theneverfox
@theneverfox@pawb.social
- Comment on 2hot2handle 1 day ago:
I’m find to try one last time, please try to be charitable and assume I have an argument
Language shapes how you think. Putting a label on something primes you to perceive it. From colors to types of waves to types of snow to types of clouds, language changes how you perceive things.
So you create a word that means a person of this gender is looking down on me and explaining something I already know. There’s no other words as a counterpoint - this is a unique type of negative experience
People explaining things you already know is a totally normal thing, it’s always annoying, but it is necessary. You can’t have an intellectual discussion without making sure you’re starting on the same page
It also has a second necessary component, misogyny. It’s wrapped up in the concept. And if someone is bigoted towards you, why would you even try to hear them out?
But that’s an internal state on their part. You can only really judge that from the outside if they display a pattern of misogyny, or if they self report.
So if you’re feeling annoyed, or you feel like you’re being underestimated, there’s a pattern your mind can match against. It’s a mental shortcut, and humans love mental shortcuts
But this is an antisocial shortcut. The moment you the it, the arguments don’t matter. The other person’s meaning doesn’t matter, because you’ve decided they’re prejudiced.
And to flip it around, what benefit does this grant? Being primed to spot misogynists early?
But there’s a million other reasons why they might be explaining something you already know, even why they might look down on you until you prove yourself.
I think this shouldn’t have a short form for easy recognition. I think it’s harmful to good faith discourse
And to tie the bow on this, the original post is not mansplaining by any metric. It’s a specific form of dry humor, an account called notkenm was widely shared for this form of pedantic humor. The account here is kev, who is not ken m
- Comment on 2hot2handle 1 day ago:
And you’re projecting even more things on me now. You’re not speaking to me as an equal. You’re not trying to come to common understanding.
You’re just trying to fight the strawman you carried into this conversation
Which is my whole point. What you’re doing, right now, is what I think this word leads to.
- Comment on 2hot2handle 2 days ago:
Yeah well disputing traffic does something. It makes people feel the breakdown of society in a visceral way
The concept of mansplaining is discharitable. It is bad to prime people to spot it, because false positives are extremely damaging to interpersonal relations.
Don’t give it a name, just call it what it is: talking to a sexist asshole. There’s no confusion there… It doesn’t matter if they’re being patronizing or making rude comments, the Venn diagram is a circle.
You’re taking to a bigot, or you’re not. And when you’re not, you’re probably talking to someone neurodivergent, who is genuinely trying to communicate in good faith
- Comment on 2hot2handle 3 days ago:
It happens, I’m not denying that.
But the cure is worse than the poison. The term primes people to see it where it isn’t there, and that’s extraordinarily toxic.
Call them a misogynist and be done with it. I know it when I see it. You know it when you see it.
It’s like man spreading. It’s ok to be comfortable. It’s not ok to push into other people’s personal space. If you’re alone on a bench, who gives a fuck. If you want to signal “I’d prefer no one sit next to me”, that’s fine until someone sits next to you. Then you’re an asshole or you’re not, we don’t need extra words to gender niche behaviors
Words are perception. Labeling a thing primes you to see it. These overly specific, gender based labels are harmful
It literally makes the world worse for everyone involved to create subcategories of asshole behavior based on gender dynamics
- Comment on 2hot2handle 3 days ago:
No… Unless you start using the word and it catches on. Which is easier to do than it sounds, but the meaning tends to drift by the time you hear it in the wild
- Comment on 2hot2handle 4 days ago:
Okay, but do you not realize how big a problem being discharitable to others is?
The fucking fabric of society is falling apart. I’m sorry women get underestimated, like I do. It’s very annoying, believe me, I deal with it constantly
But you suck it up, listen, and make them feel foolish with your response.
The alternative is a further breakdown of communication. You can’t be primed to see others as bad actors, it’s so incredibly damaging
No one is the villain in their own story. No one knows how smart they are, only if others are higher or lower.
Listening to people tell you things you already know is inevitable. It’s social hygiene. It sucks, but it’s the social contract
- Comment on 2hot2handle 4 days ago:
What happened to Ken M?
- Comment on 2hot2handle 4 days ago:
There genuinely isn’t a word, beyond maybe being patronizing
At least not in common English
- Comment on 2hot2handle 4 days ago:
Counterpoint - explaining things the other party knows is how you get on the same page.
I don’t give a shit about your degree or your gender, it tells me nothing about where you’re at. Most people are fucking idiots who have no idea how anything works, and that includes doctors and probably astronauts
And I say this as someone constantly underestimated. Yeah, it’s annoying to hear things you already know at a basic level. I ask people if they know about things and take them at their word
But this is just normal communication. I don’t know what you know, you don’t know what I know. I probably understand how your mind and body work better than you do, because most people don’t know how their mind and body work beyond a 4th grade level
Explaining things the other person knows is undesirable. It’s also how most people reach the starting line for a dialogue
- Comment on 2hot2handle 4 days ago:
That’s a great way to put it.
- Comment on 2hot2handle 4 days ago:
No he’s making a specific type of joke, but if he were wrong then say that instead
And if you want more of that type of joke, look up not ken m
- Comment on 2hot2handle 5 days ago:
I hate the mansplaining accusation, especially in this context
Fucking let ideas compete. Call him out for being pedantic. If you have to bring gender into nearly any conversation about science, you’ve already lost
Just shame them with better science
- Comment on DM me on Spotify: Spotify launches a messaging feature. 6 days ago:
Sure thing, and for the record I’m a primary source. I’ve seen this directly, going back more than a decade
- Comment on DM me on Spotify: Spotify launches a messaging feature. 6 days ago:
Everyone. Damn near everyone has a phone at this point, Facebook even handed them out to keep the user numbers growing at one point
People who live in dirt floor huts walk to churches or other gathering places to charge them. The cheapest smart phones are essentially worthless, so there’s no point stealing or selling them.
And cell service isn’t all that expensive to run, so it’s priced to what people will pay
- Comment on Argentina wants to monitor social media with AI to ‘predict future crimes’ 1 week ago:
Oh, I was talking about the tech-bros. They’re the ones who shouldn’t have access to sci-fi, or at least not the cautionary tales
- Comment on Call 1-888-GOT-GUNK NOW! 1 week ago:
I’m genuinely disturbed that people would even consider this
We have running water and paper towels, why would you dirty the puppy?!??
- Comment on Argentina wants to monitor social media with AI to ‘predict future crimes’ 1 week ago:
Ok, I’ve had it.
Every county seems to be actively trying to create their own distopia this year
From now on, no sci-fi until you can pass a reading comprehension test.
- Comment on AI at the World’s Biggest Games Event(Gamescom) Booked Random Meetings for Attendees 1 week ago:
I started getting emails about meetings I’m invited to but never show up to, which was kinda helpful. Except it was just the first few bullet points, you had to click for the full meeting notes
So one day I did, and it somehow grabbed my info from Microsoft, created an account, and invited itself to the meeting. All without showing me the summary, because I didn’t really want to set up an account
Now there’s two agents listening to the weekly meeting.
- Comment on How the rise of Craigslist helped fuel America’s political polarization 1 week ago:
Propaganda works. Yeah, people are stupid, but if you spend decades destroying education and teaching disinfo, well… The results are predictable
You can hate them all you like, but you do have to look at the problem logically if you want to fix it
- Comment on A handful of people are slowly killing over 8 billion people, but we're expected to sit idly by and let it happen 2 weeks ago:
Fun fact… Frogs will at some point realize they’re in pain and jump out, no matter how slowly you raise the heat
Maybe it’ll be true in humans. Any day now…
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
I think that’s true, but also missing the point… We’ve hit the peak of AI until the next transformative breakthrough
They’re still fucking magic. They’re really cool and useful, when you use them correctly.
But chat gpt 5 isn’t much better than 3.5. It’s a bit better, it requires less prompt engineering to get good results, it gives more consistent results… But it’s still unreliable. And weirdly likes to talk down to you now, as if I don’t know more than it…I am still the expert here, it’s a light speed intern, it doesn’t know what’s going on
- Comment on US | Net neutrality advocates won’t appeal loss, say they don’t trust Supreme Court 3 weeks ago:
Yeah, that’s why we have to sweep the field with progressives
- Comment on ‘It speaks to me in brain rot’: Theorising ‘brain rot’ as a genre of participation among teenagers 3 weeks ago:
Are teenagers animals we don’t understand to be studied?
Genuinely, yes. They’re the stage where humans stretch boundaries and react to the society they’ve been raised in
Teenagers want autonomy and support, but beyond that? To understand them you have to study constantly emerging culture, constantly changing language, endless subcultures and remixes
- Comment on New Shoes Blues 3 weeks ago:
I guess that’s fair, I’m not into shoes but I could spot running shoes at a glance
- Comment on New Shoes Blues 3 weeks ago:
Come now, there are legitimately shoe designs that can give you 15+% speed increase.
It’s not all intuitive, there’s some pretty wild physics going on in some shoes
- Comment on 'I won't humiliate myself': Brazil's president sees no point in tariff talks with Trump 3 weeks ago:
I mean… There is something to be said for playing along
What if you go to Trump, agree on a deal, then just delay endlessly? It’s not weakness to suck up to a tyrant while walking away with an objective win
Or loudly tell them to fuck themselves
The in between…I don’t see the appeal
- Comment on Peter Thiel’s bestie going mask off 4 weeks ago:
Don’t interrupt your enemy’s enemy dumbass
I’m not saying they’re your friend, just don’t interrupt the fight. Use it. Let them fight
Don’t interrupt two enemies who are making a mistake, don’t be a fucking idiot. Use the opportunity, win.
That’s all that matters - win and never forget why you did it
- Comment on Peter Thiel’s bestie going mask off 4 weeks ago:
You know what… You run with that. I have no idea wtf it means, but if you stay pointed at the billionaires…
Well, a piece of shit launched at my enemy isn’t my friend, but I’m not going to get in it’s way either
- Comment on Substack’s “Nazi problem” won’t go away after push notification apology 4 weeks ago:
If you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of platforms both quietly and openly tweaking the algorithm to boost Nazi content
This isn’t just normal algorithm stuff, this is something darker. It goes hand in hand with censorship, the Internet is being shaped into a tool of control right in front of our eyes
- Comment on Human civilization won't last forever; someday there will be a last movie ever made 5 weeks ago:
Damn, I thought we had another year or three… That’s already in production