In which I start yet another goddamn feminism thread.*

[Cain]

I used to imagine that making fun of people was a constructive act, in a way — that it would influence them toward kind of a banal crisis of self-reflection in which, at least briefly, they'd be able to see themselves as a reasonable Other would see them, and maybe be forced to think about the limits of their received worldview, and the pitfalls of ideology, and so forth and all that sort of thing. Then I guess I grew up a little and realized that I was just making excuses for making fun of people all the time. That it was really all about my own deficiencies, about pointing out faults in others as a way of working out issues that I was unwilling to explore in myself, or sometimes even to name.

Then I guess I grew up more, because I stopped worrying about why-this and why-that, and began to pay greater attention to the how and what of things, amidst this grand and unencompassable opera, for lack of a more ready metaphor, that we call life. Specifically, how shall I make fun of people on the internet so they look really ding-honk stupid, and what shall be my specific conceit toward this end? Technique, in other words. Architectonics. Stupidity is, therefore it will be made fun of, on the Internet, by me.

That's really an ontological statement, yet one which negates ontology, if you see what I mean. I imagine that it's what Aleister Crowley was getting at with the phrase, "the fall of Because," and what mystics of related traditions refer to as "crossing the Abyss." First there is no joke about internet tough guys masturbating glumly to bodybuilding magazines, and then there does exist a joke about internet tough guys masturbating glumly to bodybuilding magazines. Forget about 'why' for a moment: How is something created out of nothing? How do you, as it were, get from one side of the Abyss to the other? I imagine it as what they call the demiurge, which in itself obviates the question of 'why,' if you follow how that goes. And so on through the topic, etc.

But what I'm getting at is, okay, what's actually happening here — or, if you would, what a reasonable Other can be imagined as perceiving — is that we have to come up with something new and clever each time someone runs through the room burping the alphabet, while all the idiots have to do to keep up their end is to intake sufficient calories to sustain motor function, and to pop a vitamin now and then to stave off rickets and/or scurvy.

They could, for instance, type ERIS POOPY and send it blazing through the Internet, via the energy expenditure of one poking index finger, and that's, you know, just idiots being idiots again, like usual. They could type nothing, and you'd still know — you would know — that they are out there somewhere thinking something nutrageously bonky that they might as well have typed up and put online, for all the difference between their public utterances ("Heh heh, I have just cracked the secret that will bring down The Good Reverend Roger") and what other people would call daydreaming and wishful thinking ("Heh heh, I'm a secret agent with a watch that can stop time"). Idiots doesn't have to do, it is only necessary that they exist.

*the title, like the cake, is a lie.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I think that the internet is just a reflection of the world.  You're knee deep in garbage, bombarded with adds for more garbage, and you scream about how the shit YOU have to eat is better than the shit that THEY have to eat, and in the end, everyone is full of shit.  Even if you gave people a clean sandwich, they'd dip it in their brand of shit just to show you how much they support that shit, because at least it's not that OTHER shit, that WRONG shit that You People are forced to eat.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I think that the internet is just a reflection of the world.  You're knee deep in garbage, bombarded with adds for more garbage, and you scream about how the shit YOU have to eat is better than the shit that THEY have to eat, and in the end, everyone is full of shit.  Even if you gave people a clean sandwich, they'd dip it in their brand of shit just to show you how much they support that shit, because at least it's not that OTHER shit, that WRONG shit that You People are forced to eat.

In the beginning was the worldview. Then came different worldviews. And Eris said "Let there be lulz".

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I think that the internet is just a reflection of the world.  You're knee deep in garbage, bombarded with adds for more garbage, and you scream about how the shit YOU have to eat is better than the shit that THEY have to eat, and in the end, everyone is full of shit.  Even if you gave people a clean sandwich, they'd dip it in their brand of shit just to show you how much they support that shit, because at least it's not that OTHER shit, that WRONG shit that You People are forced to eat.

In the beginning was the worldview. Then came different worldviews. And Eris said "Let there be lulz".

You once asked me where all the garbage in Tucson was...

...We keep it in our heads.  That's why there's none in the streets.

[Cain]

I think that the internet is just a reflection of the world. 

This is true.  It's just an exceptionally annoying one, because at least reality has some methods for screening out...well, the kind of people who post Youtube comments, whether it's a hastily removed microphone or having to leave the basement and venture into daylight or having to stop every half hour for cheetos or whatever.

Unlike Idiocracy, which incidentally was a really stupid movie, idiocy tends to trump intelligence because it's more economically efficient.  Not in "the economy" sense economic, but in "takes up less energy for the brain" economic.  Literally.  Overcoming cognitive biases and applying critical thinking is actually much much harder than giving in to ill-informed biases, sloppy juxtapositions and rhetorical appeals.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you look at cleverness versus stupidity as an arms race, intelligence is the Soviet Union and Stupidity is the USA.  One is a clunking, inefficient mess which requires a lot of time to actually respond to pretty much anything, whereas the other is a sexy, nimble beast which does what it does really well.  Unfortunately, what it does really well is make us be utterly wrong about things.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I think that the internet is just a reflection of the world. 

This is true.  It's just an exceptionally annoying one, because at least reality has some methods for screening out...well, the kind of people who post Youtube comments, whether it's a hastily removed microphone or having to leave the basement and venture into daylight or having to stop every half hour for cheetos or whatever.

Unlike Idiocracy, which incidentally was a really stupid movie, idiocy tends to trump intelligence because it's more economically efficient.  Not in "the economy" sense economic, but in "takes up less energy for the brain" economic.  Literally.  Overcoming cognitive biases and applying critical thinking is actually much much harder than giving in to ill-informed biases, sloppy juxtapositions and rhetorical appeals.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you look at cleverness versus stupidity as an arms race, intelligence is the Soviet Union and Stupidity is the USA.  One is a clunking, inefficient mess which requires a lot of time to actually respond to pretty much anything, whereas the other is a sexy, nimble beast which does what it does really well.  Unfortunately, what it does really well is make us be utterly wrong about things.

Fucking BRAVO!

[Cain]

On the plus side, you can, of course, use intelligence to be right, which has its own significant advantages.

And make fun of people, which may shame them into being less vocal about their stupidity, though there is no guarantee about that.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

On the plus side, you can, of course, use intelligence to be right, which has its own significant advantages.

Yes, that it does.  If you learn to look at things the way they really are, instead of the way you are told to look at them, you gain an advantage.

[LMNO]

I guess what I'm saying is that if you look at cleverness versus stupidity as an arms race, intelligence is the Soviet Union and Stupidity is the USA.  One is a clunking, inefficient mess which requires a lot of time to actually respond to pretty much anything, whereas the other is a sexy, nimble beast which does what it does really well.  Unfortunately, what it does really well is make us be utterly wrong about things.

Post of the fucking year, dude.


Incidentally, "ERIS POOPY" made me choke on my coffee.

[Freeky]

Nicely said, from top to bottom, Cain. 

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I knew i would be great stuff when I saw the thread title and who posted it.

SCALPEL!

[The Wizard Joseph]

Guddurn it,Cain! Why u Godda use big wurds an all? HUH? Keep yur demyurges to yersself. It idnt'a OK ta lie bout threads an a'specially no 'bout Cake!  ANERIS ID NOT POOPY!!!!!
_______________________________________________

So, that was the easy part of this message.

The Abyss is not empty Cain. There is no nothing, if you will.  There is only the maddening jumble of meaningless things that could be.  Humanity is one means by which they become. 

Even space-time has a substance.  It can be influenced by other energy and mass. There is therefore no such thing as "Something out of nothing." My apologies to the SubGenii, but Bob has had you yet again. There is no, and there never was any, slack.

The transition from the childlike question of why to the truly more adult question of how is one of the most difficult to make. It is also one of the most important. As for the more sublime question of when.. Who knows.  Anytime one is ready I suppose. 

Intelligence and stupidity are akin to quality and quantity. The choice of which you would prefer to use is fundamental to strategy.  There is also no reason you cannot use both to great advantage.  I think that the key to this is to truly forgive the fools that don't know what they're doing. As some damned philosopher or another said, "What is a wise man if not a fool's teacher?  What is a fool if not a wise man's job?"

It is far more difficult and disgusting to scrape, strain, and consume willow bark than it is to take an aspirin. They have the same effect. Wisdom would simply take the pill when available, use the bark if that's all you have to hand, or simply accept going without if necessary. Folly, just barely, knows only that the pill is there and is likely to take too much if left uninstructed. Sadly the fools definitely do outnumber the wise and the wise have had to resort to labels.

Cain, I think that this is the best thread that I've ever seen crop up since I got here.  I greatly wish to read and say more.  I must go to bed now though.
Peace and Good Fortune!

[Kai]

But what I'm getting at is, okay, what's actually happening here — or, if you would, what a reasonable Other can be imagined as perceiving — is that we have to come up with something new and clever each time someone runs through the room burping the alphabet, while all the idiots have to do to keep up their end is to intake sufficient calories to sustain motor function, and to pop a vitamin now and then to stave off rickets and/or scurvy.

Coming up with a new response to the same imput every time is tiring and tedious. It's like writing Valentine's Day cards for a living. Even the most patient person would snap after some point.

[Verbal Mike]

Joseph, one should probably add that while one fool will just take too many pills, there's also the fool who refuses under any circumstances to take the pills, and will take their headache on a day's march to the nearest willow just to prove they don't need no pills.

[LMNO]

But what I'm getting at is, okay, what's actually happening here — or, if you would, what a reasonable Other can be imagined as perceiving — is that we have to come up with something new and clever each time someone runs through the room burping the alphabet, while all the idiots have to do to keep up their end is to intake sufficient calories to sustain motor function, and to pop a vitamin now and then to stave off rickets and/or scurvy.

Coming up with a new response to the same imput every time is tiring and tedious. It's like writing Valentine's Day cards for a living. Even the most patient person would snap after some point.

Not to mention, this is a significant reason why we have amplified n00b-bashing and dogpiling, and a factor why we're so damn trollable.  You always need a new snark, a more cutting quip, a new way to "prove you're not rising to the bait."