Wisdom of Rayhawk

Overlord Rayhawk is well-known for his frequent attempts at trolling. However, he has a special brand of trolling, in that although it is clear that he's trying to troll you, his statements seem juuuust plausible enough that you start to question your own long-held beliefs about things. Compiled here are some examples of these attempts, preserved for posterity.

With regards to working at his "dream job," an art director for the LEGO company:

	You'd think so, but it's a job like any other. Same organizational structure, positions, and paperwork as any other large manufacturing company. The real question is, who taught you that getting a dream job isn't "normal?" Sounds like you've already given up without even having tried. I'm going to toss out a guess here - and this may be jumping wildly to conclusions - but you strike me as the type who believes, consciously or unconsciously, that self-deprivation is a virtue in itself, rather than a tool you use to achieve things that are actual virtues. You think you wouldn't respect yourself if you had a dream job, because to be a good person you have to suffer and make sacrifices. Suffering and sacrifice are great tools to have in your toolbox, but they're not virtues in themselves.

	You're only stuck in a monotonous job if that's what you're willing to be satisfied with. I've never seen any lack of opportunities out there for the ambitious and entrepreneurially-minded - it's just that the school system beats the independent spirit out of most people and so they don't even try. If monotony is something you want to avoid, there's nothing stopping you from creating your own alternative. I did for years, before getting lazy and settling down.

Regarding eugenics programs:

	If I was into eugenics, IQ is the last thing I would select for, especially the way it's currently measured. Until you've spent a lot of time around supergeniuses you don't realize what a defect it is. You need a large population of normal people to compensate for the horror of each high-IQ aberration. I think voluntary abortion serves as the best eugenics system anyone could ever hope for. I trust the opinion of the potential mothers a lot more than I do some bureaucratic set of arbitrary standards trying to homogenize the species towards an arbitrarily-selected set of ideals.

	All right, I'll bite. Are you saying EQ has a strong genetic component to select for? Because I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that trait is dependent almost entirely on nurture rather than nature. You want to know the single best selection criteria for EQ, in my opinion? Parents who want their babies. Whether a kid is wanted or unwanted outweighs any other socioeconomic factor in predicting social maladaption. So again, selecting for EQ in particular, we've already got very effective crowdsourced eugenics in place.

	The Monsanto argument still holds. Genetically selecting for specific "desirable" traits is stupidly easy, same as importing cane toads into Australia or shoveling out antibiotics for every illness. Failure isn't the problem, it's predicting the unexpected costs of success that's where things get tricky.

	If I was forced to set up a eugenics program, my first order of business would be weeding out anybody with the trait of thinking they were smart enough to pick traits to be weeded out, because those are the guys the species can't afford. (This would result in a very short tenure for me, obviously, but I'd be in it for the lulz.)

	Kids are supposed to be stupid at twenty. From observation I'd suggest that kids who spend their college years drinking and watching Jersey Shore turn out healthier than the ones with an unnatural aversion to indulging the stupidity that's natural to that age.

Regarding dating:

	Re: dating assholes: This is all about efficiency. You can date an average of fourteen assholes in the time it takes for the sweet guy to grow a pair and make a move. I'll be honest. I hate the Nice Guy. The guy who thinks that girls are "a machine you put kindness coins into until a relationship falls out," that if he's just sweet and nice and complimentary then her choice to not fall over him is some kind of crime. Girls aren't just some prize you get to keep score on what a quality person you are. In fact I'll tell you right now, a guy who thinks girls are failing at some kind of obligation to date him just because he's so nice and considerate, is neither nice nor considerate. He's a dick.

Regarding college:

	Didn't have them at any of the colleges I went to, or if we did, I guess they knew better than to let any of the rest of us find out. We had no tolerance. Girls and dudes showed up to accomplish shit, not worry about whether they were "unique" or "independent" or "real" or any of the other transparent euphemisms for "completely irrelevant."

	Believe it or not, this is the true value of a college degree. It doesn't tell me whether you learned anything or not in your fancy classes, but it does mean that I as an employer know that you as an employee are able to navigate retarded bureaucratic labyrinths and still get your shit done.

In response to people complaining about immigrants:

	If your culture is so great, then other cultures trying to barge in will only strengthen and define yours by contrast. If their culture is succeeding despite you, then their culture is better and it's your fault for having a lame culture. You should always welcome competitive pressure in the realm of ideas. You're not losing because your opponent is doing something wrong, you're losing because you're a loser, and he's doing you a favor by letting you find that out. Immigrant cultures can only make yours stronger, show you where you need to improve, or give you a superior alternative because yours sucks.

	The problem is, you're breaking laws all the time and you don't even know it. There is almost no time, walking, driving, or hanging about the house, where a police officer can't think of some good reason to hassle or arrest you. The most important thing is just to be white. I swear, I get away with a ton of stuff for no other reason than being white and incredibly good-looking, that my non-white or ugly friends get nailed for all the time. The question isn't whether you're committing a crime, it's whether whatever policeman happens to be nearby wants to find an excuse to arrest you for something. (That's an oversimplification, but every area has its version of what it means to "look" like either a law-abiding citizen or a troublemaker, and in the town I'm in now it really does just boil down to what color you happen to be.) Don't get me wrong, I believe in the policeman's right to use his own judgment in who to hassle. There's no way to enforce 100% of our ridiculous laws, and so they really have no other option but to come up with their own orders of priority and culture of enforcement. I don't necessarily like the prevailing ethic around here in particular, but hey, oppression breeds strength. The local culture of police enforcement is just one more culture competing with all the others, so even the wrongheaded ones are valuable in their own way.

Regarding internet debate:

	Confronting your hatred of others is the best inspiration. Hatred of others is the exterior sign of internal hatred of self.

	Think about that for a second though. Anyone who cares enough about politics to sit down on the internet and complain about it* is already a malcontent miscreant, and almost certainly brain damaged. You might as well talk to people on the internet about whether they believe in evolution or global warming; the fact that they're on the internet arguing about it means they're automatically wrong. 99% of people have better things to do with their time. You want to know what the rest of the world is actually like, travel.