Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Blue Ball Machine

blueballfixed.ytmnd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 137 posts

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#61

Post by api »

whaleofatw2022 wrote: post #59
api wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s more likely that it was just one of the places that movement coalesced. Others include Reddit before they ban hammered a lot of that stuff, Twitter, and Telegram. As for the origin of the movement I remember saying exactly this way back in 2008 after the bank bailouts: (Paraphrasing a bit) “People don’t realize how much trust has been lost. People want pitchforks. I don’t think they care whether the far left or…

Yep, and I think that's why so many folks jumped from Bernie to Trump during/after the primaries. They couldn't be given a fair chance for peaceful change so they went for the other change option.

I wish I’d gone around the Internet screen shotting comments from Reddit and Twitter from 2008 until 2016 so future historians could understand. A lot of this stuff got purged.

Some others I remember (paraphrasing):

“I can’t throw a Molotov cocktail into the White House but I can throw a Trump.”

“I hope Trump does as much damage as possible.”

“When Trump said he’d do something about outsourcing I decided I’d die for this man. I don’t care what else he does. He can eat a baby on live TV.” (This was a self described former union Democrat from Michigan.)

The left almost gets it. “A riot is the voice of the disenfranchised.” They just need to understand that for many, especially in 2016, Trump was a riot. They were electing him to do harm, explicitly.

In some ways America’s short memory is a strength. It keeps us from getting caught up in stupid ancient conflicts like the Middle East. America tends to at least mostly move on. But it also means we walk around in this perpetual fugue state not understanding why anything is happening.

If you don’t know US history from 2001 until 2008 you can’t understand what’s happened since.

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#62

Post by codingdave »

AlecSchueler wrote: post #46
maxcoder4 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you give too much agency to 4chan. It's just a imageboard - an internet forum - that happened to have some subforums related to alt-right. Maybe it had (has) a bad influence on people, but it's hundred times smaller than Facebook, Twitter or Reddit. To say it has single handedly started a movement is a huge stretch.

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.

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#63

Post by silverquiet »

api wrote: post #61
whaleofatw2022 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, and I think that's why so many folks jumped from Bernie to Trump during/after the primaries. They couldn't be given a fair chance for peaceful change so they went for the other change option.

I wish I’d gone around the Internet screen shotting comments from Reddit and Twitter from 2008 until 2016 so future historians could understand. A lot of this stuff got purged. Some others I remember (paraphrasing): “I can’t throw a Molotov cocktail into the White House but I can throw a Trump.” “I hope Trump does as much damage as possible.” “When Trump said he’d do something about outsourcing I decided I’d die for…

> In some ways America’s short memory is a strength. It keeps us from getting caught up in stupid ancient conflicts like the Middle East. America tends to at least mostly move on. But it also means we walk around in this perpetual fugue state not understanding why anything is happening.

I recently heard that depressed people are unable to habituate to things. I think I might be very depressed because I was never able to accept the increasing inequality, pointless wars against "terror" (how do you ever win a war against an emotion/concept?), surveillance/ad-driven capitalism, and environmental degradation. I feel like I'm the one taking crazy pills.

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#64

Post by mauvehaus »

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.

For better or worse, TV is paid for by advertisers. On the upside, that does put some limits on how objectionable the content can be before nobody's willing to pay for its distribution.

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#65

Post by kevindamm »

FabHK wrote: post #57
maxcoder4 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you give too much agency to 4chan. It's just a imageboard - an internet forum - that happened to have some subforums related to alt-right. Maybe it had (has) a bad influence on people, but it's hundred times smaller than Facebook, Twitter or Reddit. To say it has single handedly started a movement is a huge stretch.

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…

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

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#66

Post by Funes- »

mauvehaus wrote: post #64
codingdave wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

For better or worse, TV is paid for by advertisers. On the upside, that does put some limits on how objectionable the content can be before nobody's willing to pay for its distribution.

On the downside, it does away with ethical and quality standards, in trying to maximize viewership while minimizing cost, which in turn tends to make the content objectionable anyway.

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#68

Post by _heimdall »

silverquiet wrote: post #63
api wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I’d gone around the Internet screen shotting comments from Reddit and Twitter from 2008 until 2016 so future historians could understand. A lot of this stuff got purged. Some others I remember (paraphrasing): “I can’t throw a Molotov cocktail into the White House but I can throw a Trump.” “I hope Trump does as much damage as possible.” “When Trump said he’d do something about outsourcing I decided I’d die for…

> In some ways America’s short memory is a strength. It keeps us from getting caught up in stupid ancient conflicts like the Middle East. America tends to at least mostly move on. But it also means we walk around in this perpetual fugue state not understanding why anything is happening. I recently heard that depressed people are unable to habituate to things. I think I might be very depressed because I was never able…

Defining crazy is a weird thing. Most people don't hear voices in their head (unless its chalked up to a religious experience), so hearing voices is on the list of things that make one "crazy."

If its all about what is normal, actually caring about the things you mentioned are indeed crazy. Growing your own food, or even knowing where your food comes from, is then also crazy. Ironically, not taking any prescription pills is also on the list of taking crazy pills, as I think the last stat I saw was that something like 70% of Americans are on at least one prescription drug and a little over 50% are on two or more.

Normal today is a very strange thing, in my opinion.

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#69

Post by _3u10 »

kevindamm wrote: post #65
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…

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

4chan is the America of the internet, the only reason it has outsized influence is because ideas were allowed to incubate.

Most memes and ideas went no where but some had a chance to multiply without getting stamped out by the censors.

Re: Blue Ball Machine

#70

Post by _3u10 »

doublerabbit wrote: post #51
maxcoder4 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you give too much agency to 4chan. It's just a imageboard - an internet forum - that happened to have some subforums related to alt-right. Maybe it had (has) a bad influence on people, but it's hundred times smaller than Facebook, Twitter or Reddit. To say it has single handedly started a movement is a huge stretch.

> To say it has single handedly started a movement is a huge stretch. I disagree. Anonymous was an substantial movement. 4chan has long existed before the concept of facebook and to compare 4chan to the new trends of the likes such as facebook or reddit when 4chan is it's own, you can't. Reddit and Facebook have all been designed to cater to the masses; 4chan not so. To rule out that 4chan has never been influential…

4chan is definitely old internet, it reminds me of IRC, completely unmonetizable.
Post reply on HN