Bask in me

Tuesday 12/23/25

Does anybody actually have anything of any significance and value for anyone else? Or even just of honest intention?

Another question: Is any aspect of our society more dominant than inauthenticity?

I ask rhetorically, but there's always a statement in a question which says, "This may be possible." Hardly anyone or anything is what they or it is purported to be. You go through your day and look at this person, and this thing being sold, and this service, and so little, if any of it, is real. You have to wade through so much to encounter anything that is real, and then we're talking fractionally real. You'd think that being authentic, that something being authentic, bordered on the impossible. Was the stuff of miracles. But shouldn't it be so easy?

I find the narcissism of people--and it's most people--stunning. They make it almost impossible to be kind to them. To wish to put forth the effort and energy that is a part of kindness. Because when you do, they just try to get more or go on about themselves further. These same people will complain about the absence in the world of a kind of person they want--in whatever capacity; either romantically, or as a friend, or just for them to be out there in the world making it a better place; but that same person could reach out to them, and they'd be too busy tonguing their own navels to realize it.

Talk about an irony. And you could never get them to understand this, because that would take qualities they don't possess, which they may have once had, but were rubbed away from all the days spent hyper-fixated on their increasingly limited selves. I'd say this is more of a female thing than a male thing, which has something to do with the nature of social media and it being far easier to rack up the likes and the followers if one is female, everything else being equal. That produces a form of conditioning that just isn't good.

Yesterday I sent a quick note to someone who had posted a photo of some jeans that were comprised of strips of fabric from other sources. They post a number of fashion-related things, I guess, which I don't find interesting. It's like tattoos--it's just something on top of you. I care what's inside of you. With most people, that's nothing, and these are a couple of the ways they try and compensate for that, which of course compensates for nothing.

This person wrote, though, that she liked these jeans because they made her think of her sister and how she'd make clothes for her before they left Vietnam. Her other posts were about her writing, being one of the millions of pretend writers. I send said quick note, and this person responds and "invites" me to check out a post on her blog so I can presumably bask in more of her amazing writing. Me, of all people. People are delusional with how narcissistic they are. Absolutely delusional.

I'm dumbfounded by how into themselves uninteresting people with no other interests are. It's basically all I see, but that doesn't mean it blows my mind any the less. What are we doing? What is any other human out there just about doing? Why are you living like this? Why do you want to be this way? It's such an empty life. You have to kill off your intellect in order to be able to go on like this. Because otherwise you wouldn't be able to handle the truth of what you were and all that you aren't. So you need to be stupid. You need to have no idea about anything, including yourself.

Astounds me away that anyone, let alone practically everyone, would in effect choose to be this way. Then again, we make all of these others choices as pertains to the hastening of our nullity which makes something like this happen automatically, for the most part. I can't conceive of responding like that to someone being who I am and doing what I do at the level I do it, never mind if I'm some pretend writer?

"Bask in me. Pay tribute to me."

With your twaddle? Are you serious? Did this person think I was going to count myself blessed and enriched by reading something she posted about a dress? This would set me on a straighter path? Inspire me? And you know this person would never give any attention to anything I'd write or have written, because all they know is to fixate on themselves. The irony of me sending that note and receiving that response is something else. You talk about backwards.

People are out of their minds on account of their narcissism. And oblivious.

This is a bit different, but I wrote this op-ed about how someone will bemoan that they're alone, and the person they want doesn't exist, all of that. Usually it's women complaining about how much men suck and there isn't any man who is any different from the rest of them that all suck. This woman could say she's looking for someone who is like this, like that, interested in this, interested in that. Highly specific things. Enough of them, say, that there might only be one person in the world who fits that bill.

And if that person gets in touch with that woman, she will blow him off. She'll respond with a heart emoji like a dull, simple child, or a "TY" for thank you, because she's that narcissistic and arrogant that it's important for her to show that this other person isn't worth her time of typing out the token words. She'll pay no attention to what that person said, have no interest in who they are. Won't look into that. Because all she wants is that attention. The funny thing is, if the next time she's bitching about the matters above someone were to say, "Actually, that person came knocking right on your door, sent you a lovely note," this woman would say, "That never happened."

That's what narcissism does. Among other things.

Just saw this post where this woman says that the comeback is better than the setback. Well no fucking shit. You think? A comeback is better than a setback? People are so stupid they can't even get their stupid cliches correct. Isn't this one that the comeback is stronger than the setback? Which isn't much better, admittedly. Doesn't make a ton of sense. But she had many thousands of followers and lots of posts in bikinis. Because people value what she has to say. Right? Isn't that what someone like this wants to think? Nothing but photos of herself, most of them featuring her ass. That must do wonders for a healthy sense of self.

You have all these people with their "Merry Christmas" photos of themselves, in which they wish their "loves"--their social media followers, presumably, and people who just happen by--the happiest of days, an amazing morning, etc. This isn't how Christmas works. It's not what it's about.

None of these people are actually wishing anyone a happy anything with any sincerity behind it. They think, "If I post such and such, I can get likes." Take away the likes, take away the format, take away the numbers, take away the comments, take away any sources of cheap and instant "gratification," and just leave the sharing site--so it's just what everyone posts--and I bet you 90% of the people who post now wouldn't post at all.

None of this is for anyone else in any capacity. It's not to interest them, educate them, inspire them, comfort them, entertain them. It's for the hollow post-human who posted it in almost every instance. Who has the ability to interest, educate, inspire, comfort, or entertain anyone? Who is even remotely funny?

Saw this other post today and the guy writes, "Saw my old teacher on the subway, and when I got up to give him my seat, he told me to stay in my seat." I knew if I clicked on that bio I'd see that he called himself a comedian, and sure enough, there it was. Said he wrote jokes, too, for Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live. Sure. Go get 'em, laugh master.

Here's another:

Rewatching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (in realtime) as an adult… what did you notice? Cause… 

People are so dumb now that they have no clue what the term "real time" means, but I'm seeing it used more and more, because it's one of those terms--like "inflection point"--that people think means/proves their smart if they use it. That'll get you a thousand likes, though. Something intelligent will get you zero. Because that's how it works, and I don't think there are a thousand people smart enough in the world right now to know that.

The casual slapping around of the word "love" disturbs me. Love is rare. Love is precious. It's not a term to whore around. Anyone who does, doesn't know what love is. Has never loved and is incapable of loving. As presently constituted. And as we were discussing the other day, it's not like people change to the good.

I think people do next to nothing for anyone else. Everything they do is for themselves. Even things they do that look like they're done for another person, wouldn't be done if that thing didn't also help them get or keep what they want for themselves. Altruism is practically nonexistent.

Everything has become performative and utilitarian. It has to benefit the doer and/or the speaker. Kindness is altruistic and also the result of a consciously maintained, self-constructed moral standard. It can be one's nature, but it's not something that happens by accident. That means decision and effort is involved. That means thinking, too. And imagination, because empathy is required. People don't think, people don't make effort, and people don't have imaginations. So you get a world with very little real kindness, and endless amounts of narcissism.