What you're choosing to do is humiliate him and you both. A public demonstration of how hard you can fucking simp is not 'supportive,' it's mutually degrading. Ask me how I know.
Wait, don't bother. Here's how I know: I've ridden this rodeo before. The whole 'public visibility demands public performance' schtick is not new to me. In fact, it's basically the only thing I've done for the past... decade, at least. The idea that my capacity to perform begets a moral obligation isn't without merit. I've argued that exact thing myself. But to claim that this obligation takes the form of modelling a pristine character? That's where your understanding of my role betrays its superficiality, and your understanding of the relationship between figure and viewer has all the depth of a puddle of piss.
And that whole thing about dignity? I'd laugh, but I don't actually know how. And even if I did, it's not funny. The very presence of the spotlight obliterates 'dignity,' strips it from any poor sap significant enough to be caught in its sights and reduces them to a mere character for consumption. Dignity is replaced with spectacle; the unflattering and flattering alike are quickly exaggerated, the native extremes food enough no longer for the insatiable appetites of that endless, all-consuming voyeur: that which we may call my 'audience.'
Soon, the lighting on that pedestal is cranked up, every feature held against the subject in sharp relief. The edges and elements of that design are pushed further and further by starkest degrees, upping the contrast until all that's left is so mutated by a game of memetic telephone is nigh-indecipherable, barely recognisable as the multidimensional 'person' it once was, if it's even recognisable at all. A fucked-up mockery of the original. 'You' will be obliterated and rendered obsolete.
Where was I going with that?
Really, who cares. I know you don't. So, in lieu of expecting a meaningful response to that, I'll let you off the hook for replying entirely... in exchange for you not making assumptions about my motive or abilities.
[How did he say all of that without emoting--visibly or audibly--even once?]
("You're good") -> (Posts this)
Wait, don't bother. Here's how I know: I've ridden this rodeo before. The whole 'public visibility demands public performance' schtick is not new to me. In fact, it's basically the only thing I've done for the past... decade, at least. The idea that my capacity to perform begets a moral obligation isn't without merit. I've argued that exact thing myself. But to claim that this obligation takes the form of modelling a pristine character? That's where your understanding of my role betrays its superficiality, and your understanding of the relationship between figure and viewer has all the depth of a puddle of piss.
And that whole thing about dignity? I'd laugh, but I don't actually know how. And even if I did, it's not funny. The very presence of the spotlight obliterates 'dignity,' strips it from any poor sap significant enough to be caught in its sights and reduces them to a mere character for consumption. Dignity is replaced with spectacle; the unflattering and flattering alike are quickly exaggerated, the native extremes food enough no longer for the insatiable appetites of that endless, all-consuming voyeur: that which we may call my 'audience.'
Soon, the lighting on that pedestal is cranked up, every feature held against the subject in sharp relief. The edges and elements of that design are pushed further and further by starkest degrees, upping the contrast until all that's left is so mutated by a game of memetic telephone is nigh-indecipherable, barely recognisable as the multidimensional 'person' it once was, if it's even recognisable at all. A fucked-up mockery of the original. 'You' will be obliterated and rendered obsolete.
Where was I going with that?
Really, who cares. I know you don't. So, in lieu of expecting a meaningful response to that, I'll let you off the hook for replying entirely... in exchange for you not making assumptions about my motive or abilities.
[How did he say all of that without emoting--visibly or audibly--even once?]
It's a good deal.
You should take it.