thoughts on venting and complaining

I am sick of hearing complaints. But that doesn't mean I'm unsympathetic, or that I don't think people are entitled to their feelings of frustration.

Venting is fine. Complaining gets old real fast. The difference is motivation: Way I see it, venting is when a person shares feelings they can't bear alone. The venter is releasing emotion. Perhaps they want to be heard because they're struggling and knowing that others are aware of this provides some comfort.

The complainer, on the other hand, is engaging in self-pity. They think they're a victim. Other people need to know because some injustice is being perpetrated. There's a self-righteousness about it. "I don't deserve this."

Venters want, if anything, acknowledgement. Complainers want acquittal. If the complainer's victimhood is confirmed by others then they're blameless. They don't have to own their problems. And they don't have to change.

better snacks than carrots

MAD ABOUT SNACKS

Chords • 7 mins

that they exist?

snacks are a fact of life

better get used to it

making them extinct would basically require killing all humans

can animals snack?

i guess they can, so we'd basically have to kill anything that eats

doesn't all life "eat" in some way?

so what you're asking is that we make the whole universe dead

just trillions of trillions dead rocks and stars and gas

you're being pretty bleak there

asking to kill off a species is one thing, but all life everywhere... seems vindictive

2 mins

i want better snacks than carrots

my cats snack on bugs all the time

Chords • 1 min

i can show you where to buy bug snacks

bamboo grubs, baked

Phrases I dislike

1. I'm boring.
2. It's beyond our understanding.
3. Because the bible says so.

Illustration by me! CC BY-SA 4.0

Reasons:

1. NO, YOU'RE NOT. You might be disengaged, but you're not boring. Some people use this phrase as shorthand for "I don't do things that are worth talking about." We're sentient and sentience endows you with, among other things, the ability to assign value to activities (even if it's subjective). By saying you're boring in this way, you're assigning low value to your actions. Don't do that. If you think you have low value you should talk to people about it until you find someone who can help you fix that.
2. We might not understand a thing right now, but it's not beyond our understanding. If a thing is describable, it's understandable. With enough time, effort, patience, etc. we can figure it out.
3. If a human being has gotten their hands on something you can be sure it's not infallible. And even if you think the bible is the literal word of God, some dude had to write it down or translate it. "Because the bible says so" is a terrible reason for anything.

I NEED ANSWERS, PEOPLE

Okay, this might be a little crazy, but serious question: If your goal was to help humanity as much as possible, and you had to pursue one science, how would you decide which science to pursue?