etc) when he has no idea how to respond to something but feels the need to fill the silence. Because he's set himself up as this guy that knows everything, doesnt need an explanation, and in his mind he's got a wicked sense of humor.

But some days im partnered with him, and when youre in a truck for 7 hours it becomes hard to keep up that facade. Its very clear he doesnt know much. He has a lot of surface knowledge for the bit. But he's desperately seeking validation, and gets upset if there's a perceived sense of rejection.

I think theres a fine art to cynical humor and sarcasm. If you use it on everything, people will assume youre just an insincere person. And it gets old kind of fast.

Nobody likes being around that person.

There's a post that floats around here somewhere that talks about someone telling a MAGA coworker, "Your life is defined by everything you hate, and I think that's sad."

Compulsive sarcasm, I think, is defining your life by everything you're afraid of. Rejection, being "tricked," being vulnerable. You lose nothing if you believe a stranger's story on the internet about their dad saying something cool and it turns out not to be true, or to have been "massaged" to sound nicer and more coherent than it was. It doesn't materially harm your life to hear a story like that and believe it could be true. It's not being done as a grift to trick people out of money or loyalty or anything like that. It's harmless.

But to be afraid to think it's possible that someone, somewhere, might be that willing to understand things? To be afraid to believe in a stranger's harmless story of kindness and understanding? To live your life walled in by cynicism? I think that does do material harm to your soul. That kind of spiked armor pierces the wearer too.

I can handle being around Sarcasm Dude because I spent a lot of my college years hanging around Sarcasm Dudes and I know the game a little.

He's not MAGA, but his parents are and he grew up in a high control church, so I think a lot of this attitude comes from that background. But like... "I like the KIA that I drive." "KIAs are poorly made and the reason theyre stolen so often is because the keyless entry means it can be hacked with an iphone." "Ok, well- mine isnt keyless and I got the software update that prevents it just to make sure." "Well you shouldnt have gotten a KIA anyways because they rush through production leading to these kinds of problems." "... dude, it was a gift from my mom. Chill out."

I want to tell him to touch grass but... we work in a park.

So like I see this kind of like... combatative way of having a conversation, and its on par with the way I see other people from that high-control church react to things, even from ex-cultists who swung all the way left. And I also see it in the petri dish- so much of the content there is just gawking at things they dislike about the left.

I also see it in leftist spaces in different degrees (you are not immune to propaganda, etc). Negative, pessimistic, reactionary content gets more interaction, often. (I'm guilty of this, actually.)

I think theres lots to be cynical about. There's some bullshit happening out there. But I do also think that pessimism, sarcasm gets more stage time. And it think this is especially true of people whose primary contact with other people is through online spaces.

And i think its good to be skeptical of things like... anything that the government says these days to be honest (yes, even politicians that I align with politically). But like... random little anecdotes about a stranger's life?

High control groups want the world to be scary. The world is full of thieves and liars and grifters. And its safe here, with us, who are pure and reasonable and accepting- unlike those unrelenting people of the world.

I can see how that might create a kind of mindset that believes people are incapable of change, and a low-hanging fruit kind of humor that matches it. But what would I gain from posting stories about my dad on tumblr? Its not like I make any money here. I dont even tag my posts. This is just like... a journal. A journal with aggro.