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I Am An Object Of Internet Ridicule, Ask Me Anything

theawl.com

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

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is visited by tens of millions of people of virtually every demographic. Corralling them as "internet nerds" seems a bit like you're trying for some bullying yourself. In any case, talk about much ado about absolutely nothing. A bunch of people said silly things, largely under the assumption that it was no consequence (that no one was hurt, etc): In many ways the comments on there are performance art. It is th…

People declaring their cynicism about humanity (or trite variations like "faith restored") make me cynical about humanity. This is very intriguing. Although I have some idea of what you mean, I would love it if you could elaborate on this.

I think he meant it as snark, but I could easily understanding despair at the fact that so many people seem to "give up" on humanity for such ultimately fleeting reasons. What hope is there for humanity if everybody is so dreadfully defeatist?

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

#192
post #30

If everyone's public, online comments were tied to their real, physical identity, would the internet on a whole be a more pleasant place? I don't see the type of vitriolic comment threads on Facebook that I see on Reddit. What would be the long term implications of that? Is online anonymity in a public forum a right that we have?

Nope. One of the nastiest internet conversations I've seen was on Facebook with everyone using their real, often respectable identities. (A feminist organisation decided to take a stand against transphobia by other feminists. I think they eventually ended up deleting the entire post and all comments on it because the reaction was so nasty - accusations of supporting pedophilia and all sorts.)

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

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think they're doing it (playing Go, listening to vinyl, whatever) despite not enjoying it? That seems a weird, self-sacrificing thing to do.

They drink PBR, I think that says enough about self-sacrificing if one has any tastebuds left.

PBR is very cheap, and actually very tolerable when you are in the market for cheap American lagers. Before it got a reputation for being "hipster" it was a popular "blue collar" beer, and for good reason.

I'd call it better than Budweiser, worse than Coors. Certainly better than the other heavyweight in 'cheap booze that young people drink': Natural Light. For some reason drinking natty light is not seen to be as damming an indicator on a persons character though... that is reserved for PBR.

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

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

^People write this comment on Reddit a lot. The one I'm about to write, they also write this one too. You can't talk about Reddit as a hivemind, because it isn't one person, or even a definite collective of people. The people who take things out of context, and the people who call them out, are different sets of people. If Reddit seems to have multiple personalities, it's because... well, it does.

That's the part that makes me cynical about humanity. Reddit isn't some unique group of particularly hateful, particularly judgmental people. They are, in the grand scheme things, a pretty typical and pretty vanilla set that's probably a decent sample of "young and western". Which is to say, their ability to fly into a collective rage and stampede through the lives of innocent people isn't really unique to them, it's…

You can make several generalisations about reddit users though.

They're likely anti-government, anti-corporation, ant-advertising, anti-mainstream.

They're likely left of centre politically.

They're not busy - that's why they spend time commenting on Reddit. More likely unemployed / students / etc.

They absolutely love to be outraged by something.

By definition, they are the sort of person who would comment on Reddit, which is a certain personality.

They're by no means a random sample of humanity thank god.

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

#195

I would not at all worry about what reddit users think and say about you... Especially since it's mostly just mid-twenty to 30 years olds. [1] IMO - reddit comments have gotten worst over time. While not youtube comments, bad. It's getting there. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit#Demographics

default subreddits are just plain bad - but if you go to smaller ones (or, even better, highly moderated like /r/askscience or /r/askhistorians), it gets a lot better.

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

#196

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…

A few months ago someone posted a photo of a young lady sporting facial hair. Predictably the reddit hivemind were pointing and laughing until the lady in question saw her photo was plastered online and decided to reply to the OP, explaining she was a Sikh and her beliefs dictated that her hair was sacred (I think)

The OP grovelled and apologised for posting the photo without her permission, but still, I think that was one of reddits lowest points

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

#197

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 strange thing about NYC is weird hipsters (and yes I'll call him that) are one of the things that make such a commerce driven city a livable place. They're behind random cool stuff in the park, most of the bars with really awesome beers, and a lot of the other quirks that makes a financial center liveable. Of course they just get bullied as a result...

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

#198

Kind of recently, a close friend of mine took a picture of him and his wife explaining something to their dog: http://i.imgur.com/bfpOGYK.jpg They're the sweetest, coolest, most open-minded people and I adore them. They're not trying to act like they're better or more stylish than anyone else, but the level of "hipster hate" they got in the thread was just intense.

That picture is adorable!

How could anybody have something bad to say about that? Haters gonna hate, I guess.

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

#199
post #42

I'm not claiming to have much fashion sense, but how is wearing giant plastic glasses "sincerity"? Is it about self-expression? What sentiment do huge glasses express? The reaction, then, had nothing to do with hipsters... 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 thought that was the whole reason peop…

I’m confused. Do you seriously have a problem with the kind of glasses someone wears? I think you should re-evaluate how you view other people and stop being so judgemental.
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