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Why get rich?
It takes an enormous effort and sacrifice to get rich to the point of Forbes-list status. There is a takeoff point in a fortune when it won’t diminish no matter what expense it is put to, I think.
In any case, what inspired this thought was Jim Treacher’s morning Substack. He notes that Grok, Elon Musk’s AI platform, now generates images, and he tries a few outrageous ones to see if they would be censored. Nope. Not yet, anyway. So he asks, if a painting offends you, do you sue the artist or the paintbrush?
Of course, we folks in the tribe of the gun have been on the receiving end of this for a century or more. Someone got shot? Take all guns away from people who aren’t evil, and we’ll all be safe!
Treacher speculates that Musk doesn’t care if someone offended by a Grok-generated image sues him. (Side note: I hope he paid the estate of RA Heinlein for use of “grok!”) That brings up the concept of being rich enough not to care what people think or do, what my kids refer to as fark-you money. Elon certainly has it. J.K. Rowling too. They are having fun poking pins into cultural balloons. I applaud.
But I wonder… how far are we from the point where you need fark-you money just to be able to have fun? I’ve spoken elsewhere about how damn joyless the Left is. That’s been a trope for decades (“How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?” “That’s not funny!”). Do we need to lawyer up before we can make fun of something? That’s more than just depressing. That’s a state of affairs that we really can’t permit to happen. I hope it isn’t already too late.
Published in Culture
Bad Cattitude addresses it too, in the context of the politicization of everything. https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/pandering-to-thieves-of-joy-a-sort?r=2jq5e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I mentioned on another post that I’m not naturally inclined to make fun of something. Some people do it well, and I laugh at those, but I tend not to do it. But the comment has come up, over and over again, that ridiculing people is a successful strategy. It raises the question: is ridiculing others fun?
Probably it’s better fun to ridicule the words and actions than the person (to the extent that they can be separated).
Good point. I’ll give that some thought.
My definition of rich is that if you have enough money to indefinitely enjoy the lifestyle you wish to live without having to work you are rich. If not, even if you are making $1 million a year, you are essentially among the working poor. Especially if you would be out on the street in six months without that $1 million/year job.
There’s a difference between ridicule and making jokes.
Actually, the correct answer is three: One to actually change the bulb, and two to tell her how much better she did it than a man would have.
When did Americans stop saying “It’s a free country”? It was once a common comeback.
Also, has the “Sticks and stones…” rhyme passed completely from the childhood repertoire?
I have seen so much about hurtful words and the concept is true for those who are in a fragile condition (truly we should not practice unkindness), but are we all that fragile?
Are there islamic comedians?
Ha!
Where would we be without Elon Musk and Donald Trump? Would we have any free speech platform? Not to denigrate R, but if the left didn’t have bigger targets to shoot at, how long would R last?
Lots of Muslim comedians. I don’t know how many could be considered to be Islamist.
That would be a lot more likely in someplace NYC or San Fran.
Or if you were living a highly-leveraged lifestyle anywhere in the US.
The more accurate comparison these days would be to sue the manufacturers and/or sellers of the paint, the paint brushes, the canvas used, the easel it rests on, and whoever made the lighting used in the studio.
I would be more interested in accuracy. Does it turn George Washington and Christopher Columbus into black women?
It’s by design. Easier to rule over fragile subjects.
How many Twitters could even Elon afford?
That said, I enjoy this one:
There’s fark-you money and then there’s fark-me money.
The key is never to want that which you cannot have. My father was like that and I picked up some of his qualities. It doesn’t mean one is without ambition, but that one can keep their ambition in reasonable check.
Or as Candace Owen retorted when someone in a university audience asked,”What do you think of the fact that your very presence on this campus makes some people feel unsafe?”
She answered with, “Sweetheart, buy a helmet.”
Funny and sad in a way, I saw a video of police taking some protestors into custody. They had put some male — I refuse to call it a “man” — in a compliance hold and he dropped to the ground and started screaming “you’re hurting me . . . you’re hurting me.” IOW, he was acting exactly as the females were taught. The cops were almost rolling their eyes back in their heads as they hauled him away.
Speaking of which. I find the pictures of the self driving cars that got stuck in a parking lot twitching and honking at each other absolutely hilarious.
Kind of like the honkers in the Muppet Show.
I don’t ridicule other people, but I do sometimes enjoy ridiculing their words and actions. (Small point.)
Edit: I hadn’t read Comment #3 before posting.
Not any live ones . . .
My guess is that Heinlein would be thrilled, and compensation would not be desired.
Could this have been the “Don’t tase me, bro” guy again.
Who you calling “bro” — I think the black campus cops trying to move this white demonstrator especially enjoyed tasing him after he said that!
Some people say “bro” to everyone, or “dawg,” or whatever their favorite term is.
I doubt it because this was during the anti-Israel/pro-Hamas demonstrations on a college campus. He had obviously been given a briefing on how to draw attention.
Here is another example from Golden Gate Bridge protests. They were too gentle with him.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/giEKsFLioBU