722
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 4 points 17 hours ago

Uh... What?

In Fight Club this was a prank, among many others, to mess with people. It was called Project Mayhem.

The Popular Science tips are akin to things like using old motor oil to keep termites out of a fence post. In an era when paint amd gasoline had lead in it, you could use oil to kill things! The gravel -filled hole was just to keep it from clumping, and putting it at the back of a property would be to keep the property line clear of growth.

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Yes, and when FC was written we had figured out how bad just pouring oil out was for the water table. I'm saying that the author may have been referencing the real PS tips that were severely outdated, when he made up this prank in FC.

Also, I'm pretty sure oil can still kill things, lead in the gas and paint notwithstanding.

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 2 points 15 hours ago

Yes, I've read most of not all of Chuck Palahniuk's novels. This isn't in the novel.

This is the late 90s/early 2000s Hollywood toxic masculinity version of a line from the book (I looked just now):

For thousands of years, human beings had screwed up and trashed and crapped on this planet, and now history expected me to clean up after everyone. I have to wash out and flatten my soup cans. And account for every drop of used motor oil. And I have to foot the bill for nuclear waste and buried gasoline tanks and landfilled toxic sludge dumped a generation before I was born.

So, when the movie was made, it struck a hard nerve with Douchbag guys who totally didn't get the point of the movie. In that vein, the era of late 1990s environmentalism came up against newly forming toxic male tropes. Prior to 9/11, even. After that, time changed dramatically, leaning towards the toxic masculinity side. What you're seeing is the seeds of this like rolling coal.

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 16 hours ago

I still remember helping my father creosote our fence in the 70's-80's. We used to do some pretty awful things.

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 2 points 15 hours ago

See? You know!

And they wonder why we're all bring all the cancers.

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 15 hours ago

respirator? nah that's just for paint. don't want paint in your lungs, that'd be bad!

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 2 points 14 hours ago

"Only girls 'n' queers use a mask"

  • many people's bosses that didn't want to pay 25 cents for a shit mask
[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 13 hours ago

in my case it was my dad, and he owned a respriator for painting, just didn't think creosote was a bad thing

this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
722 points (100.0% liked)

Fuck AI

7462 readers
1335 users here now

"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"

A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.

AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS