So this article I wrote for Slate is a total thing now. Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought I humanized my old friend, as well as myself, by expressing my struggle with the idea of making fun of people on the internet, and by sharing a few stories about how he's an actual person that exists in the world and wasn't born an internet joke.
Apparently not according to swarms of pharisaical (look it up) commentors there, people sending me ridiculous emails and tweets -- ones that are probably not going to teach me a lesson, but you never know, so keep trying -- and hero blogs taking down the big bad bully who wondered aloud whether or not it's weird to make fun of someone you know the same way most of us make fun of people we don't know.
| via posing hard |
I don't think I have ever seen more sanctimony in my entire life than appears in the comment thread on the Slate article, and I grew up Catholic in Massachusetts and currently work in Cambridge, where sanctimony is on tap at every local bar. Just kidding, some people suffer from alcoholism, so I better not joke about that. Forget the link to the definition of butthurt I included in the article, future articles about stupid on the internet should just link to that comment thread. I wonder what a more acceptable way to end the piece would have been? "And then I never made fun of anyone ever again, and we all lived happily ever after. Oh, and also my old friend got released from jail. Because of love."
Here's one humorless blog of saintly do-gooders who gets a sad from laughing at people. It's called Shakespearesister.blogspot.com, which offends me not only as a hacky internet comedian but also as a Smiths fan. I dare you to go read that blog post and take a heady waft of its pretend-hard commenters without tossing your laptop out the fucking window after you toss your lunch into the shitter. (Not funny you guys, bulimia is a serious disease).
Do people normally exhibit this lack of self awareness on the turdy corners of the internet I don't frequent? I'm embarrassed not just for the woman who wrote this, but everyone else who has ever existed.
| via Stuff You Will Hate |
This Slate piece, by Luke O'Neil, is truly one of the most depressing things I've ever read, for the reason succinctly stated by @nprmonkeysee : "This piece should be called 'How I Considered Giving Thought To The Effects Of My Actions But Then I Decided Not To'."
Given a personal glimpse at the stark hostility for human dignity that mob bullying on the internet really is, O'Neil ultimately decides, "Eh, sucks to be you." Because it's no fun being the guy who's "butthurt" (hello, rape culture!) and accused of being humorless because you refuse to join in the laughter at someone else's misfortune.
Jezebel got a lot closer to the mark with their genuinely thoughtful summary of the piece.
What O'Neil takes away from the story is unclear — he as good as admits that he's unlikely to change his stranger-mocking ways — but the point of his story is. The truth is, a certain toughness is necessary to inhabit the world of the Internet, or you'd be crying all the time. But that's different from cruelty. And sometimes it takes knowing one of those faces to see the difference. What this piece reminds us is that, eventually, statistically, we or someone we know is going to be publicly humiliated — on the Internet, on a reality show, in a blog. What will we do with that knowledge? There are worse things than being "troll bait" — keeping in mind that "trolls" are actually people, too; we can't have it both ways.
Mostly I'd just like to thank everyone who took the time to try to teach me a lesson for proving my point. What we've got going on here is a guy writes an (arguably) douchey article about our bittersweet relationship with shaming people who do douchey things on the internet, and readers who go about voicing their displeasure with the premise of the piece by trying to shame him on the internet. Totally meta. It's like an idea within an idea within a giant fart about lying about how sensitive you are. Now go get your fucking shinebox.
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32 comments:
PTSOTL makes me think. Is that bad?
If you did something questionable, caught on tape, you'd sort of expect us to gang up on you, right?
Saying that you were not being compassionate sort of misses the point.
I applaud and side with Jezebel for their thoughts on the matter until I decide to have an opinion of my own someday.
Until then, I'll be looking at tasteful tattooed nudes and Nightwing drawings on Tumblr, where the real action is.
Your friend, who embarrasses himself daily,
Clay
No, not at all. I'd be disappointed if it didn't. I think the people who read PTSOTL regularly know that it's nowhere near the bully blog it's being made out to be. In fact, I'd suspect most regular readers know I'm a giant emo softie who makes fun of himself more than anyone else. That sort of nuance doesn't rate though.
I prefer Darkwing myself. About to dig into Invincible #6!
We should grow Viltrumite moustaches!
That might offend supporters of Allen the Alien.
Hello, rape culture.
"In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement." i guess the angry mobs of the internet better grab their pitchforks and torches and head out to protect the global village from twain, mencken, jon stewart, and the rest of their ilk.
First they came for the bloggers...
The lesson here is that everyone on the internet is fags, right?
It's a trap!
Fuck 'em in their hurt butts if they can't take a joke
Honestly dude, all trolling aside, it looks like a lot of the butthurt detractors are unattractive/fat women, and let's be honest: they are so fucking bitter and angry at the world that they take every chance they can to hate on anybody and everybody they can in hopes of bringing the rest of us down to their miserable level.
In the words of Adam Carolla, "Never give a fat woman a position of power, because they've got an axe to grind and they'll take it out on everybody under them."
Fact.
Or in other words, LOL U MAD
Thanks broz. I'm not unaccustomed to douchey comments -- call me a prick all you want etc... -- it's just the sheer obviousness and lack of self awareness on display that offends my sensibilities as a reasonable person.
Also, I'm pretty sure your boy, Neil, has worse things to worry about besides his old football pal and the internet being mean. Ah, maybe the whole thing should end with Neil and a fat lonely Slate commenter finding true love. Play me off, Keyboard Cat...
Very good point.
Oh lord, I didn't realize that woman was THE torch bearer for butthurt over rape culture. Apparently, she kicked off the Dick Wolves/Penny Arcade rape "controversy." See http://debacle.tumblr.com/ Luke, you are in a good spot. If ole Rape Culture McGee is blogging responses, the internet will have a never ending stream of CPMs from rape victims/supporters alike!
I just tried to read that link and it broke me. What's going on there? I missed that particular episode of whining.
jsyk, I definitely don't make rape jokes around here, fwiw.
haters gonna hate, forever and always.
Hooooof, after slogging through that link, I feel like I was raped to sleep by a pack of dickwolves.
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First of all you dont go 20 items in the ass on the first shot, this rascal has been using the "fifth" pocket for a while. In the end its really just a Kingston thing after all. As in-hey pal don't Kingston that lighter, I might need it later
Apparently on that blog http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/ they have some sort of warning at the top of articles that let you know what kind of content is included. For the one on Luke it has [Trigger warning for internet bullying, rape language.]
Then there are ones like [Trigger warning for detainee abuse.]
[Trigger warning for torture.]
It's like a NSFW for people who have been raped, or tortured, or abused while being detained I guess? All of which are horrible things and tragic, but come on. You need to have disclaimers at the top of every blog post?
The entire site should have [Trigger warning for Victim-culture whiners.] at the top.
So it goes like this basically I guess:
LUKE: Like many people, I often mindlessly make fun of idiots on the internet. Then one day I realized I knew one of them. Mindblowing! It's easy to forget that those anonymous idiots are real people. Really made me think, and I feel bad for my friend. It's weird though - it's still hard to feel sorry in the same way for internet idiots I DON'T know. Just doesn't have the same emotional resonance, though I suppose it should. Human nature is a funny, humbling thing sometimes.
INTERNET: You...made FUN...of someone...on...THE INTERNET???!?!!?!?!!? YOU ARE THE WORST PERSON WHO HAS EVER LIVED. Never examine the sometimes disquieting instincts behind our not-always-exemplary actions as a constantly evolving culture! NEVER! EXAMINE! THEM!!!
Uh, pretty much exactly. Nice summary.
Ther is a term for a harmless person: victim. That being said, I could not get through the entire rape culture stuff... I do not know what connection that had to your Slate article. Well, like the article.
By calling someone who really felt it was wrong to exploit your ex-acquaintance hypocritical I guess you're assuming that I do exactly what you do, but am taking umbrage at the fact that you're doing it? Hypocrisy is thrown around much too lightly - I take it that's what you meant by 'pharisaical'?
At any rate, I use my full name and picture on Slate. I don't hide behind an avatar or screen name. My personal distaste for your article on Slate was based on the fact that I think you weren't much of a friend to your so-called friend. Since I don't make a point of exploiting and humiliating the people I refer to as friends, I don't think I'm a hypocrite (pharisaical or otherwise) for pointing it out on a message board.
oh.
Plain and simple! I like your work!
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Jesus Christ. Those people didn't read the article and that Slate article is insane. You have spam up there. pew pew pew.
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