Is Barb "Protecting" Chris?

[LordCustos3]

It's Chris from when he applied to become an 'inner circle' member and videod himself with a blue towel over his head.

Ahhhhhhhh, Now it makes sense.

 

[Fuzzy Wuzzy]

Barbara is not protecting Chris. What she is doing is hampering his development for maturity. She also made sure that Chris can't see his own failures and takes advantage of his mental disabilities where she won't die alone without seeing Chris. She "needs" Chris because no one wants to even be her friend. She is using Chris as an object to make her happy. Also notice how she has pets too so she doesn't feel to alone. So no she's not protecting her son. If she's protecting him, she would allow him to learn from his mistakes under his guidance and tell him how to avoid them.

 

[Marvin]

Despite all the nasty shit Chris has said and done, it's hard not to feel pity for him. He started off as a mid-20s manchild in a very literal sense, being completely unwilling to grow up or achieve independence, happy to continue living the life of a 10 year old child at the age of 25. Now he's a 31 year old man who wants more independence but struggles to get his mother to leave him alone at home, much less let him go outside. It's really quite sad; Chris finally grew up mentally but his mother continues to treat him like a child.

You know what's sadder still? Let's say some magic button was pressed, and Barb reinstated Chris's freedom. What good would he do? Would he keep out of trouble?

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that Chris would be screwed by his mother's incompetence and selfishness, or his own.

Yeah, I think he'd stay out of (serious) trouble. Chris still has quarrels with fast food employees, as we all know, but I don't see Chris getting arrested or anything like that. Maybe kicked out of a place or two. Chris wants a game place replacement, somewhere where he can sperg without getting kicked out. He's in that Richmond lego users group, for example.

 

[EzioCanLeapofFaith]

Poor Chrispunzel, locked in his tower by his obese mother to protect him from the evils of the world.
Stress-sighing and waiting for princess heart-sweet to come and rescue him

 

[Kosher Dill]

Poor Chrispunzel, locked in his tower by his obese mother to protect him from the evils of the world.
Stress-sighing and waiting for princess heart-sweet to come and rescue him

Is that why he's growing his hair?
He better start washing it too if he wants his Princess Charming to get any traction.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Well, he doesn't necessarily have no friends.

We should talk more about this, but I'm not sure that I agree with you. He has well-wishers, sure. I don't just mean Anna (hypothesis of her using him as an attention-magnet aside), I'm sure there are people from his church he's on positive speaking terms with, and other such casual acquaintances. But friends? I might have a stricter definition of "friend" than you, but I don't think he has any. For example, I know a number of people that I'm on positive terms with, and I smile when I see them and they when they see me, and I enjoy talking to them, but they aren't my friends. I see them at work or whatever, and they make work more bearable, but we don't make efforts to talk to each other outside of that. I don't really care about their lives that much like I do the (significantly less number of) people I do consider friends. I could put some effort in and make them into friends if I want, sure, but right now they aren't friends.

Chris doesn't have any idea how to put effort in and make those acquaintances into friends. And unlike me or any normal person, he doesn't have real friends already either, so he feels the divide much greater. He doesn't have any people who really define his recreational life the way a real friend does. And I would argue that he has not had anything approaching a friend since Joshua Martinez, at the very latest. That was years ago. I'm not terribly dependent on other people, but I can't imagine going for years and years without having at least a couple people with which to share some of my life.

I'm sorry, but I just had to show off the new smiley.

I'm so glad I asked for that.

There seems to be a lot of weird sexual oversharing in the Weston-Chandler household. Didn't Chris also claim to know when Bob lost his Virgin-Mary too?

He said Bob was a virgin til like 27 or some shit. I don't buy that for a cwcville minute; the man was a soldier facing risk of death on the battlefield, he was gonna get his duck a drink of water any way he could as early and often as possible. Probably told Chris that tale to make him stop whining so much about his own virginity-induced inferiority complex.

And that Bob and Barb hadn't done the deed in X number of years? Not to mention how he'd openly discuss the care and feeding of "love dolls" with Barb.

I don't know how he would divine that. I think they slept in separate rooms for a long time, so Chris assumed they weren't having sex. Not to say they were, but if Chris was right, it was by accident.

She probably had sex at 16 because a lot of teenagers have sex. (yes, even in the 50's.)

They certainly did, but the impression I get is that back then it was often exploitive and/or driven by psychological issues to a much larger extent than today. An interesting book on the topic, from 1961, is: "Premarital Intercourse and Interpersonal Relationships":
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000EWD4M0
In which a bunch of upper-middle-class white male college students were interviewed about their past sexual experiences. A lot of the teenage encounters reported in there are far from what we'd call "healthy" today.

Yeah, there's probably some truth there given how the concept of sexuality was largely regarded with shame. Nowadays there's still a big part of society that thinks that, but there's an at least equally big part that is not ashamed of sexuality, so a young person can just join that camp and still not have trouble feeling normal.

 

[Tubular Monkey]

she harms Chris more than she would if she beaten him up or abused him. He's going to have serious problems after she dies.

Still, you have to laugh.

He said Bob was a virgin til like 27 or some shit. I don't buy that for a cwcville minute; the man was a soldier facing risk of death on the battlefield, he was gonna get his duck a drink of water any way he could as early and often as possible. Probably told Chris that tale to make him stop whining so much about his own virginity-induced inferiority complex.

I chalk this up to extreme autism. Something tells me that Chris was 27 when he talked to his father about this, and Bob said something along the lines of "Don't worry, Chrishun. I was about yer age when I lost my virginity." Bob may have been in his mid twenties when it happened, or he may have been lying altogether. But in the festering beehive that is Chris's brain, that means that Bob was the same number of years old that Chris was because he said "same age" and "same age" means exactly the "same age".

 

[Bugaboo]

Maybe if Barb had actual friends she wouldn't have to have Chris always stay in her sight because he's currently her only source of positive human contact.
But Barb seems like a really nasty and bitter woman so I guess that's why she has no friends? She could have made friends with the other older ladies at church or whatever

 

[Marvin]

Well, he doesn't necessarily have no friends.

We should talk more about this, but I'm not sure that I agree with you. He has well-wishers, sure. I don't just mean Anna (hypothesis of her using him as an attention-magnet aside), I'm sure there are people from his church he's on positive speaking terms with, and other such casual acquaintances. But friends? I might have a stricter definition of "friend" than you, but I don't think he has any. For example, I know a number of people that I'm on positive terms with, and I smile when I see them and they when they see me, and I enjoy talking to them, but they aren't my friends. I see them at work or whatever, and they make work more bearable, but we don't make efforts to talk to each other outside of that. I don't really care about their lives that much like I do the (significantly less number of) people I do consider friends. I could put some effort in and make them into friends if I want, sure, but right now they aren't friends.

Eh, there's an extremely detailed span from "stranger" to "friend." Hell, maybe it's a multiply dimensioned space with various scales on the different dimensions. It's extremely complicated what constitutes a friend. I've had friends that I was very close with years ago, but I wouldn't call them friends nowadays. Or I've had people who I was kinda close with a few years ago, but we kinda separated, but I'd still call them friends today and I'd value the connection. I don't know, it's complicated stuff. Really, I don't bother arguing about specific instances of Chris friends because it ultimately boils down to where you draw the line. I, personally, don't draw the line solidly anywhere because of how iffy the whole concept is.

Chris doesn't have any idea how to put effort in and make those acquaintances into friends. And unlike me or any normal person, he doesn't have real friends already either, so he feels the divide much greater. He doesn't have any people who really define his recreational life the way a real friend does. And I would argue that he has not had anything approaching a friend since Joshua Martinez, at the very latest. That was years ago. I'm not terribly dependent on other people, but I can't imagine going for years and years
without having at least a couple people with which to share some of my life.

Uhh, well, this would get into serious philosophical debates about the nature of friendship and what constitutes a friend. I was thinking about this recently (mostly while drunk, and prompted by Chris shit) and I didn't come to a solid conclusion. Also probably because I was drunk, but even if I was sober, it's still a tricky concept to make a solid decision on.

I do want to talk to you privately about Chris' friends, because I think there might've been a more recent male friend other than Josh. But that might just be my memory going to shit, so I don't know. Also, I can't remember shit, so whatever.

 

[Tubular Monkey]

I do want to talk to you privately about Chris' friends, because I think there might've been a more recent male friend other than Josh. But that might just be my memory going to shit, so I don't know. Also, I can't remember shit, so whatever.

And so Marvin and Alec ascended Mount Trollympus to discuss great things, beyond the comprehension of those below. Would that others might have heard, their words would have seemed strange and confusing.

 

[DangDirtyTrolls]

And that Bob and Barb hadn't done the deed in X number of years? Not to mention how he'd openly discuss the care and feeding of "love dolls" with Barb.

I don't know how he would divine that. I think they slept in separate rooms for a long time, so Chris assumed they weren't having sex. Not to say they were, but if Chris was right, it was by accident.

Isn't Barb known for being disturbingly open with Chris? Like he tells her when she needs to shit and when she lost her virginity, it doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility that Barb would tell Chris she hadn't had sex with Bob in years. Maybe even to comfort Chris in that twisted Chandler way: "I'm not having any sex either"

 

[Kindness Coin]

I'm quite sure Magical Man was a friend of Chris's. If he had been a deep-cover troll (and that would be really deep-cover, since he actually got inside Chris's room), he would presumably have leaked a lot more. Afaik the only material involving Magical Man was uploaded by Chris himself.

 

[DangDirtyTrolls]

I'm quite sure Magical Man was a friend of Chris's. If he had been a deep-cover troll (and that would be really deep-cover, since he actually got inside Chris's room), he would presumably have leaked a lot more. Afaik the only material involving Magical Man was uploaded by Chris himself.

Is it known who the Magical Man was at least to the inner circle or do we really have no idea who he is?

 

[Marvin]

I'm quite sure Magical Man was a friend of Chris's. If he had been a deep-cover troll (and that would be really deep-cover, since he actually got inside Chris's room), he would presumably have leaked a lot more. Afaik the only material involving Magical Man was uploaded by Chris himself.

It could go either way. But you're making an assumption here about what he would've dropped. Like I said before, there's some stuff that's never getting dropped because the people involved aren't comfortable with it being dropped.

I'm quite sure Magical Man was a friend of Chris's. If he had been a deep-cover troll (and that would be really deep-cover, since he actually got inside Chris's room), he would presumably have leaked a lot more. Afaik the only material involving Magical Man was uploaded by Chris himself.

Is it known who the Magical Man was at least to the inner circle or do we really have no idea who he is?

I don't know if anyone's said anything public about him.

 

[Kosher Dill]

I think we've been publicly told all we need to know, which is that Magical Man was just some local guy who befriended Chris IRL back before he became paranoid. Back then, apparently, you could pretty much walk up and get into Chris's room if you took 5 minutes to be his friend. Most people just didn't, for obvious reasons.

 

[DangDirtyTrolls]

I think we've been publicly told all we need to know, which is that Magical Man was just some local guy who befriended Chris IRL back before he became paranoid. Back then, apparently, you could pretty much walk up and get into Chris's room if you took 5 minutes to be his friend.

Really? Wow. I know Chris has shown he's willing to disregard just about every belief he holds like no alcohol and no fat chicks, but I always assumed he would stick to the 'no males' rule because he was no doubt bullied by guys growing up and befriending men conceivably would bring him no closer to finding a sweetheart.

 

[Kosher Dill]

He's always had a smattering of male friends - or at least people he considered his friends. Joshua Martinez and Joe Herring in school, the GAMe PLACe crew after that, some random people on Facebook (probably church members taking pity), etc. I don't think "No JERKS" was ever really an iron-clad rule. He only seems to flip out when he sees a JERK he doesn't know, stealing the world's women.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Really, I don't bother arguing about specific instances of Chris friends because it ultimately boils down to where you draw the line. I, personally, don't draw the line solidly anywhere because of how iffy the whole concept is.

I get what you're saying. For argument's sake, I do draw a concrete line: Does the person bring fulfillment into your life, and do you develop more of a bond by bringing fulfillment into theirs? If no, then it's not a friend.

Chris has had people try to be his friend. I don't just mean idiots who PM him with "hey Chris friend me I'm not a troll", I mean people he wasn't paranoid against and essentially began neutral with them. Problem is, even when meeting someone he's willing to be positive with, he's all "great, we're friends now. Immediately listen to me whine about my problems, then you go fix them, and also you do this other stuff for me I want done, then listen to some more whining." Then he doesn't get why the other person gets tired and quits, and he's back to being alone. In a more long-term sense, sometimes you can get a lot of value out of a friendship by being the one who has to support the other through a problem, but only if it goes both ways. It never goes both ways with Chris; at best he'll be willing to let you talk about your stuff for a while, but he'll have absolutely no support or advice to give you because it's not about video games or cartoons. Chris has never experienced what it's truly like to be the stronger person who helps someone else, and that cripples his capability to be a friend.

Is it known who the Magical Man was at least to the inner circle or do we really have no idea who he is?

I don't know if anyone's said anything public about him.

There's really nothing public that can be dropped, but without going into detail it can be said that he honestly tried in good faith to show Chris some friendship, and... well, read my previous paragraph.

 

[Marvin]

I think Chris was a lot more chill in the past than he is now. Chris' situation is a lot shittier now than it was back then. While I think he might've occasionally mentioned his loneliness or whatever, it wasn't like the recent facebook leak where it's rapid fire "i'm so lonely, get me girlfriends, you're bad friends" shit. Although, in its place, Chris would just jabber about whatever video games or legos or whatever shit he was into at the time. Chris is a pretty boring person to spend time with, unless you get him drunk or just hang out with him to watch him make an ass of himself.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

I think Chris was a lot more chill in the past than he is now. Chris' situation is a lot shittier now than it was back then. While I think he might've occasionally mentioned his loneliness or whatever, it wasn't like the recent facebook leak where it's rapid fire "i'm so lonely, get me girlfriends, you're bad friends" shit. Although, in its place, Chris would just jabber about whatever video games or legos or whatever shit he was into at the time.

True, but the overarching theme is that Chris talks about Chris. Even in his more peaceful glory days, he had a lot of trouble understanding just why he should care what you have to talk about.