Ask A Genius 882: God Looking the Other Way
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/02/02
[Recording Start]
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There’s a phrase we’ll often throw at the end of a sentence or sort of a conclusion to it. They will describe something and then say, “If that makes sense…” It’s a sort of annoying add-on to a sentence that’s unnecessary. Typically, it comes from a boss or a more senior colleague.
Rick Rosner: Okay, so I can see how it’s annoying in that context, but I feel like if it is sincere, like when it comes from a boss, somebody who’s got power, it’s false because it’s like we’re going to do it my way because I’m the boss but I’m going to make a noise that says that pretends to acknowledge you even though it doesn’t, right? If that makes sense. Well, we’re going to do it that way anyway. So, I don’t care what you think; I’m just being a little modest about the shit I’m having you do, right?
Jacobsen: Sure, you can even make it a bit meta. If you describe it that way about talking about whether that makes sense, you conclude whether that makes sense.
Rosner: Yeah, it will have to make sense because I have the power to make it so.
Jacobsen: If that makes sense…
Rosner: Though if it’s sincere, if it’s from somebody like, I mean, women are known for their voice going up at the end of a sentence, which is like hanging a question mark on a sentence without the question mark itself, like, “You know if that makes sense?”
Jacobsen: Well, friendly people are friendly people. Everyone else, most of the human species, is pretty ordinary, and that’s not always nice, if that makes sense.
Rosner: Yeah, what do I hate? I think we’ve talked about this, and this is not related at all, except it’s a thing that annoys me is in an interview when the person being asked the question says, “Oh, that’s a good question,”
Jacobsen: You’ve told me this before. That’s a really good point, but it annoys me. If it was a good question, don’t describe it as a good question. It’s like saying I’m funny at the start of a comedy special.
Rosner: Yeah, or else if it’s a question you’d expect to be asked in any decent interview on whatever subject you’re talking about, don’t say it’s a good question; it’s like a baseline competent question. Although you could say that, I’d love to hear somebody say that. Somebody asks an obvious question, and somebody says that’s a competent question, which you should be asking. People don’t say that shit.
Jacobsen: If a professor says that’s a good question, it’s a good one. Suppose it comes from another person you’re interviewing, who may or may not have expertise in that field. In that case, it’s a little bit different, or I would rather know if someone has expertise in another area or has no expertise than whatever those types of people say doesn’t have relevance to that first topic. It doesn’t make sense to say that’s a good question because they wouldn’t necessarily know better than you.
Rosner: Yeah, there’s a tale that everybody knows that if you’re asked a question and sometimes when you’re being interviewed, they’ll ask you to repeat the question as part of your answer, like if somebody asked you what’s your favourite country and you just go France that fucks the interview. Using that interview is more complex than if the person answers by saying my favourite country is France. You want the whole sound bite so you can have that person talking, but if you have yet to be asked to do that. You repeat the question as part of your answer; it often means you’re bullshitting. I just heard a standup routine on the comedy channel, I think Whitney Cummings, and she said she was talking about how guys are shitty at lying, and a tell is, “Where were you till 3:00 a.m.?” And then the guy says, “Where was I till 3:00 a.m.?” And she’s like fuck you, like have your lie ready beforehand. Don’t fucking repeat the question to buy yourself time to come up with a decent lie.
Jacobsen: I find her funny, she’s really funny.
Rosner: Yeah, I like her; she’s good. I didn’t initially think she was funny, like back in the era when she had her sitcom. I judged her by her cover; she had fake knockers, but she is. There are many people, but she’s another person I didn’t initially think was funny until I listened to them.
Jacobsen: Natasha Leggero, her bit on Mormon gangs is fucking hilarious.
Rosner: I haven’t heard it.
Jacobsen: It’s a very small bit, but it’s part of one of her earlier specials, and she talks about how there’s a problem with Mormon gangs, and she makes this whole point about ‘Mormonism is real’ to point that out. Then, she describes how it’s basically what it’s supposed to be. I suppose it’s a problem for women when they just the gang of men pin you down and then take turns holding your hand. I find that very funny; it’s a nice little twist.
Rosner: Fucking Mormons, they have a bunch of shit that is like backwards and evil., a lot of the suppression of women maybe and racism. I think they try to address that shit like when they get called on shit, they seem to try to fix their shit sincerely, and then they have this forward-thinking shit. Their whole fucking deal about that if we have your genealogical information, you get to get into heaven. So, they like to compile the genealogies of everybody they possibly can, even if they’re not Mormon.
Jacobsen: Don’t they pray for dead people who didn’t become Mormon too?
Rosner: I don’t know, but it’s entirely possible. So, I find them one of the religions that has the potential not to be shitty. The Mormons would be interested in technological resurrection.
Jacobsen: What do you make of so many religions, if not all of them having male leadership and a lot of the older ones, even a lot of the newer ones being either subtly or outright misogynist?
Rosner: I don’t know. How could that not be the case? We live in the patriarchies, and religions are a huge part of the fucking patriarchy. It would be weird to have a major religion that had female leadership that was a bunch of assholes. The females being in charge thing is what would be the unusual thing though nuns in charge have done some bad shit. I just read a little novel about the Magdalene Laundries. In Ireland, I think, nuns would run these laundries. They would take in wayward girls and supposedly take care of girls who got pregnant or got into trouble in some other way, and this is for most… Oh, Sinéad O’Connor came out of one of those joints. So, this is through most of the 20th century, and I don’t know how far back it went, but these girls would supposedly get school and room and board. Still, these joints run by nuns would support themselves by doing laundry for the businesses in town and the conditions for the girls, and the abuse was fucking deplorable up to and including maybe girls dying.
Jacobsen: I will add, in Canada actually, there have been a lot of cases coming out of 90+-year-old, 80+-year-old retired past age nuns with abuse accusations, confirmed and not happen. Some are getting justice in Canada.
Rosner: Yeah, so, I’ve got a tic-tac-toe theory where you put three or four bad people together in positions of power, and they’re going to go bad. For example, three people in key positions are super competent and can make a good TV show regardless of the rest of the production. Three or four people who are fucking idiots in key positions can fuck a TV show. Among a group of bouncers or cops, three or four who get together can get up to all sorts of no good. So yeah, if a bunch of nuns, a few asshole nuns, got together, they can make the institution they’re in charge of pretty bad, especially if the church is set up to look the other fucking way.
[Recording End]
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 