botbert-johnson

[botbert-johnson]

A weird reflection on a conversation with a Pro-Capitalist

In the not-so-distant past I had a mutual acquaintance who was very pro-capitalism. I will call him Carl. He had a degree in something finance related, I don’t entirely remember the specifics, but I remember he said things a lot of the time that seemed very apathetic and nonsensical. So, to continue my newfound habit of utilizing this blog as a hybrid between a journal and gateway for conversation; I want to navigate some of the thoughts and realizations I had from this individual. 

Here is some further relevant context between the two of us as individuals; I am an educator at a childcare center that is a part of a primary schools out of school hours care program. I earn a pretty decent amount but that is weighed down by the low hours I have. My fiancé who works at a retail store for less, but has higher hours earns roughly the same amount in her paychecks as I do. Carl had studied economics at a college and had a well-paying office job and putting in years of dedication toward his career, however, was well known for struggling with work life balance and maintaining social connections. 

We had a lot of arguments about the nature of capitalism and how it either served for the employee or exploited them. The main point of his argument was that capitalism is extremely misunderstood, and required a lot of education to understand but once you acquire that education you would know it is in the best interest of all involved. Now in most circumstances I’d agree that education is one of the most important tools for someone to have. And that it is important to take into account the wisdom of those who are educated. However, the problem here is that if the only way to properly understand how the system that will affect every aspect of your life is through university level education, the system might simply be too complicated. 

I’m of course no expert in the matter, but I don’t think it's that unreasonable to believe you want most people who’re a part of a system to understand said system. And I think it’s a little naive (which, don’t get me wrong is not a negative thing to be. Rather tragic) to have not realized how easy it is for a system to be exploited when the majority of the population are not experts educated enough to understand they’re being exploited. 

This segues into my next point, I think human nature plays a bigger part in any system, not just Capitalism, then Carl really understood. It goes without saying there is a chunk of the population in our world that is willing to exploit others for their own personal gain. It also goes without saying that no system is ironclad, and all will have loopholes. Unfortunately, those willing to exploit those loopholes are going to find themselves at an advantage over the honest people who don’t do that. The more they are able to exploit the greater that imbalance becomes until it becomes impossible to ever reach their heights through genuine means. This is closer to the reality we see today, where movements are popping up as people realize there is no such thing as a good billionaire, because they have reached heights unattainable through honest means. 

It does concern me a little, what people are being taught in financial courses to have such rose-tinted glasses. Maybe it's solely the theory of how the system is supposed to work without any of the reality, and none of the exploitation. I hope one day he realizes the problems people like myself face as workers, rather than continuing to believe that those who financially struggle in their day to day lives are at fault. 

[botbert-johnson]

[Image description: A tumblr reply, edited blackout-poetry style to read, "a social construct can be wrong".]

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a social construct can be wrong

[botbert-johnson]

We’re on a date <3

[botbert-johnson]

So, there is something that I think is super interesting that happened to this song long after he first preformed it. Bo once went onto the Green Room where he basically was chatting with a group of high-calibur celebrities such as Ray Romano from Everyone Loves Raymond, and other people I gather are actors who I don't recognize like Marc Maron, Garry Shandling and Judd Apatow. One of these actors specifically requested to Bo that he sings to them "Art is Dead". Now I really doubt the irony was lost on Bo. The song is implying artists make art out of a sense of ego and desperate need for attention, and while it is a little more directed toward his own personal experience the wording is broad enough that a broader interpretation is completely reasonable to take. Yet here we are, one of the most renown artists in the industry requesting Art is Dead. Isn't that just so interesting? And maybe this is just my interpretation of the performance, but I swear to God all the other actors looked so, so intrigued and captivated while Bo is singing this. Whether that's because they know it to be true, or whether they are witnessing a fellow artist who went through a unique turmoil to get to this day. The day where Bo is standing beside these behemoths of the TV age, I really don't know but omg its interesting. For anyone else who might be interested in the interview I'm hollering on about, here it is; Bo Burnham Performs "Art is Dead" in the Green Room

i will never ever be over how people laughed at art is dead when bo burnham first performed it. it has never ever made any sense to me how is that song comedic in any way it just sounds like hes in pain and im :(

[botbert-johnson]

Can someone tell me what the end of this post is? I can never seem to get past the first image without falling asleep. Weird. 

Artificial intelligence makes accurate sheep counting.

[botbert-johnson]

Save the Earth!

[botbert-johnson]

That Funny Feeling, Bo Burnham - A Subjective Interpretation

This is my subjective interpretation, and desperate attempt to make sense of the meaning behind “That Funny Feeling” by Bo Burnham. Ahem.  

That Funny Feeling is a song that I struggled to garner much meaning from on my first listen. The more I listened though, the more I began to gather a bit of a narrative. There are a few types of topics Bo touches on during this song that intertwine with one another throughout the song; First the corporate death of the world, then civilizations varied and abstract reactions to the end of the world, and finally a looming acceptance of the current, once incomprehensible state of both the world, and the deterioration of all who inhabit it.  

The first topic is expressed through lyrics that make up most of the song. They hit hard and fast. He sings about corporate attempts to profit off things that are contradictory or just simply make no logical sense. These are expressed in lyrics such as “Stunning 8k resolution, meditation app” or my favorite example of this; “Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall.” All instances of branded entities, corporate entities, or simply public societal situations that don’t feel like they should be possible, each sung back-to-back. The very existence of everything Mr. Burn Ham lists would have, in the not so distance past, confused and befuddled the listener when they attempted to rationalize their existence in the world. By singing about unrealistic realities constantly with little room for rest, the song attempts to pull the listener into the very feeling of dissociation the song is about.  

I would compare the feeling this song wants to convey to the feeling that most people experienced when KFC announced the game “I Love You, Colonel Sanders!”. It was hilarious, an anime dating simulator made by the fried chicken company. It felt like a PR joke that would never really happen, but not only did the game exist but it was of undeniably high quality especially compared to what most people were expecting from KFC.  

However, there are a lot of lines in this song that do not fit in with the rest. A lot of lines describe methods corporations have tried to use to stand out among their competitors, or desperate nonsensical products that do little to hide their soulless, profit-based nature. These lyrics seem to describe the reaction people have to these events. Bo.B sings about people “obeying all the traffic laws in GTA V”, “googling derealization, hating what you find”, “loving parents” and “The backlash to the backlash, to the thing that’s just begun”. These lyrics are scattered throughout the rest, however it always felt out of place to me. While all the other lyrics describe how “in honor of the revolution, it’s half of at the gap”, these lyrics all seem to describe the consumer and how weirdly they react to the ever-growing confusion that the corporate world has become.  

If we think about some of these lyrics even further, they all give me the impression they are the actions of a group of bored people. They give me the same feeling as I had in high school when I would read the ingredients label on the back of my lunch packaging.  

Before I conclude this interpretation, I think another thing that is worth discussing here is that as time has gone on people have been born into this new reality. As these individuals grow, they only ever know the world from a Lense that to people of Bo’s age is an unreality. This sort of phenomenon has happened before too, like for example when the baby boomer generation watched the world progress at such a fast rate that they witnessed both the first telephone, and the first smartphone in their lifetime. Now society progresses so quickly an entire overhaul can happen within someone's lifetime. It becomes hard to rationalize the country you live in as the same place it once was when you first started your life. Technology, culture, and people change so quickly that some people may dissociate from what their minds believe is reality to what they see now.  

To conclude; Bo describes a world where “the ocean [is] at your door”, yet neither the rich corporate CEO; who genuinely has the power and money yet uses that same power and money to cause “unapparent summer air in early fall”, nor the consumer, seems to care about it. He sings about the end of the world as an inevitability that has caused the consumer to attempt desperately to entertain themselves until worlds end, because the people causing the end are too busy trying to grab their attention with abstract PR that every day the unreality, we live in feels more and more like our new reality. What once made no sense has become the norm, and everyone has accepted it. And to Bo, everyone's acceptance of the world's current state is ironically just as dissociative as the world around him. So, there is nothing left to do. Because what can you say, we were overdue. But it’ll be over soon, you wait.  

[botbert-johnson]

Wait this is actually so useful tho

ok since i don't think i've seen any semi-comprehensive lists of the tumblr holidays for the reddit refugees, here it is.

IT JUST HAPPENS

DAY 15 GIVE IT UP FOR DAY 15

Thursday the 20th

The Fifth of Wednesday

Sometime in June: That One Halloween Post Starts Circulating

Sometime in July: Dancing Pumpkin Man Video/Gif

WEEKLY EVENTS

Every Monday: El Muchacho Monday

Every Tuesday: Tuesday Again? No Problem...

Every Wednesday: Wet Beast Wednesday

Every Thursday: Out of Touch Thursday

Every Friday: Flat Fuck Friday

Every Saturday: Don't @ Me, I'm Chilling/Caturday

Every Sunday: Fingers In His Ass Sunday

YEARLY EVENTS

January 16: Appreciate a Dragon Day

January 29: Threshold Day

All of February: Funguary

February 14: Aromantic/Asexual Day

March 9: Miku Day

March 10: Mario Day

March 14: Pi Day

March 15: Ides of March

March 23: Ever Given Got Stuck Today

April 1: Mishapocalypse

April 2: Dashcon Announcement Anniversary

April 3: Dannypocalypse

April 8: Rex Manning Day

ALSO April 8: MARGARET THATCHER IS DEAD

April 13: Neil Banging Out The Tunes

ALSO April 13: Homestuck Day

April 20: haha 420 blaze it

April 25: The Perfect Date

April 28: Ed Balls Day

April 30: It's Gonna Be May

All of May: Mermay

May 3: Beginning of Dracula Daily

May 4: May the 4th Be With You

May 5: Revenge of the Fifth

May 25: The Glorious 25th of May

All of June: Pride Month

ALSO All of June: IT'S HALLOWEEN TIME TO GET SPOOKY

June 5: Barricade Day

June 16: Let Papyrus Say Fuck

July 20: Moon Landing

September 8: The Queen Is Dead and Sans Undertale Killed Her

September 21: DO YOU REMEMBER-

All of October: SKELETON WAR

ALSO All of October: Inktober

October 3: Mean Girls Day

ALSO October 3: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Day

October 20: Unnecessary Feelings Day

October 31: HALLOWEEN

November 5: honestly what didn't happen that day

November 19: Goncharov

All of December: Will the Gävle Goat Get Destroyed Again?

December 10: Please, It's Christmas

December 24: ALMOST CHRISTMAS MEANS IT WASN'T CHRISTMAS

[botbert-johnson]

Cordially, fuck you bitch boy

[botbert-johnson]

real

[botbert-johnson]

growing up being autistic but not knowing is just *hiding in room while people are over* *getting tired and needing to recharge after the smallest chores* *getting called a gifted kid* *knowing that you’re “weird” because people are making fun of you but not knowing how to stop being weird* *having adults tell you how “mature” you are* *getting in trouble for not doing work* *convincing yourself that you’re just lazy and stupid because you can’t make yourself do work* *getting really invested in “weird” media*

[botbert-johnson]

Since bread goes hard and crunchy when its stale, does that mean stale is just excruciatingly lightly toasted bread

[botbert-johnson]

“When the rich rob the poor it’s called business. When the poor fight back it’s called violence”. Seen in Kenya.

[botbert-johnson]

Guys boycott Johnson & Johnson for trying to extend their patent for bedaquiline.

This extension will deny people access to affordable tuberculosis medicine for a further 4 years. In this time it is estimated that 6 million people will die from a CURABLE disease.

Please do not buy their products unless it is your only option. This is a picture of some of their products, but not all of them.

[Credit: vlogbrothers, Youtube]

[botbert-johnson]

[botbert-johnson]

frogy rule

[botbert-johnson]

Bonus buckets of axolotl!