Feel like you want to sneer about something but you donā€™t quite have a snappy post in you? Go forth and be mid!

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cutā€™nā€™paste it into its own post, thereā€™s no quota here and the bar really isnā€™t that high

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many ā€œesotericā€ right wing freaks, but thereā€™s no appropriate sneer-space for them. Iā€™m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged ā€œculture criticsā€ who write about everything but understand nothing. Iā€™m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. Theyā€™re inescapable at this point, yet I donā€™t see them mocked (as much as they should be)
Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldnā€™t be surgeons because they didnā€™t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I canā€™t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

    • hrrrngh@awful.systems
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      8 months ago

      This is tangential, but thereā€™s a surprisingly interesting article about penis enlargement from ProPublica. Itā€™s sobering to see people whoā€™ve convinced themselves it must have worked, because itā€™s too horrible to consider whether they actually made things worse. If there are any crazy, invasive age therapies out there, maybe thereā€™d be similar themes.

      https://www.propublica.org/article/penis-enlargement-enhancement-procedures-implants

      • V0ldek@awful.systems
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        8 months ago

        Jesus Christ, Iā€™m a penis haver and reading this gives the same sensations as watching people be punched in the balls.

        The amount of toxic masculinity brain rot required before you willingly go for such an invasive procedure is inconceivable to me.

        Also, this fucking quote:

        You have to treat your penis like a Rolex.

        What in the fuckā€™s mercy is this supposed to mean? Youā€™re supposed to change its battery every few years? Take it off at night? I have a watch, just, you know, not a Rolex, a normal-person fucking watch, and I canā€™t decipher this. Is there some specific species of brain worm you get when you buy specifically a Rolex watch?

        • V0ldek@awful.systems
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          8 months ago

          Bonus

          Gordon Muir, a urologist in London, said that heā€™s been taking out Penumas ā€œall the way across the bloody pond.ā€

          Perfectly placed in the article, youā€™re reading about a horrific predatory industry and then a Brit pops up saying ā€œah those fookinā€™ yankee wankers, mangling cocks and sending them to meā€. Just all-round endearing.

        • carlitoscohones@awful.systems
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          8 months ago

          Iā€™m now imagining populations of penis havers who scoff at the enlarged ones behaving like the Rolex aficionados who play ā€œspot the fake Rolexā€ and get into all kinds of watch minutiae. Look at the telltale marks around the base - definitely enlarged, not like my 100% natural model, which comes 2.5 seconds fast per day.

        • Architeuthis@awful.systems
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          8 months ago

          The amount of toxic masculinity brain rot required before you willingly go for such an invasive procedure is inconceivable to me.

          The writer says thereā€™s some indication it may literally be a psychiatric condition along the lines of body dysmorphia, and that most people who go through with it are at least average sized but unhealthily preoccupied with their member, consistently reporting feelings of shame and helplessness.

          She also says that supposedly the consensus on the evolution of genital size has been quietly moving away from assumptions about giving an edge with inseminatory success and towards them being just for show, as apparently male primates do tend to involve their genitals in threat displays. Which is to say, maybe for some people itā€™s just unusual wiring that manifests as penis related existential angst.

          Still, it doesnā€™t mention the extent to which the above is just evo-psych enthusiasts idly theorizing, or if field testing actually showed itā€™s possible to win a showdown with a gorilla by dropping trou and windmilling.

          And then thereā€™s also the guy who had the procedure done and is super happy about it, except heā€™s now looking at options for enlarging his wifeā€™s vaginal canal and entrance as sheā€™s been having a rough time of it, and who Iā€™m sure would be found out to be the walking and talking personification of toxic masculinity if you were to give him the time of day.

          • mountainriver@awful.systems
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            8 months ago

            Penis enlargement and breast implants can be understood as gender affirming surgery for cis people, it is just an affirmation of the gender assigned at birth. Rather than go to primates I would point to ancient Greece and itā€™s statues to make the point that ideals of gender and bodies shift over time. Greek statues shows as I understand it often an ideal body, which by the norms of its time included a rather small penis. So maybe some male ancient Greeks wished there were treatments to shrink their package?

            With gorillas, my understanding is that primates that have very unequal sizes between the sexes has small penises, while its among the primates with roughly equal body size you find larger penises. So akin to plummage, the males showing off of that their bodies can afford to waste resources, and thus presumably is very fit. I am no biologist, but I think this means that if you try to win a domination fight with a gorilla, it may show who is the boss by showing off its physical strength. So not recommended.

          • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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            8 months ago

            Show it to others as a visual gaudy signal of wealth?

            Or to tell time? lifts left testicle ā€œtenā€ lifts right ā€œthirteenā€.

      • carlitoscohones@awful.systems
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        8 months ago

        Tangential to your tangential - nice to see that the moral compass of McKinsey associates is still true north.

        By the end of the year, Elist was doing roughly 60 Penuma procedures a month, and his oldest son, Jonathan, left a job at McKinsey to become the CEO of International Medical Devices, as they called their family firm.

      • Architeuthis@awful.systems
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        8 months ago

        On a lighter note:

        [Dr. Penile Implants] has also been named as a defendant in product liability lawsuits regarding inflatable penile prosthesis brought by plaintiffs Dick Glass and Semen Brodsky.

      • gerikson@awful.systems
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        8 months ago

        CW, if you are male, maybe skip the part where the actual implant procedure is described. Starting with the sentence ā€œWith a purple marker,ā€

        • Mike Knell@blat.at
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          8 months ago

          @gerikson Eh, I grew up in a family of doctors. Theyā€™d discuss their workdays at the dinner table. I fear nothing. Letā€™s have a read, see what all the fuss is abā€¦ (turns green, excuses self)

          • gerikson@awful.systems
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            8 months ago

            Someone on Masto thought that the industry had missed a chance to call the procedure ā€œspatchcockingā€.

          • David Gerard@awful.systemsOPM
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            8 months ago

            working at an unspecified medical journal over an unspecified period of time

            we occasionally had to remind ourselves about appropriate and inappropriate placeholder imagery

    • Mii@awful.systems
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      8 months ago

      There seems to be some legitimate research into the effectiveness of anti-aging compounds like retinol, also theyā€™ve come out with some good advice like wearing sunscreen, drinking enough water, and eating balanced diets to promote skin health which reduces the signs of what we usually associate with aging, if you count that.

      • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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        8 months ago

        so the actual advice is ā€œdonā€™t eat trash less healthy than asbestosā€

        there are some people claiming that polyphenols, flavins or other pharmalogically mischievous, promiscuous trash like that that is barely soluble in the first place and shredded by liver within minutes after absorption into bloodstream is the Real Secret To Long Life ā„¢ but itā€™s really proxy for the not-deep-fried-everything diet, or at least thatā€™s the impression that iā€™m getting

        one specific strain that boils my piss the most is curcumin peddlers, because they waste everyoneā€™s time and itā€™s a part of government-funded altmed disinformation campaign (of India in this case)

          • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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            8 months ago

            seed oilers donā€™t even have an interesting conspiracy theory

            heartbreaking: the worst person you know just made a great point:

            The furor over seed oils has gotten so intense that on Aug. 15, Andrew Tate couldnā€™t help but mock people about it: ā€œSEED OILS SEED OILS OMG SEED OILS OMG FUCKING OMG SEED OILS FUCK FUCK OMG FUCK,ā€ he tweeted. ā€œI can tell you losers have never had real enemies. Youā€™re afraid of sunflowers. You legit wonā€™t shut up about it.ā€

    • swlabr@awful.systems
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      8 months ago

      Iā€™ve tried various face creams of different levels of prestige and not really noticed a difference, so, no, I guess.

    • Soyweiser@awful.systems
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      8 months ago

      Think dgerard mentioned last time I talked about it re H+ transhumanism anti aging that it all seems to have stalled.

      • David Gerard@awful.systemsOPM
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        8 months ago

        none of it ever went anywhere (because these people are clowns who barely understand the thing they claim to be doing) and de Grey got kicked out of the pseudoscience charity he founded for sexual harassment