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You did it for the what? (Ranting)
16 years ago
I can't stand it anymore. It's like I'm the only person who sees the gigantic pink elephant taking a shit in the middle of the room.
NOBODY THINKS LULZ ARE FUNNY.
Never since Anarchist Punk philosophy have I seen such an ill thought-out amalgamation of bullshit for people to tell themselves. This braying donkey style of guerilla conversation does nothing but annoy the rest of us while a few pretend they're having fun, high-fiving each other to keep the hype going. It's like watching a bunch of kids hitting a dog with a stick. They have to continually compliment one another on their moronic antics, or the fun goes away- because somebody might actually have to admit that, no, that wasn't funny. It was just dumb or meaninglessly spiteful in a pathetic attempt to tap into the reptile part of our brains that loves to one-up each other.
This retarded clusterfuck of "cool kid" high school backslapping has become a refuge for anyone professing to express a dissenting opinion without wanting to commit to it or face conflict in an honest way. Anybody can be accepted as long as they appear like enough of a wanna-be sociopath. And worse, everyone else is expected to conform to this- and it's fucking working. People are being intimidated into thinking that the wave of morons bringing this about are invincible because they don't play by any rules, and so the only safe thing is to play along with this farce. Well I, for one, refuse to be wooed by this dishonest discarding of thought.
You wanna express a dissenting opinion? Put it out there, and have a good point. Don't try to dress it up with sarcasm and distanced hyperbole to be 'cool.'
You wanna criticize someone? Learn some communication skills and put it to it to their face. You can actually help someone improve that way, rather than by hiding in your imageboard dungeon jacking your buddies off in all caps.
You wanna be irreverent? Go for it! But put some thought and effort into it rather than being a ridiculously derivative cunt.
But whatever you do, don't just accept this crap as truth. PLEASE.
Oh, that felt good.
NOBODY THINKS LULZ ARE FUNNY.
Never since Anarchist Punk philosophy have I seen such an ill thought-out amalgamation of bullshit for people to tell themselves. This braying donkey style of guerilla conversation does nothing but annoy the rest of us while a few pretend they're having fun, high-fiving each other to keep the hype going. It's like watching a bunch of kids hitting a dog with a stick. They have to continually compliment one another on their moronic antics, or the fun goes away- because somebody might actually have to admit that, no, that wasn't funny. It was just dumb or meaninglessly spiteful in a pathetic attempt to tap into the reptile part of our brains that loves to one-up each other.
This retarded clusterfuck of "cool kid" high school backslapping has become a refuge for anyone professing to express a dissenting opinion without wanting to commit to it or face conflict in an honest way. Anybody can be accepted as long as they appear like enough of a wanna-be sociopath. And worse, everyone else is expected to conform to this- and it's fucking working. People are being intimidated into thinking that the wave of morons bringing this about are invincible because they don't play by any rules, and so the only safe thing is to play along with this farce. Well I, for one, refuse to be wooed by this dishonest discarding of thought.
You wanna express a dissenting opinion? Put it out there, and have a good point. Don't try to dress it up with sarcasm and distanced hyperbole to be 'cool.'
You wanna criticize someone? Learn some communication skills and put it to it to their face. You can actually help someone improve that way, rather than by hiding in your imageboard dungeon jacking your buddies off in all caps.
You wanna be irreverent? Go for it! But put some thought and effort into it rather than being a ridiculously derivative cunt.
But whatever you do, don't just accept this crap as truth. PLEASE.
Oh, that felt good.
If you need something that abrasive to feel good, try something else. :)
Second, what the hell are you ranting about this time, and what the hell is a lulz?
Some type of blunt instrument made out of old pop-music merch?
Good show old chap, top drawer, top drawer. :3
Might even have a vague inkling of an event or two that might be driving this for you, but that's neither here nor there.
Y'know, the whole dissenting by stupid seems to be something that's regularly creeping into the mindset of younger kids now, at least from anecdotal observation based off of several grad-school teaching friends of mine. They often have to drag people out of the 'whatever' shell just to get a functional opinion (one that actually has a bit of thought behind it outside of just wanting to be a jackass). Some have wondered if it's the influence of the internet through the wonders of unrestricted access to Keep That Kid Quiet, or if it's simply that their parents are younger and think much the same way. "I learned it from watching you", indeed.
It's still a touch challenging to pull off in RL, at least. I recently ended up making a younger sort quite nervous in front of his friends at a local McDonalds after he'd fired off a rather pointed LuL-tastic comment at my expense while I was sitting there reading a book during my meal, not expecting me to take exception to it. Apparently I was a lot bigger than he'd anticipated, and it didn't help that the manager knew me by my first name.
And no, I don't advocate losing one's temper as an adequate way to respond to it. I was probably playing into their hands.
I think that internet equation applies. :P Sometimes I do get annoyed by "the lulz," but... I've grown up ignoring that ignorant. Is that ironic in any way?
sigh
The thing you have to bare in mind is that different people think different things are funny. As a result,your sense of humor is going to grate on other people's sense of humor. In other words,what you think is good,someone else will think is bad.
So before you get up on your high horse and lead the crusade against "the lulz",you might want to consider this. How "good" are you? How "pure" is your soul? Have you ever done or said something someone else would disagree with? You have? Well,then,your crusade is ultimately against yourself as well.
You see,when you start "cleaning the filth" out of a place,what you really have to ask yourself is how clean you are to begin with. Otherwise,the very rules and punishments you make for others can,and very often will,come back and bite you in the ass.
Or let me put it this way. When DA started,they allowed a lot of shit to be posted. Over time,sooner or later,someone got their panties in a bunch over something or someone they didn't like. At first,the bans on content seemed reasonable. But as time went on,more and more things were banned. Until,finally,they don't allow much of any porn unless you're one of the "in crowd" who seem to be able to post whatever they want.
This is a prime example of how this kind of thinking gets started and ruins a lot of people's fun.
So,before you start going on about "putting a stop to this",bare in mind you yourself have probably done something similar. Intentionally or not,you've probably pissed someone off with no more discussion than "I think it's fun". Essentially,you did it for the lulz.
Next time someone is bugging you,put 'em on ignore and move on with your life. But don't go making stupid rules that NOONE can follow.
Your argument is pretty common among people trying to defend this sort of thing, but it's based on a false premise. This invisible crusade that these people are 'rebelling against' doesn't exist, because up 'til now, I'm the only one I've ever seen that's contested the very idea itself. Now I'm going to tell you something that'll make what you're saying very ironic.
-they don't allow much of any porn unless you're one of the "in crowd"
You mean the same kind of "in crowd" that's trying to assert total unyielding unseriousness under threat of character assassination?
-This is a prime example of how this kind of thinking gets started and ruins a lot of people's fun.
You mean the same kind of thinking that ruins the fun of anyone who doesn't go along with this moronic masterpiece of dullardry?
-But don't go making stupid rules that NOONE can follow.
You mean like never saying anything you mean out of fear you might be ostracized for it due to trying to fit in with this culture?
As you can see, the people who are going about trying to push this lulz phenomenon are guilty of the very things they assert to be trying to get rid of.
Stop taking them seriously. Whoever told you they're doing it "out of fear" was either fucking with you or stupid. Probably both. The second you start taking someone so seriously,you've already lost. It's usually best to just be the bigger man and let it go.
The more you whine and cry about it,the more they're going to do it. So stop trying to reason with the unreasonable. Let it go. If they keep at it,inform them they're trying too damn hard for a joke so they must be taking it seriously.
But back to my original statement, there are some "Lulz" which i do find myself having a good laugh to (those random image boards like fukung etc keep me going for ages), but there is a lot of tasteless stuff out there which has been treated as "lulzy" when it clearly is not, and is someone depressing really.
The human race is stupid, and no matter how many smart, intelligent and mature people there are, there are just as many ignorant, naive idiots :)
Some people love Chinese food,some people don't. Some people don't see anything wrong with owning a firearm while others consider it dangerous. It all comes down to personal opinion.
Just because you don't share someone's sense of humor doesn't mean they're "stupid and wrong". It just means they're different.
Or let me put it this way. It's one thing to laugh at a picture of a kitten dying. It's another to kill a kitten and say it's funny and everyone should understand it's just a joke. One is laughing at an unfortunate event,the other is actively doing harm in the name of "lulz".
The former is just different and their behavior should be tolerated,but not necessarily encouraged,in the spirit of free expression. On the other hand,the latter should NOT be tolerated.
So if you find yourself in the company of someone you don't particularly like,just don't pay them any attention. Use that ignore feature or go somewhere you can put them on ignore. Noone's killing kittens by being an ass to you.
No, but in the case of particularly morbid or vindictive humor, it's extremely indicative of any number of developmental deficiencies- something that's never to be rewarded with ambivalence if you're in the business of helping people overcome their shortcomings.
Which I am, because I give a shit about people in general.
Don't let this get to you. As long as you made an effort to help,you've done all you could. But don't think you're helping by not ignoring annoying jackasses.
suffice to say, i agree with you that lulz is a lower class of humor, and should be ranked down there with fart jokes and run on gags.
However,since we're talking about the sky,it's probably a matter of color blindness or you're tripping out on some really good or really bad shit. And,of course,we can't rule out insanity. So the only way you could be wrong is if you're outright lying that the sky is green. That is,saying it looks green to you when you can clearly see it's blue.
Also,I've heard the term lulz in conjunction with all manner of humor. And when you get right down to it,most jokes are at someone's expense anyway. So either you haven't heard "everyone else's" idea of what lulz is,which is pretty much the likeliest case,or you've chosen to ignore anyone who wasn't a "me too" jackass who's just quoting what they heard on the interwebs without understanding the context it has been used in. And how often does that happen on the internets?
can you quote me some high-brow humor that has ever been directly quoted as 'lulz' please? include a link for everyone to enjoy too.
but that aside, we are not saying that _everyone_ who does something for the lulz is a jerk, we are talking about using peer pressure to enforce uniformity what something stupid 'done for the lulz' was in fact something smart that everyone should to do and that your worthless if you don't agree.
hmmm.. do you think im worthless because i don't agree with you? am i any less of a person because i have a differing point of view?
And for the love of god,don't tell me you're going by the ED version of what lulz means. You do realize that's a humor site and as such is about as reliable a source as that one girl's dad who told you his daughter has teeth "down there" to make sure you didn't diddle her.
As for your personal worth,you can be wrong and not be worthless,you know. Look into getting some self-esteem there,pal.
three times now i have said one thing and you have taken it completely another way that is nearly polar opposite to what i said. my self esteem is perfectly fine, and the opinion of someone like you will not have any effect on that.
as for humor, anything. you link me to something you find funny, anything. link me to what you call high-brow humor.
i have not been referencing ED at all, infact, i avoid that site all together because it fosters the kind of people whom this whole discussion has sparked.
this is spiraling down even further, so this is the last post i will make. you can reply if you want (i know you will) but i will not bother reading it or replying it. i will be the bigger man and walk away.
good night
and here in lies the problem. you CANNOT ignore them anymore than you can ignore someone shining a laser pointer in your eye or screaming in your ear. this is the internet, and we are all here for our own reasons, and everything is conveyed in specific ways, be it forums, galleries, boards, ect.
this isnt about peoples freedom of choice, they are allowed to do what they want and find what they want funny.. this is about people FORCING choices upon others.
for example, if you are a member of a forum, and suddenly people start doing things for the lulz, hijacking your thread and posting irrelevant stuff, you can lock your thread (if a mod doest do it first), but that in itself destroyed the whole purpose of the thread and what you wanted to accomplish. did your question get answered? did you get to talk about what you wanted to talk about? no, you didnt.
because the simple fact of the matter is that you CANNOT ignore such things. someone makes a post in your thread, you have to read it. someone posts an image for the enjoyment of others and someone else makes fun of it or some other shit, you are limited to banning them from commenting in the future, but the dammage has already been done.
soon you run into a situation like over at DA where everyone whining and compaining gets the rules set so strict that there is almost no point in going there anymore, and thus people stop and need to find another place, where they are open to MORE 'lulz' bullying whether they want it or not.
im going to stop now, ive written enough for the moment, and i hope that my point has been understood and not been taken as a personal attack, it is not my style, nor does it please me to do such a thing.
As for forum posts,well,it's the nature of discourse to move from subject to subject. Don't take it personally. If you can use the post,great. If not,point out you didn't get the answer and see if someone can put it up or explain it better. If there's just a bunch of jackass posts,you can ask a mod to delete them or lock the thread and start over. And just because someone posts to your thread doesn't mean you have to read it. Likewise,just because someone puts up a pic doesn't mean it's a great work of art. Granted,positive criticism is good,but some people just like to take cheap shots.
So,we got DA,where you have a ton of rules that are randomly enforced by the mods or you have FA where there's fewer rules and users pretty much police themselves. Personally,I prefer the one with the greater freedom of expression. Even if it means some people use that right to express they're a jackass.
I'm just curious what exactly you're railing against.
Lazors over 9000, etc etc etc. Good points all around, dood. :B
I don't much care for that sort of behavior either.
Seriously though D: its the new fags that take all the weird DESUDESU shit and run with it D: you don't see anyone who's been into the whole thing and has two neurons to rub together do anything with it.
Then again, sometimes its fun to watch the twerps act like twerps, so baiting them with the impression that doing this shit is cool when it isn't is funny.
D: Moot would turn over in his grave if he actually had one if he was called an anarchist. Only emos and bearded survivalists do anarchism.
Still, Sooner or later this shit will cut itself out. Like lemmings, all these stupid retards will only either isolate themselves further in their quest for oneupmanship, or lead each other into a battle they can't win.
They'll piss off someone who actually CAN wipe them out D: Trust me, there's something sitting inside of a drawer somewhere on capitol hill that's begging to be used. Its a bill that allows the US government to censor the net, at least on this side, similar to the Great Firewall of China's bill.
(Opinion on mindlessly spouting memes: I've ended up with the opinion that jokes are funny exactly once—I don't always follow this, I can tell—so I only like memes that require some degree of cleverness or creativity. It's expressing yourself within a constrained form; Madeleine L'Engle would approve =D )
Nothing more to add.
what brought this on? I mean, what was the straw that broke the Nori's back?
I think I ran into it once and ignored it for the moronic, pathetic loser hole it is. I have an actual life to deal with.
What has distinguished me, I think, from other assholes online is that I actually will give you my honest opinion without any hyperbole. Basically, you'll know when I'm being honest with you, because I'll talk in standard English, like I'm doing now. If I start delving into all caps and/or broken English and obtuse/obscure references, I'm either: 1. having some fun with someone I know also does likewise or 2. treating you like the retard I believe you are.
I've been around long enough that I feel it's time I be honest with myself about where I am as a social person, artist and man about the world. I.E.: I'm not very social, I'm a middle-of-the-pack artist who only draws when he wants attention, and I don't really have the knowledge or professional acumen I thought I did (and people told me I had) in college.
stop using them for everything!
well said
EVERYBODY THINKS CRIT IS FLAMING.
Never since Deviantart philosophy have I seen such an ill thought-out amalgamation of hugbox for people to encase themselves in. This idiot donkey style of fake complement conversation does nothing but annoy critiquers while a few pretend they're real artists, high fiving each other to keep the hype going. It's like watching a bunch of kids draw a stick figure with boobs with a crayon. They have to continually compliment one another on their moronic submissions, or the pageviews go away- because somebody might get butthurt and admit that, no, that wasn't a good pic. It was just dumb or meaningless porn in a patheitc atempt to tap into the sexual part of our brains that loves to jack off.
This retarded clusterfuck of "cool kid" drawfags has become a refuge for anyone who can't draw or face conflict in an honest way. Anybody can be accepted as long as they appear to be generic enough of a favwhore. And worse, everyone else is expected to draw porn- and it's fucking working. People are being intimidated into thinking that the wave of morons bringing this about are invincible because porn is the highest form of the art; and so the only safe thing is to take it in the ass and draw more porn and fave more shit that you don't really like. Well, I for one, refuse to be wooed by this dishonest and planned out murder of the art.
You wanna express a dissenting opinion? Don't put it out there, it will be consumed by a massive attack of the OP's fansheep. Don't try to do a sandwich complement, they will pick out any critisicm and you will be blocked.
You wanna critize someone? Well good luck, because it will be taken as flaming and you'll be BLOCKED. You can't actually help that way.
You wanna be irreverent? Go for it! But put some thought and effort into it before they hit that BLOCK button.
But whatever you do, don't just accept this hugbox as real. PLEASE.
Oh, that felt bad.
But in the case of critique, I have no problem at all giving it and receiving only a small percentage of unwarranted backlash.
In your case it's actually very different, because your problem stems from an apparent inability to say anything unabrasively. It's not that you need to sandwich criticism between compliments, but rather that you need to find a way to be constructive without being opaquely negative. But it's easier to blame somebody than to try and look on the inside. Let's be real, here.
Because that annoys me too.
the phrase "treat others the way you want to be treated." is called the golden rule for a reason ^_^
and if that's not what you are talking about i'll shut up :P, but i treat everyone as i would like to be treated, and even more so now, not to say, and i'm rarely mean just to make myself laugh :P anyways i'm off topic, but i wanted to comment, cause i wanna badge :P, where do i get it?
So, a bunch of kids were stoning salamanders at the pond when I got there, and I was like "excuse me, wtf r u doin?!" These morons started explaining that they are valiantly exterminating the "poisonous" beasts because their icky slime is dangerous to humans (a weak excuse, and a blatant lie). I objected, but since the winner in kids' arguments is decided by who is the loudest (or who has the most people on their side), my objection was overruled. I expressed my disapproval by refusing to join their audience.
It's clear what their real reason was. Yeah, the lulz. They did it for that. Times change, but stupid doesn't. The difference between then and now is, that now morons actually admit their asshattery with their lulz claims.
The internet is a communication medium. Just like the telephone. So, if I crank-called someone's phone a bunch of times and left lots of messages saying "ENJOY UR AIDS LOL" or some crap like that, would I then be justified in saying "Hey, it's the telephone, don't take it so seriously"?
No, of course not.
What are you talking about?
The frustration I feel at seeing these shitheads try their damndest to pretend that 'conformity = individuality' is enough to make me wanna tear my own skin off and eat it like bacon.
Also, "It's like I'm the only person who sees the gigantic pink elephant taking a shit in the middle of the room." is a phrase so awesome it could be converted into pure rocket fuel.
Also, Merlynn27 is an indescribable jackass.
The best that we can do it to ignore these people, because they will never stop, as much as we all want them to.
This is the inseparable bond that that we are faced with. This is the seven-part compound for a "/b/tard":
1. Snips
2. Snails
3. Puppy dog tails
4. A decent person
5. Anonymity
6. An audience
7. Lack of moderation
Why should people have to put up with it? Going out of their way to make people feel terrible, then laughing and mocking the victims if they're not tough enough to put up with it - it really is like something out of grade school.
I'm a baaaat
Lick my ears
I'm a baaaat
the notion that going by "I did it for the lulz" is a bad way going about your life purely because idiotic highschoolers execute this method in a way you find displeasing, in a fallacy.
TL:DR - because group A does something in a bad way, doesn't mean that group B is equally bad when doing something via the same method.
I like to think that I live by doing it for the lulz. I see so many examples of people living by not what they want, or what they think is fun, but by what others want them to, or what other expect/require of them. These people have little fun in their life, and I for one do not want to end up like that - therefor I don't always choose the safe route, or the easy option. Doing it for the lulz doesn't mean haphazardly jumping the fence where its lowest (although that is arguably one interpretation of the saying) - to me it means doing what feels good for me, what furthers my ambitions and most of all: having fun while doing it
example: I could have chosen an education that would guarantee me a simple 9 to 5 job for the rest of my life... instead I chose a new line, one not very much heard about (medialogy) - and its fun! i have fun doing this while others toil and wrack themselves learning equations or tables of tensile strength. sure, i have to book up occationally too, there is a price to the fun and sometimes even I have to pay the pied piper, but its not just for the day to day laughs i do this, i think long term lulz. i want to have fun for the rest of my life.
putting a smile on ones own face along with a cheerful attitude while doing something can brighten your whole day - that is doing it for the lulz
sure, trolling can be involved. those who live their life according to others tend to put up these illusions around themselves that they live in a perfect little happy world... they delude themselves - indeed, some of those you describe as doing it for the lulz might even fall under this category, nobody's perfect. Bursting the bubble of those who think that they are happy while they are not, is what true trolling is all about, and that brings mirth me... sure, you don't like it when I point out the mirage you live in, but it is the truth. and truth hurts - that is the power of the troll, for he sees things for what they are, and act accordingly.
that is how i do it for the lulz
No matter how sterling your own personal example, or how many people tell me that /b/ 'used to be good,' the fact of the matter is that once a huge group of people gets a hold of something, it changes; and almost every time, it's for the worse. Sure, what you describe may have at one point been what the basis of the movement was, but taking a sample will show you that this is clearly no longer the case.
It sucks, to be sure. The same thing's happened with nearly everything I can imagine. For example, Straight Edgers used to be a small collective of kids living healthy lives on its own merits. Now it's a huge, convoluted guilt machine that turns its members on each other. Hip hop used to be a very talented field with people putting forth positive messages. But a decade later, it birthed Rap, which is responsible for horrible backstepping in their listeners' perceptions. Christianity probably even started out nobly! But look around and you'll see where that went.
All the same, I understand the urge to set the record straight, and by no means am I putting this tarp over every single person who's held the flag. But what I AM saying, is that it's a movement that has been carried in a terrible direction, and it must be exposed for what it is.
and... again, you fail to explain how it is a bad thing that "when a group of people gets a hold of something it changes"
see, the thing about anonymous is that... its anonymous. trust me on this, i'm a scholar on that area. when you have a group that is, per definition, faceless and impossible to have individual members singled out in any meaningful fashion, then you cannot attribute ANY kind of IRL group behavior to such an online groups behavior.
anyone can don the guise of anonymous. therefor you cannot you say that "this specific group of people is making anonymous bad" because you dont who or what comprised the group to begin with - it could just as well always have been highschoolers.
alternatly, lets run the numbers
you say that idiot highschoolers ruin /b/
now, /b/ gets over HALF A MILLION posts a day. this goes on 24 hours a day. now, i am tempted to think that you are american since that seems to be the norm in here... btw, i'm not :p - but no matter where you live, then the highschoolers you know, are asleep around 8 hours a day... they can't be there all the time
besides, how would you prove that it is highschoolers? coincidence does not, and will never, prove correlation - there has been many things that have conspired to fuck with the collective that is /b/ and its anonymous user base, but like the meme goes: it is like pissing in an ocean of piss.
basically, you stating that anonymous has been deteriorated implies that there was a better 'baseline' for comparison. anonymous never your friend, and /b/ was never good. there.
I said what they're doing is like high school, as a point of comparison to make it easier for most people to comprehend- because of course, high school is a place where everybody victimizes everyone else socially without any real sense of self-analysis. Get it? Immature dullards. Not high school kids.
anyone can don the guise of anonymous. therefor you cannot you say that "this specific group of people is making anonymous bad"
This is a romantic thought that people involved with this movement like to claim, but ultimately that really falls down when you bare it to critical thinking, because we can easily draw connections by asking, "Who would want to be anonymous, and why?" Obviously, people who want to dissent fall under this, as is the case with any subculture- no chance of backlash. But, as is always the case, this becomes abused as a way to spite other people for petty reasons; Encyclopedia Dramatica, anybody?
anonymous never your friend, and /b/ was never good. there.
I would just like to point out that you have completely destroyed what you were previously trying to prove with this sentence- that anon is a formless miasma- and it's still not true. Not in the sense that you were trying to convey, anyway. As with anything comprised of people, the spirit of any place can be altered by the dispositions of the people who inhabit it. /b/ is not a hivemind that fits an overarcing personality onto whoever joins it, it's a collective that depends on others to form it. And yes, it has changed over time, because it's not the sociological singularity that fans of it think it is.
congratulations - you know what memetic behavior is.
and of course /b/ isn't a hivemind. /b/ is a forum - anonymous is... to a certain extent... a hivemind.
anonymous is a Stand Alone Complex. this is a big word, and it is actually not fully documented by science (this is the kinda stuff i actually study...)
a stand alone complex is simple thing, and yet infinetly complex. when you say that anonymous is not a hivemind, you are 100% correct. a hivemind is where all participants do the same thing. anonymous is NOT something reputed for that behavior.
with a stand alone complex all participants have no connection, no hivemind, no leadership structure, nothing controling the masses. ideas occur spontanously in the collective, and if its catchy it becomes viral and spreads through memetic repetition, not because of a hivemind structure, but because each individual, without any connection or obligation to the collective, recirculate the meme.
its easy to confuse the two. in a hivemind all do the same thing because they are linked. in a SaC all do the same thing because they happen do so. this also reflects the spontanious and chaotic nature of anonymous - and explains why its usually the lowest common denominator that gets floated around the most, porn and things unite in hatred about.
with a SaC people leave and join at unknown and unidentifiable rates. you say that anonymous is growing because people are bullied into it? i fail to see how this works - in anonymous you cannot, per definition, make a name for yourself. namefags or people proclaiming themselves leaders are always hated on in anonymous. this also means nobody can definitively say "you" are part of anonymous. you can act as one, but that doesn't make you one. There is no way of forcing people to join something like this.
now, as per anonymous changing... look at the last two years. project chanology happened - parts of anonymous used its anonymity for something good. this caused a split. just goes to show that the SaC doesn't cover everything - yet the two groupings still intermix in the chans. all cultures change over time, the very nature of anonymous requires it to do so - new memes become old memes, which get replaced by new memes - world events shape conversation topis - and perhaps a new generation of youngsters discover the internet? perhaps. I think your problem is nostalgia. 4chan started in 2003 - its not that old. is seven years enough for the concept of anonymous to truly change?
i think its more a case of the true nature of anonymous becoming visible. there are splits, differences in opinions, different preferences in memes. you mourn the loss of something i doubt was ever there to begin with.
sociological singularity? not even sure what that is - google turned up blank
Don't get snarky, I was making sure you'd caught up with me- so far you seem more wont to get into unrelated tangents.
And speaking of those tangents, these assertions of nostalgia and my wanting the 'old' anon back are nothing short of preposterous. What little value there is in anon is completely eclipsed by the fact that its very reason for existence is a negative one. Everybody wants to be recognized for good deeds, but when it comes to feats of malice and douchebaggery, what does everyone want?
Anonymity.
Why would I glorify a vehicle for that? And furthermore, why would you? Even if my claims of this unlocking its denizens' otherwise-checked potential for whatever they can get away with, why are you trying to claim that it's some big new thing that we haven't heard of before? There is no honor among thieves, and there's nothing here we haven't seen. Recognize the patterns and see them for what they are, rather than buying into the hype.
untill the introduction of the chans in western society, originally by 4chan and now by a host of other chans as well, posting 'anonymously' wasn't really an option - you had to have a screen name of some sort. sure, trolls have always been around, but by posting anonymously this group identity of "Anonymous" has arisen, that is the new thing - that is not something seen before.
and fair enough - you seem to have found the essence of it all: anonymous douchebaggery - but if that is the core essence, how can anonymous as a whole have gotten worse? its always been about that, in one form or another. the goldstien raid, the habbo raids - the offshots that deal with SL and other lolcow farms, anonymous has always been about this. so how can you say its gotten worse?
also, for the record, there is honor amongst anonymous - they did track down and alert the authorities to the guy who posted pictures of him killing his cat on /b/ - he got V& for that.
Okay... I'm trying not to be condescending with this, but... really? First of all, talking to a scientist, in one field, does not give you the keys to having the facts. Second of all, I wouldn't even trust those results if you'd done a gallup poll of everyone in the field of Anthropology. Why? Because you talked to the wrong guy- or at the very least, you shouldn't have stopped there. If you want a professional's backing, try to find a Psychologist. Think about it, if you're trying to find out more about a vehicle that focuses on the unchecked abilities of the individual and the motivations thereof, you want to find somebody- or preferably just study the data yourself- who can understand intimately those motivations so as to disambiguate the entire affair.
untill the introduction of the chans in western society, originally by 4chan and now by a host of other chans as well, posting 'anonymously' wasn't really an option
On the internet? Possibly. But this same thing with anon has SO many real world analogues that are old as dirt. All you have to do is understand why those exist, and study the people that were wont to utilize those vehicles, and you're well on your way to understanding any chan.
so how can you say its gotten worse?
Okay, I don't know why you keep getting that from what I posted. I never said it changed. I said I don't know, but even if it was something good to begin with, it's turned into something beyond any possible positives. Remember? Sure, what you describe may have at one point been what the basis of the movement was, but taking a sample will show you that this is clearly no longer the case.
also, for the record, there is honor amongst anonymous
If anything, this has made things worse, showing that this valueless facade has actual power to ruin others in the real world. There is no honor, only self-righteous vindictiveness.
as per honor or lack of it - what is the difference between self-righteous vindictiveness and honor? that others cheer for the honorable and deplore the vindictive ones? considering how many people use /b/ they could very well have the majority here... does that mean that they get to call their actions honorable because they're the majority on this?
but ok, i got how you viewed anonymous wrong - my bad - still, to say that its changed into something beyond any form of positives... it think it boils down a question of point of view.
i dont see anonymous as a negative force. if anything it is - again depending on ones point of view - a very neutral cultural phenomena. yes it comes off as racist, hating, obnocious, and even directly intent on shocking or appaling anyone looking its way - but it seems to do so equally in all directions. nothing is sacred, except cats, and thus everything and everyone are trashed with equal fervor.
the novel aspect of anonymous is the faceless nature of it. those who wish to identify themselves have to leave and operate not as anonymous if they wish to make a name for themselves. i guess to a certain extent anonymous is an example of a very simple and VERY basic mono-culture. everyones equal, everyone's a newfag, everyone's anonymous - sure, the cultural content, the memes, they change from time to time, but the way in which the participants participate and how they are treated does not.
and of course anonymous has actual power. project chanology? there's a multi million dollar scam-cult out there shitting bricks daily over what those anons who direct their attention their way might unearth.
The only "lulz" type site I visit is wtf_fa on LJ, mainly because I like a lot of the weirder, more surreal & monstery stuff that gets posted there, but for the most part, that site is also filled with people whose online lives revolve around their main source of entertainment being at other peoples' expense. I guess I'm just too "old" or jaded to find so much humor in a poorly done fetish drawing.