Stoney

Oh my god, what a fucking album! Oh my god, what a fucking album!! FANTASTIC!!!!

Ezekiel, you want to teach me that life is hard, and those who succumb do so because they are weak and do not know how to fight, but I know that is not the case. The clashes between animals are on equal terms, while down here the struggle is between omnipotent entities on one side and poor wretches on the other. It’s easy, Ezekiel, to think that way; I, however, believe that humanity lacks neither intelligence nor the capability to ensure a dignified existence for everyone. Let’s just say that it’s more convenient for you to make your calculations work this way and to self-justify the arrogance you maintain when speaking to people in this channel. You mistake a different perspective for weakness or lack of confidence, and that says a lot about the level you are on. However, I lack neither: my awareness is that I am not capable of "asserting" myself in society, I cannot throw myself into competitions nor have the initiative to do jobs that would provide enough money for me to live lavishly, and I cannot stand that this is seen as an incapacity to be punished or a reason for resentment, especially when it is people like you who write the rules from the height of your sense of duty, distributing blame and merit with arrogance. Not everyone can have the same kind of intelligence: the mentality you advocate instead insists that everyone is equal and that everyone develops the same abilities, and most importantly, it justifies the oppression of those who cannot do so.

I also went to Elric's page, and I shouldn't have done it.

@@Ezekiel, you who come here saying that "you come to break our ass because we need it," you don't even feel ashamed. You want to act humble, claiming you've always worked hard, but in the end, you're just looking for a way to feel better than those around you, and quite frankly, you don't even succeed. You don't realize that for every one like you who has managed to rise up, another fifty will find themselves in the same situation as you, in a vicious cycle that will never end. To think that the solution to all evils is simply to work hard means ignoring how many people live, and it's no less utopian than any discourse on anarchy or communism. It's mere ideology, yours included. You come here claiming you're the sweat and sacrifice you've faced in your life, and you think that those who haven't faced the same amount are worth nothing. It's a very modern way of thinking, unfortunately, the same as certain shady characters who have changed the face of our society (for the worse). Perhaps you ignore that even those who have done less than you in life can teach you lessons in fields you can't even imagine, or that you don't want to consider because you deem them useless, showing ignorance. Hold tight to your hard work made of "noble toil," and keep judging those who "complain"; I will continue to judge people, if I must do so, based on what they have to say and express, regardless of how much they have "broken their back" in life. Keep looking at the example of the worker who "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps" according to modern bourgeois myths; I look at the downtrodden, the disillusioned, those thrown out the door; I think of families where both parents work from morning to night and can't be with their children in the name of the idea that working a lot is always better. I think of myself and my colleagues overwhelmed with overtime because "you’re young, what else do you have to do?" I think of the common people's disdain for professors and teachers because "they work little" and then complain about the lack of culture in the new generations, and in general, I think of the injustice perpetrated by your way of thinking, blessed by the culture of the time you are part of. Those you call slackers are merely the marginalized living outside your mentality, which has now become everyone's, seemingly made up of high moral values but essentially steeped in bullying, an apologia of oppression, and ideological racism. It is people like you who invented it, and they did it just to feel better.

*so then you think that others have to do it too

I don’t wallow in self-pity; it’s just that I feel called out, because often, because of what I’ve shared, I’m seen as a “slacker” as well. I’d rather be rejected at a job interview with the excuse that I can’t do anything than feel accused of a delay in my studies that I didn’t choose. Because it’s clear that a physical and “documented” ailment is one thing, but depression, what do you want it to be? It’s just a game for a lazy teenager who can afford to think about the big issues and feel down about it. But I’m not saying these things to play the victim myself or to seek merits that don’t belong to me, if that’s what you’re insinuating. I’m saying this just to make you realize how superficial it is to divide the world into those who want to work and those who complain. You see, you can’t even conceive that a statement like mine isn’t made out of victimhood or pretension, and that’s because since you’re the first to do this, you think everyone else should do it too.

You've all broken my balls with your rankings of misfortune: "I’ve worked harder than you, I’ve been working for 45 years while you’ve only done it for 10, I’ve given up this, I’ve given up that." It seems that whoever has taken it hardest is always the best. Victims of Catholic morality, that’s what you are. I suffered from severe depression that devastated me from the age of 21 to 25, I graduated 6 years late and now I’m just "working a bit," and when I hear people whining about "putting in the effort," despising every "existential" problem of others by labeling them as immature or foolish, or worse, looking down on them under the thinly veiled attempt to live off their parents, it really pisses me off. You've broken my balls with the merits given to the "perfect workers"; once in a while, realize that we are not just hands and hard labor. There are people who simply may not have the tools to face reality; we can't all be active in the same way. There are also those who do humble work or who don’t work at all and beg for alms because they couldn’t make their way in life, and they deserve respect just like those who have "worked their ass off" and become some kind of manager. The examples of "winning" people contrasted with "losers." You’re just kids, let’s face it, and you fill your mouths with this crap too.

The thing that seriously worries me is that these guys are still making albums after 20 years, and that means there are people buying them. I could understand back in the early days when the genre was young, their proposal was, all things considered, "new," and there were bands like Helloween, Gamma Ray, and similar ones at their peak (within the limits of their tiny power metal scene, of course!...), but what sense does it make now? I mean, I can't believe that longtime fans buy this crap to hear the same tired and overplayed riffs with this guy's high-pitched voice always singing the same damn melodies. I mean, okay, there are stupid people out there, but torturing yourself with 20 years of the same identical albums is too much for anyone, damn it.

Telespallabob: "Historic album and you give it 4? Are we crazy? 5 until death! Otherwise, may the Metal God disintegrate you (because if a higher entity must exist, it can only be that)" ---> brilliant comment.

I hate "charity" initiatives like this, and I detest that underlying message of "participation" they convey: "buy this record, do your part, and you will contribute to the reconstruction of a country devastated by the earthquake." But in the face of certain disasters, the serious thing is that there is no concrete way to participate BEFORE they happen, that is, to have a say in the economic, social, and political decisions that closely concern us. We, insignificant little beings, have no means by which certain logics that have now taken hold (and woe to anyone who questions them) can be not to say overturned, but even just slightly changed, despite all of us bearing the heavy consequences, as in the case of Abruzzo (but there are billions of others, just remember our history). It disgusts me to see how, through these initiatives, the regime manages to give citizens yet another rip-off, appeasing their now weary desire for participation with a flood of advertising and propaganda, while also playing the role of the "good guy" acting in the interest of the community.