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I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

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Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#81

Post by josefresco »

potatolicious wrote: post #7

Hipster-hate strikes me as just another thinly veiled form of bullying, and it's interesting to see how readily internet nerds - the people who are disproportionately to have been bullied in the past - engage in it. Look! He's different! Let's make assumptions about his motivations and get him! It's also interesting to see how many times Reddit (and other communities) fly into a rage-fest because of lack of context,…

Author summarizes the rage quite well:

"The reaction, then, had nothing to do with hipsters. It was a hatred of people that need to stand out for standing-out's sake. That realization was at once positive and negative—people didn't hate me because I was a hipster, they hated me because I looked like I was nakedly desperate for attention, and had gone about that attention-grabbing by glomming on to marginalized trends."

I believe that statement would be true even without the "glomming" part. Societies seem to both love and hate attention seekers. We pour accolades on attention-seeking celebrities, but scowl at neighbors who buy flashy cars or ride a Penny-farthing (I had to look that up) seemingly only for the attention.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#82

Post by adambard »

sharkweek wrote: post #49

The front page of reddit can be a cruel mistress My wife and I had one of our wedding pictures take the number one spot on /r/all one day -- There was some rather embarrassing text super-imposed on it that said "Oh you think married women still give BJs" (google Condescending Wife to find it). Despite some of the comments in the thread being pretty mean, my wife and I took it in stride, we're both internet people, we…

I shaved half of my hair and half of my beard so that I'd have an interesting driver's license, and posted the photos on Reddit. So I can't really complain about someone else appropriating my image. But it did get big in a way I didn't expect.

My mother found out when she went to yahoo.com to log into her email and I was on the front page. My father-in-law was watching the local news and saw me giving an interview. Two years later, I can bring out my driver's license at parties and people remember it. But they don't remember me, just the photo, so no harm done. (And happily, my domain has enough precidence on google to at least appear first for searches of my name).

On the upside, if I ever meet Greg Proops or Ellen DeGeneres in person we'll have something in common to talk about.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#83

Post by philwelch »

It doesn't surprise me that the Redditors responded with some contrition when this guy confronted him while the commenters on the feminist blog didn't. This kind of pack bullying behavior is only encouraged when you give the bullies an ideological identity to justify their behavior.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#84

Post by eshvk »

blhack wrote: post #12
potatolicious wrote: post #7

Hipster-hate strikes me as just another thinly veiled form of bullying, and it's interesting to see how readily internet nerds - the people who are disproportionately to have been bullied in the past - engage in it. Look! He's different! Let's make assumptions about his motivations and get him! It's also interesting to see how many times Reddit (and other communities) fly into a rage-fest because of lack of context,…

This is really common, unfortunately. People who are raised being abused, or being excluded, are taught that those in power should abuse or exclude those not in power.

Naipaul wrote about this when he was talking about post-colonial societies that ended up as brutal as the white man they replaced. "Hate oppression but fear the oppressed."

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#86

Post by astrodust »

L4mppu wrote: post #32
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of it, geek culture is a hipster culture. Oh you listen to obscure geeky bands and wear comic/anime t-shirts all the time? You purposely disengage from mainstream society? You're overly critical of the status quo and only socialize with people exactly like you? Gee, that sounds like the guy you're criticizing.

Being hipster is just trying to look cool for doing everything that isn't actually cool. Being geek is about doing things that you like that just happen to be geeky.

Depends on your definition of "hipster". Some people just look like hipsters because they don't actually care what you think, not because they're trying to stand out.

You want to use a typewriter at the local coffee shop? Rock on.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#88

Post by bowlofpetunias »

bolder88 wrote: post #16
potatolicious wrote: post #7

Hipster-hate strikes me as just another thinly veiled form of bullying, and it's interesting to see how readily internet nerds - the people who are disproportionately to have been bullied in the past - engage in it. Look! He's different! Let's make assumptions about his motivations and get him! It's also interesting to see how many times Reddit (and other communities) fly into a rage-fest because of lack of context,…

The other funny thing is that there's a violent dislike of mainstream media on websites such as Reddit, and constant criticism when news stations take things out of context. Then they do things like this themselves on a daily basis!

You sound like a newspaper journalist from the 90's when you speak of Reddit as "they".

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#89

Post by brokenparser »

(Emphasis mine)

  ..it was dozens of someones—*faceless and impossible to control*
Strike 1.

  I asked...if she would *let me read a draft before she sent it*
  to her editor... ...I ranted back to her, *mad that she hadn’t
  sent me the article*
Strike 2.

  ...the hipster label is a compliment, a devotion to a *self-
  evident truth*
Strike 3.

This guy isn't hipster, he's sinister.

Re: I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

#90

Post by eshvk »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #23

Tangentially related, things like this are why I have not stopped wearing my fedora (in appropriate situations, with appropriate outfits). Dear Internet Fashionistas: You've decided that fedoras and suspenders are the mark of a horrible person. Your opinions have no connection to reality. Over here in the real world, I look good. When I come back to the bar the next day to pick up my credit card, and the bouncer reme…

You are trying to make fashion into something objective; it really isn't. I can line ten people in reality who can hate on your fedora. At the end of it, wear whatever you want to, I guarantee there will be people hating on it and loving it. Such is the nature of things.

Hell, I have worn a suit to a friend's place and gotten hate from it.

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