As folks can see, it's fairly easy to expose the stupidity of a psychotic closet fascist or a good-natured but thoroughly unsocialized libertarian.
But what about the Final Boss? Every poster's worst nightmare: the charlatan who even has themselves fooled. This beast is so astonishingly dumb that they have no idea how to get out of the intellectual and ethical hole they fell into long ago. Nah, man, you need to dig up. Yeah, dig your way up. You're getting there. Little more now. Okay, but seriously...
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Okay, so, peoples, you will NOT believe this. I was, like, browsing the web on my brand new iPhone yesterday, and I found this, like, super cool site. You know that game in the Queen's Gambit? The Netflix show? Yeah, the game. There's, like, totally a club for aficianados. We're, like, so totes aficianados. Yeah, I went to the website and it said it was, like, coming soon. But that was it. It just had, like, just like a complete dearth of content besides that, you know? I guess it's new? Maybe it will be up and running soon.
SoCA, a timeline:
12/2015: Frarey states that SoCA will be organizing a tournament in BC. He never posts about this again, despite a prominent member of the BC chess community inquiring publicly.
01/2016: Frarey announces that SoCA will sponsor a monthly chess poetry contest. He never posts about this again.
02/2016: Frarey claims that SoCA is hoping to begin holding cross-border matches. He says he will provide prizes if other people do all the organizational work in setting up a match between Sarnia and Port Huron. Wow, what a philanthropist. And you'll never guess it, but he never posts about this again (hereinafter "NPATA").
07/2016: Frarey references his success with SoCA as something qualifying him for a CFC Executive position. He also, completely without instigation, claims to be famous.
08/2016: Frarey mentions that SoCA will be awarding "knockout patches" to anyone whose win is followed by the opponent withdrawing. He actually does post about this again, months later, saying that they're going to be available in the SoCA store. I know I love it when I buy my award in an online store. He also says that SoCA will soon be releasing a "2D vector chess set" (NPATA). Later in the thread he claims that SoCA is in the process of launching a Canadian Chess Grand Prix (NPATA) and an online chess server. He brings up the chess server a lot going forward, but as you may have noticed, it is, err, still a work in progress. Kevin Pacey is very impressed by all of this.
10/2016: Frarey announces that SoCA will donate a $100 brilliancy prize to the Banff Open. Okay, but here's the messed up part. It seems he actually did do that. Not even joking.
11/2016: Frarey claims that SoCA will be donating chess books to Indigenous communities (NPATA). This is completely unsubstantiated elsewhere on this forum and on the Internet in general. Wow, wouldn't it be so classy, cool, and not at all repugnant if he made that up?
04/2017: Frarey announces that Tom O'Donnell is the new "Lead Instructor" of SoCA. Actual lessons are not mentioned, in this or any ensuing post. He does, however, link to a chess guide copyrighted by the CFC that he had downloaded and uploaded to his own website. That's content, baby!
05/2017: Frarey, who is not at all displaying delusions of grandeur, says he wants to "establish and maintain a unique position of support for chess entitites". But the man backs up his bravado. He shares with us his "fresh" new idea: putting arrows on a diagram to show what pieces are attacking what squares. How did he come up with that idea? Has this man travelled to us from the future?
07/2017: Frarey once again mentions the Indigenous population, claiming he met a Nation representative to basically jUsT rAp about how they would solve poverty and systemic racism with chess (NPATA). He also says that 2018 will see SoCA's first tournament, which will include a "massive prize fund". It's basically impossible to read that paragraph in any voice other than Donald Trump's.
"SoCA has... the best people... we have the best people... CFC? Not so much. They're not all good people, those people. We're not like that. We love chess. We love chess and we support chess. We're going to have a tournament... and... it's going to be huge. They haven't seen anything like this before, I promise you, this is going to be big. I was talking to Kasparov, he said, 'Neil, your events, they're so tremendous and wonderful. They're tremendous and wonderful and you do such a good job of bringing chess to the people.' And Kasparov, you know, he knows his stuff! He knows almost as much about the chess community as me."
10/2017: Frarey reminds us that, once again this year, SoCA will help sponsor the Banff Open. This year they sent a box of fortune cookies for the opening ceremony.
11/2017: Frarey informs us of the "amazing talk" he had with Autism Speaks Canada. They're going to work together to create a tournament, for charity, in 2018 (NPATA).
01/2018: In a discussion that had nothing to do with SoCA, Frarey mentions that SoCA will soon have an email campaign to spread word about SoCA (NPATA).
03/2018: Frarey says SoCA is trying to buy ChessTalk.
10/2018: The organizer mentions that Frarey and SoCA have agreed to sponsor this year's Banff Open by providing two "chess bobbleheads".
02/2018: Frarey claims that SoCA made a donation to Muscular Dystrophy Canada.
06/2019: Frarey offers to have SoCA pay an advertising fee for an organizer, but the organizer explains that it's been taken care of.
08/2019: Frarey states that SoCA will pay the CFC tournament membership fee for a player in Quebec, if they play in the Banff Open.
11/2019: The organizer announces that SoCA is once again adding $100 to the Banff Open prize fund. No fortune cookies this year?
01/2021: Frarey muses that SoCA might organize an online chess tournament. Wow, 2020 must have been busy!
Frarey's SoCA strategy is actually identical to his debate strategy: say something false, and just NPATA.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
So, how do you avoid these pitfalls? It seems like every generation falls into them. Their parents and grandparents are too old-fashioned, but then their kids are too radical. Themselves? They got it just right. They solved humanity. The apex of human thought was during their teens and twenties.
People who suck often try to tease me with this. "Curtis, baby, you're going to get old too." Yeah, no shit. But my opinions won't become trash, because I won't think the kids are too radical. That's it. It sounds like a truism but it's actually as simple as that.
Whenever I find that views and values are influenced by a generational gap between people my age and young folks (and we don't care about the young follllks), I change my fucking view. Because I'm wrong. And I read, and think, and talk to people until I understand why my views and values were wrong, and how I can be better going forward. I'm not talking about empirical ideas. A lot of young people seem to believe in stupid shit like astrology, for example. But I'm not talking about science. Not science. Not science. Not the game. I'm talking about values.
Younger people developed their values in a more informed time, with more understanding of the world, and with more awareness of their biases.
There's no shame in getting old. There's no shame in being wrong. There is shame in insisting you're right for decades on end, to the detriment of other human beings.
But what do I know? I'm in my fucking thirties, baby. Don't listen to me. Go learn from the youths and maidens of the world.
But what about the Final Boss? Every poster's worst nightmare: the charlatan who even has themselves fooled. This beast is so astonishingly dumb that they have no idea how to get out of the intellectual and ethical hole they fell into long ago. Nah, man, you need to dig up. Yeah, dig your way up. You're getting there. Little more now. Okay, but seriously...
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Okay, so, peoples, you will NOT believe this. I was, like, browsing the web on my brand new iPhone yesterday, and I found this, like, super cool site. You know that game in the Queen's Gambit? The Netflix show? Yeah, the game. There's, like, totally a club for aficianados. We're, like, so totes aficianados. Yeah, I went to the website and it said it was, like, coming soon. But that was it. It just had, like, just like a complete dearth of content besides that, you know? I guess it's new? Maybe it will be up and running soon.
SoCA, a timeline:
12/2015: Frarey states that SoCA will be organizing a tournament in BC. He never posts about this again, despite a prominent member of the BC chess community inquiring publicly.
01/2016: Frarey announces that SoCA will sponsor a monthly chess poetry contest. He never posts about this again.
02/2016: Frarey claims that SoCA is hoping to begin holding cross-border matches. He says he will provide prizes if other people do all the organizational work in setting up a match between Sarnia and Port Huron. Wow, what a philanthropist. And you'll never guess it, but he never posts about this again (hereinafter "NPATA").
07/2016: Frarey references his success with SoCA as something qualifying him for a CFC Executive position. He also, completely without instigation, claims to be famous.
08/2016: Frarey mentions that SoCA will be awarding "knockout patches" to anyone whose win is followed by the opponent withdrawing. He actually does post about this again, months later, saying that they're going to be available in the SoCA store. I know I love it when I buy my award in an online store. He also says that SoCA will soon be releasing a "2D vector chess set" (NPATA). Later in the thread he claims that SoCA is in the process of launching a Canadian Chess Grand Prix (NPATA) and an online chess server. He brings up the chess server a lot going forward, but as you may have noticed, it is, err, still a work in progress. Kevin Pacey is very impressed by all of this.
10/2016: Frarey announces that SoCA will donate a $100 brilliancy prize to the Banff Open. Okay, but here's the messed up part. It seems he actually did do that. Not even joking.
11/2016: Frarey claims that SoCA will be donating chess books to Indigenous communities (NPATA). This is completely unsubstantiated elsewhere on this forum and on the Internet in general. Wow, wouldn't it be so classy, cool, and not at all repugnant if he made that up?
04/2017: Frarey announces that Tom O'Donnell is the new "Lead Instructor" of SoCA. Actual lessons are not mentioned, in this or any ensuing post. He does, however, link to a chess guide copyrighted by the CFC that he had downloaded and uploaded to his own website. That's content, baby!
05/2017: Frarey, who is not at all displaying delusions of grandeur, says he wants to "establish and maintain a unique position of support for chess entitites". But the man backs up his bravado. He shares with us his "fresh" new idea: putting arrows on a diagram to show what pieces are attacking what squares. How did he come up with that idea? Has this man travelled to us from the future?
07/2017: Frarey once again mentions the Indigenous population, claiming he met a Nation representative to basically jUsT rAp about how they would solve poverty and systemic racism with chess (NPATA). He also says that 2018 will see SoCA's first tournament, which will include a "massive prize fund". It's basically impossible to read that paragraph in any voice other than Donald Trump's.
"SoCA has... the best people... we have the best people... CFC? Not so much. They're not all good people, those people. We're not like that. We love chess. We love chess and we support chess. We're going to have a tournament... and... it's going to be huge. They haven't seen anything like this before, I promise you, this is going to be big. I was talking to Kasparov, he said, 'Neil, your events, they're so tremendous and wonderful. They're tremendous and wonderful and you do such a good job of bringing chess to the people.' And Kasparov, you know, he knows his stuff! He knows almost as much about the chess community as me."
10/2017: Frarey reminds us that, once again this year, SoCA will help sponsor the Banff Open. This year they sent a box of fortune cookies for the opening ceremony.
11/2017: Frarey informs us of the "amazing talk" he had with Autism Speaks Canada. They're going to work together to create a tournament, for charity, in 2018 (NPATA).
01/2018: In a discussion that had nothing to do with SoCA, Frarey mentions that SoCA will soon have an email campaign to spread word about SoCA (NPATA).
03/2018: Frarey says SoCA is trying to buy ChessTalk.
10/2018: The organizer mentions that Frarey and SoCA have agreed to sponsor this year's Banff Open by providing two "chess bobbleheads".
02/2018: Frarey claims that SoCA made a donation to Muscular Dystrophy Canada.
06/2019: Frarey offers to have SoCA pay an advertising fee for an organizer, but the organizer explains that it's been taken care of.
08/2019: Frarey states that SoCA will pay the CFC tournament membership fee for a player in Quebec, if they play in the Banff Open.
11/2019: The organizer announces that SoCA is once again adding $100 to the Banff Open prize fund. No fortune cookies this year?
01/2021: Frarey muses that SoCA might organize an online chess tournament. Wow, 2020 must have been busy!
Frarey's SoCA strategy is actually identical to his debate strategy: say something false, and just NPATA.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
So, how do you avoid these pitfalls? It seems like every generation falls into them. Their parents and grandparents are too old-fashioned, but then their kids are too radical. Themselves? They got it just right. They solved humanity. The apex of human thought was during their teens and twenties.
People who suck often try to tease me with this. "Curtis, baby, you're going to get old too." Yeah, no shit. But my opinions won't become trash, because I won't think the kids are too radical. That's it. It sounds like a truism but it's actually as simple as that.
Whenever I find that views and values are influenced by a generational gap between people my age and young folks (and we don't care about the young follllks), I change my fucking view. Because I'm wrong. And I read, and think, and talk to people until I understand why my views and values were wrong, and how I can be better going forward. I'm not talking about empirical ideas. A lot of young people seem to believe in stupid shit like astrology, for example. But I'm not talking about science. Not science. Not science. Not the game. I'm talking about values.
Younger people developed their values in a more informed time, with more understanding of the world, and with more awareness of their biases.
There's no shame in getting old. There's no shame in being wrong. There is shame in insisting you're right for decades on end, to the detriment of other human beings.
But what do I know? I'm in my fucking thirties, baby. Don't listen to me. Go learn from the youths and maidens of the world.
Comment