🎨 Artcow Iconoclast / Jonathan Mack Sweet - The Chris-Chan of Arkansas

[Keerakh]

I’m the vice president of the College Republicans at my university as well as an intern for a certain Republican Governor. Given that one of the Republican Party’s most cherished principles is self-sufficiency, why do you think you would be a celebrated figure in our circle considering your lifestyle of apathy and dependence?

because that's who votes for republicans?

 

[Ruin]

cute.

 

[The_Iconoclast]

Given that one of the Republican Party’s most cherished principles is self-sufficiency, why do you think you would be a celebrated figure in our circle considering your lifestyle of apathy and dependence?

I'm the living embodiment of what The System (which is run by Democrats) has created. They ran me to ruin, Ruin. Every time I've tried to move forward, in my career or my love life, I've been slapped down and told "no" by the same people who now run around screaming "Hope and change! Forward!" A progressive ideology only allow you to move as far as they say you may. They tell us, "You didn't build that! It was the roads and bridges! A-And a small ditch in North Tacoma!" That's why we as a nation should run from it.

 

[DrChristianTroy]

Oh, yes, coworkers who resent me, a boss whose attitude towards me was that she needs another columnist as much as they need another light table in the office, and a mental midget of a partner who insults me, every time he can't have his way or threatens to cut me out of the business every I second-guess him one too many times looks so good on a resume.

So your solution is to try and make your comic, something everybody can get for free, into a profitable endeavor. In a sea of webcomics that have better art, better satire, and better circulation you think you'll make it? At this point you're better off starting fresh in the job market.

He skipped town. He's the reason my brother took over around here. He ruined my life. Now he's out there living it up (bum leg notwithstanding--no pun intended), and apparently hasn't learned a thing. He's dangerous and wrong. I want people to know the truth about that monster. I want him stopped.

Again, don't see how this effects you in 2014. You got hustled, it happens to the best of us. Instead of trying to move forward with your life you obsess over this dude outsmarting you years ago.

I'm the living embodiment of what The System (which is run by Democrats) has created. They ran me to ruin, Ruin. Every time I've tried to move forward, in my career or my love life, I've been slapped down and told "no" by the same people who now run around screaming "Hope and change! Forward!" A progressive ideology only allow you to move as far as they say you may. They tell us, "You didn't build that! It was the roads and bridges! A-And a small ditch in North Tacoma!" That's why we as a a country should run from it.

Because you weren't bitter and fired from a school paper when W. was in charge. Nothing to do with your own personal failures it's the democrats. Right.

 

[Keerakh]

I'm the living embodiment of what The System (which is run by Democrats) has created. They ran me to ruin, Ruin. Every time I've tried to move forward, in my career or my love life, I've been slapped down and told "no" by the same people who now run around screaming "Hope and change! Forward!" A progressive ideology only allow you to move as far as they say you may. They tell us, "You didn't build that! It was the roads and bridges! A-And a small ditch in North Tacoma!" That's why we as a nation should run from it.

Slapped down and told no? Really? How do you expect us to believe you? What, did you expect them to spring riches and all you desire on you?

 

[Shadow Fox]

I'm the living embodiment of what The System (which is run by Democrats) has created. They ran me to ruin, Ruin. Every time I've tried to move forward, in my career or my love life, I've been slapped down and told "no" by the same people who now run around screaming "Hope and change! Forward!" A progressive ideology only allow you to move as far as they say you may. They tell us, "You didn't build that! It was the roads and bridges! A-And a small ditch in North Tacoma!" That's why we as a nation should run from it.

The Greene County Conspiracy is vast and far-reaching.

 

[The_Iconoclast]

I'd probably still be a journalist if the Democrats hasn't written, passed, signed the TV ratings bill. Under the Bush administration things picked up for me. I sold mail-order soaps, shampoo, and fiber bars, managed two shops, and wrote and drew comics on the side. Pretty good, despite all odds. Under Obama's economy health care has been virtually cannibalized, the economy is tepid, and no one is asking me on to help run things because they're barely staying afloat as it is. Hopefully the midterm elections will start to turn things around. By 2016 we might get some real leadership in the Oval Office, and I'll be doing even better.

 

[Roger Rabbit]

I'd probably still be a journalist if the Democrats hasn't written, passed, signed the TV ratings bill. Under the Bush administration things picked up for me. I sold mail-order soaps, shampoo, and fiber bars, managed two shops, and wrote and drew comics on the side. Pretty good, despite all odds. Under Obama's economy health care has been virtually cannibalized, the economy is tepid, and no one is asking me on to help run things because they're barely staying afloat as it is. Hopefully the midterm elections will start to turn things around. By 2016 we might get some real leadership in the Oval Office, and I'll be doing even better.

Really? You think it was a president that changed your luck?

Never mind the fact that under Bush we had a bunch of wars started under false pretenses, screwing over the poor, and not to mention screwing over schools.

 

[DrChristianTroy]

I'd probably still be a journalist if the Democrats hasn't written, passed, signed the TV ratings bill. Under the Bush administration things picked up for me. I sold mail-order soaps, shampoo, and fiber bars, managed two shops, and wrote and drew comics on the side. Pretty good, despite all odds. Under Obama's economy health care has been virtually cannibalized, the economy is tepid, and no one is asking me on to help run things because they're barely staying afloat as it is. Hopefully the midterm elections will start to turn things around. By 2016 we might get some real leadership in the Oval Office, and I'll be doing even better.

Oh yes the TV ratings bill. A bill in a totally different medium that somehow derailed your journalism career. Nothing to do with poor office politics, ripping off Saturday Night Live or just plain bad luck. Nope it was a bill that started TV ratings.

As for doing better in 2016, you're 40, on welfare, living with your mother (who you have real beef with) and fueled by grudges from 20 years ago. Hard to imagine you getting worse period let alone due to some change in politics.

 

[Shadow Fox]

I'd probably still be a journalist if the Democrats hasn't written, passed, signed the TV ratings bill. Under the Bush administration things picked up for me. I sold mail-order soaps, shampoo, and fiber bars, managed two shops, and wrote and drew comics on the side. Pretty good, despite all odds. Under Obama's economy health care has been virtually cannibalized, the economy is tepid, and no one is asking me on to help run things because they're barely staying afloat as it is. Hopefully the midterm elections will start to turn things around. By 2016 we might get some real leadership in the Oval Office, and I'll be doing even better.

Well under the Bush administration my cat developed diabetes! Maybe if those darn Republicans hadn't catered to the anti-cure-for-feline-diabetes special interest groups, this wouldn't have happened! I am VERY cross with the Republicans, believe you me.

 

[CatParty]

I'd probably still be a journalist if the Democrats hasn't written, passed, signed the TV ratings bill. Under the Bush administration things picked up for me. I sold mail-order soaps, shampoo, and fiber bars, managed two shops, and wrote and drew comics on the side. Pretty good, despite all odds. Under Obama's economy health care has been virtually cannibalized, the economy is tepid, and no one is asking me on to help run things because they're barely staying afloat as it is. Hopefully the midterm elections will start to turn things around. By 2016 we might get some real leadership in the Oval Office, and I'll be doing even better.

Why hasn't Obama painted the White House black yet

 

[atomik fyre]

Why should I? It's The System's fault, after all.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=X3RbYyHABzo​

Has it been 15 years? How's your shiny new life?

Think about it. Any of the less-than-lovely ideas and behaviors of mine that you mock, such as my aversion to change, my views on relationships, and my mistrust of new technology, weren't born in a vacuum. According to you, everything I ever loved about my college experience was a lie. My journalism training was left incomplete when I was kicked off the campus paper, more for lack of social skills than any dearth of talent or ability, which has left me unable to find a job where I'm not a glorified baby-sitter for a middle-aged moron or cheap labor on a remodel for a shop that never even got off the ground. Finally, being thrown out of school and exiled to a technological backwater over 15 years ago caused my skills with electronics to remain frozen at half-past 1997 levels. I don't even know how to use a cell phone. So if you want to go holler at someone, go talk to this guy.

To be truthful @The_Iconoclast you're right. Nothing is born in a vacuum, and in the end, you and me, are sadly a lot alike. We're roughly the same age, from roughly the same area of the United States. In many ways, I could be you. Failed comics artist. Frustrated w/ higher education. Troubled with and by modern electronics. Belief in a system that seems rigged against me. Always and forever looking back to my past, looking for what went wrong for life end up this way. What is the ultimate difference?

Really...why all the immature bullcrap like this, and this, directed at me? Why do you care? Are my books and comics really hurting you, or taking anything away from you? Hm? All I want is to make enough money to build my dream--a little corner of the world where people don't try to claw each other apart to get ahead, there's no need for class envy, and if you make a mistake you're still treated as a human being. Now ask yourself, why does that scare you so much? The answer says a lot more about you than me.

Here's the difference, I grew up. It took me longer than it should have, but I did it. It frustrates me seeing you continue down the path that you do, thinking you've been oppressed, when the only oppressor is yourself. The only system keeping you down is in your own head.

I don't respond to many other so called "lol cows" but you, you could be normal, you could be helped, you just don't want to be. You'd rather stay fat, dumb and lazy, and you really don't have to be. You picked the life you are leading, and I feel sorry for you. I know it is childish to giggle at you, but you believe in a fantasy that will never come true. You want a place in the world that doesn't exist, not only because the world doesn't work the way you want it, but it also doesn't find you to be the center of enough of anything to eternally make efforts to punish you.

The more you stay the same, the more you engage us, the more I'm going to be interested in you, a twisted darkest timeline/alternative universe version of myself. I really had hoped you could stay away for more than a year or more and then come back and shove all you successes in all our faces. I really and truly do. It is what I want most for you. I know you don't believe me, but it is true, I wish you all the success in the world. Prove me wrong and you become uninteresting to me and the rest of the board as well as the internet.

 

[Roger Rabbit]

Well, from what I can gather, nobody gave a shit about this post, and it went away for a while, then Iconoclast came on and sperged himself silly.

I have a response to this:

Why?

I mean, honestly, he knows that we talk about people just like him here. He could have just given up. But no. He decided to prove himself, just like a lot of the other lolcows that come on here. So, Icon, I have a question:

Why do you let your little brother pick on you when you are both adults?

 

[StallChaser]

I'd probably still be a journalist if the Democrats hasn't written, passed, signed the TV ratings bill. Under the Bush administration things picked up for me. I sold mail-order soaps, shampoo, and fiber bars, managed two shops, and wrote and drew comics on the side. Pretty good, despite all odds. Under Obama's economy health care has been virtually cannibalized, the economy is tepid, and no one is asking me on to help run things because they're barely staying afloat as it is. Hopefully the midterm elections will start to turn things around. By 2016 we might get some real leadership in the Oval Office, and I'll be doing even better.

The economy has picked back up and is stronger than when Obama took office. The only other variable is... you. Have you even stopped for one second to consider that?

 

[DrChristianTroy]

Well, from what I can gather, nobody gave a shit about this post, and it went away for a while, then Iconoclast came on and sperged himself silly.

I have a response to this:

Why?

I mean, honestly, he knows that we talk about people just like him here. He could have just given up. But no. He decided to prove himself, just like a lot of the other lolcows that come on here. So, Icon, I have a question:

Why do you let your little brother pick on you when you are both adults?

I can answer this. First and foremost dealing with drug addicts is tough as shit. No clue what drugs his brother took but it can make shit difficult. Second, and more importantly, Icono seems to have a victim complex. He is never at fault and the world is always against him.

Add three more paragraphs reiterating this point and a political tirade and this would be his answer.

 

[Roger Rabbit]

I can answer this. First and foremost dealing with drug addicts is tough as shit. No clue what drugs his brother took but it can make shit difficult. Second, and more importantly, Icono seems to have a victim complex. He is never at fault and the world is always against him.

Add three more paragraphs reiterating this point and a political tirade and this would be his answer.

Thank you so much.

 

[Holdek]

Sorry, my experience with my college's assoc dean of j.a. soured me on the whole idea of counseling. I was led to believe he was going to moderate the dispute between me and the editors so we could come to an agreement, however, he said it "wasn't necessary". It was part of a very ugly game he was playing. Also, I admit I do worry I might be placed on meds. They'd muddy my mind and interfere with my ability to write. Not worth it.

No, I mean with a licensed professional counselor or a clinical psychologist. They don't prescribe medication, they do therapy.

No, they were still pouting about it then. (In fact, there was an incident only one month later, dramatized here, that suggests they may have been downright homicidal about it.) They were still mad about it a year later, if my former mentor's reply to my e-mail is to be believed; they were still mad five years later; 10 years later, still mad. I'm hoping after almost 20 years cooler heads will prevail and we can be objective, but I doubt it. Also, it took over a decade for technology to catch up to the dispute. Facebook's only been around since 2004; Hulu was created ten years after I left the paper. Then, months of begging NBC to mail us a VHS of the SNL episode in question, likely with no reply. Now, a simple Google search and a quick e-mail attachment. We could hold my second hearing on Skype (created 2003) and never leave our respective offices.

If they didn't want to deal with you five and 10 years after the fact, your chances of reconciling ever are probably slim-to-none. Realistically, you probably won't get a second hearing. You could try, with a polite letter asking for consideration, but don't get your hopes up. It's best not to pin your future plans on you being successful in this endeavor, and to instead focus on the other things you listed (working, getting your health improved, drawing).

You need to think now about what you're going to do with your life after you send your letters off knowing full well you'll probably not get any responses.

Why should I? It's The System's fault, after all.

From Mad Men:

Don: Oh, my God. Stop talking and make something of yourself.
Roy: Like you? You make the lie. You invent want. You're for them... not us.
Don: Well, I hate to break it to you, but there is no big lie. There is no system. The universe is indifferent.
Midge's Friend: Aww man, why did you have to say that?

Hopefully the midterm elections will start to turn things around. By 2016 we might get some real leadership in the Oval Office, and I'll be doing even better.

Tomorrow the Republicans will probably take over the Senate. They'll be sworn in in January. Do you really think your life is going to change on iota because of it?

 

[Konstantinos]

Ah, Iconoclast, good to see that you've come back for another chat. You're still complaining about your horrible life and blaming your problems on other people I see.

 

[John Titor]

Well well well, look who came crawling back.

Change isn't progressive, it's cyclical. In 1997, I had (what I believed to be) a great job and the perfect girl. In 2002 I had a moderately good job (even if my boss was a drooling imbecile) and a nice girl. In 2008 I had a pretty decent job (in a great location, with an apartment included), though no girl. Now, I have a sour economy, no job, and no one. I can't go back to school because even if I had the money I'd still run into people's sneering elitist and ageist attitudes. My brothers' problems worked against me as well. I'm still not allowed a bank account or credit cards, which means I can't enter writing contests or pursue work-at-home opportunities like I used to.

I know a 50 year old man in my photography class and he's one his way to a engineering degree. Seriously, nobody in schools care how old you are.

 

[Golly]

I can't go back to school because even if I had the money I'd still run into people's sneering elitist and ageist attitudes.

I know a 50 year old man in my photography class and he's one his way to a engineering degree. Seriously, nobody in schools care how old you are.

I couldn't agree more! At my school, there was a ~45 year old getting his B.M in Composition. Honestly, if I could make room in my life, I'd never stop learning, no matter how old I get. Don't you (@The_Iconoclast /rhetorical "you") just want to learn about things that interest you, even if it's just for personal satisfaction?