Shut up shutting up.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The real truth about America is that, yes, we'll take your poor, your tired, etc...As long as they SHUT UP.  Thing is, that's all they want YOU to do.  SHUT UP.  Because it's easier to control a population that is either quiet or is singing the party line (quietly).  Why?  Because for the many to be controlled by the few, the many have to be quiet enough to hear the instructions of the few.

So they confused your WANTS with your NEEDS.  You WANT gizmos and cell phones and whatever the hell else The Machine™ says you need this week.  You NEED to be a fully-functioning biped.  But that's all turned around, now.  Now you will keep your head down and shuffle to and from your job quietly, so you can get more things you just HAVE to have.  If you're lucky.  If you're not, you do whatever it is you have to do to get more cheap carbs, and maybe sleep under something that doesn't leak too much.

Some people believe that by ignoring The Machine™, that they are safe from it, if not from its attentions.  "I IGNORE IT", they say, "AND IT HAS NO EFFECT ON ME"...And that's true, I suppose.  They can't get you if you've been had all along.  A fish is not affected by the water in which it swims, and I suppose that if enough scar tissue builds up, you hardly even notice the hook in your mouth, either.

And that's just one way they get you to SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN.  Maybe you're a "slacktivist", or maybe you LIKE all the right causes on Facebook.  Congratulations, you're a fucking cog.  And not just any cog, but a HAPPY cog who is convinced they are BRINGING THE MAN DOWN by "getting the word out"...As if anyone's bothered to hide it in the last quarter century.  No, the only think you are doing is letting the grass from your grass roots grow beneath your fat, complacent feet.

Let me make this perfectly clear:  No matter WHAT you're doing on Facebook, you're SHUTTING THE HELL UP.  Same could go for here, for the ~ 70% who don't actually get involved in any of the GASMS or projects that have an impact outside of Discordianism.

And Occupy?  Well, they started out well enough.  Then many of them allowed the various cities to move them to parks, which is NO DIFFERENT than SITTING THE FUCK DOWN AND SHUTTING UP.  There are notable exceptions to this, and you can tell who they are because the police beat them up and gas little old ladies in an effort to get them to just shut the fuck up.

And then there are the anarchists and other fringe groups that yell and holler in ways that make themselves totally unbelievable, which is yet another variant of shutting up.  Yes, brothers & sisters, The Machine™ owns the ball and the ballpark, and if you decide to play the game they're pushing, then the very BEST you can manage is to get your name on a list without accomplishing anything.

So the trick is to stop shutting up in a credible fashion.  Pick your battles wisely...After all, screaming at the federal government does no good at all, because the decision-makers are so insulated by staffers that they won't hear you scream, even if they wanted to.  No, you scream at local government.  Scream in your church.  Scream at your school board meeting.  Scream at yahoos who push The Machine's™ agenda in day-to-day life.  Small change isn't much, but it's better than NO change, which is what you get when you scream and aren't heard, which is after all functionally no different than shutting up.

But whatever you do, don't shut up.

[Cain]

But...but screaming at yahoos is scary, what if they scream back?  And caring about stuff means I can't show off how aloof and detatched and hipster cool I am. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

But...but screaming at yahoos is scary, what if they scream back?  And caring about stuff means I can't show off how aloof and detatched and hipster cool I am.

Cain, I somehow doubt that you worry about the behavior of yahoos.   

[Cain]

Oh, you know I don't.  But that's the only explanation I can give for the fact that when it comes to telling some bigots to SHUT UP, PD can barely round up a posse of 6 people.

They might beat us up....through the internet.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Oh, you know I don't.  But that's the only explanation I can give for the fact that when it comes to telling some bigots to SHUT UP, PD can barely round up a posse of 6 people.

They might beat us up....through the internet.

Thing is, ALL boards are having traffic issues.  And some of us (LMNO, myself, etc) have nannywall problems.  I wish I had more time at my own computer, these days, because I miss trolling BAD.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm just busy.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm just busy.

You're never too busy to ruin a food tube's day.

It just might not be on the internet.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm just busy.

You're never too busy to ruin a food tube's day.

It just might not be on the internet.

This is true.

[Freeky]

We have a tendency to cannabalize our own too often. Last time I went a' trolling, I pretty much got told to go sit at the kiddy table while the adults were talking, because I wasn't up to that person's standard. I really don't feel like trolling ever again if I'm going to get shat on for doin' it wrong.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

We have a tendency to cannabalize our own too often. Last time I went a' trolling, I pretty much got told to go sit at the kiddy table while the adults were talking, because I wasn't up to that person's standard. I really don't feel like trolling ever again if I'm going to get shat on for doin' it wrong.

So you tell whomever it was to SHUT UP and you get on with things.  Who the fuck gets to be THE BOSS OF THE TROLLS?  Jesus Christ, point it out, because that's sort of like running around with a bottle of vaseline and a sack of sand, and a sign around your neck saying "come fuck with me".

I think 2/3rds of the traffic issues/content problems on PD is a meter-thick layer of ancient, fossilized butthurt.  I do know for certain that some members have left to show us all.  I know some people refuse to post for the same reason.

And so?  If they are really under that much stern damage over the sort of shit that goes on here, then life will NOT treat them well.  Not sure what they THOUGHT they'd get at a Discordian board.

Funny thing is, I also know that some of the people who refuse to post here because of, well, BIG MEANIES are also not too upset to repost our shit elsewhere.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

And now that my thread is completely fucking derailed, I shall go find pictures of Bibi Rebozo for later porn-shooping.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

And now that my thread is completely fucking derailed, I shall go find pictures of Bibi Rebozo for later porn-shooping.

[Juana]

I think part of it is that the System has made all the ways we used to holler too Safe to do anything. Protests? Fuck 'em. Dime a dozen and rarely do they mean anything. Petitions? Dime a million. Emails or letters? AUTO REPLY.

And then we made ourselves too Safe. Too scared to take the kind of pain being eaten by the system in ways that jam the cogs takes.

The System put our hollering on Mute, made it Safe, made it Shutting Up feel like action.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

We have a tendency to cannabalize our own too often. Last time I went a' trolling, I pretty much got told to go sit at the kiddy table while the adults were talking, because I wasn't up to that person's standard. I really don't feel like trolling ever again if I'm going to get shat on for doin' it wrong.

I've been known to yell at someone on a troll, for jeopardizing a longtroll I'd spent months building. It's one of the reasons I prefer to troll solo and not to share, because something really good can take months or years to set up, but most people want instant gratification and one eager beaver can wreck a lot of work and rob me of my carefully-built moment of gratification. I also find that I get sloppy when I'm trolling in a group, because I get caught up in the RESULTS NAO mentality and forget to plan carefully and watch my step.

Otherwise, all's fair.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

We have a tendency to cannabalize our own too often. Last time I went a' trolling, I pretty much got told to go sit at the kiddy table while the adults were talking, because I wasn't up to that person's standard. I really don't feel like trolling ever again if I'm going to get shat on for doin' it wrong.

So you tell whomever it was to SHUT UP and you get on with things.  Who the fuck gets to be THE BOSS OF THE TROLLS?  Jesus Christ, point it out, because that's sort of like running around with a bottle of vaseline and a sack of sand, and a sign around your neck saying "come fuck with me".

I think 2/3rds of the traffic issues/content problems on PD is a meter-thick layer of ancient, fossilized butthurt.  I do know for certain that some members have left to show us all.  I know some people refuse to post for the same reason.

And so?  If they are really under that much stern damage over the sort of shit that goes on here, then life will NOT treat them well.  Not sure what they THOUGHT they'd get at a Discordian board.

Funny thing is, I also know that some of the people who refuse to post here because of, well, BIG MEANIES are also not too upset to repost our shit elsewhere.

I think a big part of it is growing pains; a lot of the people who left simply have their own lives to attend to, and others left because we're "TOO SERIOUS" and "NO FUN ANYMORE", in the sense that we don't treat everything like a game or refuse to consider anyone's feelings.

Another part of it is that forums in general are much slower these days, either because the heyday of this format is gone or because the recession is keeping them more stressed and busy.