And They're Off! The Democratic Candidates for 2020

[Todd]

I've no idea what you're trying to say but rest assured I was here at the beginning, before forums, before newsgroups. - - - - - - - - - - - -

This post tells me what I need to know.  Thanks

[dissily Mordentroge]

This post tells me what I need to know.  Thanks

Your vast intelligence and staggeringly complete understanding of everything is astonishing.
Congratulations on your manifest genius.

[Todd]

Your vast intelligence and staggeringly complete understanding of everything is astonishing.
Congratulations on your manifest genius.

Thank you.

[71 dB]

I wonder if Todd has any friends. Half of this tread is him "feuding" with others. If he tries to make himself look intelligent he fails in an epic fashion. I get it we all have bad days and we are unfriedly sometimes, but Todd is NEVER friendly to anyone. Even Trump isn't that bad. I wonder what is wrong with him. I have him on ignore but I see the feuding when other people reply to his stupid bully nonsense. 

[Todd]

I wonder if Todd has any friends. Half of this tread is him "feuding" with others. If he tries to make himself look intelligent he fails in an epic fashion. I get it we all have bad days and we are unfriedly sometimes, but Todd is NEVER friendly to anyone. Even Trump isn't that bad. I wonder what is wrong with him. I have him on ignore but I see the feuding when other people reply to his stupid bully nonsense. 

See, this is one of the reasons this forum is a hoot.  I'm back on "ignore" for 71 dB, yet he just can't help but post about me anyway, using what he obviously thinks is cutting insight, while it's obviously more reflective of his personal reality, at least as he himself has described in multiple pathetic (in the true sense of the word) posts.  Good stuff.

[dissily Mordentroge]

I wonder if Todd has any friends. Half of this tread is him "feuding" with others. If he tries to make himself look intelligent he fails in an epic fashion. I get it we all have bad days and we are unfriendly sometimes, but Todd is NEVER friendly to anyone. Even Trump isn't that bad. I wonder what is wrong with him. I have him on ignore but I see the feuding when other people reply to his stupid bully nonsense. 

Forums are riddled with such characters. However Todd often makes it hard to know what it is he's actually trying to say. This results in inappropriate responses, which I'm sure I've made myself. Sometimes we encounter a similar problem in face to face conversation; very puzzling dialogue that can't be explained or understood.  Some individuals fail to distinguish between their internal thought processes and what they're actually saying imagining we're hearing both. I've no way of knowing if this is at work here but in the end the struggle to decode the 'message' just gets too hard.Either that or we make the problem worse ourselves by imagining we're responding in a relevant manner.
How did we get here from the Democratic candidates?

[Todd]

Forums are riddled with such characters. However Todd often makes it hard to know what it is he's actually trying to say. This results in inappropriate responses, which I'm sure I've made myself. Sometimes we encounter a similar problem in face to face conversation; very puzzling dialogue that can't be explained or understood.  Some individuals fail to distinguish between their internal thought processes and what they're actually saying imagining we're hearing both. I've no way of knowing if this is at work here but in the end the struggle to decode the 'message' just gets too hard.Either that or we make the problem worse ourselves by imagining we're responding in a relevant manner.
How did we get here from the Democratic candidates?

Elderly folks sure do ramble, don't they?

[dissily Mordentroge]

Elderly folks sure do ramble, don't they?

I've always rambled or as a friend commented recently when I told her I thought I was experiencing early signs of dementia " How would they know? You've always been demented"

[Todd]

I've always rambled or as a friend commented recently when I told her I thought I was experiencing early signs of dementia " How would they know? You've always been demented"

Good to know.

[Marc]

I've always rambled or as a friend commented recently when I told her I thought I was experiencing early signs of dementia " How would they know? You've always been demented"

[Madiel]

Todd is smug.

On other parts of the forum, Todd displays the fruits of a large amount of study and learning. But he comes onto this thread and constantly derides study and learning. Apparently, study and learning is okay so long as it's about developing an encylopaedic knowledge of classical music. You can be intellectual so long as it's about Beethoven piano sonatas and/or your name is Todd.

EDIT: Quite frankly, I think it would be quite entertaining to watch Todd visit a small Midwest town and explain how much he hates intellectualism just after telling the locals how many complete sets of Beethoven piano sonatas he owns. The facial expressions would be worth seeing. This thought helps me translate Todd's smugness from irritating to funny.

[dissily Mordentroge]

Todd is smug.

On other parts of the forum, Todd displays the fruits of a large amount of study and learning. But he comes onto this thread and constantly derides study and learning. Apparently, study and learning is okay so long as it's about developing an encylopaedic knowledge of classical music. You can be intellectual so long as it's about Beethoven sonatas and/or your name is Todd.

Intellectualism and classical music are old bed-fellows but in some instances I've had to sit through concerts/recordings with someone analysing a work in detail in my ears as it's being performed. Drives me insane. Beethoven sonatas? How does he analyse Opus 131 I wonder or any of the other last quartets?
In my dotage I've developed somewhat of an allergy to over analysis of classical music anyhow, especially when issue of structure and form are involved. Lazy maybe but now I just want to be 'carried away'.

[Madiel]

Intellectualism and classical music are old bed-fellows but in some instances I've had to sit through concerts/recordings with someone analysing a work in detail in my ears as it's being performed. Drives me insane. Beethoven sonatas? How does he analyse Opus 131 I wonder or any of the other last quartets?
In my dotage I've developed somewhat of an allergy to over analysis of classical music anyhow, especially when issue of structure and form are involved. Lazy maybe but now I just want to be 'carried away'.

Fair enough. But you're not the one whose apparent main goal on the thread is to make fun of intellectuals. That's Todd.

[Todd]

EDIT: Quite frankly, I think it would be quite entertaining to watch Todd visit a small Midwest town and explain how much he hates intellectualism just after telling the locals how many complete sets of Beethoven piano sonatas he owns. The facial expressions would be worth seeing. This thought helps me translate Todd's smugness from irritating to funny.

Your prejudice regarding people of the Midwest is quite delightful.  Urbane sorts, especially of the non-American variety, often fall prey to stereotypes of various Americans.  Extensive educations - for lawyers, say - sometimes exaggerate this tendency.

[Madiel]

Your prejudice regarding people of the Midwest is quite delightful.  Urbane sorts, especially of the non-American variety, often fall prey to stereotypes of various Americans.  Extensive educations - for lawyers, say - sometimes exaggerate this tendency.

What prejudice? Is it prejudice to assert that they are more likely to see through your bullshit?

I don't know exactly what you are imagining I imagine about the Midwest, but the education I'm relying on is not a formal one and there's nothing negative in what I'm imagining in terms of the inhabitants. I'm just imagining that they would find your lack of self-awareness as bizarre as I do.

As for describing me as "urbane"... well, I can't help wondering if you're falling prey to stereotypes about me and my background. Perhaps I need to explain to you that in some other countries, unlike America, you don't have to come from a rich family to study law.

[Todd]

What prejudice? Is it prejudice to assert that they are more likely to see through your bullshit?

Your last post and this most recent post are both premised on ignorance of what people in a proverbial small Midwest town are like. 

Also, and perhaps this is something learned, urbane sorts don't ever pick up in life, but it generally makes sense to adjust one's behavior depending on location.  I interact with locals slightly differently in Rapid City and New York, for instance.

[Madiel]

it generally makes sense to adjust one's behavior depending on location.  I interact with locals slightly differently in Rapid City and New York, for instance.

What you're telling me is you'd hide your Beethoven fetish because you know it would be a problem?

That just makes this funnier. You just finished telling me how wrong I was to have a stereotype, and now you go and confirm that in fact there is a cultural difference and that people would view you differently.

The hypocrisy is palpable.

[Madiel]

Rapid City isn't that small anyway.

[Todd]

What you're telling me is you'd hide your Beethoven fetish because you know it would be a problem?

If the topic of Beethoven ever comes up, I discuss it, and have done so on a few occasions with acquaintances.  It rarely comes up in informal settings where small talk is the prevailing standard - not even in very sophisticated New York.  Maybe urbane, learned sorts make it a point to blabber on about things inappropriate to the moment in such settings.  Based on my experience, that is actually not uncommon.

Rapid City isn't that small anyway.

Thank goodness for Google, am I right? 

Would Gower suffice in your most learned estimation?

[Madiel]

If the topic of Beethoven ever comes up, I discuss it, and have done so on a few occasions with acquaintances.  It rarely comes up in informal settings where small talk is the prevailing standard - not even in very sophisticated New York.  Maybe urbane, learned sorts make it a point to blabber on about things inappropriate to the moment in such settings.  Based on my experience, that is actually not uncommon.

You really don't seem to grasp that I was describing a fictional encounter, do you?

The point is not to have it actually happen. The point is that it highlights the complete absurdity of you using terms like "intellectual" and "urbane" and "learned" as insults in the direction of others. As if you yourself are not in those categories.

Mate, you're as fucking urbane as they come.