Internet Diseases #2: Nigelmania

[Doktor Howl]

Nobody likes to be wrong.  It's a primate thing, buried way back in our lizard brains, that tells us that being wrong will somehow damage our standing in the tribe.  Likewise, many people REALLY hate being wrong, if they are corrected by someone...Especially if that someone falls - in some corner of their mind - into a lower social catagory than themselves.

While not limited to Nigel, she is in fact the most common recipient of the attentions of those suffering from Nigelmania.  Interestingly enough, Nigelmania has a different effect, based on gender.  Many men are bothered by a woman that speaks her mind, regardless of how liberal they may consider themselves.  Many women are bothered by the idea of a strong woman, because they do not consider themselves to be strong, and they resent those that are.

So rather than admit they may be wrong, or even that there may be an alternate viewpoint, many people project their anger onto the offending person (the offending person does not have to be female, but rather anyone considered to be a rung or two down the ladder.  The offending person becomes the root of all evil, and is from that point on blamed for everything that may occur to the afflicted person.

Two examples:  Nigel and Navcat.

Nigel is frequently found correcting truisms (things that are accepted as truth by society, despite not being actually true).  This has led to many people considering her to be, and I quote, "a troublemaking bitch"...Despite the fact that an objective view of her posts show that she has a lower percentage of "nasty" posts than most users, most of the time.  The business with Eartha and Charley, for example, seems to have originated with Nigel's refutation of Eartha's assertion that India has a Northern coast.  Within 6 months, Nigel was - to that crowd - the antichrist incarnate.  Charley, it seems, prefers sycophantic women that tell him what a fine fellow he is; Nigel offended one of those women, and had to be punished.  The debacle with Lumberjim is another fine example.  She proved him wrong, so she had to be punished.

Navcat, on the other hand, stepped out of her place as "the little woman" with her ex, and this was in fact such an outrage that she had to be punished.  The shitneck posted as her and about her all over the internet, including this board.

So it's not just that people are rocked back on their heels by being wrong.  It's not just that someone perceived to be lower on the pecking order did the correction:  It's that the person lower on the pecking order had the unmitigated gall to get "uppity".

One of the things I admire most about the concept of Discordianism (and the Church of the Subgenius) is the idea that it isn't just permissable to be "uppity", but damn near a responsibility to be uppity.

Some people can handle that.  Some people could handle it if they thought for a moment about what was going on.  Some people can't handle it at all. 

Which are you going to be?  Can you drop your pants and roll in your mistakes, or must you dig in your heels and scream because a woman/foreigner/Black/Hispanic/etc pointed out one of those mistakes?  Are you a rock n roller, or are you content to scrabble around and piss on trees to show your place in the pack?

Okay for now,
Dok

[Phox]

This has reminded me of an odd idiosyncrasy I have noticed amongst various people, particularly law enforcement officials, when dealing with me. If they perceive me as male, for whatever reason, they tend to address me informally (due to age): "buddy", "man", "guy", whatever. If they perceive me as female/see my driver's license/face/whatever, it's immediately and consistently "ma'am". I wonder if this is not faux-formality, though, on account of readiness to treat a social inferior as such, but a sudden switch when the "inferiority" is couched in gender rather than age/class.

It also gives me mixed feelings about being perceived, for the most part, as a social equal to most of the people with whom I interact, because on the one hand, I am very glad that I have people with whom I can be myself without this sort of shit happening, but at the same time, I feel like I am missing a crucial component to truly empathize with folks like Nigel and Sailor Kitty.

But damn insightful stuff, Dok. I will certainly be sharing this with people.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It explains so much, Dok! Holy shit. It really really does.

[Triple Zero]

I thought the North East coast thing was me, but Nigel 0wned her with several other related things well before that [I wouldn't have bothered going about that if there hadn't already been this strong smell of 0wnage hanging in the atmosphere]

[Richter]

Some fine troofpaste you got going there.

[Doktor Howl]

Some fine troofpaste you got going there.

Check out the Attn You People thread.  That's where I put the good stuff.

[Doktor Howl]

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php/topic,32307.0.html

There you go.

It got buried alive when shitlips went on his rampage.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I thought the North East coast thing was me, but Nigel 0wned her with several other related things well before that [I wouldn't have bothered going about that if there hadn't already been this strong smell of 0wnage hanging in the atmosphere]

That was totally you. It made me laugh so hard I was gasping. 

[Richter]

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php/topic,32307.0.html

There you go.

It got buried alive when shitlips went on his rampage.

Cool, on it until my brain runs out of gas.