Burning Man Mud Bath

[The Gays From LA]

I never had any interest in Burning Man... that is, until recent events with 70k "Burners" stuck on the festival premises for days due to a storm turning turning the whole place into a gigantic mud bath:

How it started:

How it's going now: "There's a strange dystopian feeling"

According to this video by two "Burning Man virgins", it costs between $2k to $20k to attend this event for a week, depending on the level of comfort you're able to afford. So the people who are there right now, on average spent at least $2000 only to end up in a mud pool with overflowing portapotties:

The mud looks like it's already dried up and is now walkable, I don't see anyone sinking ankle deep into the mud here, but they're aparently expecting more rain soon:

These are their 10 festival/event principles that everyone who visits this event is supposed to live by while they're there:

But they are already violating them, even though they aren't buying or selling or have any kind of exchange currency during their event:

NGL, I love watching these "Mudman" survival videos on Youtube because it feels like I'm watching an anachronistic version of American pioneers.

 

[The Gays From LA]

This woman being interviewed here is an army veteran:

 

[Slaughter]

I heard someone died of ebola, was there any truth to that rumor?

 

[The Gays From LA]

I heard someone died of ebola, was there any truth to that rumor?

Nope, total bullshit. They're joking about the Ebola rumour in their videos and on their subreddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/168g6m0

 

[The Gays From LA]

The Burners are finally leaving the festival premises, but they have to wait for 7 hours in line to reach the roads at take them back to civilization: "It was definitely not a Lord of the Flies situation. Quite the opposite."

Climate change? What the fuck is climate change? (look at those dark smoke clouds, they're clearly using literal explosives to ignite that figure)

Here's someone responding to a CNN interview of a friend of a viewer who was at the event:

 

[Crimson Fucker]

Wondering if they can even sacrifice a Christopher Lee clone in their wicker man with all the rain.

 

[The Gays From LA]

Wondering if they can even sacrifice a Christopher Lee clone in their wicker man with all the rain.

They did "burn the man", you can see them blowing up the statue in one of the videos I posted.

They also posted pictures in their subreddit, r/BurningMan of the "ritual":

https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16ajoxg
https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16ay9td
https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16axu0c
... but someone also posted this picture of themselves emptying their piss-bottles because they couldn't access the portapotties that were overflowing:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16azmx5
Totally environmentally concscious sustainable event, LMAO!

https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16axufh

 

[Crimson Fucker]

Totally environmentally concscious sustainable event, LMAO!

Don't forget the various non bio degradable garbage and human turds. Most of the environmentalists are grifting scammers with investment in "fossil fuels" and green energy taking private jets and yachts to tell us we are the problem and the solution is plastic wrapped paper straws instead of paper wrapped plastic straws.

 

[The Gays From LA]

LMAO!

"So, I just survived Burning Man... like, what is this whole idea of community and radical inclusion? Like, is that just a fake front that these Burners put on , and when shit gets real that mask comes off and they start becoming these ugly, violent, unpleasant neighbours towards one another?"

She also made this video, she clearly didn't like the experience of having to prep:

People being interviewed about the event at the airport in Reno:

Another flyover video:

It looks really cool though, if you can afford it:

 

[The Gays From LA]

Destiny refuses to leave Burning Man:

 

[The Gays From LA]

"From a Black Man at Burning Man", LMAO! @Sailfish can we make this the featured video please?! There's a black SJW at Burning Man who wants to start calling out the "5%" of white racists at Burning Man:

 

[Kenneth Erwin Engelhardt]

"From a Black Man at Burning Man", LMAO! @Sailfish can we make this the featured video please?! There's a black SJW at Burning Man who wants to start calling out the "5%" of white racists at Burning Man:

Ok

 

[Crimson Fucker]

Whenever i go on this thread and a couple others like my conspiracy theory one my connection gets suspiciously slower and site features want to quit working normally. Im not saying it's feds watching the page but it's probably feds watching the page.

 

[The Gays From LA]

Whenever i go on this thread and a couple others like my conspiracy theory one my connection gets suspiciously slower and site features want to quit working normally. Im not saying it's feds watching the page but it's probably feds watching the page.

It's probably just because of all the videos and the Reddit threads I've linked to, LMAO!

@Firegirl26 you're gonna love this r/BurningMan thread: a non-binary F2M bitches about the festival being transphobic because she, being "nonbinary" ie a woman with no boobs, got upset at "a titty fondling booth that specified 'no man boobs'"... but Burners aren't having it!

https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16bw84d
I'm archiving this whole fucking thread right now, this is one for the books: hippie libertarians telling a troon to STFU and stop expecting people to cater to them.

Archived: https://archive.ph/55SDf

Here are some of her follow-up posts in the thread where she specifies what happened:

First of all, I met lots of wonderful trans folks at the Burn and I’d say the Burn is still a much safer place for trans folks than 99% of the country is.

That said, the promise of “radical inclusion” definitely fell short, and there were a lot of well-meaning liberal folks who had an attitude of “everyone is welcome!” but without being educated on how to be actually be inclusive to trans folks. (For example, I was in a queer camp, but there was no practice of asking people’s pronouns or including them in introductions.)

I identify as trans/non-binary and my biggest discomfort was being perceived as a cis woman as the default. Most of the they/thems I talked to experienced constant misgendering. A lot of sex and kink oriented events still describe activities in terms of a gender binary (men and women). And I experienced some transphobic micro aggressions (like a titty fondling booth that specified “no man boobs”).

My advice is to camp with other trans folks if you can, so that you have that basis of acceptance and understanding to come home to. I adore the camp Gender Blender, and that ended up being my safe space through the week.

Feel free to DM me if you have more questions!

https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16bw84d/_/jzg4j4t

Well, I told them—in the friendliest and non-combative tone I could muster— that my boobs are not female boobs because I’m non-binary. And they responded that since I was wearing a bikini, I was expressing my femininity, and thus they were not man boobs.
And I’m sure they would have not been happy to have trans men visiting to have their boobs fondled.
Maybe, just maybe, the response to a marginalized group sharing what makes them feel unwelcome isn’t to tell them it seems like they just want to be pissed off. Is that what you say to other marginalized groups seeking respect and dignity?

https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16bw84d/_/jzgscuz

Gee, all these years KF told me that non-binary non-women are just poor traumatized lesbians that chop their tits off because they were raped and hate their boobs as a reminder of their "feminine vulnerability"... yet here we have an NB that got her boobs chopped... so she could go to the titty booth at Burning Man to get the scar-tissue fondled? Yeah, KF was so right, troon women are totally not as perverted as troon men are.


To which a Burner correctly responded:

I think your definition of radical inclusion might be mistaken. It’s more of anyone is welcome to come to the burn but it sounds like you want it to mean you are going to be catered to, which isn’t the case.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16bw84d/_/jzgmtmg

Someone else was more direct with the troon:

You just shit on 6 different people's approaches to living and understanding their day because they didn't agree with your 1 very specific approach and couldn't vibe with you.

And you see no irony in that, do you?

https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16bw84d/_/jzh2o1p

Even more direct:

I think it’s pretty wild that you seem to know what “the whole point of the burn” is after going once. I think if you read up on the history you’ll find it was originally frequented by a lot more gun toting pranksters than hippies. It is not really supposed to be comfortable.

https://archive.ph/o/55SDf//BurningMan/comments/16bw84d/toxic_positivity/jzh0pvh/

Damn, these replies to the troon are so refreshing. I am so used to everyone on Reddit pussy-footing around troons, I almost cannot believe this thread is real.

From the little context I have from your post, it seems clear to me you are a needy person. That’s not intrinsically bad or good, it is just reality. Lots of people are needy. We all are actually, but some more so than others. It seems you might also be unreasonably expectant (see: presumptuous) of people to fulfill your needs. That is where the friction really starts in my opinion. Communication is key. Going to BM and expecting the majority of people you interact with are going to be understanding of your needs is unrealistic. With more intentionality of choosing a community/camp focused more specifically on nuanced emotional communication, it becomes more realistic. As far as I know, most Burners attend to have fun, immerse themselves in the magic of the playa, and share mostly positive experiences with other Burners. That is the realistic environmental tilt of burning man.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16bw84d/_/jzk05ev

The OP genuinely sounds kind of insufferable and then comes to burning man surprised that other people aren't on their wavelength.
Not every conversation, especially with total strangers, needs to go into """"bad"""" stuff and it isn't toxic positivity to assume its toxic positivity when people are just being nice to a total stranger.
Especially when the "bad" stuff that had happened (from other commends in this thread) turns out was expecting their camp/other burners to be mind readers to know their pronouns or go out of their way to enforce a pronoun-free structure at burning man. Like come on. I'm a queer person deep in my local LGBTQ+ community and I understand more than most the struggles trans people face to feel like their identities are validated. But I also understand that people are generally nice and are probably not intentionally misgendering you when it happens. I also understand that being seen as nonbinary/gender queer with no telltale signs to instantly judge what pronouns you prefer is way more complicated than what most people can handle, so most people will just fall to defaults (and that's ok!). Part of push for nonbinary awareness is changing the default to assume they/them if you don't know. But to assume that everyone should just be on the same page because they are burners, even if they are queer burners? It's a silly thing to expect, and its a silly thing to sour your burn over.
If I was listening to the OP I too might look for any excuse to get out of the conversation. It comes off to me as such a manufactured struggle, a pessimists take, that I don't think a deep conversation involving it is warranted or would add value to my life. Or maybe it would have added value to theirs as I'm actually surrounded with nb/trans people in my life all the time so could have offered this perspective? But imagine if you're not me - what is there to connect over? You're essentially just complaining that a bad mindset is causing you to have a bad time. And then when people don't validate this bad mindset, you then come to reddit to complain about it and say it's toxic positivity. That to me, is much more "toxic".

https://www.reddit.com/r/BurningMan/comments/16bw84d/_/jzjk0tw

 

[The Gays From LA]

It now takes "only" 3 hours to leave:

This man says that he has been going to Burning Man for 5 years, and every year it has gotten worse with people leaving behind trash and refusing to observe the No Trace rule. People have become more anti-social, blocking off areas with their RVs:

This guy riding his onewheel says he can't see any trash and laughs at the idea of this festival having been a disaster:

"Where's this disaster that everyone keeps talking about?"

Some war washes in Reno are turning away Burners because their vehicles are too muddy to clean, so they have to wash them by hand:

 

[The Gays From LA]

Finally some podcasters who aren't just killjoy haters of the event:

Another account:

Again, it looks really amazing if you have $ 2k - $20k to waste going there:

 

[Firegirl26]

If I had the money I'll go

 

[The Gays From LA]

If I had the money I'll go

The sculptures and the drone shows do look very impressive, watching the people walk around in their self-made costumes and their decorated bikes seems a lot of fun too. It's the survivalist camping in a harsh environment that's a big turn-off for me. Maybe I'd go if I was younger and had more energy, but I was never a big fan of camping. I see a lot of greying Gen Xers in these videos who are Burning Man regulars, but I feel way too old for such festivals, I already felt too old for them in my early twenties. I went to a couple of music festivals in my late teens and for the most part I really didn't like it. I liked the music and the fact that I got to see bands play outdoors during the day instead of at a closed venue late at night, but all the drunk/high people, the mud, the stealing and the trash? Nope.

So apparently, the rich people that attend Burning Man buy a bike just to use at the festival, and afterwards they just dump their bikes as trash. There are piles of whole-ass bikes that have been discarded at Burning Man just because rich people don't see a bike as something useful outside of the festival. The organization collects them and donate them to foreign countries or non-profits around the US:

People without rental vans go there by bus, but all the seats on the bus are covered with black garbage bags:

Comedians are very inspired by Burning Man, LMAO!

Tribal people have more empathy than the alarmist sensationalist mainstream media:

I wanted to see what these people are eating at the festival, since they have to be there for 10 days. A lot of them have access to a fridge and some improvise a fridge with dry ice and frozen bottles, but there's also a free food guide as part of their "gifting" culture:

Some of their food is ridiculously named: "5 course meal in a spoon", "Tastes, both real and imagined", "Stop by and find out"

There are apparently hazing rituals involved with getting free food:

Here is some vegan chick at Burning Man eating vegan food for free throughout a whole day:

 

[The Gays From LA]

This Youtuber, Steel and Feels, is the best Burning Man lolcow:

I'm instantly a fan:

"Somehow I made it on Ben Shapiro!", LMAO!

"I got some of the most fucked up comments for reporting what was happening at Burning Man", a libertarian anarchist reports, LMAOOO:

"You mean a city built on freeloading has actual freeloaders that arrive?"

They have all this lingo that they're using, and apparently a "wook" is someone who is just attending without engaging in gifting, "60% of Burning Man is wooks":

"The techbros, Instagram models and tourists"

LMAOOO! This was the best one yet, 10/10! This perfectly illustrates what I said yesterday about feeling too old for Burning Man:

 

[The Gays From LA]

How the fuck did I not discover this Burning Man lolcow of lolcows before?!

How does this guy not have like a miles long thread on every lolcow forum in existence since the advent of the internet? "I have been oversharing myself on the internet for over 15 years!"

Everyone, meet John Styn aka "Halcyon", the pink mascot of Burning Man, veteran of 25 Burning Man editions. In this Livestream he explains that this year was his first sober Burning Man:

I know what you're thinking, and the answer is "no, he's not", he only has videos of himself with various women he's been dating over the years:

Fans of Fishbowl might want to see this video to see the precedent to their favourite show:

I guess this guy got so tired of people asking him if he's gay that he decided to provide them with all the straight receipts they needed to see, and then some.