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Blue Ball Machine

blueballfixed.ytmnd.com

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Re: Blue Ball Machine

#111

Post by sdwr »

sen_armstrong wrote: post #91
kevindamm wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would posit that the proportion of "originated from 4chan" notes on knowyourmeme.com are an indicator of its outsized influence.

I wouldn't bet much on KYM's provenance research. Memes spread so far so fast on the information superhighway, those that started on some Korean photography forum or Russian anime newsgroup, you'd never know if you weren't there ... or know where to look. KYM often cites 4chan because it's popular, in English, and well-archived (ironic indeed) and KYM editors will take the earliest hit from the third-party archives a…

"Underwater basket-weaving" was a derogatory term for impractical university classes back in the 70s (?)

and Mongolian is a stand-in for mongoloid, which fell off the euphemism treadmill as a descriptor for people with Downs syndrome.

So "Mongolian basket-weaving forum" means "place for r*, useless people"

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#112

Post by [deleted] »

resource_waste wrote: post #40

Part of me likes all the insanity with the internet back then, with mixed feelings. I probably got computer skills wasting time on YTMND for one reason or another. I 100% attribute 4chan's b for inspiring me to program. Their raids inspired me to learn programming when I was a teenager. But... I see that the alt-right came out of 4chan and the previously funny memes were no longer funny memes but serious accusations.…

[deleted]

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#113

Post by AlecSchueler »

codingdave wrote: post #62
AlecSchueler wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very little in human history has had the reach of those websites you're talking about, and on those users tend to be in their own bubbles. On 4chan, with its millions of users over the past couple of decades, attention is centered around a few boards.

I think you are underestimating the reach of TV before the internet.

I just thought of television as something much more fragmented and localised compared to the billion and more poepie flowing through the same Facebook funnel. I'll grant you that some things in the past did transcend boundaries and gain global reach but those I counted amongst the referenced "few things."

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#114

Post by adamrezich »

resource_waste wrote: post #40

Part of me likes all the insanity with the internet back then, with mixed feelings. I probably got computer skills wasting time on YTMND for one reason or another. I 100% attribute 4chan's b for inspiring me to program. Their raids inspired me to learn programming when I was a teenager. But... I see that the alt-right came out of 4chan and the previously funny memes were no longer funny memes but serious accusations.…

It's hard to take anyone who uses the term "alt-right" seriously and without irony as a legitimate label in 2024.

2016 called—they want their guilt-by-association blanket branding for any and all thought outside of what the established media corporations and entrenched political class consider to be acceptable political thought back.

The term "alt-right" contains the more or less the same legitimacy and valence as the term "libtard"—except, you see pundits use it in headlines in mainstream publications, so you think it's more acceptable and less of a nonsense blanket term designed to conveniently silo anything that exists outside of a general sphere of acceptable thought together so as to encourage political tribalism and prevent critical thinking.

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#117

Post by elpool2 »

I was responsible for drawing 1/25th of this gif back in the day. There was actually way more tiles created but this is one version that went viral. Crazy to see it still pop up like this every couple of years.

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#118

Post by munificent »

adamrezich wrote: post #114
resource_waste wrote: post #40

Part of me likes all the insanity with the internet back then, with mixed feelings. I probably got computer skills wasting time on YTMND for one reason or another. I 100% attribute 4chan's b for inspiring me to program. Their raids inspired me to learn programming when I was a teenager. But... I see that the alt-right came out of 4chan and the previously funny memes were no longer funny memes but serious accusations.…

It's hard to take anyone who uses the term "alt-right" seriously and without irony as a legitimate label in 2024. 2016 called—they want their guilt-by-association blanket branding for any and all thought outside of what the established media corporations and entrenched political class consider to be acceptable political thought back. The term "alt-right" contains the more or less the same legitimacy and valence as th…

The term "alternative right" was coined by its own members to describe themselves, starting with Richard Spencer's "The Alternative Right".

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#119

Post by adamrezich »

munificent wrote: post #118
adamrezich wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to take anyone who uses the term "alt-right" seriously and without irony as a legitimate label in 2024. 2016 called—they want their guilt-by-association blanket branding for any and all thought outside of what the established media corporations and entrenched political class consider to be acceptable political thought back. The term "alt-right" contains the more or less the same legitimacy and valence as th…

The term "alternative right" was coined by its own members to describe themselves, starting with Richard Spencer's "The Alternative Right".

Is everyone—or even most of everyone—tarred by the "alt-right" label a Richard Spencer follower/supporter/endorser? If not, then would they self-describe at "alt-right", still, in 2024? If not, then why would the term apply to them?

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#120

Post by causality0 »

ryukoposting wrote: post #73
FabHK wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, the book The Identity Trap by Yasha Mounk attributes the popularisation of what it calls the Identity Synthesis to social media such as Tumblr, then later Reddit, Twitter, Instagram; and web sites such as Thought Catalog, later Jezebel, xoJane, Rookie Mag, and the Daily Dot, then everydayfeminism.com, Salon, Vox. I think it's conceivable that, while these ideas on the left and right later entered all social med…

As someone who was exposed to 4chan at far too young of an age, I don't buy this. There's no political philisophy happening on /pol/, nor has there ever been. Granted, I avoided that board like the plague, but cursory glances never showed me any novel ideas being formulated. Even if there is real conversation of various political ideologies, it's drowned out by a sea of kids who think it's cool to say the N word onli…

It's absolutely baffling to me that despite the sheer amount of garbage, people still choose to post non-garbage content there at all. You sort through a hundred neo-nazi and race-baiting posts and then you find news that happened less than thirty seconds ago and won't be on CNN for two hours. I wish these "insiders" would find a better place share their information.
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