Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful youā€™ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cutā€™nā€™paste it into its own post ā€” thereā€™s no quota for posting and the bar really isnā€™t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many ā€œesotericā€ right wing freaks, but thereā€™s no appropriate sneer-space for them. Iā€™m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged ā€œculture criticsā€ who write about everything but understand nothing. Iā€™m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. Theyā€™re inescapable at this point, yet I donā€™t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldnā€™t be surgeons because they didnā€™t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I canā€™t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this.)

  • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systemsEnglish
    3Ā·
    3 days ago

    I donā€™t think itā€™s a coincidence that the only viewpoint you get is that of a middle class bureaucrat. Itā€™s the assumed audience, and itā€™s where Orwell would place himself as well. The narrative loses a lot of impact if you align yourself with the proles. Winston could live a real life if he really wanted to. I donā€™t think this point is intended by the novel.

    Isnā€™t Julia a member of some sort of anti-sex league, meaning thereā€™s a lot of bad faith involved in their relationship from the get go?

    Thatā€™s a problem in itself, donā€™t you think? Itā€™s all very ā€œFeminists hate sex and they want to erase the differences between the gendersā€. Julia gets a taste of freedom and her right place in the world by putting on makeup and girly clothes and having a lot of sex.

    Her lips were deeply reddened, her cheeks rouged, her nose powdered; there was even a touch of something under the eyes to make them brighter. It was not very skillfully done, but Winstonā€™s standards in such matters were not high. He had never before seen or imagined a woman of the Party with cosmetics on her face. The improvement in her appearance was startling. With just a few dabs of color in the right places she had become not only very much prettier, but, above, all, far more feminine.

    Also sheā€™s a flighty moron.

    • Architeuthis@awful.systemsEnglish
      2Ā·
      1 day ago

      Thatā€™s a problem in itself, donā€™t you think? Itā€™s all very ā€œFeminists hate sex and they want to erase the differences between the gendersā€. Julia gets a taste of freedom and her right place in the world by putting on makeup and girly clothes and having a lot of sex.

      Itā€™s been to long for me to be able to tell if that applies to the general context of Orwellā€™s views (which apparently Iā€™m not sufficiently aware of) or if itā€™s also a significant issue with 1984. In principle having the woman character employ cargo cult femininity in a desperate attempt at self expression shouldnā€™t be unsalvageabl. Being the only woman with a speaking part and also a ditz less so.

      Winston being a self-aggrandizing tit who needs things explained to him a lot so the author can soapbox was the sum of my reaction to the character, that he was also supposed to be relatable beyond the basics of his clash with authoritarianship certainly puts a different spin on things.