Postmodernism is destroying our brains, culture and civilization

[Martinus]

Worthless bullshit gets rewarded degrees is kind of a story. Not a very new story granted.

Maybe but then you could also always point to the need to create (worthless bullshit or otherwise) in order to get a degree.

So perhaps there is no point to giving out degrees in social sciences if the only reason people do anything in social sciences is to get a degree. What's the social benefit (pun intended) of having such studies if it's mainly bullshit people make up?

[Martinus]

Postmodernism has been great for the arts. I'm fine with it.

Me too. I enjoy deconstructing cultures and relativism. And annoying cunts.

Is annoying a verb-derivative noun or an adjective here? 

[Admiral Yi]

It's a gerund operating as an adjective.

[Martinus]

It's a gerund operating as an adjective.

Rather as a noun, as I said - unless you are saying he likes cunts that are annoying.

Edit: which given Norgy's past stances on feminism could actually be true, I'll give you that.

[Admiral Yi]

OK, I think I see.  Does he like annoying cunts or does he like deconstructing annoying cunts?  But either way, annoying is still not a noun.  The nominal form of annoy is annoyance.  Annoyance cunt doesn't make any sense.

[Martinus]

No, no. If you use the word "annoying" to mean "to annoy", isn't it a noun? I mean it is neither a verb nor an adjective. But I may be wrong as I have not studied English grammar in a scientific sense.

[Admiral Yi]

I thought it was a conjugation of the verb, like a participle but different, but not entirely sure.

[The Brain]

Much of social science as it is practiced today could be gently put to sleep without negative consequences for society. Many social scientists don't take their subject matters seriously. If they did they wouldn't do BS reasearch on them, but good research.

[Martinus]

I think it's not as much about not taking it seriously, but about motivation and ethics. Sure, natural sciencists are also subject to vagaries of ego and there are some politics involved (like climate change or some health sciences) but most of the stuff they do is not as ideologically charged as social sciences are. Many social scientists go into their studies with a mindset of a crusader, not observer or researcher, in mind - and this mindset is perpetrated by the crazy people who now control social science faculties in the academia. They each "peer review" each other's research and pat each other on the back in a sort of echo chamber of bad ideas.

In other words, there is a very blurred line between what the world is and what it should be.

[The Brain]

You are what you do, not what you think you are. I don't see them taking stuff seriously.

[Martinus]

You are what you do, not what you think you are. I don't see them taking stuff seriously.

I guess it's a matter of semantics - I think we are both saying the same thing - they suck as scientists.

[The Brain]

You are what you do, not what you think you are. I don't see them taking stuff seriously.

I guess it's a matter of semantics - I think we are both saying the same thing - they suck as scientists.

They do indeed.

[Savonarola]

I've watched Neon Genesis Evangelion.  I like the characters and parts of the story, and agree that it is a masterpiece.  But I hate the ending and don't really get the symbolism.  If that represents postmodernism, then I am probably destined to be its enemy

That really wasn't related to post-modernism; I was trying to understand what you meant by "Abstract" in terms of anime.  The ending of Neon Genesis Evangelion is ambiguous; it's up to you to determine what really happened and what it means.  The same is true in Serial Experiments Lain.  Is that what you mean by "Abstract"?

[celedhring]

Inconclusive endings are actually a modernist trait in film, not postmodernist.

The problem with film is that since it's so much younger compared to other arts, when it reached the modernist stage, other arts were already doing postmodernism - and it was influenced by them. That's why you see loads of postmodernist traits attached to what's considered film modernism. Nouvelle Vague was hopelessly self-referential for starters. 

[grumbler]

No, no. If you use the word "annoying" to mean "to annoy", isn't it a noun? I mean it is neither a verb nor an adjective. But I may be wrong as I have not studied English grammar in a scientific sense.

It is a gerund (that is, a verb used as a noun).  The sentence would read "I enjoy annoying cunts."  "I" is the subject, "enjoy" is the verb, and "annoying (cunts)" is the object.