(TikTok screencap)
That’s 100% my brother. The weirdest part, it looks so much like him I had to text him and ask if the chick in the background is an old girlfriend, because I’m genuinely not sure that’s not my brother.
Really not trying to be rude.
I don’t have TikTok and don’t want one. I want to be a part of online stuff such as this story you’re telling. But.
TikTok is fucking cancer on a phone/device that doesn’t have an account and doesn’t (therefore) have the app installed.
Popups of all forms. Just like sketchy websites. It’s just a red flag. That’s all.
These experiences really reinforce my decision to NOT have a TikTok.
100% agree. Fucking hate tiktok. Even beyond the data they collect and shit, how skeezy they are about watching the videos makes them so shitty.
That said, open it in a browser and then set to desktop site it you’re on mobile. It allows it to play without the popups. Mobile browser tiktok feels like a late 90s porn site with the popups
Thx for the info!
It is insane how much that dude looks like my brother. He even has the exact same shirt and shoes. Like I genuinely thought some random picture of him had been put online. When I texted him about it he had to text his best friend to find out if the chick in the picture was maybe one of the friends old girlfriends or something he’d forgotten about. Even my brother thought it was a picture of him. Lol
This is a white thing? I never knew that.
I’m black and I like fire, though aside from a fireplace visiting family once, I haven’t had much opportunities to tend an open flame. I did enjoy keeping it going that one time though.
I grew up in the woods and chopped wood and did all the back-country stuff, but it wasn’t until looking back way later in life that I realized that we lived in what was basically rural, racist, white America. The segregation that still exists is unfair in what it denies to children growing up. I feel like if were a black parent I might have serious reservations about taking my family out to most of rural America.
The legacy of homesteading being a “white settler” thing has left indelible marks on many places.
There’s at least one organization working to fix that lingering impact. Outdoorafro.org is all about linking Black Americans with the parks and wild places that have historically been off-limits, dangerous, or discouraged.
I would love to see more people of color embracing America’s wilds, if we had larger communities of color in the woods it wouldn’t feel so dangerous out there. Diversity leads to people not feeling like they own a thing and can make rules about who belongs there.
I would also love to see more progressives broadly reclaim the US flag and responsible gun ownership. I feel we lost the country because we let them plaster themselves with propaganda and made it feel “gross” to support our country. We allowed the seeding of far too much “America Bad” sentiment and it led to too many young people tuning out and not caring what happens to our home.
The OP’s observation is that there is at least one white guy that fucks with keeping the fire going. There can be as many others as you wish!
Right, but it mentions a white guy specifically.
Sabre-tooth tigers might sneak up and attack if the fire goes out, at least, I’ve not been attacked by one when the fire is burning, so I just can’t take the risk.
Brown guy here, I like fire too
Yeah, whats the deal with “white guy”? Guys like fucking with fire. Black, white, brown, blue. If theres an alien species on the other side of the galaxy, you can bet they have something very much like guys, and the love fucking with fire.
I went to an engineering school and I am here to tell you that pyromancy is practiced by every type of person.
The best pyromancy comes from the United States, we have such classics as The German Barbeque, Korean Barbeque, Vietnam Barbeque, and California.
Is that a jab about all the forest fires CA keeps experiencing? If so, well done. I chuckled.
I’m from the Inland Empire here in SoCal I have to make jokes or the sirens call of the inferno starts to eat away at ones mind.
You forgot the Midwest Bonfire with 1000 drunken teenagers and a fire big enough that the local fire chief comes to check on it.
Isn’t that just Sunday?
You know it’s American when skin colour is mentioned for no reason
I kind of get that way but I’ve never really realized it was obsessive behavior until this meme pointed it out.
Closet pyros
The closet burned down a while back
There’s something really cathartic about placing shit in a firepit and just watching it burn away.
It’s also the smell of smoke. The crackling. The heat. How the poking stick feels in your hand. Poke poke
White guy detected
" …some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the wood burn "
I’m the one obsessively scavenging for wood around the camp site to keep that wood pile healthy.
I got the largest kelly kettle because loads of friends said they would be interested in using it as a group. This was like 3 or so years ago and since I got it absolutely no one has been interested in actually going outside. So I recently bought the smallest one now as I am only ever using it on my own, may as well get something easier to carry.
Shame that I don’t know anyone else interested in it though, don’t even have to go camping, just a day/afternoon trip or even just sit on the beach, but even that doesn’t get any interest.
Yeah, you look like you’re the type alright.
It’s me, i’m that guy. I’m fun to camp with ladies ;)

I too feel very seen right now.
I absolutely adore keeping the fire going. I was a white man for decades so i’m not dodging the allegations. I have never been camping where i was not the last person awake and always keeping the fire just right until all the wood was gone.
It’s all about the air flow. Too much and everything burns too quickly in a roaring furnace, too little and you have no light and not enough heat. By constantly adjusting the logs you can maintain the proper air flow to keep everything just right. Rotating a log to present fresh wood to an eager flame here. Squeezing two logs a little closer to reduce the oxygen and trim things up there. A proper fire adjusting stick (and a backup) is crucial.
Give me a stack of seasoned wood, a k-bar, a magnesium fire starter and a comfy camp chair and i’m in heaven from the time the sun sets until the wood runs out.
As someone else who was a white man for decades, ever started a fire from sratch ?
I’ve done it once. Pain in the ass, but the sense of accomplishment you get from starting a fire with nothing but kindling, some sticks, and a boot lace is amazing.
have tried 3-4 times but never even got a whiff of smoke! The region i camp in is generally described as ‘rainforest’ and while i have to assume it’s possible I am missing some trick to it.
Pro tip: dip a paper towel in olive oil, stuff it under the main log, and light it up. Olive oil burns slow and hot.
they are talking about making fire without using lighter or matches or a fire starter, just wood on wood friction the way people had to make fire before any of those things existed. An oily rag won’t help you with the difficult part; making a small coal to light your tinder.
Right, I missed that.
I read this in Ron Swanson’s voice.
I love when I get back home and even after a shower and laundry, my hair and clothes still smell smokey.
fuck yeah that’s good shit
Solidarity from another former white guy and campfire enthusiast.
💖
Three of us!
I was a white man for decades
I feel like someone’s gotta ask: Are you no longer a white man?
Probably a trans woman? From the name and Fed instance.
from the name??
this is going to mess with me when i make my next account 😂
My take is that ‘violetsoftness’ just seems like a feminine username. So if you used to identify as male but now use that username, I also guessed trans woman. The name itself doesn’t necessarily make me think trans, just fem.
For whatever it’s worth, I think it’s a great name! It gives a nice, friendly vibe, like you would be fun to hang out with.
<3
Either that or an it*lian.
reverse Micheal Jackson?
@Alxe has it, I am now a white woman :)
Too much soot from staying near the fire
My lungs have turned black.
Why is it always the guy who looks like that though? The two main friend groups I’ve been part of in the past decade had that one guy and they both looked very similar to the guy in the image.
They are Carriers of the Bloodline
Destined to link the flame

I feel like it’s a do-or-die caveman instinct or something.
I was hanging out with a group of people in my friend’s backyard. We were supposed to have a bonfire, but the wood was wet and wasn’t burning. We used all sorts of fuel, fire starters, etc. I saw what looked like corner of a log turn into ember, so wouldn’t give up. Never got a flame when we were there, of course.
I felt very proud though when my friend sent me door camera footage of the firepit turning into a massive blaze in the middle of night that woke her up.
Wet wood is the worst. If you have some dry and some wet you can sort of power through it. A cabin we were at with a wood burning fireplace had a lot of wet wood. It kept popping and scaring us so we kept making that joke from The Office “the fire is shooting at us!”
DONT HATE it’s all he’s got
That’s what I’m sayin’! I’m mildly autistic and not very good socially. Even if I want to be there it can be difficult. Tending to the fire is a way I get to participate.
Well, technically without him there would be no fire.
be honest, the Nike gel soles are doin most of the heavy liftin’



















