Forum: Story Recommendations

FAFO is not a threat or a divination... its a promise. A promise that if you screw with me or mine, I will get revenge and it is an unspoken certainty that my revenge will be more destructive and painful than whatever you did that triggered it.

ralord..

Yes! 💯 exactly!

'Fuck Around' I understand but where does 'Find Out' fit in? Is it a threat? Is it divination?

FAFO is often said in similar situations to the phrase "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes".

Both idioms are suggesting that bad things happen to people who screw around. While some here are defining it as a threat, it's usually used in a more karmic perspective.

For example, if someone is pulled over while driving or is in court on a minor violation and messes around being annoying, they might get a worse punishment than if they'd just gone along. They fucked around and found out that the repercussions of doing so are severe. They played a stupid game and won a stupid (unwanted) "prize".

While some here are defining it as a threat, it's usually used in a more karmic perspective.

I've seen "fuck around and find out" used as a counter threat more often than in a karmic sense.

"What if I come over there and kick your ass?"

"Fuck around and find out."

FAFO is often said in similar situations to the phrase "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes".

On yewtoob do a search for brake checking semi trucks if y'all want a visual of FAFO.

Sorry NC... gotta disagree. Brake checking semi-trucks is much more PSG,WSP than FAFO. see my response to Dicrostonyx

FAFO is specifically a promise of retaliation worse than the event that triggered it. "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes" is more about expected repercussions in any event where the triggering action is not that of a thoughtful, sane individual... like brake-checking a fully-loaded semi-truck traveling 60+ mph. Has nothing to do with retaliation usually (though in some circumstances it can) while FAFO is ALL about retaliation.

That may be the usage you've seen or even the original, but it isn't that specific in modern use. FAFO has been all over various social media sites for the last several years in a much less directly threatening use.

For example, IT and programmers have been using the term for several years in reference to less experienced programmers using tools and techniques that they don't fully understand. It's also being used these days in the body-cam & court-cam tubes in reference to people who escalate situations resulting in more serious charges/ sentences than they would otherwise have had.

I'm not saying that the promise of retaliation meaning is wrong, simply that it's not the main way the term is being used today, at least not in the contexts I've seen it.

so I consider the first a direct threat

I would suggest that FAFO is not a direct threat, it is specifically a counter threat. That is the person told to FAFO has themselves made a threat of some kind.

'Fuck Around' I understand but where does 'Find Out' fit in?

I found this tale on FB. Fits the FAFO theme.

"An old man was eating in a truck stop when three rough-looking bikers walked in. As they passed the old man, the first biker pushed his cigarette into the old man's pie, then laughed and took a seat at the counter. The second biker picked up the old man's milk and spit into it. The third biker turned over the old man's plate before joining the others at the counter.
Without saying a word to the laughing bikers, the old man put his money down, got up, and left the diner. One of the bikers said to the waitress, "Not much of a man, was he?"
The waitress replied," Not much of a truck driver either. He just backed his big rig over three motorcycles!"

YES! This is exactly FAFO.. all about the retaliation which was worse than the triggering event.

FAFO= not a threat... a promise...and doesn't have to be verbalized... just actioned upon. For people that live by FAFO, it is a measured, ingrained response to disrespect or hurts to ourselves or those we care about. Notice I said measured.. not proportionate. In fact the core belief of FAFO is that the response HAS to be worse and more painful than what triggered it. Otherwise the assholes won't learn not to FAFO.

FAFO= not a threat... a promise...and doesn't have to be verbalized... just actioned upon.

Thank you! I can't express it more clearly.

Isn't there a SOL story in which that happens?

There was something by Ernest Bywater (does a search) https://storiesonline.net/s/65660/always-a-marine was it. I found the whole thing an absolute cliche but it is one of the highest rated shorts on this site so it appears I'm in a minority.

No, not those racist lads.

FAFO seems to my eye to be everywhere where swearing is allowed.

The "tradional" meaning of mess with me or mine and suffer the consequences.

I agree with a lot of the names on you list. One that is not on there is Xalir, specifically the retaliation in The Party. Lots of BTB stories would also fall under the FAFO list. What I like about Xalir's The Party is that when the MC found out about his wife being a diagnosed nymphomaniac, he didn't retaliate against her but went after all the "friends" that used her condition to violate his trust. Makes it more of a Burn The Bastards rather than Burn The Bitch with a reasonable explanation for why the "Bitch" was forgiven.

aiming4awesome hits the mark with the Needles and Delaney recommendation starting with The Shack: an Angry Man

Calm down, I'd have thought everybody was capable of understanding the consequences of damaging Tesla vehicles.
As for buying (or selling) Tesla stock, why should anyone who is not a full time broker want to do a thing like that? Tesla is highly volatile and this is frequently triggered by factors which only become known later. Around 3-4 (?) years ago I read that people were shorting Tesla stock (don't know why) only to lose their shirts when it went up. I think Elon had bought a few million shares. That smelled of (maybe justified) market manipulation to me and I decided to leave well alone.

If I was going to be "Angry" with someone, 🙄 I would investigate people who went into politics nearly penniless and are Now Multi Millionaires 😤 or who have made my life worse. 😠

What did Marjorie Taylor Greene's finances look like before she entered politics? She seemed to be a prime beneficiary of the turbulence which was triggered by Donald Trump's tariff announcements, something she had advance warning of.

If I was going to be "Angry" with someone, 🙄 I would investigate people who went into politics nearly penniless and are Now Multi Millionaires 😤 or who have made my life worse. 😠

That would be nearly every member of the US Congress.