Containment Random Chris Updates

[Ballzymaker94]

Okay...who the hell is he asking? I thought this was HIS idea?

 

[BOLDYSPICY!]

?

I think you misunderstood my post.

Shit, did I? I think I saw

Chris' IRL friends spend time with him because he's a harmless hobo weirdo.

& interpreted it "they're friends with Chris because he has no other friends because he's a hobo weirdo & they feel sorry for him." Then I read

Actually, it'd be funny/interesting to challenge them on this. But it wouldn't be fair to them.

& thought it confirmed that. Derp. That said, what did you mean, since I'm still a bit unclear?

 

[Dr. Joel Fleischman]

A lot of people keep suggesting Chris is schizophenic. Seriously, he's just a lonely, autistic try-hard who wants to use sorcery and [insert arcane magick here] to convince himself that he has any control of his own tiny slice of the world.

Imagine you were in solitary confinement for thirty-howevermany-years, with access only to video games and ponies shows and hoarder parents and animes and the American Rabbit. Then imagine you're extremely, mega, advanced autistic. Then try to construct a world view.

He's not schizophrenic; his life is terrible and he can't fix it and he doesn't understand why he can't fix it.

 

[Scampers]

I've been doing an intro psych class, so of course I'm going to be an armchair psychologist here. One thing I've noticed in Chris' behavior is the overwhelming comparisons to a pre-operational thinking child. Essentially, yeah, he's a child, but certain things stick out.

Egocentrism - This is seen in some adults, but children in this stage cannot comprehend other people have thoughts or feelings of their own. Compounded by :autism:.

A main stickler of that is animism, or "the world revolving around them." If Chris wills it, it is so, as evidenced by curse-ye-ha-me-has and forgiveness blessings. Things that occur in CWCville is his way of getting vengeance on the dang dirty trolls, and the thought pattern is that the comics will actually affect others.

Following along with this, "realism" would therefore be an explanation for Chris' thoughts. He seems to have never gotten rid of imaginary friends, and had them at inappropriate ages, i.e. having Bionic "step out of his locker" in high school. I think that for Chris, his Sonichus are more than just characters he made up for a comic and he talks with them in his mind. I don't think it's him hearing voices though, just that, like a child, if they thought it up, it must be real.

TL;DR Stating the obvious, Chris is a child in an adult's body and this is nothing new.

 

[AnOminous]

I've been doing an intro psych class, so of course I'm going to be an armchair psychologist here. One thing I've noticed in Chris' behavior is the overwhelming comparisons to a pre-operational thinking child. Essentially, yeah, he's a child, but certain things stick out.

Egocentrism - This is seen in some adults, but children in this stage cannot comprehend other people have thoughts or feelings of their own. Compounded by :autism:.

That's a normal developmental stage in children. It is completely abnormal in an adult.

Also, Chris is actually aware other people have thoughts. He is just sociopathic enough in addition to his autism that he doesn't give a shit. He also doesn't grasp that this is connected to why he has such a shitty life, which is just a pure injustice to him.

 

[Kosher Dill]

Or is he trying to say that the Neptunia people started it and "crossed over" with Sonichu first, and he wants to know why?

 

[Tragi-Chan]

I believe the answer is "because I'm rocketing towards 40, there is no prospect of my life going anywhere, my mother is dying, I can't relate socially to people my physical or mental age, I'm going to be alone and I'm having to take larger and larger hits of unreality to deal with the crushing sense of impending doom."

That's a normal developmental stage in children. It is completely abnormal in an adult.

Also, Chris is actually aware other people have thoughts. He is just sociopathic enough in addition to his autism that he doesn't give a shit. He also doesn't grasp that this is connected to why he has such a shitty life, which is just a pure injustice to him.

I think the best illustration of how Chris views other people comes in the Catherine emails, from this one onwards. The way he talks about empathy suggests that he's been taught about it, and possibly is quoting directly from therapy sessions. Yet at the same time, he still doesn't comprehend that, having told Catie to empathise, she doesn't instantaneously do what he wants.

That's not to say that he isn't an asshole. An autistic person is perfectly capable of understanding concepts like "other people don't want the same things you do and that's okay" on an intellectual level.

 

[Done]

I think the best illustration of how Chris views other people comes in the Catherine emails, from this one onwards. The way he talks about empathy suggests that he's been taught about it, and possibly is quoting directly from therapy sessions. Yet at the same time, he still doesn't comprehend that, having told Catie to empathise, she doesn't instantaneously do what he wants.

That's not to say that he isn't an asshole. An autistic person is perfectly capable of understanding concepts like "other people don't want the same things you do and that's okay" on an intellectual level.

I think that he does try to empathize with others and wants to be seen as empathetic (hence the constant tweets about it), but he doesn't understand empathy on an intrinsic level. Like he knows all the right words, but he is either incapable to truly know what it is and what it feels like, or his lack of actual practice prevents him from truly learning about it.

Like, I don't think his friends ever open up to him about their own insecurities or issues, possibly because he may leak it out in some Facebook rant or something and that info would immediately get on the CWCki. So he never experiences a case where he has to truly empathize with someone over their issues.

He did show some empathy for some public causes, but you really can't be sure if he did this for the good deed itself, or for others to see him doing a good deed.

 

[BigTubboWithLittleChina]

Or is he trying to say that the Neptunia people started it and "crossed over" with Sonichu first, and he wants to know why?

But Sonichu is the TRUE and HONEST original! He don' need no steenkin' animu waifus!

 

[Marvin]

Shit, did I? I think I saw

& interpreted it "they're friends with Chris because he has no other friends because he's a hobo weirdo & they feel sorry for him." Then I read

& thought it confirmed that. Derp. That said, what did you mean, since I'm still a bit unclear?

Sorry, that was poorly worded on my part. I meant to say that "crazy hobo" is basically his role in the friendship, and I was mostly joking about the hobo part. Chris looks like a hobo. Chris is a weird fucking dude that they hang out with.

They have different expectations from Chris based on his place in life. If Chris was a college student whose ramblings about psychic ponies was disrupting his ability to pass his classes, then they might intervene. It would also be less weird for them to intervene in someone their age's personal affairs than it would be for someone much older.

Spoiler: elaboration

For example, if you played in a weekly bowling league, there might be people ranging from their 20's to their 50's or older. You might call people all over the age spectrum a friend. But it'd still be weird to start poking into some 50 year old guy's personal issues, even if you're friends from the bowling league, unless you became really, really good friends. I don't know, maybe if you bonded over both getting screwed in divorce court or something?

I have some friends I'll have a beer with sometimes, and I have some friends I'll hang out with at my house once in awhile, and then I've got friends who I'd help dispose of a corpse with.

But as things are, Chris is a weird fucking dude that they otherwise have a good time with. He has a weird accent+speech impediment, and says dumb things sometimes, but those flaws aside, he's fun to hang out with if you share interests with him. To nerds (particularly mildly sjw-ish ones), there's much worse you can be than weird; you could be mean, and that'd be unacceptable. As long as you're not mean and try to have a good time, nerds will usually accept usually the most weird ass motherfuckers.

As it is, Chris is a weird old guy with autism (and on welfare for it). Interfering in his life would be a little more awkward for them than if it was a fellow college student, even if they both have Chris and the student at the same "level" of friendship. They probably rationalize it away somehow.

Though now that I think about it a bit more, I'm wondering how much Chris brings this shit up IRL. It's probably easier to handwave away Chris' dumb internet posts. I'd be friends with someone into Uri Geller style spoon bending shit, as long as we had something else to talk about IRL. If they try to indoctrinate me into the cult IRL, then I'd start sidling away.

Well, and his internet posts alone could still get them to dump him. I'm not ruling it out. But I do think it's less likely and would take longer.

 

[zap2theextreme]

All his retarded nonsense speak is probably ignored by his friends. They just say "Mmmhmm Chris, that's nice, it's your turn to bowl now." like he's their 7 year old niece trying to explain whatever cartoon they watched that morning.

 

[Done]

Sorry, that was poorly worded on my part. I meant to say that "crazy hobo" is basically his role in the friendship, and I was mostly joking about the hobo part. Chris looks like a hobo. Chris is a weird fucking dude that they hang out with.

They have different expectations from Chris based on his place in life. If Chris was a college student whose ramblings about psychic ponies was disrupting his ability to pass his classes, then they might intervene. It would also be less weird for them to intervene in someone their age's personal affairs than it would be for someone much older.

Spoiler: elaboration

For example, if you played in a weekly bowling league, there might be people ranging from their 20's to their 50's or older. You might call people all over the age spectrum a friend. But it'd still be weird to start poking into some 50 year old guy's personal issues, even if you're friends from the bowling league, unless you became really, really good friends. I don't know, maybe if you bonded over both getting screwed in divorce court or something?

I have some friends I'll have a beer with sometimes, and I have some friends I'll hang out with at my house once in awhile, and then I've got friends who I'd help dispose of a corpse with.

But as things are, Chris is a weird fucking dude that they otherwise have a good time with. He has a weird accent+speech impediment, and says dumb things sometimes, but those flaws aside, he's fun to hang out with if you share interests with him. To nerds (particularly mildly sjw-ish ones), there's much worse you can be than weird; you could be mean, and that'd be unacceptable. As long as you're not mean and try to have a good time, nerds will usually accept usually the most weird ass motherfuckers.

As it is, Chris is a weird old guy with autism (and on welfare for it). Interfering in his life would be a little more awkward for them than if it was a fellow college student, even if they both have Chris and the student at the same "level" of friendship. They probably rationalize it away somehow.

Though now that I think about it a bit more, I'm wondering how much Chris brings this shit up IRL. It's probably easier to handwave away Chris' dumb internet posts. I'd be friends with someone into Uri Geller style spoon bending shit, as long as we had something else to talk about IRL. If they try to indoctrinate me into the cult IRL, then I'd start sidling away.

Well, and his internet posts alone could still get them to dump him. I'm not ruling it out. But I do think it's less likely and would take longer.

Interesting post overall.. Chris may have friends that may go to the cinema with him, but I don't think that he has or had friends that would invite him to their spaces or stick-up for him when he really really needs it (Like if he needed a loan or something). To summarize: He doesn't have anything more than somewhat superficial friends (Not necessarily pity friends, but not Help Him Hide a Corpse friends either), and I don't think he even knows that those friends even exist for other people, let alone find them.

Now if I had to answer the bolded question, I'd say he rarely brings those things up IRL, him being with friends enjoying some nerdy thing is a temporary panacea for his life worries, he doesn't need imaginary friends & CWCville if he is with real friends, he needs them when it's Monday afternoon and all his friends are at work, leaving him all alone with his toys, his dying mother & bills to pay.

Now I think he DOES bring up his RL problems, for example when that girl on Facebook reminded him about her aunt (?) that can help him find a job, which of course he ranted at instead.. That's a conversation that's almost impossible to even happen unless he told her about the Financhu Crisis. I imagine he does tell them about the bullies & trolls as well.

 

[MMX]

I think that he does try to empathize with others and wants to be seen as empathetic (hence the constant tweets about it), but he doesn't understand empathy on an intrinsic level. Like he knows all the right words, but he is either incapable to truly know what it is and what it feels like, or his lack of actual practice prevents him from truly learning about it.

Like, I don't think his friends ever open up to him about their own insecurities or issues, possibly because he may leak it out in some Facebook rant or something and that info would immediately get on the CWCki. So he never experiences a case where he has to truly empathize with someone over their issues.

He did show some empathy for some public causes, but you really can't be sure if he did this for the good deed itself, or for others to see him doing a good deed.

It's more that Chris doesn't understand what empathy is.
Empathy allows us to understand the emotions of others, understand the consequences our actions have to others and put ourselves in their place BUT it doesn't mean we automatically agree with the person.
You can have empathy and still think "pretty shitty thing to happen, but he sort of deserves it". A shrink has empathy for their patients but they don't encourage their delusions, foster a friendship with them and agree that the patient is sane, they simply understand the mental state of a subject.
Empathy is what allows us to laugh at sick jokes, we understand that something is awful and we shouldnt laugh, but we still laugh because empathy does not equal unfaltering agreement.
To Chris empathy is more akin to sympathy and generally where Chris shows empathy he will usually make a link to connect it to himself.
Again empathy isn't "a bad thing happened let's post about it" it's about feeling emotionally connected to the event and those involved not " a bad thing happened and it made me feel bad because it happened".

 

[Chrus Chundlur]

So, I think this is almost entirely a way for him to rationalize Barb dying before he has his sweetheart. I bet Chris will talk to his tulpas as he hits pay for his rent bill for his crappy, impoverished Charlottesville apartment every month.

Edit: But to your point: Chris' IRL friends spend time with him because he's a harmless hobo weirdo. I think this bothers them, but they're not intimate friends. Actually, it'd be funny/interesting to challenge them on this. But it wouldn't be fair to them.

Doubtful. Like I said, I don't believe he actually believes this. He'll drop this shit like a hot turd if someone is threatening serious consequences, and (most importantly) not just to the person making the threat; he'll drop it in his mind.

Because again, he doesn't actually believe in this stuff.

Chris is a child who doesn't have anyone or anything to push back on his stupid fantasies.

I say this because, as Alec has noted, we have pushed back on his fantasies in the past. And in undocumented situations too. He always reacts that way. It's hilarious how shallow these beliefs are in Chris' coconut of a head. He pussies out because he's afraid he's going to get in trouble. He doesn't believe in shit. In anything.

This shit is a comfort blanket to him.

What's amazing is that he may not believe it, but thinks everybody else is stupid enough to believe all that bullshit.

 

[Nacho Man Randy Salsa]

his life is terrible and he can't fix it and he doesn't understand why he can't fix it.

Can it be fixed? I'm of the opinion that he's too far gone.

 

[CwChalk]

It's more that Chris doesn't understand what empathy is.

One thing I'm sure others have picked up on as well, is that he no longer describes himself as 'true and honest'. It's been replaced with 'kind and compassionate'. The whole Jessica Quinn thing, he never understood why she didn't want him interacting with trolls, and yet, when he did and she dumped his ass, he turned around and cursed us instead. He never understood why someone who'd enter a relationship with him wouldn't want him stalking other people either, even refusing to believe it was wrong.

 

[MMX]

One thing I'm sure others have picked up on as well, is that he no longer describes himself as 'true and honest'. It's been replaced with 'kind and compassionate'. The whole Jessica Quinn thing, he never understood why she didn't want him interacting with trolls, and yet, when he did and she dumped his ass, he turned around and cursed us instead. He never understood why someone who'd enter a relationship with him wouldn't want him stalking other people either, even refusing to believe it was wrong.

I guess it's an example of him just not getting empathy.
His "girlfriend" told him not to do things because it upset her so chris used "empathy" to explain why he was right to continue to do those things. I suppose Chris just goes through life transplaining at people and when he encounters push back he either ignores their input, half asses their advice or decides he does have enough info on a subject and backs away from it.

I think it was back during the panda saga when Chris couldn't get his head around the idea that it was okay for him to go to a strip club but saw no reason why she would want to do the same.

At the end of the day it's the duality of Chris, he's all love is love until he's all fuck you guys, fuck you homos, curse you to death then right back to finding deep meaning in pony's forgiving each other.

 

[Done]

I guess it's an example of him just not getting empathy.
His "girlfriend" told him not to do things because it upset her so chris used "empathy" to explain why he was right to continue to do those things. I suppose Chris just goes through life transplaining at people and when he encounters push back he either ignores their input, half asses their advice or decides he does have enough info on a subject and backs away from it.

I think it was back during the panda saga when Chris couldn't get his head around the idea that it was okay for him to go to a strip club but saw no reason why she would want to do the same.

At the end of the day it's the duality of Chris, he's all love is love until he's all fuck you guys, fuck you homos, curse you to death then right back to finding deep meaning in pony's forgiving each other.

That was the Ivy saga with the strip clubs. She mentioned it in the Q&A.

It's worth mentioning that Jessica wasn't just opposed to him interacting with trolls, she was opposed to him even watching the Sachumo documentary.. Which veers into the realm of crazy IMO, because watching it had no downside for Chris nor the trolls whatsoever.

 

[Muscle Bra]

Imagine you were in solitary confinement for thirty-howevermany-years, with access only to video games and ponies shows and hoarder parents and animes and the American Rabbit. Then imagine you're extremely, mega, advanced autistic. Then try to construct a world view.

He's not schizophrenic; his life is terrible and he can't fix it and he doesn't understand why he can't fix it.

I agree with everything you said, but you forgot to add in all the stupid bullshit sitcoms he's watched over the years. Not only is CWC unable to understand why he can't fix his life, I'm sure he's simply amazed that all his problems don't just magically work themselves out and everyone forgives and forgets the way the sitcom families do.

Chris may have friends that may go to the cinema with him, but I don't think that he has or had friends that would invite him to their spaces or stick-up for him when he really really needs it (Like if he needed a loan or something). To summarize: He doesn't have anything more than somewhat superficial friends (Not necessarily pity friends, but not Help Him Hide a Corpse friends either), and I don't think he even knows that those friends even exist for other people, let alone find them.

I'm probably splitting hairs here but I would consider those kinds of people to be more acquaintances than friends. Someone you hang out with once in a while and share interests with (regardless of whether those interests are drinking beer, watching sports, playing games, etc.) are acquaintances; friends are the people you hide corpses for.

 

[Done]

I'm probably splitting hairs here but I would consider those kinds of people to be more acquaintances than friends. Someone you hang out with once in a while and share interests with (regardless of whether those interests are drinking beer, watching sports, playing games, etc.) are acquaintances; friends are the people you hide corpses for.

I see what you mean, but they have shown that they are willing to do minor favors for him, like being on call for Barb while he is at Bronycon for example. This makes them more than acquaintances for him, it's just that they're not gonna do much more than that for him, and he doesn't really give them a reason to, you know?

He doesn't strike me as the person who would care or try to get people to open up for him.