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What is Kek?

Started by TheEldritchGod, February 20, 2017, 11:24:09 AM

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The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Cain on February 25, 2017, 07:53:33 PM
Yes, that was him.


Wait.  AKK was banned for spamming, IIRC.

" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Cain

It was one of his previous incarnations, I am pretty sure.  Before the ban for spamming.

Meunster

I try to take steps away from being like them, but instead of taking a step away i kinda just step back and stop.
Poe's law ;)

Nephew Twiddleton

Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on February 24, 2017, 04:34:15 PM
Quote from: whenhellfreezes on February 24, 2017, 04:30:20 PM
Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on February 21, 2017, 03:30:16 AM
Quote from: LMNO on February 21, 2017, 01:27:29 AM
If you say it out loud, it's shorthand for "please punch me in the face".

A spell of evocation really.

Which is the weakest spell school. Tisk Tisk.

I don't quite understand the fixation on the concept of memes. I've read people talking like spreading a meme is equivalent to casting a spell. Is it just dreams of relevance?

Yeah, pretty much, by people who are either too stupid or too hung  up on occultism to realize that the spread of information is a well-studied field and that the word "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 as an analog of the "gene" concept of spreadable unit of information. There are a lot of books on the topic, but it's my guess that next to none of the pinheaded adolescents squeaking about memes have ever cracked one.

What is interesting is looking at it from a biological perspective. If memes are cultural genes, and are generally considered viral in form, it's rather telling that the "Erisian meme" (whatever that is) is long lived but not widespread, but the "Kekian meme" (whatever that is) is recently emerged and widespread. A rather benign virus that spreads very slowly may not be medically impressive, but it has staying power. It doesn't kill the host. It may even benefit the host. Conversely, a plague is impressive and widespread, but burns itself out. It kills its hosts, and after a certain point potential hosts are too spread out for the plague to continue. This is even without the fact that the survivors may be naturally immune, and now immunity is the dominant phenotype in the population due to natural selection.

At least, that's what I thought about before I got bored reading the rest of his post.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on March 02, 2017, 04:08:14 PM
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on February 24, 2017, 04:34:15 PM
Quote from: whenhellfreezes on February 24, 2017, 04:30:20 PM
Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on February 21, 2017, 03:30:16 AM
Quote from: LMNO on February 21, 2017, 01:27:29 AM
If you say it out loud, it's shorthand for "please punch me in the face".

A spell of evocation really.

Which is the weakest spell school. Tisk Tisk.

I don't quite understand the fixation on the concept of memes. I've read people talking like spreading a meme is equivalent to casting a spell. Is it just dreams of relevance?

Yeah, pretty much, by people who are either too stupid or too hung  up on occultism to realize that the spread of information is a well-studied field and that the word "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 as an analog of the "gene" concept of spreadable unit of information. There are a lot of books on the topic, but it's my guess that next to none of the pinheaded adolescents squeaking about memes have ever cracked one.

What is interesting is looking at it from a biological perspective. If memes are cultural genes, and are generally considered viral in form, it's rather telling that the "Erisian meme" (whatever that is) is long lived but not widespread, but the "Kekian meme" (whatever that is) is recently emerged and widespread. A rather benign virus that spreads very slowly may not be medically impressive, but it has staying power. It doesn't kill the host. It may even benefit the host. Conversely, a plague is impressive and widespread, but burns itself out. It kills its hosts, and after a certain point potential hosts are too spread out for the plague to continue. This is even without the fact that the survivors may be naturally immune, and now immunity is the dominant phenotype in the population due to natural selection.

At least, that's what I thought about before I got bored reading the rest of his post.

I suppose that if we follow this analogy, a rapid-moving virus that burns out quickly, like Ebola, would be a fad or a cult, while a slow-spreading, long-lasting virus like herpes would be a renaissance or a shift in social mores, like same-sex marriage or universal health care.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Nephew Twiddleton

Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on March 02, 2017, 04:25:55 PM
Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on March 02, 2017, 04:08:14 PM
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on February 24, 2017, 04:34:15 PM
Quote from: whenhellfreezes on February 24, 2017, 04:30:20 PM
Quote from: The Wizard Joseph on February 21, 2017, 03:30:16 AM
Quote from: LMNO on February 21, 2017, 01:27:29 AM
If you say it out loud, it's shorthand for "please punch me in the face".

A spell of evocation really.

Which is the weakest spell school. Tisk Tisk.

I don't quite understand the fixation on the concept of memes. I've read people talking like spreading a meme is equivalent to casting a spell. Is it just dreams of relevance?

Yeah, pretty much, by people who are either too stupid or too hung  up on occultism to realize that the spread of information is a well-studied field and that the word "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 as an analog of the "gene" concept of spreadable unit of information. There are a lot of books on the topic, but it's my guess that next to none of the pinheaded adolescents squeaking about memes have ever cracked one.

What is interesting is looking at it from a biological perspective. If memes are cultural genes, and are generally considered viral in form, it's rather telling that the "Erisian meme" (whatever that is) is long lived but not widespread, but the "Kekian meme" (whatever that is) is recently emerged and widespread. A rather benign virus that spreads very slowly may not be medically impressive, but it has staying power. It doesn't kill the host. It may even benefit the host. Conversely, a plague is impressive and widespread, but burns itself out. It kills its hosts, and after a certain point potential hosts are too spread out for the plague to continue. This is even without the fact that the survivors may be naturally immune, and now immunity is the dominant phenotype in the population due to natural selection.

At least, that's what I thought about before I got bored reading the rest of his post.

I suppose that if we follow this analogy, a rapid-moving virus that burns out quickly, like Ebola, would be a fad or a cult, while a slow-spreading, long-lasting virus like herpes would be a renaissance or a shift in social mores, like same-sex marriage or universal health care.

Sounds about right. Eventually it becomes an ERV and can contribute to the host's evolution.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

LMNO

Holy crap, we got some decent content out of this thread.

I blame the Erisian Meme.

Nephew Twiddleton

It's also promising. If Kekianism is inherently virulent, it will eventually burn itself out. The bad stuff is that it has to be destructive in order to do it, if left to its own devices. If it is to persist, it has to become benign. But then again, that's contrary to its nature.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Faust

As none of these truly die out, people just stop responding to them (old memes on the likes of 4chan like shoop da woop still get posted but no one cares)
Would you call that the meme becoming benign, or would you say that the social groups become immunised to them?
Sleepless nights at the chateau

Nephew Twiddleton

Hmmm. Interesting question. Probably immune. Benign would probably if it still had some ability to spread, and becomes fixed in the culture.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Q. G. Pennyworth

I would agree with immune. You are exposed to the thing, but it does not invade your thoughts, you don't repost, you don't react. Benign would be if you see a meme and have a reaction and/or urge to share it, but it isn't negatively affecting you.

Oh! Caturday's a good example. Extremely virulent, benign meme that survived for a good long while, but eventually most people built up a level of immunity anyway.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on March 02, 2017, 05:05:16 PM
It's also promising. If Kekianism is inherently virulent, it will eventually burn itself out. The bad stuff is that it has to be destructive in order to do it, if left to its own devices. If it is to persist, it has to become benign. But then again, that's contrary to its nature.

My suspicion is that in ten years it will be more or less forgotten. 
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on March 02, 2017, 05:13:21 PM
Hmmm. Interesting question. Probably immune. Benign would probably if it still had some ability to spread, and becomes fixed in the culture.

Yes, I think this is accurate. In a sense, perhaps it could be said to have lost virulence as a consequence of host immunity, like an old virus that is still around but can no longer propagate by infecting new hosts; rather, it continues to occasionally cause outbreaks among earlier hosts who have become latent carriers.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Q. G. Pennyworth on March 02, 2017, 05:18:32 PM
I would agree with immune. You are exposed to the thing, but it does not invade your thoughts, you don't repost, you don't react. Benign would be if you see a meme and have a reaction and/or urge to share it, but it isn't negatively affecting you.

Oh! Caturday's a good example. Extremely virulent, benign meme that survived for a good long while, but eventually most people built up a level of immunity anyway.

Caturday is still thriving in cat groups, which are a whole huge, thriving subculture unto themselves.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Nephew Twiddleton

Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on March 02, 2017, 06:36:38 PM
Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on March 02, 2017, 05:13:21 PM
Hmmm. Interesting question. Probably immune. Benign would probably if it still had some ability to spread, and becomes fixed in the culture.

Yes, I think this is accurate. In a sense, perhaps it could be said to have lost virulence as a consequence of host immunity, like an old virus that is still around but can no longer propagate by infecting new hosts; rather, it continues to occasionally cause outbreaks among earlier hosts who have become latent carriers.

This reminds me of the badgers meme. People who were on the internet around the year 2000 remember it occasionally and it still functions as a nostalgic joke, but no one else gets it.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS