How many members are "real men"?

[Marsh]

Going to have to go with TimeBomb on this one. Just man up, who gives a fuck. I mean if your fat or self conscious maybe not. but the average guy why not?

[Thorn]

I'm mostly in disagreement with him equating not giving a shit what people think with self confidence. Self confidence is admirable, not giving a shit what people think makes you an arrogant douchebag.

[Marsh]

Its not exactly self confidence but its definitely not being a douchebag either. Just because you dont agree or care about what people may think about your appearance doesnt make you arrogant. You just are comfortable with your style or dont care about there personal opinion in the matter, as long as your happy with it.

[Thorn]

What I mean is that it makes people far more prone to being a douchebag. Few things by themselves will totally make that conversion, but not caring about what people think means that you will likely start reacting to people without caring what they think, and then what they feel.
It's a slippery slope to becoming an arrogant douchebag.

I think the people that wear the more outlandish fashions usually do care what other people think, even if they aren't saying so. I don't mean that they're trying to fit in, but that they may be without even realizing it trying to distance themselves from the mainstream. Only looking back do I realize that's where a lot of my clothing decisions originated from.
I know a woman who has dredlocks, she claims that they're useful for identifying people. If someone sees those and writes her off as a deadbeat, then she determines that they're too close-minded and she wouldn't want anything to do with them anyway.
This is a rather successful woman too, it's kinda funny to see her rocking the semi-hippy look.

[TimeBomb]

@Thorn:
First of all, I'm not a douchebag, I'm a troll.
Second of all, lately my life has become very stressful for multiple really shitty reasons, so 'not giving a shit' does actually elevate stress off my shoulders.
I am saying that, because I have self confidence, I could care less what other people think what I look like. Am I fat? Am I ugly? Am I a hairy ape? I could care less, they can live with it or leave the pool.

[Thorn]

Wasn't calling you a douchebag, though looking at it I guess I accidentally implied that.
And not giving a shit is never justified. At best it puts off issues and you have to deal with them later, at worst you start alienating people and causing yourself significant problems.

Whatever reasons you have, there are better ways to handle them then to not give a shit. I don't think you could change my mind on this.

[TimeBomb]

@Thorn:

> Wasn't calling you a douchebag, though looking at it I guess I accidentally implied that.
> And not giving a shit is never justified. At best it puts off issues and you have to deal with them later, at worst you start alienating people and causing yourself significant problems.
>
> Whatever reasons you have, there are better ways to handle them then to not give a shit. I don't think you could change my mind on this.

By 'not giving a shit' I dont mean 'being a douchebag' I mean 'stop worrying about every little thing every second of the day'.

[Thorn]

Well see, there's a pretty strong distinction there. In fact, those are pretty much two entirely different things.

[TimeBomb]

@Thorn:

> Well see, there's a pretty strong distinction there. In fact, those are pretty much two entirely different things.

Hehe the only thing is I don't just stop worrying, I turn down the meter in my mind that defines how much I care about things in general, if ya catch my drift.

[Thorn]

See, that's not a good thing.
Sure, you don't let every little thing during the day get to you. So you missed the bus, you can catch the next one. There was no seats free on the bus and you had to stand. You were twenty minutes late for work.
Whatever.
The difference in philosophy here is I'm in favor of 'don't let the little things bring you down' while you seem to be 'fuck it I don't even care anymore'.
I just can't see the second route leading to anything good, and even if it somehow did you would be too tuned out to appreciate it.

[TimeBomb]

@Thorn:

> See, that's not a good thing.
> Sure, you don't let every little thing during the day get to you. So you missed the bus, you can catch the next one. There was no seats free on the bus and you had to stand. You were twenty minutes late for work.
> Whatever.
> The difference in philosophy here is I'm in favor of 'don't let the little things bring you down' while you seem to be 'duck it I don't even care anymore'.
> I just can't see the second route leading to anything good, and even if it somehow did you would be too tuned out to appreciate it.

*shrug* I guess not everybody can have the same lifestyle as everybody else.

[Joyce]

I don't get why you should care what others think about your looks really? Most people just try to talk you down anyways nowadays.. So why bother listening and not instantly punch them in the face? ;D

[silentdemonic]

@YamYam:

> I don't get why you should care what others think about your looks really? Most people just try to talk you down anyways nowadays.. So why bother listening and not instantly punch them in the face? ;D

Their blood would splatter on my beautiful face and hair XD lol

[AeroEBrown]

@Stephan:

> @silentdemonic:
>
> > Ive first hand seen that Intellect can only take you so far, cos I would love to see someone talk themselves out of being Mugged. Rationality, Intelligence, Emotions, Empathy these are all properties of being Human nothing to do with Gender based stigma.
>
> I've yet to see a girl who seems to possess, or better yet possesses: logic, complex puzzle solving skills, 3D-perspective, etc. Also, men aren't supposed to be emotional or show empathy. Men basically shouldn't give a hoot when a girl cries, since she's usually faking it or because she wants attention (a.k.a. attention whore). It's not called a macho-culture, it's what life has been since the homo sapiens became to exist. Men were made for hunting animals and protecting the group. Women were made for breeding, gathering fruits, cooking, etc.
>
> Regards,
>   Stephan.

True that Stephan. When my wife cries I'm always the last one to ask what's wrong. (My son hasn't learned that yet. >.<) When someone breaks into the house, I would be the first one after them with either my M9, or my Shotgun. Depends on where I am.

As for the being a douchebag part, well, when your life has been shit. (And I mean BIG Things go wrong, you get jail time for something you didn't do, etc.) Then you have the right to be a douchebag.

Just my two cents.

Thanks,
Aero/EBrown

[silentdemonic]

I always live by the rule that you should never take out your own frustrations or anger on someone who was not the cause of them. Regardless of what happened in your life, they were not the ones to cause such misfortunes so why must they put up / experience the consequences of such.

[Thorn]

Just throwing this out there? Starting to think Silentdemonic is a pretty cool dude.
I'm a fan of the whole 'do to others what you want them to do to you' philosophy. You want people to be kind and generous to you? Be kind and generous to others.

That being said, I'm restraining the urge to be markedly unkind at Stephan. Either he hasn't met any women over the age of 16 or he's so set in his beliefs that he's blind.
Hopefully someday he'll realize how mind-shatteringly wrong he is.

[Dark Crusade]

Indeed, silentdemonic is a wise cleric. He would do well to assist me in Baldur's Gate, to fight back the shadows of Amn. Myself and my comrade need a high level cleric to heal us when we get in blues with the city guard.

[silentdemonic]

ZOMG Kreator you play BG :O wow I used to play that solidly, hand constantly on the pause button to ready my attacks haha. By any chance have you tried Dungeon Siege? It is an excellent game with a fun story line alas I play it solo these days heh. btw thank you both for the kind words - I thought at times I come across as a little too opinionated like I have a reply for everything lol.
My thanks to you both ^_^

[Robin]

Used to play Dungeon Siege a lot. Dungeon Siege 2 has no re playability at all, though. :(

[Dark Crusade]

@silentdemonic:

> ZOMG Kreator you play BG :O wow I used to play that solidly, hand constantly on the pause button to ready my attacks haha. By any chance have you tried Dungeon Siege?

HAHA. Yeah, I was going to make a joke about you learning the spell gate, but doubt you would have gotten it. Guess you may have! And Yeah I used to play Dungeon Siege back in the day too. XD

[LRgamer]

Up to now I have only had bad experiences with women my age, but that is to be expected (16).
But that does not trouble me the least, for I know there are honest women of my age out there, just like there are nice guys, but their opinions are never voiced or they never appear in the spotlights because of their decent behaviour. Sluts and assholes are much more known and create hatred for everyone, female as well as male.

[Godlord]

@Thorn:

> That being said, I'm restraining the urge to be markedly unkind at Stephan. Either he hasn't met any women over the age of 16 or he's so set in his beliefs that he's blind.
> Hopefully someday he'll realize how mind-shatteringly wrong he is.

How can you say that I'm wrong when you seem to be blinded by the miserable love you speak of?

I've met pathetic women of all ages and they all have the same kind of behaviour as for emotion and empathy, surplus they don't have intelligence or rationality. It might be my country or the neighbour countries, but so far I've yet to see a woman who is both intelligent and rational instead of emotional and I highly doubt the case will be different in the U.S.A., whereof I assume that this is the country where you live, since as far as I know, the case will most likely be far worse.

So yet again, I question you why you think I'm wrong, since it seems you're the one who is blind here, instead of me. Since you believe in this womankind that is doing nothing more than fooling men. Not to mention that there are several magna opera in the world of literature that support me here. Examples of these are Hamlet, Catullus (and Lesbia), Medea, Pandora, etc.

Romans feared love and affection simply because it was damaging to their rationality and intelligence, do you call them blind and wrong as well? Since the only reason they married, and especially the Romans who had power and who were rich, is because of materialism.

If I'm so mind-shatteringly wrong as you say, why have entire nations, even though generalised, agreed with me? Because they were all wrong and blind as well?

I think you have to review your own philosophy again, since you were the one who was calling out for this reply to be written, not me. Therefore you get what you want, according to your very own mindset. And as a side note: it's better to be a life-enjoying epicurist, than a love-seeking stoicist.

Regards,
  Stephan.

[viciousdead]

This thread has gone way offtopic.. Lol, just thought I'd say that.

[Godlord]

@viciousdead:

> This thread has gone way offtopic.. Lol, just thought I'd say that.

The initial subject was not a correct reasoning for the definition of being a man or not, hence why it went off-road.

Regards,
  Stephan.

[Anna Comnena]

"Off-road" sounds way more manly than "off-topic" I noticed. ;)