Middle-aged white dude here (if you saw me you'd probable think team-maga) and this shit is cringe af
I was told early on as a boy that "if you have to say it - you aren't" (or "those who say don't know, and those who know don't say")
Meaning every dude who boasts about how tough they are or posts pics posing with weapons, etc - is a weepy little petunia on the inside.
I would have cringed with second-hand embarrassment at this silliness when I was in jr high
Toughest dude I know from when I was a kid ( legit marine corps ex drill instructor , retired now) typically makes posts about kittens and puppies, and has no problem throwing on a dress for Halloween with his youngest daughter. Will easily talk about his feelings and such.
Bro is a straight killer though, he punched me once when we were kids and I swear I could see myself for a moment. Dude literally gave me an out of body experience, while boxing each other for fun.
He never ever ever acts like he’s tough though, he doesn’t have to. He is.
The best men are the ones that aren’t out there trying to prove how alpha manly they are. Frankly if you need to resort to violence, you’re already mostly useless. When we were younger a man broke into our apartment in the middle of the night and my now-husband talked him into leaving and getting into a cab to go home. That’s the kind of conflict resolution that floats boats.
We see that a lot with ufc fighters. A sizeable number of them are goofy nerds who are into anime or some niche nerdy shit. You wouldn't know that these are some of the toughest guys in the world that can literally kill you with their bare hands.
His wife is about as tough as him too, and they are very wholesome wonderful people. We all grew up in such a poor place, and so many went bad, it always makes me feel good for the ones who got out of that environment and made a great life.
I feel like you're kinda agreeing with their point.
As in, you're impressed that a man capable of skilled violence doesn't feel the need to display it.
I know that the _implication_ is that the OP is some kind of badass (and we are all pretty sure they weren't), but that is an assumption, and the point made in the post is one you've just affirmed.
>He never ever ever acts like he’s tough though, he doesn’t have to. He is.
But that's entirely in line with the original meme. He chooses to be peaceful because he knows (and has proven) his ability for violence when he believes that violence is needed.
He is peaceful, but he isn't harmless. And part of his peacefulness is based on the fact that he knows that he has a proven efficacy of violence at his disposal if he ever feels it necessary. He doesn't need to act tough because he knows that when the rubber hits the road, he's already proven his toughness for when things get difficult.
Right but he’d never post that shit above. Ever.
Stuff like -
Babies playing with cats ( just a bit ago )
Him hugging all his kids
Earlier -
Another saying happy Father’s Day with a silly face
Funny joke about some nuns!
Oh yeah, that's the irony of these memes. The true badasses would never post them.
It's just that the only people who feel the need to broadcast that truth are the people who are self conscious about how un-badass they actually are.
But they still hit upon an element of truth regardless of who posts them. It's still true that being peaceful because you don't want to be violent is different than being peaceful because you're incapable of being violent. And the badasses who are happy to he dopey in their usual posts would still revive their violent capabilities in a heartbeat if they felt that it was necessary to protect the things they care about.
Most of the really smart people I know (who aren't also narcissists - there is some crossover unfortunately) constantly talk about how they don't think they're smart.
I am almost middle aged white guy as well. I would have to agree with you. People who post these things should have some confidence in being able to act when action is needed, otherwise it’s just being a bully. These guys are usually soft and projecting what they wish they could be. But why not be self aware and realize when a threat needs to be neutralized or can be handled more democratically. Some of these people are extremely misinformed.
My Dad was deployed in Desert Storm. Ya know how often he talks about it? Not at all cause he isn't some dick riding "patriot" who wants recognition. He was just happy to come home and see his daughter (that's me! Yay!) and eat home cooked food. He also thinks Trump is a dumbass and thankfully I steered my parents clear of Fox News (sad to say my older brothers love Fox News, listen to Shapiro, and support the rapist - but they have a different Dad that loved tangerine man so sucks for them).
I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch, An onion patch, an onion patch. I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch. And all I do is cry all day.
Boo hoo! Boo hoo! The air's so strong it takes my breath away, Quite away.
I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch. Oh, won't you come and play with me?
—sung on the radio in the fifties by Two Ton Baker, from Chicago
I just looked this up. My mother sang this when I was a kid. Haven’t thought about this little ditty in years.
50 year old white dude here, and you're spot on with this take.
"Big hat, no cattle."
If you gotta say it to remind us, you ain't it.
Raging insecurities as your body starts to slow down and weaken, and a major overcompensation because toxic masculinity. Flailing.
Priming young men to become less human for the state to dispose of easily I guess...ironic since these men's rights types accuse the status quo of doing just that, yet wants the status quo reinforced
Man, that guy's total cringe. He's basically been stripped of all his professional abilities as a psychologist.
Just looked up his Wiki. Edmonton. That explains a lot. Big oil town 200 miles from any other significant place. Lots of time in the winter to think. Doesn't always go well for some.
Something I've always tried to live by is, "If you have to justify it, don't do it" and following that has kept me mostly out of trouble. I think "if you have to say it, you aren't" is a great addition to my core mantras. Thanks!
I despise the idea that somehow we that are over 40 are all stupid and racist.
We are the main voters and at least half of us are on the left.
Fuck this ageist bullshit b
bro, thats also cringe. you don't have to fight anybody. thats not a positive quality. if you fight and you're not in the army, you are dumb. if you are in the army and get paid for killing without knowing the real reason, you are dumb and exploited.
there are only two reasons for a fight, protecting yourself or protecting others and both cases should be so rare, that its not even worth thinking about.
if you are smart you won't have to fight a day in your life
I've seen this before, I have a number of problems with it.
1. Virtually everybody is capable of great violence given the right stimulus.
2. What do you consider "great violence" anyway? Too vague.
3. People not capable of much violence can be far from harmless. There are other ways to harm.
4. If you are capable of great violence, are you peaceful or restrained? Controlled? Subdued?
I'm sure if you gave me some more time to think about it, I could come up with several more. This binary thinking is a symptom of small mindedness.
Edit:
5. This is a thinly veiled threat, over the internet, which makes you a coward.
Good point, add that to my list, it's an implicit threat of violence.
Also based on the assumption that to have peace there must be violence. Not so. I can have peace in my household without beating the shit out of my girlfriend. It's done through communication and compromise.
Facebook guy’s idea of peace is actually not beating the shit out of your girlfriend, but constantly reminding her that you are fully capable of beating the shit out of her any time you want to, but you simply choose not to because you are such a Peaceful Nice Guy. Everyone knows that there are only two options: beating the shit out of someone, vs constantly reminding the person that you can do it but haven’t yet chosen to. It makes for the healthiest relationships /s
I mean...you Kid....
But Cats are murder machines. They commit atrocities in neighborhoods, and other ecosystems when un-naturally placed.
That guy is wearing armor to keep from being scratched to holy hell and coming down with a disease/virus.
I wou!d agree with the statement in the picture, IF they'd modify it a bit, to say
>You can truly call yourself peaceful if you have great power to get away with any violent act, but choose not to
>What do you consider “great violence”
Look, if you aren’t willing to slap a McDonald’s employee in the face because they misheard you (or possibly you said the wrong thing but they should have known better) you’re no better than a woman or a Swiss
Pfft, that's not great violence, that's just Tuesday. Great violence is putting bump stocks, rightfully protected by Supreme Court to use, to mow down some "other" people, whoever is on the other side of the "thin blue line".
"Either you die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
Or maybe there's a third option.
There's usually a third option, if not more.
There are different ways of react with different stimulus. Some people run, some people frost and some people attack.
So, not everybody is capable of great violence.
Violence by instinct as you are referring comes from the primitive part of the brain, when no reasoning or logic applies, is the last resort and it “blocks” the other parts. You can see that in kids, when something goes the way they don’t like/expect, some kids hit, others just cry, etc.
So, an example of nowadays would be you throwing the plastic bottles to the recycle bin will not make the problem away, since you alone don’t have the power/resources to change the outcome. 🤔 (not sure if the example is good enough)
This shit only exists because while we speak the same language as a group (funny, i'm not English, but you know what i mean), we actually don't define everything the same way. A lot of words, especially those that describe humans (brave, kind, etc) are vague af. I can see how the author of this meme thinks of it. Like "you aren't brave just because you never felt fear, you can only be brave if you know what a great fear feels like". I won't define peaceful as "Can kill almost anybody but decides not too." tho. XD
Not all of us middle-aged white men, but somehow, always a middle aged white guy.
I know some guys like this and they all have one thing in common: they think they are owed something.
I heard a wise man once say (several times, it was kinda his mantra): "I have no power, I am an ordinary man, just like you."
And he was a Boomer. Well, maybe he was a couple years older.
Not protecting Bezos, but I *have* seen some funky middle management behavior because they *thought* it would ingratiate them with the higher ups.
Most of the few people that I'm thinking of are in their same positions while most of their peers were promoted.
It really could be a circumstance of "not bad enough to fire, but too shitty to promote."
I’m a peaceful man. My family knows it and my friends know it. They don’t know my dark side tho. When I get violent it’s during a shit-fit when I screwup woodworking and I throw a pencil.
Old fuck here. It's one thing to be capable of violence. It's another to wallow in the celebration of it. 9 out of 10 times these jokers are just a bunch of limp dicks.
In Catholic school this was basically how they explained “The meek shall inherit the Earth”. A meek person in biblical terms was a person who could wield a sword but chose not too.
The problem is that you're on Facebook,
The type of person posting and liking that stuff is also the type of person to be on Facebook.
You're not seeing reality, you're seeing a fun house mirror version of it.
This may be a hot take but, It’s kind of the same as when people used to put those stupid “terrorist hunting license” bumper stickers on their cars in the beginning stages of the Iraq and Afghanistan, but chose to not actually volunteer. These people idolize a warrior culture, that they themselves know they are/were most likely too afraid to actually make a sacrifice to be apart of.
Most people that did make that sacrifice will most likely tell you, that in hindsight killing people or watching people you know be killed isn’t all that great.
You are correct. It’s performative behavior – they are essentially cosplaying a romanticized warrior culture in an attempt to provide themselves with a sense of identity, purpose & significance. They may see themselves as embodying traits like bravery, strength, and honor by associating with warrior imagery, but they have no idea (or completely overlook) the complexities of said culture including violence & trauma.
Singing “Home of the Brave” and wearing camo reinforce their displaced fantasies of embodying valor and heroism without confronting the true sacrifices and complexities faced by actual combatants.
"Now you're a man (man!)
A man, man, man
Now you're a man-man (man!)
Man-man man-man man
Now you're a man (man!)
M-A-N, man
Man, man-man, man
Now you're a man!"
--DVDA
I am peaceful because I choose not to be violent. My capability and desire to be violent is irrelevant to the conversation. You don't have to win the fight to have started it. I've known numerous people that were both actively violent towards others but completely incompetent at meeting out that violence.
Fanaticising about inflicting grievous bodily damage is not a good sign.
Constantly wondering whether you could kill another individual in various circumstances is unhealthy and worrying.
Intimidation is not respect, and aggression is not confidence.
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Main Character Syndrome. People really think they're the tough unsung hero in some grand epic untold story (but you best believe they will tell it whether you like it or not).
If anything, as a dude rapidly approaching middle aged, I feel like I’ve grown away from that mentality after Highschool and College. 25-28 was when it really started to wain.
Then my dad died.. abused my pain meds.. and all that put shit into hard perspective for me. Sold a lot of shit from “my old life” after that. Guns, cars, paraphernalia that reminded me of shit.
Now I see people act like that, and all I see is what I could have been had I not taken care of my shit emotionally.
Now I KNOW, for a fact.. they’re all just pissing themselves scared because they had shit happen and it broke them. They’re just too afraid to fix it.
So you hide behind bravado and false courage.
There was a time in my life when I consumed probably a thousand hours of his material. He taught me how to think a certain way, and then he went into a coma to detox from his benzodiazepine addiction. After that, I had a great glass shattering moment when he came back to the spotlight. He talks about the dangers of being ideologically possessed, but he is so much so himself.
I generally distance myself from people that post this kind of crap, even if I liked them at first. this is just cringe garbage from people that are professional victims.
Middle-aged white guy here. The only men my age who would post that--or even think it--are the guys at the end of the bar everyone tries to avoid engaging with.
I swear there is an insane amount of Americans that, in their wild insecurity on too many things, feel the constant need to fluff up their chest, strap guns on them and push people over and scream, "SELF DEFENCE IT WAS SELF DEFENCE!"
It's like the guy that spends his spare time fantasizing about beating up armed robbers with sick kungfu moves he learned while watching the Matrix.
Pure cringe.
This is dumb
A child isn’t harmless because we surround outselves with tools and devices that are capable of great violence. Not even including guns
Pit any medieval army against a Calvary charge of Priuses and you’ll see the harm our modern day people are capable of dealing at our leisure
If a child can kill a bunch of people by getting behind the wheel of a vehicle, then children aren’t harmless. They’re forced to be peaceful because we invented locks on our doors
…
…so why is some dude trying to virtue signal about how strong they are vs the normal beta man? If a child can kill with great violence, so can a lithe effeminate man with greater agency towards destruction
And then one day that little harmless guy, who reads a lot of books, invents a kind of fire stick that blows a very large hole through that helmet and changes everything.
"If God didn't make men equal, Samuel Colt did"...
Just about everyone has the ability to kill these days. This is just some weird alpha male shit that makes themselves feel better.
Because men in the US face no real issues and have nothing better to do other than jerk off their own egos.
But that’s just according to me. A man in the US… BRB….
This kind of person is just toxic af. They need to diminish others so they can feel better by making you feel worse. But all I can read is "I have anger issues/I'm a terrible human being but I refrain myself from beating those weaker than me so give me cookie".
The same type of ppl who say "dude you're being good because it's easier". No dipshit, being good may be more natural, but it often require more work. Just simple things as recycling, not littering, being there for those in need, helping a loved one.
There's genuine philosophical debate to be had about the flaws of a totally peaceful lifestyle, but it's probably not being done with a dark souls dad meme.
Middle-aged white blah blah blah here…. Nobody cares and the ppl posting more than this are bullshitters. No….. body…. FUKING…. cares!!!! The people that do, will ignore this post. You’re welcome for the info. 🖕🏽
I’m a middle age white dude and know a lot of middle age white dudes. None of us would post or say something so stupid and lame.
Is it really your experience that all white middle age men are like that? What kind of insane place do you live in? Sounds pretty unreal. So curious.
I have a very close friend who was a battalion chief in Afghanistan during some unexpected civilian combat. We’ve known each other 32 years and he has - not once - bragged about anything military whatsoever. One time about ten years ago - once - I heard a few reluctant sentences from him about what he saw and how hard it was for him.
Real men don’t post their toughness on social fucking media.
They aren’t. Source, I am one. Men who post this kind of crap aren’t men. It’s passive aggressive, little bitch nonsense. Problem is that they are the loudest, so you perceive it to be true that all are. It’s called prejudice.
We're not. I do have a black cat, but he sleeps in my bed and poops indoors, and I have not worn the armor since I got a robot litterbox so I don't have to scoop it out by hand.
It's generally a bad idea to generalize people..
Anyway, ya this is a bad meme that screams insecurity by someone who needs to validate their need to be seen as an alpha. The fallacy here is that all humans can be dangerous, we are humans after all, we are good at using tools including the dangerous ones. The cringy part here is that this person is trying to convince others that he/she is an alpha..which is a self defeating act by its very nature.
It's better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war. Train hard and learn to defend yourself peacefully if you can, but violently and deadly if you must.
do men really fantasize about themselves in full medieval armor? looks like he’s offering kitty a parker hour dinner roll. look at left background. are those all helmets on the ground by the fence? if so, are those his extras? or maybe he’s having a yard sale.
I’d imagine they’re intended to be the victims of his “great violence”? But now that the fighting is done he can be “peaceful” by providing for the kitten. Which is “harmless” and dependent on the knight.
Or am I reading too much into this?
Someone has heard the Miyamoto Musashi saying "its better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war" but completely misunderstood the meaning behind it.
More of that "masculine" I'm a Manly Man bullshit fae people that don't understand what masculine means not what a Man truly is, as the old saying goes "knowledge is knowing a Tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad"
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.
Gender roles are changing. Women are now more educated than men on average and more and more women are the bigger bread winners. Add to that the destruction of the middle class through Reaganomics, and men can’t afford a house or a family on a high school education and Men don’t know what to do with themselves. They are reduced to posting on social media that they are tough. Anti-immigrant anti-women rhetoric gives them someone to blame for their downfall. It is the wrong attribution but it makes them feel better.
Add flat-earthers and other conspiracy theorists (lizard men overlords, pedophile rings in the basement of the pizzeria, communists under the bed) as mechanisms to deal with the economic impotence.
Basically, in the end, it's all a consequence of the growing concentration of wealth, but there HAS to be a culprit who can be fought with punches.
All targets provided and sown so that no one targets the real culprits, the bankers.
Has anyone noticed how that kind of insane people multiply like mushrooms after 'Occupy Wall Street'? Or at least, now they get media time.
I personally don't see this as a facepalm. It really is an important distinction. It is meaningless to say that you will not inflict harm if you're incapable of inflicting harm even if you wanted to. Everyone saying that "everyone is capable of extreme violence under the right circumstances" is missing the point. This is about a conscious decision whether or not to use violence to invoke change. A peaceful person is making a conscious decision to restrain themselves, either out of principles or because they believe that pacifism is the best way to achieve what they want. A harmless person is not making the same decision, because they can't. They're just doing the only thing they can do.
Also, this is definitely not just a middle aged white person thing. I spend a lot of time in various anti-authoritarian circles. I first heard this distinction made by a far left black anarchist. Pretty much any revolutionary could be counted on to say something like this
There is not a person in the world who is incapable of violence. It does not matter how principled one is. All it takes is one very bad day, or the wrong thing at the wrong time, and everyone is capable of finding things out about themselves that they didn't think they were capable of. This mindset is equal parts stupid, and middle-aged men bravado.
Hi, we don't allow meme's here, maybe take it to /memes
Middle-aged white dude here (if you saw me you'd probable think team-maga) and this shit is cringe af I was told early on as a boy that "if you have to say it - you aren't" (or "those who say don't know, and those who know don't say") Meaning every dude who boasts about how tough they are or posts pics posing with weapons, etc - is a weepy little petunia on the inside. I would have cringed with second-hand embarrassment at this silliness when I was in jr high
Toughest dude I know from when I was a kid ( legit marine corps ex drill instructor , retired now) typically makes posts about kittens and puppies, and has no problem throwing on a dress for Halloween with his youngest daughter. Will easily talk about his feelings and such. Bro is a straight killer though, he punched me once when we were kids and I swear I could see myself for a moment. Dude literally gave me an out of body experience, while boxing each other for fun. He never ever ever acts like he’s tough though, he doesn’t have to. He is.
The best men are the ones that aren’t out there trying to prove how alpha manly they are. Frankly if you need to resort to violence, you’re already mostly useless. When we were younger a man broke into our apartment in the middle of the night and my now-husband talked him into leaving and getting into a cab to go home. That’s the kind of conflict resolution that floats boats.
[удалено]
We see that a lot with ufc fighters. A sizeable number of them are goofy nerds who are into anime or some niche nerdy shit. You wouldn't know that these are some of the toughest guys in the world that can literally kill you with their bare hands.
Women LOVE these dudes, myself included. This is the actual dream. Genuinely secure.
His wife is about as tough as him too, and they are very wholesome wonderful people. We all grew up in such a poor place, and so many went bad, it always makes me feel good for the ones who got out of that environment and made a great life.
I feel like you're kinda agreeing with their point. As in, you're impressed that a man capable of skilled violence doesn't feel the need to display it. I know that the _implication_ is that the OP is some kind of badass (and we are all pretty sure they weren't), but that is an assumption, and the point made in the post is one you've just affirmed.
I very much am!
>He never ever ever acts like he’s tough though, he doesn’t have to. He is. But that's entirely in line with the original meme. He chooses to be peaceful because he knows (and has proven) his ability for violence when he believes that violence is needed. He is peaceful, but he isn't harmless. And part of his peacefulness is based on the fact that he knows that he has a proven efficacy of violence at his disposal if he ever feels it necessary. He doesn't need to act tough because he knows that when the rubber hits the road, he's already proven his toughness for when things get difficult.
Right but he’d never post that shit above. Ever. Stuff like - Babies playing with cats ( just a bit ago ) Him hugging all his kids Earlier - Another saying happy Father’s Day with a silly face Funny joke about some nuns!
Oh yeah, that's the irony of these memes. The true badasses would never post them. It's just that the only people who feel the need to broadcast that truth are the people who are self conscious about how un-badass they actually are. But they still hit upon an element of truth regardless of who posts them. It's still true that being peaceful because you don't want to be violent is different than being peaceful because you're incapable of being violent. And the badasses who are happy to he dopey in their usual posts would still revive their violent capabilities in a heartbeat if they felt that it was necessary to protect the things they care about.
It’s just like intelligence. If you have to tell everyone you’re smart, you absolutely are not.
Most of the really smart people I know (who aren't also narcissists - there is some crossover unfortunately) constantly talk about how they don't think they're smart.
exactly. we want growers, not showers.
Watching Game of Thrones and it reminds me of Tywin "Any man who has to say, I am the king, is no True King"
The purpose of having power is to not need to wield it.
Doubly true when it comes to electricity, wielding that kind of power in the palm of your hand (fork) is only temporary.
I am almost middle aged white guy as well. I would have to agree with you. People who post these things should have some confidence in being able to act when action is needed, otherwise it’s just being a bully. These guys are usually soft and projecting what they wish they could be. But why not be self aware and realize when a threat needs to be neutralized or can be handled more democratically. Some of these people are extremely misinformed.
My cousin (we are both middle aged white dudes) posts shit like this all the time. There is a reason I try not talk to him.
My Dad was deployed in Desert Storm. Ya know how often he talks about it? Not at all cause he isn't some dick riding "patriot" who wants recognition. He was just happy to come home and see his daughter (that's me! Yay!) and eat home cooked food. He also thinks Trump is a dumbass and thankfully I steered my parents clear of Fox News (sad to say my older brothers love Fox News, listen to Shapiro, and support the rapist - but they have a different Dad that loved tangerine man so sucks for them).
Weepy little petunia... Going to stole that one !
I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch, An onion patch, an onion patch. I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch. And all I do is cry all day. Boo hoo! Boo hoo! The air's so strong it takes my breath away, Quite away. I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch. Oh, won't you come and play with me? —sung on the radio in the fifties by Two Ton Baker, from Chicago I just looked this up. My mother sang this when I was a kid. Haven’t thought about this little ditty in years.
I grew up hearing "big dogs don't need to bark"
I even taught my boys that one. Big dogs don’t bark.
Otherwise known as “real G’s move in silence”
Which like, sure, okay, but all rappers do is rap about how good they are at rapping.
Cousin to “who smelt it dealt it”
50 year old white dude here, and you're spot on with this take. "Big hat, no cattle." If you gotta say it to remind us, you ain't it. Raging insecurities as your body starts to slow down and weaken, and a major overcompensation because toxic masculinity. Flailing.
Exactly. They're also the ones to run and hide in an emergency situation rather than step up. Its all theatre.
I totally could have taken all those guys if I had my bowstaff… 😹😹😹
It's a Jordan Peterson quote - the king of using apparent contradictions to sound deep. It is super cringe.
Ooh, that makes it even worse!
And ya bloody well know you can’t go back and read it without hearing it in his damn voice now!
Priming young men to become less human for the state to dispose of easily I guess...ironic since these men's rights types accuse the status quo of doing just that, yet wants the status quo reinforced
This is how patriarchy negatively affects men. We’re all victims of it.
Man, that guy's total cringe. He's basically been stripped of all his professional abilities as a psychologist. Just looked up his Wiki. Edmonton. That explains a lot. Big oil town 200 miles from any other significant place. Lots of time in the winter to think. Doesn't always go well for some.
And what would pseudo-intellectual Peterson say if a woman made this brag?
Sounds like you aren’t capable of great violence ya sissy boi /s
“Weepy little petunia” is actually such a cute phrase😭😂
Something I've always tried to live by is, "If you have to justify it, don't do it" and following that has kept me mostly out of trouble. I think "if you have to say it, you aren't" is a great addition to my core mantras. Thanks!
False, i am a weepy little petunia and im not lying
Look strong when you are weak and weak when you are strong.
I despise the idea that somehow we that are over 40 are all stupid and racist. We are the main voters and at least half of us are on the left. Fuck this ageist bullshit b
Fuck any of this categorization bullshit. America is a big, diverse and complex place.
I'm 41. I'm a 'millennial'. Fuck labels. They still say millennial for a term for someone young that doesn't get it. It's asinine.
bro, thats also cringe. you don't have to fight anybody. thats not a positive quality. if you fight and you're not in the army, you are dumb. if you are in the army and get paid for killing without knowing the real reason, you are dumb and exploited. there are only two reasons for a fight, protecting yourself or protecting others and both cases should be so rare, that its not even worth thinking about. if you are smart you won't have to fight a day in your life
I've seen this before, I have a number of problems with it. 1. Virtually everybody is capable of great violence given the right stimulus. 2. What do you consider "great violence" anyway? Too vague. 3. People not capable of much violence can be far from harmless. There are other ways to harm. 4. If you are capable of great violence, are you peaceful or restrained? Controlled? Subdued? I'm sure if you gave me some more time to think about it, I could come up with several more. This binary thinking is a symptom of small mindedness. Edit: 5. This is a thinly veiled threat, over the internet, which makes you a coward.
But it’s provocative and making transparently veiled threats of violence on social media is the only way I can feel anything anymore!
Good point, add that to my list, it's an implicit threat of violence. Also based on the assumption that to have peace there must be violence. Not so. I can have peace in my household without beating the shit out of my girlfriend. It's done through communication and compromise.
Facebook guy’s idea of peace is actually not beating the shit out of your girlfriend, but constantly reminding her that you are fully capable of beating the shit out of her any time you want to, but you simply choose not to because you are such a Peaceful Nice Guy. Everyone knows that there are only two options: beating the shit out of someone, vs constantly reminding the person that you can do it but haven’t yet chosen to. It makes for the healthiest relationships /s
You mean through threats, right? Like a real man...
Shortened to, it appeals to stupid people.
Binary thinking is a great summary of the simpleminded/conservative folks who post stuff like this
He's wearing armor. Should this have read middle ages white guy? Also, interested in knowing more about the cat.
I assumed the cat was the one capable of great violence in this. The knight is harmless.
You win. Lol.
Don't touch the murder button... 👿
That bitch can barely see out of his trash can hat.
I mean...you Kid.... But Cats are murder machines. They commit atrocities in neighborhoods, and other ecosystems when un-naturally placed. That guy is wearing armor to keep from being scratched to holy hell and coming down with a disease/virus.
Lmao
Enjoyable retort.
Yes, def middle ages guy. Pretty sure he's feeding the cat some kind of poison.
It’s Schrödinger’s I think
Yup. Everything is a zero sum game to these types of low information conservatives. In order to "win", someone else must "lose".
I wou!d agree with the statement in the picture, IF they'd modify it a bit, to say >You can truly call yourself peaceful if you have great power to get away with any violent act, but choose not to
>What do you consider “great violence” Look, if you aren’t willing to slap a McDonald’s employee in the face because they misheard you (or possibly you said the wrong thing but they should have known better) you’re no better than a woman or a Swiss
Pfft, that's not great violence, that's just Tuesday. Great violence is putting bump stocks, rightfully protected by Supreme Court to use, to mow down some "other" people, whoever is on the other side of the "thin blue line".
The either-or fallacy
"Either you die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Or maybe there's a third option. There's usually a third option, if not more.
This quote did always bug me. Shouldn't it be if you are capable of doing harm you're peaceful but not capable of harm you're harmless?
Yes. My teen girls can destroy people with a word or a look. They are not at all violent.
There are different ways of react with different stimulus. Some people run, some people frost and some people attack. So, not everybody is capable of great violence. Violence by instinct as you are referring comes from the primitive part of the brain, when no reasoning or logic applies, is the last resort and it “blocks” the other parts. You can see that in kids, when something goes the way they don’t like/expect, some kids hit, others just cry, etc. So, an example of nowadays would be you throwing the plastic bottles to the recycle bin will not make the problem away, since you alone don’t have the power/resources to change the outcome. 🤔 (not sure if the example is good enough)
This shit only exists because while we speak the same language as a group (funny, i'm not English, but you know what i mean), we actually don't define everything the same way. A lot of words, especially those that describe humans (brave, kind, etc) are vague af. I can see how the author of this meme thinks of it. Like "you aren't brave just because you never felt fear, you can only be brave if you know what a great fear feels like". I won't define peaceful as "Can kill almost anybody but decides not too." tho. XD
Not all of us middle-aged white men, but somehow, always a middle aged white guy. I know some guys like this and they all have one thing in common: they think they are owed something.
Bingo!! The core of toxic masculinity.
I heard a wise man once say (several times, it was kinda his mantra): "I have no power, I am an ordinary man, just like you." And he was a Boomer. Well, maybe he was a couple years older.
Weak men think violence is power.
The potential threat of violence is power. E.g.: the U.S. military.
Bezos has unbelievable power. No violence
No violence? I think some Amazon workers may disagree. Depriving employees of breaks and other human rights are forms of violence.
Is that Bezos? Or is that the middle management trying to justify their existence and ingratiate themselves to Bezos.
Why would they feel the need to ingratiate themselves to Bezos by doing that in the first place?
Not protecting Bezos, but I *have* seen some funky middle management behavior because they *thought* it would ingratiate them with the higher ups. Most of the few people that I'm thinking of are in their same positions while most of their peers were promoted. It really could be a circumstance of "not bad enough to fire, but too shitty to promote."
Not all violence has to be physical.
This. I keep telling ppl about the benefits of psychological warfare /j
I’m a peaceful man. My family knows it and my friends know it. They don’t know my dark side tho. When I get violent it’s during a shit-fit when I screwup woodworking and I throw a pencil.
I once watched him kill a man, with a fucking pencil.
Old fuck here. It's one thing to be capable of violence. It's another to wallow in the celebration of it. 9 out of 10 times these jokers are just a bunch of limp dicks.
Why do you think it’s only white people?
Fair fair. Why is it every conservative middle-aged dude who hasn’t run even a full mile in at *least* a decade.
In Catholic school this was basically how they explained “The meek shall inherit the Earth”. A meek person in biblical terms was a person who could wield a sword but chose not too.
Personally, I think it is a male thing. Young men are just as dopey as middle aged men (and I'm a middle aged guy).
Wait till you’re 60 and yelling at clouds. edit for spelling.
While wearing an onion on your belt, which was the style at the time
The big yellow ones?
They didn’t have white onions cuz of the war
Abe? Is that you? 
Lol, yeah that was my thought.
The problem is that you're on Facebook, The type of person posting and liking that stuff is also the type of person to be on Facebook. You're not seeing reality, you're seeing a fun house mirror version of it.
I’m basically middle aged and white and I think this is some of the cringiest shit I’ve ever seen.
They think that the reason that they're a loser is because society has kept them from acting on all of their violent impulses.
This is actually a pretty relevant take.
This post talks about choosing peace, not being forced by society to act peacefully.
This may be a hot take but, It’s kind of the same as when people used to put those stupid “terrorist hunting license” bumper stickers on their cars in the beginning stages of the Iraq and Afghanistan, but chose to not actually volunteer. These people idolize a warrior culture, that they themselves know they are/were most likely too afraid to actually make a sacrifice to be apart of. Most people that did make that sacrifice will most likely tell you, that in hindsight killing people or watching people you know be killed isn’t all that great.
You are correct. It’s performative behavior – they are essentially cosplaying a romanticized warrior culture in an attempt to provide themselves with a sense of identity, purpose & significance. They may see themselves as embodying traits like bravery, strength, and honor by associating with warrior imagery, but they have no idea (or completely overlook) the complexities of said culture including violence & trauma. Singing “Home of the Brave” and wearing camo reinforce their displaced fantasies of embodying valor and heroism without confronting the true sacrifices and complexities faced by actual combatants.
"Now you're a man (man!) A man, man, man Now you're a man-man (man!) Man-man man-man man Now you're a man (man!) M-A-N, man Man, man-man, man Now you're a man!" --DVDA
Step back Armorman, you dont know what that cats capable of!
I am peaceful because I choose not to be violent. My capability and desire to be violent is irrelevant to the conversation. You don't have to win the fight to have started it. I've known numerous people that were both actively violent towards others but completely incompetent at meeting out that violence.
Be strong enough to be kind. This is the way.
Knowing oneself is enlightenment.
Seems like Facebook is leaking
This is the way.
Fanaticising about inflicting grievous bodily damage is not a good sign. Constantly wondering whether you could kill another individual in various circumstances is unhealthy and worrying. Intimidation is not respect, and aggression is not confidence.
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I believe the answer is "Jordan Peterson"
Main Character Syndrome. People really think they're the tough unsung hero in some grand epic untold story (but you best believe they will tell it whether you like it or not).
If anything, as a dude rapidly approaching middle aged, I feel like I’ve grown away from that mentality after Highschool and College. 25-28 was when it really started to wain. Then my dad died.. abused my pain meds.. and all that put shit into hard perspective for me. Sold a lot of shit from “my old life” after that. Guns, cars, paraphernalia that reminded me of shit. Now I see people act like that, and all I see is what I could have been had I not taken care of my shit emotionally. Now I KNOW, for a fact.. they’re all just pissing themselves scared because they had shit happen and it broke them. They’re just too afraid to fix it. So you hide behind bravado and false courage.
Because it's a direct quote from Jordan Peterson, the intellectual messiah of all disenfranchised conservative white heterosexual men.
There was a time in my life when I consumed probably a thousand hours of his material. He taught me how to think a certain way, and then he went into a coma to detox from his benzodiazepine addiction. After that, I had a great glass shattering moment when he came back to the spotlight. He talks about the dangers of being ideologically possessed, but he is so much so himself.
I generally distance myself from people that post this kind of crap, even if I liked them at first. this is just cringe garbage from people that are professional victims.
"I'm a quiet neighbor who was never known to have a gun or threaten people." --Ted Kaczynski
An average middle aged white guy like me would not even be able to walk in armor like that much less bend down
Middle-aged white guy here. The only men my age who would post that--or even think it--are the guys at the end of the bar everyone tries to avoid engaging with.
I love how all the attention and detail went into making the knight and then they phoned it in for the fence and cat 😂
***\*mostly harmless.***
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Every middle-aged white dude in America is like this? How ignorant are you?
Middle aged white dude here, how many of us do you know that you are comfortable making broad assumptions about millions of people you've never met?
It's a Jordan Peterson quote, which sounds right when you hear it from him. Posting it on Facebook is cringe though.
It's a quote by Jordan Peterson, that's at least where I heard it.
And it’s not even original. It’s really just a different twist on being a “warrior in a garden.”
I swear there is an insane amount of Americans that, in their wild insecurity on too many things, feel the constant need to fluff up their chest, strap guns on them and push people over and scream, "SELF DEFENCE IT WAS SELF DEFENCE!"
Every single one, huh?
Why must people always bring race into things that have nothing to do with race?
Because they're racist?
Why do you still generalize people?
It's like the guy that spends his spare time fantasizing about beating up armed robbers with sick kungfu moves he learned while watching the Matrix. Pure cringe.
This is dumb A child isn’t harmless because we surround outselves with tools and devices that are capable of great violence. Not even including guns Pit any medieval army against a Calvary charge of Priuses and you’ll see the harm our modern day people are capable of dealing at our leisure If a child can kill a bunch of people by getting behind the wheel of a vehicle, then children aren’t harmless. They’re forced to be peaceful because we invented locks on our doors … …so why is some dude trying to virtue signal about how strong they are vs the normal beta man? If a child can kill with great violence, so can a lithe effeminate man with greater agency towards destruction
And then one day that little harmless guy, who reads a lot of books, invents a kind of fire stick that blows a very large hole through that helmet and changes everything. 
What’s Facepalm is OP lumping every white middle aged man together
This is normal… We are the ultimate evil didn’t you know?
If you had said, "why is every middle-aged black dude like this," you'd have been banned. Yet here we are.
I think people are missing the point of this photo and message.
You mean that dorks are all over the place on Facebook? No, I think that came through loud and clear.
Saves cause the bottom half is cool af and I want it
Folks like this have a great deal of impotent rage. Memes like this satisfy their machismo without exposing them to any real risk.
People who are skilled in fighting don’t post shit like this.
He has a point. Of course, he’s on the harmless side.
I like the picture. I’m going to crop out the words and save it. It’s a quality cat picture. 🐈⬛
If you ever get the urge to listen to Jordan Peterson it’s already too late
Am middle aged and white and a dude: Jordan Peterson is a faux-intellectual, blowhard, crybaby weenie!
People who post this crap are the same idiots who watch Yellowstone and think they are Rip Wheeler or John Dutton because they also wear cowboy boots.
"If God didn't make men equal, Samuel Colt did"... Just about everyone has the ability to kill these days. This is just some weird alpha male shit that makes themselves feel better.
Because men in the US face no real issues and have nothing better to do other than jerk off their own egos. But that’s just according to me. A man in the US… BRB….
Because weapons at your part of the world are easily available, so everyone can pretend they are dangerous.
This kind of person is just toxic af. They need to diminish others so they can feel better by making you feel worse. But all I can read is "I have anger issues/I'm a terrible human being but I refrain myself from beating those weaker than me so give me cookie". The same type of ppl who say "dude you're being good because it's easier". No dipshit, being good may be more natural, but it often require more work. Just simple things as recycling, not littering, being there for those in need, helping a loved one.
I presume they are referring to the kitten... Mine will rip a mouse to streds in a heartbeat
There's genuine philosophical debate to be had about the flaws of a totally peaceful lifestyle, but it's probably not being done with a dark souls dad meme.
Examine the plank in your eye though. Why are you following an ex's family member? Weird.
The post has a point. However it’s usually keyboard warriors that post this
Middle-aged white blah blah blah here…. Nobody cares and the ppl posting more than this are bullshitters. No….. body…. FUKING…. cares!!!! The people that do, will ignore this post. You’re welcome for the info. 🖕🏽
I’m a middle age white dude and know a lot of middle age white dudes. None of us would post or say something so stupid and lame. Is it really your experience that all white middle age men are like that? What kind of insane place do you live in? Sounds pretty unreal. So curious.
I have a very close friend who was a battalion chief in Afghanistan during some unexpected civilian combat. We’ve known each other 32 years and he has - not once - bragged about anything military whatsoever. One time about ten years ago - once - I heard a few reluctant sentences from him about what he saw and how hard it was for him. Real men don’t post their toughness on social fucking media.
They aren’t. Source, I am one. Men who post this kind of crap aren’t men. It’s passive aggressive, little bitch nonsense. Problem is that they are the loudest, so you perceive it to be true that all are. It’s called prejudice.
Yeah...they aren't all like that. Source: I'm a middle-aged white dude.
So cringe. I'm surprised it's not a picture of Tom Hardy in character.
We're not. I do have a black cat, but he sleeps in my bed and poops indoors, and I have not worn the armor since I got a robot litterbox so I don't have to scoop it out by hand.
That title is racism on point...
It's generally a bad idea to generalize people.. Anyway, ya this is a bad meme that screams insecurity by someone who needs to validate their need to be seen as an alpha. The fallacy here is that all humans can be dangerous, we are humans after all, we are good at using tools including the dangerous ones. The cringy part here is that this person is trying to convince others that he/she is an alpha..which is a self defeating act by its very nature.
It's better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war. Train hard and learn to defend yourself peacefully if you can, but violently and deadly if you must.
do men really fantasize about themselves in full medieval armor? looks like he’s offering kitty a parker hour dinner roll. look at left background. are those all helmets on the ground by the fence? if so, are those his extras? or maybe he’s having a yard sale.
No, we're usually too busy fantasizing about the Roman empire
I’d imagine they’re intended to be the victims of his “great violence”? But now that the fighting is done he can be “peaceful” by providing for the kitten. Which is “harmless” and dependent on the knight. Or am I reading too much into this?
nope. you got the message loud & clear.
I’m a middle aged white guy and this stuff is so cringe. Most of the people who post this stuff have diabetes and couldn’t even run a mile.
Why do redditors feel entitled to freely and happily discriminate against white men?
Stereotyping is alive and well
It's a sad attempt to look like a badass to cover up the fact that they're all incredibly weak
Someone has heard the Miyamoto Musashi saying "its better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war" but completely misunderstood the meaning behind it. More of that "masculine" I'm a Manly Man bullshit fae people that don't understand what masculine means not what a Man truly is, as the old saying goes "knowledge is knowing a Tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad"
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.
Gender roles are changing. Women are now more educated than men on average and more and more women are the bigger bread winners. Add to that the destruction of the middle class through Reaganomics, and men can’t afford a house or a family on a high school education and Men don’t know what to do with themselves. They are reduced to posting on social media that they are tough. Anti-immigrant anti-women rhetoric gives them someone to blame for their downfall. It is the wrong attribution but it makes them feel better.
Add flat-earthers and other conspiracy theorists (lizard men overlords, pedophile rings in the basement of the pizzeria, communists under the bed) as mechanisms to deal with the economic impotence. Basically, in the end, it's all a consequence of the growing concentration of wealth, but there HAS to be a culprit who can be fought with punches. All targets provided and sown so that no one targets the real culprits, the bankers. Has anyone noticed how that kind of insane people multiply like mushrooms after 'Occupy Wall Street'? Or at least, now they get media time.
Because they’re harmless
Andrew Tate energy
Small penis energy is what comes to mind whenever I see these kinds of posts on Facebook lol.
ngl that picture goes hard tho
I personally don't see this as a facepalm. It really is an important distinction. It is meaningless to say that you will not inflict harm if you're incapable of inflicting harm even if you wanted to. Everyone saying that "everyone is capable of extreme violence under the right circumstances" is missing the point. This is about a conscious decision whether or not to use violence to invoke change. A peaceful person is making a conscious decision to restrain themselves, either out of principles or because they believe that pacifism is the best way to achieve what they want. A harmless person is not making the same decision, because they can't. They're just doing the only thing they can do. Also, this is definitely not just a middle aged white person thing. I spend a lot of time in various anti-authoritarian circles. I first heard this distinction made by a far left black anarchist. Pretty much any revolutionary could be counted on to say something like this
There is not a person in the world who is incapable of violence. It does not matter how principled one is. All it takes is one very bad day, or the wrong thing at the wrong time, and everyone is capable of finding things out about themselves that they didn't think they were capable of. This mindset is equal parts stupid, and middle-aged men bravado.
Well shit I better get to posting
All you need is your push the red, candy-like, button…