From Sullivan, who posts on the heterosexual version of Grindr…

Marshall Sella went undercover to understand the allure of the gay-cruising app. After interviewing the men who met up with him, he applied his knowledge to Blendr, the straight version:

In large part, human interaction is irrational or it is nothing. This is especially true with dumb sex. Dumb sex makes a fool of logic. If you’re the man who has a “type” in romance, you probably also have a “system” at cards. Blendr is built on these insights into our silliness and our strangeness, and instead of finding you the person you think you’re looking for, the software opens your eyes to the people around you.

The person you think you’re looking for… No jackass.   I have a type in romance…which is to say I know what my libido is sexually attracted to and what it is not, and what sort of person I am emotionally attracted to and what sort of person I am not.   Combine sexual attractiveness with emotional attractiveness and you have your romantic type.   That is, if you are even the type who is into romance.   A lot of people aren’t.   If you aren’t…look…don’t even think for one second you grok those of us who are.   You don’t.   You can’t.   Clearly, it isn’t you.

Dumb sex makes a fool of logic… Well no…actually the fool is you.   Knowing what works and what doesn’t work for you romantically isn’t the same as thinking you have a system for playing cards.   You might have a system for finding and dating your romantic type that works as well (or not) as your system at cards but that is a separate thing from who you are, and who you are not attracted do.   And you almost get it when you say that sex can make a fool of logic.   It’s making a fool of yours right now.

Yes…libido has its own separate and relentless logic and you just have to accept that it will want what it wants.   It isn’t something you can switch on and off, it isn’t a blackboard you can wipe clean and scribble onto it whatever you’d rather have there.   It is what it is. Your gay neighbors understand (or they damn well ought to) how that is…

This switch does not exist

We learn to deal with it.   You can too.   But that’s just the desire part. Then there is this thing we tend to refer to metaphorically as the “Heart”.   It has its own logic too.   My libido may or may not tick like yours.   Likewise for my heart.

You may think the heart part doesn’t matter, or isn’t important, or it always gets shoved into the car and taken for a ride to the nearest motel by the libido part…but that’s just how it looks to you. A lot of people probably share your point of view.   A lot of people don’t.   We’re not naive. You are, if you think your point of view is the only realistic one.

It’s like the lady said:   Some people are settling down, some people are settling and some people refuse to settle for anything less than butterflies. But also like the man said:   When you die you’re going to regret the things you don’t do. You think you’re queer? I’m going to tell you something: we’re all queer. You think you’re a thief? So what? You get befuddled by a middle-class morality? Get shut of it. Shut it out. You cheat on your wife? You did it, live with it. You fuck little girls, so be it. There’s an absolute morality? Maybe. And then what? If you think there is, go ahead, be that thing. Bad people go to hell? I don’t think so. If you think that, act that way. A hell exists on earth? Yes. I won’t live in it.

If Grindr is your thing then go for it.   If random casual sex is your thing, fine.   Be that.   If you wake up next morning in bed with a total stranger and you’re feeling ashamed like you always do when you do that then stop doing that.   If a new conquest every night makes you feel like you’re on top of the world then bask in the glory.   But don’t fucking tell me that something like Grindr “opens your eyes to the people around you.”   Hahahaha….that’s bullshit.   It’s the kind of bullshit people tell themselves because they’re afraid of being called pigs and sluts.

Look…admit it…Grindr just a goddamned sex park and if you’re there then clearly it’s because you want to be an item on somebody’s menu.   Fine.   No, really.   It’s Okay.   If that’s you, then go ahead and be that.   If you think all that dating and romance stuff is for children and arrested adolescents who still cry when Rick tells Ilsa they’ll always have Paris then so be it.   Life is short.   As long as everyone knows what they’re in it for and they treat the people they take into their arms honestly and decently then for god’s sake go ahead and just whore around if that’s what you want.   Sex is wonderful!

Life is good.   Don’t end up on your death bed with a lot of regrets about everything (everyone) you didn’t do when you had a chance to.   There’s nothing to be ashamed of here.   Admit it: you don’t actually want to get to know any of those people, just fuck them.   Grindr is telling you everything you want to know about them, and nothing you couldn’t care less about.   Are they sexy…yes or no…are they close at hand…is there someplace nearby I can get them alone and horizontal…

I am not being cynical here.   This poor angry world, I am convinced, would be a much nicer, more peaceful and productive place, if everyone was a bit more sexually fulfilled.   What we all need to understand in the pursuit of that great big beautiful tomorrow however, is that one person’s paradise is another person’s trailer park.   I get that.   You need to get it too.

Now kindly get the fuck off our backs.   You don’t get romantics.   You never will.   Now go away.

[Edited a tad for clarity…]