hiddenrider66 said:Yesterday we were going down a rabbit hole discussing the situation in Ukraine, and one guy on the forum dropped this line about downed aircraft and dead pilots: "Their aviation problem is solved because the planes are grounded and the pilots are grounded too." Honestly, the cynicism just floored me. Calling dead people—actual pilots who lost their lives—just "grounded"... I found him completely repulsive. Turns out, I was the only one bothered by it. Everyone else seemed to think it was a clever little joke or some witty comeback. What do you all think? Is someone who talks like that actually "charismatic," or just a jerk?
Some people just want to be edgy for the sake of it, without even realizing what they're saying. It isn't necessarily about whether they are a "nice" person or an "unpleasant" one; it’s more that they seem completely oblivious to their own stupidity.
I can’t quite put my finger on why I find certain people so naturally likable. It’s as if I can just spot something special in them right away... perhaps I’m picking up on a genuine kindness or a certain warmth. I tend to get a sense of someone's true character pretty quickly. It isn't anything mystical, really; just an intuition.
Why on earth did my loading times suddenly plummet from five agonizing minutes down to a dizzying 30 seconds? You guys have completely broken everything 🤣
I honestly think this forum is a fantastic tool for building some much-needed character. Back in the old days—think prehistoric times when a husband would head out from his cave to hunt wild game—a wife might wait days, or even forever, praying he’d make it back without being eaten by a predator. In that context, having everything handed to you on a silver platter at a local grocery store feels a bit hollow, doesn't it? We've become so incredibly impatient lately. Everyone is constantly rushing, our nerves are frayed, and we all seem to have such short fuses. That’s why I don't see anything wrong with a page taking about five minutes to load here. It actually gives a person a moment to pause and reflect on their life, their purpose, and even the ultimate fate of humanity. It provides that brief window to step away from the chaos of the world; if it takes an hour just to load ten pages, that’s an hour spent contemplating the deeper, spiritual aspects of existence. So, I’m actually quite grateful for this forum. I truly hope it stays consistent and continues to help strengthen the resolve of the average user—someone who feels like they’re constantly racing toward some goal, even though we all know there's really only one final destination waiting for us.
I really think one of the moderators needs to step in and update the opening post for this thread. It honestly makes no sense to me why someone would start an entire discussion about a singer they don't even listen to, let alone a song that just gets on their nerves in the first place.
It clearly left a massive negative impression on him!
crimsoncanyon2 said:It’s because they’re young and naive—they just don't get that they aren't living for anyone else but themselves. They fail to realize that the people demanding they conform aren't exactly footing their bills or putting food on their tables. And let's be real: most of those people expecting total compliance probably won't even be around as friends in the long run, much less step up to help when life actually gets messy. If things go sideways and real, serious problems hit, you can bet those same conformists won't be the ones coming to your rescue.
Once people finally figure out the difference between those who actually have their back and those who are just along for the ride—then, and only then, will they realize who’s actually worth making compromises for, who's worth bending over backwards for, and who isn't. It's a hard lesson, but it happens fast once you see the truth.
Great post, and you hit the nail right on the head. If you ever write a book, you absolutely have to immortalize this in one of the chapters. 👍
Honestly, I feel like publishers are just waiting with open arms for me.🤣 Though, I suppose I’d actually get around to writing that book if there were people out there interested enough to actually buy it.
David Fisher23 said:Humans are inherently social creatures, driven by an almost primal urge to be accepted by their peers. When someone fails to find that sense of belonging within their own family, they inevitably go looking for it in the wider world. This often leads to a dangerous pattern: people start bending to external pressures and compromising their own values just to secure a seat at the table. It’s incredibly difficult to unlearn this mindset, especially when it's been drilled into us from childhood. It becomes particularly problematic in smaller towns or tight-knit communities where standing out is seen as a liability rather than an asset. How much of our identity are we willing to sacrifice just to avoid being the outsider?
Upbringing plays a massive role in how we turn out. Too often, parents fail to teach their children how to think critically, opting instead to steer them away from forming their own independent perspectives. I frequently observe this pattern where a child asks "why?" and the parent simply shuts it down with a blunt "because I said so." It’s a conversation killer. Instead of offering an explanation, they could easily pivot by asking, "Well, what do you think?" By defaulting to that kind of authority-based reasoning, we are essentially training kids from a very young age to be passive observers. We teach them to just accept circumstances as they are, rather than teaching them to analyze the situation, draw their own conclusions, and then decide whether to act on those findings or at least form a reasoned stance. Is it any wonder we struggle with such a reactive society?
Another layer to this is that so many people struggle to offer genuine love—not even to themselves, let alone others. We carry these endless expectations of one another, finding it nearly impossible to accept people for who they truly are. Honestly, it’s one of the biggest systemic issues in our society today. We constantly try to bend others to fit our own needs and desires. We want to control, manipulate, or demand things, ranking a person's worth as a human being based purely on how useful they are to us, simply because that's the pattern we've seen others use on us. It starts with parents, continues through society, and manifests in our romantic relationships.
Sometimes, it isn't just about a lack of guidance from parents or social structures; it's also about the individual's inability to reach a level of maturity where they can finally think for themselves. It takes immense strength to break away from those heavy societal expectations and rigid stereotypes. In the end, most people walk around believing they have a unique "personality," completely unaware that who they are is largely a byproduct of their environment. Their thoughts aren't truly theirs, and their worldview isn't something they built—it was programmed into them.
Too many people enter relationships for one singular reason: to satisfy their own lowest impulses through another person, whether they realize they're doing it or not. Of course, that's fundamentally wrong, but it's how the world operates. I truly believe we need to learn to let other beings exist as they are, helping them flourish in their own truth rather than demanding they become something else to suit us. Unfortunately, driven by insecurity and narrow mindsets, we tend to expect others to be the vessels for our own unfulfilled wants.
If every single person made just one small gesture toward someone else each day—purely out of love and goodwill, rather than selfishness, fear, or insecurity—the world would be a completely different place.
To truly grasp what’s happening, you first have to understand human psychology, which—if we're being honest—is actually quite simple. I don't really feel like diving into a massive deep dive right now (though I probably will eventually), but unfortunately, so many people never bother to build any actual character of their own. From a very young age, there's this deep-seated urge and necessity to belong to something. Because of that, people flock to all sorts of cliques and groups just to feel like they possess some inherent value or are part of something "bigger" than themselves. So, you see some people joining extremist political factions, others joining a local pottery club, some diving headfirst into religion, and others signing up for a specific political party. They do all of this primarily so they can feel superior to everyone else by association. They base their entire self-worth on how much others validate them. If that external validation disappears, their whole ego just collapses into pure agony.
Of course, most people are conditioned from childhood to nurture social stereotypes and conformity. In our society, losing your innocence early—both socially and sexually—is often seen as a way to gain "status." You’re expected to be born, go through school, get a job, find a partner, reproduce, work, earn money, and then die. It’s almost like we're programmed like praying mantises; once the mating is done, the male is essentially expendable.
Society has trained us to accept a lot of nonsense as "normal," treating certain milestones as things that must be achieved at any cost. For instance, if you were in Japan and you lost your job or got laid off, you might feel like committing harakiri out of sheer shame, because to society, if you aren't materially useful or productive anymore, you basically cease to exist in your own eyes and everyone else's.
In other words, conformism is just an extended version of the herd mentality. Rising above it and saying "NO" to the status quo is incredibly difficult because most people suffer from a sort of "follower" mindset, easily swayed by either those with more power or simply by whoever happens to be in the majority.
Generally speaking, we live in a culture that believes the majority is always right, which is absolute nonsense. The majority is frequently quite foolish. Independent thought is rarely given any real value here. A huge portion of the evil in this world stems from the fear of being cast out, which has led to people following ideologies and conforming to extremes for the sake of survival.
I know plenty of people from smaller towns in California who have told me straight up that if you haven't landed a career, found a spouse, and started a family by the time you hit 20, you're considered a total failure. We are a primitive species that measures its worth through material success. When we fail to meet the arbitrary standards imposed on us by society, we view ourselves as failures.
One of the biggest absurdities was something like forcing young people to serve in the military—which, thank God, has been abolished—and framing it as a "duty." The idea that we owe anything to anyone simply because we were born is total idiocy, and we have to say NO to it if we ever want society to actually progress.
Early on in my life, I learned to expect absolutely nothing from anyone, and because of that, the close relationships I do have tend to be very healthy. I surround myself with intelligent people, people who are critical of society, empathetic toward the marginalized, and supportive of those whom society has rejected.
People ask, "Why do people give in to the pressure?" It's because they lack character. It's because they believe everything their parents or authority figures told them is the ultimate truth. People are trained like animals by religions, societies, and institutions using subtle blackmail and fears instilled from birth. If you won't behave, you'll be punished... if you don't have the latest sneakers, kids at school will mock you... if you don't get straight A's, you'll end up doing manual labor... if you don't serve your military term, you'll end up in prison... if you don't kiss up to your boss at work, you'll get fired... if you don't believe in religious nonsense, you'll go to hell... if you don't make a killing, you're a loser...
And that is how you create a deeply psychologically damaged society. Some will argue, "Well, that's just life; it's cruel and you have to fight to survive." They'll cling to that supposed "survival of the fittest" nonsense. But it's actually the exact opposite. It's like this because you all *decided* to make it this way and chose to make life difficult. Evolution doesn't care about the "stronger" individual surviving; if that were the case, the strong would just spend all their time devouring the weak. Evolution cares about moving forward, regardless of everything—even if it means moving forward without humans entirely. Life wouldn't fail if humans disappeared. We aren't the only ones on this planet, nor are we the center of the universe.
We’re still such an underdeveloped species, honestly. We constantly find ourselves expecting things from everyone else, yet we struggle to offer even a shred of positivity to ourselves, let alone to anyone else.
To build on what you were saying, here’s a pretty cliché example from my own life back when I used to go out more often. I had this friend who constantly expected me to get up and dance. But why on earth would I dance if I wasn't actually having fun? Why should I do something that doesn't suit me just to satisfy her specific idea of a "successful night out"?
We have this fundamental inability to accept that what works for us might be completely wrong for someone else. Just because it feels normal to us to wake up at 4 AM, commute three hours to work, pull twelve-hour shifts every single day including weekends, and essentially reduce our entire existence to mere survival—that doesn't mean it's normal for anyone else. Personally, I don't believe that life has to be lived at any cost. Because of that, I certainly don't feel obligated to survive at any cost just to fuel those social structures that seem to crave nothing but self-sacrificing slaves. I don't see any reason to play along with anyone's conformist illusions; everything we've built around us is just an illusion that we can walk away from whenever we choose.
I lost the need to be accepted or loved by others a long time ago. In my younger years, that was my heaviest burden—this massive illusion that I actually needed to have friends, much less that I needed to cater to the whims of people who are even bigger idiots than I am. By being born, we didn't sign some cosmic contract stating that we owe anything to anyone, least of all to people who blindly follow and suck up to every social norm and stereotype out there.
As Bukowski roughly put it: "I don't like people, nor do I want to be near them, but I need them just so I can eat." And that really is the only condition we should agree to: reducing our relationship with this unwanted social system to the bare minimum required to sustain us and provide the basic necessities of life with as little hassle as possible.
It’s honestly difficult to point to any American actor I’ve watched and label them as truly bad, mostly because even their less talented performers often have more range than 99% of the actors we see back home. I might find certain actors a bit irritating or just plain silly—take Will Smith or Adam Sandler, for instance. And look, it’s true that Jennifer Aniston isn't exactly my favorite either, but I would never go so far as to say they lack acting ability. Sometimes I feel like certain actors lack a certain depth of character, yet they still manage to pull off every role with total professionalism, much like Tom Cruise does. I remember watching this one American crime procedural—the kind where they spend an entire season solving cold cases—and there was this one episode where a character gave such a dramatic, poorly executed performance that I was genuinely stunned. At first, I actually thought he was playing a disturbed or eccentric character, but no... it turned out he was simply giving a terrible performance.
At the end of the day, Americans certainly know how to act. Meanwhile, on our side, we struggle to find that level of skill despite all the arrogance and the idea that we are somehow much bigger than we actually are.
Nicholas Gonzalez8 hit the nail on the head, and I don't think there's much left to add to that.
The real hurdle, though, is bridging that gap between knowing the theory and actually living it. We can't let fear call the shots in our lives, nor should we take everything quite so seriously—mostly because, as the great philosopher Zekoslav mrkva once put it, nobody has ever actually made it out of this life alive.
Life is really just a fleeting illusion, one where we’re essentially the architects of our own reality. Everything boils down to how we react to what happens to us. An event is just an event; it doesn't have inherent power. It's our reaction that determines whether we feel uplifted or crushed, because the occurrence itself is neutral.
Unfortunately, it's incredibly tough to turn these concepts into daily habits. When we carry ourselves with positivity, we tend to attract positive energy. If we're stuck in a negative headspace, that's what we draw toward us. My advice? Stop dwelling on the things that scare you, because that's exactly what you'll end up manifesting. Instead, focus on what you truly desire—but don't approach it with a "this is impossible" mindset. Rather, try to embrace the feeling of "this is already mine."
While there are certain universal laws at play, nothing is set in stone. With every breath you take and every new thought you entertain, you are reshaping your reality. In a sense, you are being reborn with every single breath. Because of that, we really ought to start practicing those "positive breaths" and letting go of the negative ones.
Oh, Henry Campbell5... honestly, you might just need a little facelift since you're feeling so old lately! 😁 I was just trying to give you some examples of decent songs, but then you went and claimed they were all "girl music." 😁 Look, nobody knows your specific taste better than you do. Why don't you give us an example of something you actually loved back in the day, maybe from thirty years ago? If you do that, someone here might actually be able to find you something similar from today's lineup. 😉
Henry Campbell5 said:Wait, just curious—are you a guy? 😁 Just kidding, but are you absolutely certain all of these artists actually made it onto the Billboard charts? I'm not really looking for a list of recommendations to add to my playlist here; what I’m actually after is a deep, engaging dive into the sociological, cultural, and phenomenological implications of their popularity. 😬
Yes, I am a man... just double-checked! 😁 Well, looking back at it all, things were a bit hit-or-miss. Some tracks managed to climb the Billboard charts, while others just didn't quite make the cut—and honestly, there were plenty of songs that never even saw the light of day as official singles. What exactly are you expecting me to hand over when you ask for "good advertising" these days? Honestly, using that term feels like an oxymoron in this current market. 😁
You know, looking at the landscape today, it feels like you’re stuck between two extremes. On one side, you’ve got this hyper-synthetic, over-produced commercial radio sludge that’s honestly almost unlistenable. Then, on the other side, you have these self-proclaimed "independent" hipster acts that—let's be real—are usually just as much garbage. It’s a bit of a cycle, isn't it? But, if you look closely enough, there are always those hidden gems scattered around. Most of the good stuff actually lives somewhere right in that middle ground.
So, I’ve been putting together a little list of things from the last few years that range from decent to pretty fantastic... at least in my book. 😁 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWMqgeIDJs8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SDpZrLciCE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH8vgAp4VDU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hOwLap5Je8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C5xdrITASQ
Man... it is actually quite tough to narrow this down. To be honest, I don't really pay much attention to the era or age of a track when I'm listening. Whether it's something classic by Ella Fitzgerald or a more modern set from Coldplay, it doesn't matter to me one bit. If it hits the right note, I'm all in.
Henry Campbell5 said:Yeah, honestly, even back in the 90s you could find some absolute gems, just like you can with today's music scene.
Can we fit all this into 10,000 posts (and maybe a Volume II after that 😁)?
I haven't really gotten around to listening to Nicki Minaj lately—just not feeling it right now—but I see she’s got a great figure. Is she the one from that recent debate about the music we just don't "get"?
She definitely has a great body, too. 😁
But, well... it depends. For instance, I actually think Coldplay is pretty good (well, they were...) among the more "modern" acts. I'm also a fan of Brandi Carlile. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, obviously, but I always manage to find things that resonate with me. There are so many hipster bands out there these days that I just can't stand, but hey, that's life. As for Pink Floyd, I'm not really sure what to make of them. Times change. You know how it is...
Honestly, you’re acting like some kid from a flower power era, like you just stepped out of a time machine from the 1960s! 😁 This topic is honestly way too broad to tackle all at once. Commercial music has been pretty much trash for a long time now, if you ask me. That’s why I always say you have to look beyond the mainstream hits and really hunt for something real. You certainly aren't going to measure musical quality by listening to Nicki Minaj.
Personally, I find him pretty terrible... he’s just your typical representative of that hipster emo generation—all moody and aimless, lacking any real songwriting ability, yet somehow churning out "art" specifically designed to appeal to urban snobs.
Honestly, to me, blatant theft is just a pathetic attempt at making music. Of course, you can always have accidental similarities in keys, harmonies, or rhythms, but intentionally stealing something and then claiming "this is mine" is honestly just a bit much. It’s one thing when someone clearly incorporates someone else's musical snippet into a song, provided they actually credit that part on the album.
But to blatantly rip something off, play dumb, and insist that it’s "MY" creation? That’s truly sad. Maybe there's a rule in certain genres where borrowing is somewhat acceptable—take the blues, for example. You can hear a million tracks that all follow the exact same formula, so if an identical melody pops up somewhere, it’s hard to tell because everything is so incredibly generic that you wouldn't notice if something was repeated for the millionth time. That's why I'm not particularly big on the blues, nor am I a fan of repetitive dance tracks; I just can't stand those generic things that feel like they were all stamped out from the same mold.
That's why thefts in pop music are so much more obvious. Perhaps that's also why it gets away with more than it would in rock or blues, where everyone is constantly lifting riffs from one another. Though, strictly speaking, the term "riff" doesn't even really apply outside of rock and metal.
The more original a melody is, the easier it becomes to spot a plagiarism. There are legendary musicians out there who have composed tens of thousands of pieces over their careers without anyone ever questioning if they stole anything; if there were ever suspicions, they were just minor, coincidental similarities.
When Paul McCartney dreamed up the melody for "Yesterday," he was actually worried it might be a plagiarism—that he had heard it somewhere before, forgotten it, and just happened to pick it up in his head. Before releasing it, he used to go around playing it for people just to see if the tune sounded familiar to anyone else.
And as for that argument that "all the riffs have already been played"—I think that's just nonsense. If a genre is truly that limited and all its riffs are "spent," then it either says a lot about the "quality" of that genre or suggests that many musicians are just terribly uninspired and unable to compose something good on their own.
The reality is that nothing in music can ever be truly "spent" because the number of possible combinations is infinite. Personally, a riff itself isn't my main focus since I don't listen to that type of music all that much, but sticking a catchy riff onto a mediocre melody just results in mindless music to me. So, when I'm listening to a track with a stolen, relatively decent riff paired with a weak underlying melody, the bad melody is actually a much bigger issue for me than the stolen riff.