Nihilism for Dummies!

Making apathy fun!

26 January 2004

Slashdot continues to amuse

Today's lesson, kids, is to just not ask people for input. So, I posted a fairly dumb question to slashdot last evening. Of course, it's quickly modded to troll. But the funny part are some of the responses. You can read the whole damn thing right here, but it's pretty pointless to do that.

Slashdot, as a site, amuses me every single day. Now, I just have to worry about all this junk email that's gonna come my way.

Or not.

19 January 2004

Fighting For Democracy, Until the People Actually Want It

American foreign policy stepped in another big pile of kaka this week. It would seem that now that Iraqis have been "liberated," they want to cash in all the chips and play democracy like the big kids do.

This is clearly unacceptable. Can you imagine the round of "Oh, shit!" that went through those high-dollar rooms at the Baghdad Hilton, or wherever the hell it is that Bremer and crew are holed up?

So, the United States all of a sudden goes crying to our Mum at the UN: "Wahhh! We murdered them for ten years and bombed the shit out of them several times and still they don't get it. We're in charge, goddammit!!!" and all because these people have the balls to ask for free and direct elections?

Wow. This is American Foriegn Policy at its shining best. I suppose the Powers That Be in Haliburton, um - I mean Washington, are nervous that the Iraqis might go off and elect Saddam, Jr. into office. And you know what I say? Fucking Let Them. After all, democracy means that you get to choose your own shitty leaders from the shitty choices you have. Anything else is Remote Control Dictatorship, and we've got plenty of that in this world already.

Speaking of which, I guess since Iowa is popping today it is now Officially Election Season. Hooray.

Why I'm done with Google II: Electric Boogaloo

Well, it seems like the little search engine that could (have stayed great) is about to veer off the rails and descend into the world of online suck: Becoming a portal.

Repeat after me: Portals are bad. Portals are bad. Portals are bad.

Even the good ones are bad, if you can find any examples of good ones. Portals take the online experience and turn into a shopping spree of billboards. Fake communities. Stupid email addresses. Ever wonder why half of all email is spam? 'Cause half of all email addresses are simply setup to recieve spam.

Anyway, Google was the heir-apparent to the throne of Best Search Engine Ever, and apparently they've decided, like Edward, to abdicate the throne in favor of love. Unfortunately, it's the Love of Money and not a woman.

It's sad to see the great ones fall.

Part one of "Why I'm done with Google."

17 January 2004

Well, a week flies by and I don't write a thing. But, no one seems to have noticed. Don't visitors to websites actually write back to the author anymore? No, of course not.

At any rate, this is just been a boring week - so we'll just keep it short and sweet. First off, have you ever noticed that everywhere you look people are scratching the bottom of the barrel? I have.

I've also noticed that people are slowly starting to timidly question the wisdom of our corporate leaders. Again, kids, the operative word here is "Duh."

More from the mediocre files. Instead of doing a movie about a decent band, or at least a shitty band from a decent scene, some set of Hollywood genuises (read: pigfuckers) are doing a movie about the Germs." Dear God, Make It Stop.

10 January 2004

I need a new town to live in/near

This should say all that needs to be said. I want out. Is all the world Starbucks and Wal-Marts (to paraphrase Zack of RATM?)

9 January 2004

First up: Duh. I mean, really, isn't this first year biology? Common sense?

Now, on to something slightly less amusing and slightly more ominous. The RIAA (and if you need that defined, you can go back to those Yahoo Groups pages and hang out) is running goon squads now, and busting up street vendors who are selling bootleg CDs.

When I was younger, I read a short story about how wars broke out in this country after the corporations developed their own "security forces," that later turned into small armies. Pretty much wrecked civilization.

Then again, what kind of civilization have we these days? Have you seen Minority Report? The persistent advertisements in public spaces? I'm not one-hundred percent sure that scene is in the original short story, but I'd be willing to bet. If you've seen much of Terry Gilliam's early work, you'd be surprised to see definte echoes of the future in his odd visions (particularly Brazil and Time Bandits). Science fiction has always shown a more or less dystopic future of humanity (at least, good sci-fi has), and it looks a hell of a lot like what we got now. ATMs on every corner, right next to chain coffee shops, a loss of independence, a loss of community, greater reliance on The Machine, the government and corporations controlling all of the aspects of life, whether overtly (1984) or covertly (Brave New World).

So, think about that and tell me how wonderful you think modern life is. And, for more thinking material, try something I wrote two years ago about Huxley and Orwell.

3 January 2004

So, there's this story on slashdot at the moment about some probe that I never heard of doing something I never thought about. Collecting space dust. No shit. Now, since I'm a total ass, I thought I'd remind people of the slight fact that no one down here with an IQ less than 150 cares. Of course, my comment was quickly moderated as Flamebait. Oh well.

2 January 2004

Yawn. New Year's. Yea. Fresh start. Whee. Promises made. Whoot. Hopes and dreams. Etc.

Now that the celebration of the "New Year" (which is really just a continuation of 2000 or so other shitty years, which is a continuation of 8000 or so shitty ones before that, etc) is all over and done with, you should stop and ask yourself: Is anything really going to be all that different this year? Are we going to stop acting like a terminally ill society? Are we going to begin behaving like modern adults? Are we going to do anything about our status in this world?

The answer is no. Let's face it, folks, human culture has reached an epic low. I had a discussion a few weeks ago with someone who made the statement, "look at how far we've come as a species." Oh, sure, right. We've come from a bunch of dirty, smelly, ugly little brutes dwelling in caves and tress to a bunch of semi-clean, unnatural smelling, still not pretty (but bigger) brutes that drive SUVs and talk. Guess what? The majority of the people on this planet are still not that advanced.

It's hard to be optimistic about the world when you actually have your eyes open to it. Look around. Notice the sad state of your brothers and sisters out there. And, if you can't find any examples of a bad life or bad situation, then you probably need to move out of yoru comfortable little existence.

Happy Fucking New Year

Nihilism for Dummies is not about nihilism. It is not for dummies. It is not a weblog. It is not all it is cracked up to be.