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What a waste of fucking time this was.

I don't think so. There towards the end it got off track but there is a hell of a lot of meat in there.

It's all based on a flawed premise, though.

And any flawed premise extended to its logical conclusion is by definition useless.

You have to admit, there are certain behaviors that would not get on well here.

A libertarian pagan social conservative would be extremely uncomfortable.

But the core principle remains true.  Anyone is able to post anything they want (with exceptions).  Anyone here is able to reply to that post in the manner they feel is appropriate (with exceptions).

Whatever "norm" that might exist is, for the most part, whatever the majority of responses happen to be.

This is not a perfect system, and has led to massive flame wars and multiple flounces, on all sides.

LMNO, it has become a completely dysfunctional system.  I mean, it was always dysfuctional, but it used to have advantages.

Discordianism - if there really is such a thing - is hard work, and this century should be our heyday.  But instead it's become a score-driven asshat fest in which five basic factions exist:

1.  You are beneath me.  I am too cool/smart/whatever for you.  Your attempts at humor are silly, and you should really post at my blog instead...or, alternatively, post here, and I will explain why you should sack up and try to be as G as I am.

2.  LOOK AT MY TITS!  HOLY SHIT!  YOU'RE ALL ASSHOLES, BUT CHECK OUT THESE HEADLIGHTS!  I AN KNOWN AND NOTED FOR THESE GODDAMN MAMMARIES.  WHITE KNIGHTS PLEASE TO APPLY AT STAGE DOOR! 

3.  These new people are great.  When they called us all names, and told us we were doin' it wrong, they probably didn't MEAN it.  Everyone I've known here for years, though, is an unredeemable shitneck.

4.  I like your post, but I'd like to argue the semantics of every word in it.  Whoops!  Did I derail it?  My bad.  Define "derail".

5.  Everyone else, getting ground into hamburger, and eventually finding other things to do.

Is this what we really wanted?  It must have been, or we wouldn't have done it.

And let me be very clear here.  I don't actually think we have become the Discordian equivalent of MTV.  This place still does Discordia.  I am just troubled by what I've been reading in this thread.  I mean, we always scoff at those who talk about being Really Real for Realness, but in this very thread we have regulars talking about this "norm" that exists.  Isn't that pretty much in the same vein as Really Real Discordianism?  It's too close for my taste.  Or, the answer is that this is just another internet forum that really isn't necessarily about Discordianism and that we'll have our tribal norms just like any other site.  

That's what I thought you meant, actually.  But it got me to thinking.  PD no longer has any purpose, except for a few certain individuals to let us all know just exactly how far below whale shit they consider us to be.  We don't DO anything, anymore, and the people that used to lead the charge in doing things now actively ridicule anyone who tries.

It was fun, while the illusion of the whole thing lasted, but now the vinyl has been peeled back, and it's just another FC clone.  That thought may be pleasing to some, but the very reason FC was funny was because of how dismally everyone there acted toward each other.

This isn't a community anymore, it's a madhouse.  Not the fun kind of madhouse, with everyone bouncing off the walls, but rather a collection of people with induced Asperger's Syndrome and pee-stained dentures.

But we must have wanted it to be that way, right?  Because we made it that way.

So have we become the Discordian equivalent of MTV? 

Hey, that was pretty cold.

Well, then please, I would like others to answer my original question.  Isn't it a little disconcerting to think that there is this supposed norm on a the site www.principiadiscordia.com ?  It seems quite antithetical to me.  But what has been suggested in this thread so far is that PED is outside the norm because of the way she posts.  And now it has been revealed that I am outside of this norm as well.  

So what the fuck does that mean?  

It means this has been an 8 year failure.

It means that we have to accept abusive trolls as equals (or, in Cram's opinion, our superiors).  It means that the board owner has stated that he isn't a Discordian, and that those of us who are (were) aren't cool enough for his standards.  It means that this is nothing but a nit-picking site for OCD pedants.  It means maybe I should just forget all this shit, and spend more time working on my career.

I have never read the damn book nor do I intend to.

Not really the point.

What a waste of fucking time this was.

You know, I'm beginning to feel that I'm not cool enough.  I'm also beginning to feel that maybe Discordianism has been a sham all along, that maybe I really am the only person who feels the way I do about the world in general.

I have this paralyzing suspicion that this really IS just another tribe of apes, and that I've wasted nearly a decade of my life.  If I'm not being berated for not being cool enough, someone's busy explaining to a troll that she's right, and everyone here is wrong...That all "Discordianism" is, is dressing up like AKK and prancing around like an idiot.  That person ALWAYS explains to new people that they're fine and we're shitheels, and if he was the only one, I'd blow it off.

But the whole fucking thing has become nothing but a snarkfest, a way of needling each other for cheap points, and I see no fucking point to it.

It just isn't fun, anymore. 

It's really no better than what the Church of the Subgenius turned into, in a different but equally horrible way.

So have we become the Discordian equivalent of MTV?  

Only if I'm obliged to accept your or ECH's definition of Discordian.  Which I'm not.  Upon further reflection, that's exactly what's happened here.  Precisely.

Also, OP wins.  Congratulations, everyone.

"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." - Josef Stalin

"Koo koo kajoob."
- Vladimir Lenin, who was in fact the eggman.

Did Coleman ever find out what it was that Willis was talking about?

Yes.  And the knowledge KILLED HIM.

Someone needs to write about this in the style of Richter's Sesame Street pieces.

This is a job for Richter.

I guess, the discussion has already finshed for me, I'm just playing with semantics so I can learn more from your answers by applying unnecessary stress. After the definition there shouldn't have been any discussion on semantics.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE ACHIEVED "SOCIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT"!

Well, "learn more" not in a "sociological experiment" way, but in a "he has the pertinence and knowledge to explain things I understand differently" way... now that the patience part has ended, I'll simply stop

And I thought I was having a discussion and not a semantic wankfest. Fun. No, not really.

I think Adler and Doren's How to Read a Book should be required PD reading for people who can't seem to understand the point of agreeing on terms so a discussion can take place instead of jerking off to semantics all day long.

CLARIFICATION: THE POINT OF SEMANTICS IS TO DEFINE AND AGREE ON TERMS, NOT TO STROKE OFF TO AMBIGUOUS LANGUAGE.

I'm going to skewer the next solipsistic, linguistically wishy-washy bastard that walks in here.

Kai will kill a motherfucker.

Yesterday on the news over my delicious gyro at a tiny happy Greek place here in Providence, I overheard that the US is looking into criminal charges against BP. I haven't looked for the source yet...but I can't think of a better way for America to get out of debt than to sue the pants off of a foreign oil corporation.

I think i figured out who made the leak happen in the first place.
US govt needs money, BP has money.
US sues BP, gets lots of money and massive public support for more limits on corporations.
Who knows? maybe this will lead to a lessening of corporate power.

Does every post you make have to turn into an anti-corporate screed? Why don't you just go join the Black Bloc and live in the back of a van, for fuck's sake? Or, alternately, you could try learning a little bit about how the world actually works and maybe you'd realize that painting with a wide enough brush to be "anti corporation" is as useless and stupid a thing as you could possibly be doing in this day and age.

After all, I've been incorporated since 2003 so I must be a horrible inhuman world-destroyer, right?

Also, I work for Big Oil, and we don't do this shit.

Did Coleman ever find out what it was that Willis was talking about?

Yes.  And the knowledge KILLED HIM.

Also I apologize for the jackassery, I didn't meant to bother you up to that point

A little late for that now.  You may as well ride it down in flames.   

I guess this thing will follow me as long as I remain in PD.com... it is OK, I really enjoyed it

No, plenty of people recover from this sort of thing.  Stop putting in assbaggery, and you'll stop getting it out.

A little late for that now.  You may as well ride it down in flames.