An odd hill to die on

I guess with time I've realized being right is not just about stating facts, but rather about which truths one chooses to defend and which truths one deems not worth defending. Using facts and logic instead of emotional reactions to process information and being open to fair criticism make one a reasonable person, sure, but once one is there, one needs to understand that, as widespread as it is, defending facts that support one's ideology and shutting up when facts come against the grain (even if internally you know them true) is hypocritical at best and at worst downright shitty. To be a decent person, not only is it required to be reasonable (people that cannot be reasoned with can never be decent. Being good requires understanding, otherwise it's just fanaticism, which however misguided may even end up helping some people incidentally!¹) but also one has to choose carefully how they challenge a given opinion, because focusing on contesting specific contradictions that don't affect its general validity can give the impression that one is against the whole idea or even the principles behind it.

So I always check now. Even if what I'm going to say, while controversial, is technically right, I look around to see whether it's worth the hassle. And around most people, it almost never is.

I hope this answers your question as to why I deleted my Twitter account.

¹: Looking at you, religion, you crazy fuck.

Off the hook

 

On circumstance

Perhaps the storm might flood your eyes and ears

and then the wind might knock you off your shoes

and waves, block with their salt your cogs and gears

and lightning strikes could split your mast in two.

Your men might all just fall into the ocean

their final rest, the bottom of the sea

the magazine catch fire, and the explosion,

teach burning chunks of hope how to fly free.

Perhaps it'd seem that God is out to get you

with only a piece of wood to call your own...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Well then, become its rudder, helm and engine!

Get on it, sail that little plank back home.

P

El ahora viste negro

y va descalzo por ahí,

tiene arena en los bolsillos

y una foto de París.

La sonrisa ladeada,

y en la mente siempre juegos

de ladrones y castillos

y estirados caballeros.

 El ahora tiene pinta

de no haber desayunado,

de tomarse muy en serio

los trocitos del helado,

pompas, libros, chocolate,

y un abrigo afeminado,

(y los juegos de palabras,

como el Scrabble o el Ahorcado).

Al ahora no le importan

los bigotes ni los puros,

ni el marido de mengana,

o que fulano se haga el duro.

Vive en mundos submarinos,
en ventañas empanadas,
en las ruedas de una bici
y en las patas de la cama.

Y se enfada como un niño
que creía que un mastín
no era un bicharraco enorme
sino un perro chiquitín.

Si se mueve con cuidado
es para nunca molestar
a los zumos (concentrados)
y a las tablas de planchar.

Y hace puzzles de cabeza,
inventa historias (¡seis o siete!)
y da besos muy bonitos
y gruñidos de juguete.

Si algún día te lo encuentras,
no lo asustes, no le digas
que te escuche, que te enseñe,
o que te rasque la barriga.

Al ahora no le gusta
que le enseñen a vivir.
Tiene juegos, y castillos
y una foto de París.

On the dichotomy of human reasoning

"But the bad thing about all religions is that, instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it; accordingly, they parade their doctrine in all seriousness as true sensu proprio, and as absurdities form an essential part of these doctrines, you have the great mischief of a continual fraud. And, what is worse, the day arrives when they are no longer true sensu proprio, and then there is an end of them; so that, in that respect, it would be better to admit their allegorical nature at once. But the difficulty is to teach the multitude that something can be both true and untrue at the same time. And as all religions are in a greater or less degree of this nature, we must recognize the fact that mankind cannot get on without a certain amount of absurdity, that absurdity is an element in its existence, and illusion indispensable; as indeed other aspects of life testify."

Arthur Schopenhauer

It's wonderful to read my own thoughts in someone else's writing, particularly in respect to things being true and untrue at the same time.

Good ol' bluntness

"i hate tumblr’s (and fuckin society’s) obsession with being ‘intellectual’
doesn’t always mean smart
and fuck that “date a girl who reads” thing
if you fall in love with a girl who drinks jack like apple juice
and likes cutting down trees and getting into fights
do that shit
love is love you bourgeois fucks"

It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll