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☖ Forums → Discussion Forum → Inauguration Day, Inauguration Hooooooraaay!
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Inauguration Day, Inauguration Hooooooraaay!
2017-01-23, 7:08 PM #161
Originally posted by Wookie06:
Who is the guy in the bottom right of that picture?


Jim Carrey from Dumb and Dumber 2, and I don't know how the rest of the 3 Doors Down thought he was their lead singer.
ᵗʰᵉᵇˢᵍ๒ᵍᵐᵃᶥᶫ∙ᶜᵒᵐ
ᴸᶥᵛᵉ ᴼᵑ ᴬᵈᵃᵐ
2017-01-24, 1:11 AM #162
If alt-right means pretending to be right-wing, but really just super racist, does that mean alt-facts is...
2017-01-24, 10:33 AM #163
Alt-facts are factoids which see certain existing facts as aberrations. I was going to say we'll soon have an alt-facto-sphere, but what's more rare now are actual legit pockets of actual factual discussion.

But, you know, maybe if it weren't for that subhuman Lϋgenpresse.
2017-01-24, 10:45 AM #164
I am so dying for this definition to take off.
2017-01-24, 10:46 AM #165
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
Alt-facts are factoids which see certain existing facts as aberrations. I was going to say we'll soon have an alt-facto-sphere, but what's more rare now are actual legit pockets of actual factual discussion.

But, you know, maybe if it weren't for that subhuman Lϋgenpresse.


holy ****, are they really calling it that? That has to be a troll or something
2017-01-24, 10:47 AM #166
BTW, in an interview on Conan O`Brien, John Cleese noted that the Trump strategy of accusing your opponent of doing exactly what you are doing (part #3 on the that top Urban Dictionary entry I linked) is an old KGB trick, so his affinity for a ex-KGB officer isn't too surprising.
2017-01-24, 10:48 AM #167
Originally posted by Jon`C:
holy ****, are they really calling it that? That has to be a troll or something


Nope... watch the video I linked to in the last page. Richard Spencer (the piece of **** who got sucker punched a day or two ago) said it in his "heil trump" conference.
2017-01-24, 10:51 AM #168
Here, from shortly after the election, and I've heard it elsewhere as well.
2017-01-24, 10:54 AM #169
BTW, Richard Spencer is one of the people who claim to have coined the term "alt right" in the first place.
2017-01-24, 10:59 AM #170
What's somewhat fascinating and also scary, is that I remember snooping around on /pol in the summer of 2014 a bit, and while there were Nazi memes, I honestly think at that point it was more or less meant as a joke. I really do think at some point that in the evolution of memes, Poe's Law probably represents some kind of linguistic evolutionary bridge that allowed colonization of 4chan by actual Stormfront users (with frat boys and PUAs somewhere in between). Which sort of turns around the whole idea of the "useful idiot" back to the right (and even more so to the commander in chief himself, on an entirely different yet more familiar level).

Who would have thought that information technology would be a catalyst for KGB-enabling self-sabotage by stupidity? I guess whoever coined the term "useful idiot" deserves some credit for constructing a phrase with prescient connotations.
2017-01-24, 11:06 AM #171
In our upside down, bizarro technologically amplified world, it would seem that the biggest losers posting from their Eagle's Nest in the rural south all the sudden can amplify their power the most, just because they have more free time to ****post by virtue of their failure in life. So in a way, technology is an equalizer of democracy, in an Isaac Asimov "ignorance = knowledge" sense.
2017-01-24, 11:51 AM #172
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
What's somewhat fascinating and also scary, is that I remember snooping around on /pol in the summer of 2014 a bit, and while there were Nazi memes, I honestly think at that point it was more or less meant as a joke. I really do think at some point that in the evolution of memes, Poe's Law probably represents some kind of linguistic evolutionary bridge that allowed colonization of 4chan by actual Stormfront users (with frat boys and PUAs somewhere in between). Which sort of turns around the whole idea of the "useful idiot" back to the right (and even more so to the commander in chief himself, on an entirely different yet more familiar level).

Who would have thought that information technology would be a catalyst for KGB-enabling self-sabotage by stupidity? I guess whoever coined the term "useful idiot" deserves some credit for constructing a phrase with prescient connotations.


I think /pol/ became unironically white supremacist a good while before 2014, but otherwise I agree--with all the kids constantly competing to outdo each other in edgelordism 4chan really primed itself for fascist sympathizing.

Just the other day I saw a classmate who I'm ~fairly~ sure is not a Nazi parroting white nationalist catchphrases that I assume she picked up from gamer/internet circles. It's pretty insidious.
2017-01-24, 12:11 PM #173
Interesting you mention the role of "gamer" circles on this. I noticed this male internet auto immune syndrome exhibit its first symptoms on Reddit, when people were spazzing out about Ellen Pao ("Gamergate"). It's like feminism created an adverse reaction in mobs of young males by overstating it's case with very specious arguments.

Richard Rorty predicted this backlash in the 90s, in a critique of the new "cultural left", long before someone thought to coin the phrase "social justice warrior".

Quote:
The cultural left, wrote Rorty, had come “to give cultural politics preference over real politics, and to mock the very idea that democratic institutions might once again be made to serve social justice.” He foresaw cultural politics on the left as contributing to a tidal wave of resentment that would one day result in a time when “all the sadism which the academic left has tried to make unacceptable to its students will come flooding back.”
2017-01-24, 1:20 PM #174
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
Interesting you mention the role of "gamer" circles on this. I noticed this male internet auto immune syndrome exhibit its first symptoms on Reddit, when people were spazzing out about Ellen Pao ("Gamergate"). It's like feminism created an adverse reaction in mobs of young males by overstating it's case with very specious arguments.

Richard Rorty predicted this backlash in the 90s, in a critique of the new "cultural left", long before someone thought to coin the phrase "social justice warrior".


Gamergate was, for a week, the result of pent up frustration and suspicion towards gaming media, triggered by what looked like an attempt to censor discussion of an event that sounded really sketchy. It turned out later that subreddit mods couldn't keep up with posting of personal information and rules breaking. Most people chilled out after that and forgot about it.

Everyone else went at it forever with tweet wars, alternately taking turns bullying and playing the victim card for being bullied. In order to justify further bullying. I think for a lot of people "feminism", tends to identify a person with asinine twitter shenanigans.
2017-01-24, 1:26 PM #175
Gamergate was roughly 1% latchkey kids making rape threats, and 99% calling people sexist because they didn't like and subscribe some badly made YouTube videos.
2017-01-24, 1:28 PM #176
I wish Twitter would just go out of business already. What a ****ing dump.
2017-01-24, 1:30 PM #177
In response to Obi:

Which just proves my point that the information technology that has created "social media" is effectively an anti-pragmatic "idiot" amplifier, bouncing around the simplest, most emotionally appetizing thoughts for eternity. I wouldn't fault less than brilliant feminists on moral grounds, but it's not hard to predict the ensuing tragedy. The medium is the message, and if twitter is the new television, we're not just Amusing Ourselves to Death on an individual level (1:N broadcast), but also killing the collective (N:N bidirectional, i.e. flamewars).

(With the dreaded lamestream media making way for trending Facebook factoids.)
2017-01-24, 1:35 PM #178
Twitter is designed to be maxmally intrusive. I don't have the app, but I've read it's impossible to shut down notifications.
2017-01-24, 1:43 PM #179
Twitter is candy for outrage-addicted pseudo-intellectuals whose thoughts and beliefs are shallow enough to fully describe using only 140 characters.

It's ****ty software used by **** people, and they aren't going out of business because they can't monetize, they're going out of business because they are hemorrhaging users.
2017-01-24, 1:56 PM #180
Circa-2012, I remember following some people on twitter who mostly talked about Scheme and had their Github in their profile. Nowadays I mostly see anti-SJWs retweeting BLM stuff.
2017-01-24, 2:00 PM #181
I have a theory that for every negation operation somebody takes in order to contrast themselves from an opposing view, you lower the bar for intelligence required to post / repost an order of magnitude. Feminists who were only ever anti men were bad, but anti-feminists are anti-anti something. To be anti-anti something is not very difficult.
2017-01-24, 2:02 PM #182
Being anti-something isn't difficult either.
2017-01-24, 2:33 PM #183
Originally posted by Jon`C:
Being anti-something isn't difficult either.


Yes, it is!
Sorry for the lousy German
2017-01-24, 3:03 PM #184
Originally posted by Jon`C:
Twitter is candy for outrage-addicted pseudo-intellectuals whose thoughts and beliefs are shallow enough to fully describe using only 140 characters.

It's ****ty software used by **** people, and they aren't going out of business because they can't monetize, they're going out of business because they are hemorrhaging users.


Has it even made any money? Last I looked into it (which was a while ago because twitter is ****ing cancer) it was way below break even and was going wild with spending.
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-01-24, 3:05 PM #185
Originally posted by Jon`C:
Twitter is candy for outrage-addicted pseudo-intellectuals whose thoughts and beliefs are shallow enough to fully describe using only 140 characters.

It's ****ty software used by **** people, and they aren't going out of business because they can't monetize, they're going out of business because they are hemorrhaging users.


That's pretty much exactly it. Facebook at least allows for the possibility of meaningful self-expression, but in practice, it's almost entirely people sharing image macros.
2017-01-24, 3:41 PM #186
Maybe Twitter can be slowly repurposed as a porn delivery service. Like Tumblr.
SnailIracing:n(500tpostshpereline)pants
-----------------------------@%
2017-01-24, 3:45 PM #187
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
Maybe, but I would also put forth the theory that he's going to try to minimize the number of people hired under the auspices of bureaucrats leftover from the last administration, pre-purge.


And along the general lines of this conspiracy theory of mine, today we are seeing a general clampdown by the administration against the EPA, USDA, HHS, and others, in their freedom to communicate to the public through press releases or social media, as well as halting new EPA contracts and grants.
2017-01-24, 3:49 PM #188
The funny thing about this crescendo of top-down authoritarian control is that it is going to bring people out in furious opposition to Trump, who might otherwise bite their tongue. For example, on Hacker News, there is a certain hesitation against bringing up the kind of politics that might distract from a steady stream of Silicon Valley navel gazing, but now that the various scientific branches of USG are under fire, his name is coming up in a top thread.



(And I'm sure the dear leader is endearing himself to federal employees across the board.)
2017-01-24, 4:39 PM #189
Haha, yeah. Harper did the same thing to Canada.

Those departments will never recover.
2017-01-24, 4:50 PM #190
Just a little reminder,

Despite the popular belief in the United States, Adolf Hitler's regime was typified by a loose hand at the helm, a free-wheeling inner circle, intentionally dismantling or disempowering government agencies and transferring their former influence and agency to the private sector. Other than the military, and Hitler's pet projects, the country was essentially on auto-pilot.

So, congrats again on your recent election.
2017-01-24, 5:08 PM #191
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
In response to Obi:

Which just proves my point that the information technology that has created "social media" is effectively an anti-pragmatic "idiot" amplifier, bouncing around the simplest, most emotionally appetizing thoughts for eternity. I wouldn't fault less than brilliant feminists on moral grounds, but it's not hard to predict the ensuing tragedy. The medium is the message, and if twitter is the new television, we're not just Amusing Ourselves to Death on an individual level (1:N broadcast), but also killing the collective (N:N bidirectional, i.e. flamewars).

(With the dreaded lamestream media making way for trending Facebook factoids.)


Any platform which allows content to be made more visible by popular opinion (upvotes, retweets, notes) leads to demagoguery of the worst sort.

Originally posted by 'Thrawn[numbarz:
;1197349']I think /pol/ became unironically white supremacist a good while before 2014, but otherwise I agree--with all the kids constantly competing to outdo each other in edgelordism 4chan really primed itself for fascist sympathizing.

Just the other day I saw a classmate who I'm ~fairly~ sure is not a Nazi parroting white nationalist catchphrases that I assume she picked up from gamer/internet circles. It's pretty insidious.


/pol/ has been unironically white supremacist for as long as I can remember. When it was just holocaust denial it was easy to ignore, but slowly they've built up the myth that there's a huge leftist culture war on "western society", fueled by right-wing hysteria on Gamergate and so forth.

Which is similar to how the real Nazis did it.
2017-01-24, 5:17 PM #192
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/24/donald-trump-is-addicted-to-the-media-and-its-worrying-his-aides/

Just the headline says it all.
2017-01-24, 5:22 PM #193
Our only hope is that the reaction against Trump's presidency is so strong that it ushers in an era of left-wing control of the government.
2017-01-24, 5:32 PM #194
Originally posted by Reid:
an era of left-wing control of the government.


Now that's a phrase I haven't heard in a long time... well, actually, never, if you're talking about the United States.

Also, I am not entirely sure that I would want that. Then again, what goes for "left wing" in the US is hardly the Stalinist specter it's made out to be.
2017-01-24, 5:39 PM #195
Holy ****, he's already been a dictator for some time, it seems. :-/

Quote:
Allen and VandeHei also reported that Trump doesn’t read books and avoids reports and briefings that he considers too lengthy. That doesn’t mean that Trump is hip to advancing technologies, however — he doesn’t use computers and rarely uses his phone for anything but calls. Even his infamous tweets are often dictated and then submitted by others.
2017-01-24, 5:43 PM #196
So now we have gone from irresponsible corporate media giving Trump's announcement of his presidential bid disproportionate airtime, to the president of that successful bid consuming the same media fiendishly while texting the hosts as he watches them.

In other words, in Trump, we have a rarefied, individual representation of everything that's wrong with the kind of emotional feedback loops that emerge collectively in social media.
2017-01-24, 5:44 PM #197
During the 1930's through 1960's (you know, the golden era), things were politically much further left in America. America has progressively turned further right the past fifty years. The idea that we're controlled by "leftists" is a laughable myth, the left wing has very little power.
2017-01-24, 5:46 PM #198
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
So now we have gone from irresponsible corporate media giving Trump's announcement of his presidential bid disproportionate airtime, to the president of that successful bid consuming the same media fiendishly while texting the hosts as he watches them.

In other words, in Trump, we have a rarefied, individual representation of everything that's wrong with the kind of emotional feedback loops that emerge collectively in social media.


Nothing else would make people watch, no one would watch Ted Cruz. The true crime is that people are politically informed by watching television.
2017-01-24, 5:48 PM #199
Originally posted by Reid:
During the 1930's through 1960's (you know, the golden era), things were politically much further left in America. America has progressively turned further right the past fifty years. The idea that we're controlled by "leftists" is a laughable myth, the left wing has very little power.


Sure, which is why I alluded to the days of the Old Republic, before the dark times. Before the empire.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure I would call FDR a leftist in the strongest sense of the word, but I am beginning to question that conclusion now that I think of it a bit more.

All this Nazi stuff (and now my lack of command of US history) kind of makes me just want to go to the history books to take my mind off this stuff. I was recently recommended the book "Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China" as another example of a (mostly) factual account of a family that experienced the oppression of the Cultural Revolution first hand.
2017-01-24, 5:51 PM #200
Originally posted by Reid:
Ted Cruz.


I would watch a video of that miserable son of a ***** Ted Cruz getting punched in the face. He also reminds me of Alex from A Clockwork Orange.


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