I know of a few people who will be receiving this link as a gift from me today :)
Maybe they need help, encouragement and a true friend more than this kind of "gift"?
They don’t need shit from an HN user, that’s for sure.
I don’t want to be an internet person
151–160 of 319 posts
Re: I don’t want to be an internet person
#152> I don’t want to be anything like these people. I don’t want to be an internet person. I love this. I got a similar vibe from people who were "too good at IRC," way back in the day. They had a constant, sarcastic, tired energy about them. They had difficulty being genuine about anything. They knew so much and yet they were so stuck in their life somehow. And that sucked the life out of them. It's like they were too…
> They had a constant, sarcastic, tired energy about them. They had difficulty being genuine about anything. I knew such a guy on IRC back in 2003. We all kind of looked up to him on the channel. He was quite eloquent and had (what seemed to us) an enormous knowledge of history and philosophy. His sarcasm bordered on sophisticated nihilism. He spoke to us like Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now . His occupation was ne…
I wouldn't say it's pathetic. People try and get power/control/ a sense of meaning anywhere they can. This man probably didn't have a great life and found his only refuge and belonging to be in IRC.
The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone.
Re: I don’t want to be an internet person
#153> Internet culture used to be something you engaged with in private. You have your public self, your real self, and then the part of your brain that scrolls mindlessly at the end of the day.
Funny, for me the internet was always where I'd let down the barriers and drop the facade, the place where you could actually find the "real me". Then again I don't think I'm the type of person described by "scrolls mindlessly"...
Re: I don’t want to be an internet person
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They had a constant, sarcastic, tired energy about them. They had difficulty being genuine about anything. I knew such a guy on IRC back in 2003. We all kind of looked up to him on the channel. He was quite eloquent and had (what seemed to us) an enormous knowledge of history and philosophy. His sarcasm bordered on sophisticated nihilism. He spoke to us like Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now . His occupation was ne…
I wouldn't say it's pathetic. People try and get power/control/ a sense of meaning anywhere they can. This man probably didn't have a great life and found his only refuge and belonging to be in IRC. The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone.
"pathetic" means pitiable, from the greek "pathos"
> This man probably didn't have a great life and found his only refuge and belonging to be in IRC. The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone
I think this fits the bill
Re: I don’t want to be an internet person
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They had a constant, sarcastic, tired energy about them. They had difficulty being genuine about anything. I knew such a guy on IRC back in 2003. We all kind of looked up to him on the channel. He was quite eloquent and had (what seemed to us) an enormous knowledge of history and philosophy. His sarcasm bordered on sophisticated nihilism. He spoke to us like Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now . His occupation was ne…
I wouldn't say it's pathetic. People try and get power/control/ a sense of meaning anywhere they can. This man probably didn't have a great life and found his only refuge and belonging to be in IRC. The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone.
> The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone.
God I wish more would.
Re: I don’t want to be an internet person
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They had a constant, sarcastic, tired energy about them. They had difficulty being genuine about anything. I knew such a guy on IRC back in 2003. We all kind of looked up to him on the channel. He was quite eloquent and had (what seemed to us) an enormous knowledge of history and philosophy. His sarcasm bordered on sophisticated nihilism. He spoke to us like Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now . His occupation was ne…
I wouldn't say it's pathetic. People try and get power/control/ a sense of meaning anywhere they can. This man probably didn't have a great life and found his only refuge and belonging to be in IRC. The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone.
It's exactly like Reddit power mods, or that one guy that edits half of wikipedia or whatever the statistic is. It's pathetic to some people, sure, but if it isn't hurting anyone and the person chooses that life, not simply falls into it for lack of options, what's the harm?
It's power in a place they are comfortable with. The issue is when that impacts actual human relationships, or is turned for purposes that are (for lack of a better way to quantify it) bad.
Power mods using their influence to make sure the subreddits follow the individual sub rules, and ensuring that nothing nefarious slips into the general consciousness- it gives that person a sense of worth and meaning. Great!
Power mods using their influence to sell products, market products surreptitiously, squash stories they don't personally agree with, or otherwise abuse said power - bad bad bad. Not Great!
Re: I don’t want to be an internet person
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't say it's pathetic. People try and get power/control/ a sense of meaning anywhere they can. This man probably didn't have a great life and found his only refuge and belonging to be in IRC. The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone.
> The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone. God I wish more would.
Why? I don't understand what you're getting at.
Re: I don’t want to be an internet person
#158I grew up a geek in a rural area, learning how to filter conversations for your audience was a critical skill.
Topics and conversational style amongst my D&D group was very different than amongst my other high school classmates and very different than when at my summer jobs.
This is just an article about people who never learned that skill.
I'm reminded of a few moments in my life that drove this home ...
A coworker (60 year old railway worker) who said "You shouldn't use ten dollar words in a twenty-five cent conversation."
A girlfriend who described the difference as "Weird is when you know you're weird and compensate when needed, strange is when you don't know you're strange."
Re: I don’t want to be an internet person
#159I thought this sounded familiar, and sure enough[1]. Edit: To make it explicit, which Palladium notably fails to do: this person is a reactionary and has a history of encouraging young girls to commit suicide. [1]: https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=founder-of-milady-nft-proje...
Palladium is a Thiel-backed rightwing propaganda outlet that insists it's "non partisan". It's a shame to see t shared here
>Thiel-backed
I think that's in fact a reason why, and even the article itself is aware of this, these subcultures and the commentary on it seem so banal in real life. In reality it's more or less an economic grift to get funded by ideologically motivated venture capitalists, and everything centers around this. In Germany we call it "Hofberichterstattung". something like royal court reporting.
Re: I don’t want to be an internet person
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was given unfiltered access to the internet at an early age, yet I found my self avoiding almost every pitfall in it I still don't why or how to direct kids towards having this "internal compass" to avoid weird or dangerous stuff.
But when? The internet is much more dangerous now than it was in the late 90s.
I'm not entirely sure I agree. I mean, maybe I do. I think one could argue that the internet is a lot more moderated in this day and age, but maybe you were referring more to the addictive and destructive effects of social media.
Do you care to elaborate?