The Pitters' Place

It seems to be on the rise. Four times I recently witnessed:

1) trailer for Arrival, which is based on the awesome award-winning short story by Ted Chiang which you should read here: https://mathisgasser.files.wordpress.co ... e_2000.pdf
100% on Rotten Tomatoes so far. It also has a female protagonist, so naturally the comments were whining about her being an ~SJW female~ and how globalist PC culture and Muslims have ruined Hollywood, when the only thing she does in the trailer is try to communicate with alien octopus things. I bet if Alien came out today there would be lots of people declaring that they're going to boycott that feminazi crap.

2) Someone on Reddit asked a science question about trans people. Someone gave a scientific one-paragraph answer. Others decided she was an SJW and told her to fuck off back to Tumblr, which I know that person actually abhors for being full of reactionary teenagers.

3) someone linked to an article about how the Michelle Rodriguez 'sex-change thriller' (re)Assignment was an offensive disasterpiece and trans people had been protesting it (I actually want to watch that movie because it sounds amazingly bad, but anyway), but it got comments about how it sounded like something "an SJW had vomited up" or how if a movie about poor oppressed trans people fails, obviously it must be the fault of white-Hollywood. I don't think they actually read the article.

4) an article on The Advocate mentioning the undertones of queer identity in Stranger Things - how Will was often targetted by homophobia or how Eleven's appearance contributed to others seeing her as a weirdo. There was no criticism at all. The comments were full of angry offended people calling the article stupid, or saying that it was the 80s when people rightly didn't give a shit about coddling SJW's precious feelings, or saying that if SJWs don't like it then don't watch it instead of complaining, when all indications were that the author was a fan and loved the show's handling of those characters. I can understand that level of outrage on activisty articles or opinion pieces, but this article was basically "cool show, I like it", and the reaction was just bizarre.

When I was their age, people had to actually put in the effort to irrationally and hypocrtically insult people to be called an SJW - like hurling racist insults at black men who insulted women and thinking that made you an awesome feminist. Heck, just last year you at least had to say potentially-controversial things like "racism is bad" to be called an SJW. I still don't know how a term that originated on the left ended up being used as a uselessly-broad universal insult by the right.

Soon people will be accused of virtue-signaling for existing.

I know I say I hate people, and I know I say Internet commenters are the worst, but... I mean, seriously. God, what is even going on. This shit actually seems to be getting worse every year.

Like I said, I liked it back when I didn't go on the Internet and I thought I lived in a world which was full of basically sane, reasonable, intelligent, and rational people.

The reason I stay out of gaming media almost in its entirety is because the mere mention of women in any capacity will have people shrieking about SJW conspiracies. I love gaming but gamers are trash.

Gamergate completely killed any remote interest I had in gaming. I don't want any part of anything even remotely associated with gamers.

I like gaming. I avoid online multiplayer gaming these days because people suck, but back then it was extremely satisfying to pwn all the teenage boys slinging misogynist and homophobic insults on the air. When I was 15 I entered this Age of Empires 2 inter-school competition. Mine was an all-girls school up against this all-boys school, and their team was delighted when they found out because lol girls suck at gaming, they'd totally win. Anyway I totally thrashed them. I had the top score and my team got into the finals. I like the part when they first realised they were losing and started yelling "SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT".

God, what is even going on.

I don't know. It's at the point where it's getting extremely surreal. Someone on reddit complained about being banned from a sub just because he's a member of the KKK. People who a year or two ago were ranting about SJWs are now getting called SJWs themselves despite retaining the same political views. It's almost sublime. I think it was more offensive when it actually made some sort of sense. soon it might rise to the point of performance art:

"hello," a woman says to a male stranger. "the weather is nice today, isn't it?"

Veins throb in his neck. "SJW CUCK!!!11" he screams, eyeballs popping. "GO BACK TO YOUR SAFE SPACE IN THE KITCHEN, YOU VIRTUE-SIGNALLING TUMBLRINA!!! I SEXUALLY IDENTIFY AS AN ATTACK HELICOPTER AND I WILL FLY YOU THERE"


edit: a black trans woman was stabbed to death 119 times: http://wspa.com/2016/09/13/transgender- ... e-charged/

In the comments, people saying it was obviously her fault for 'false advertising', even though we don't know if it was a matter of her having sex without telling him she was trans. That doesn't even make sense. Either he knew she was trans prior to having sex, in which case no sex happened and he murdered her anyway, or they had sex and then she told him, which makes no sense. Sex then disclosure creates the greatest risk of a negative reaction, and people would either tell beforehand or hide it all the way.

Edit 2: From another article: “Based on what I heard today, it looks like he (Hickerson) took the knife with him when he went on the meeting with Whigham," Watts said. “Borrowed it from a buddy, before he met Whigham."

Premeditated murder, then http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/cri ... rylink=cpy

I don't know. It's at the point where it's getting extremely surreal.

No fucking kidding. That's not even hyperbole, it is honestly surreal. Like, no matter where I go on the Internet anymore, no matter what the topic is, I steel myself for basically all the comments to be mind-numbingly horrible and stupid in some way, and probably extremely bigoted too. There was that one major Youtube video a short while back promoting LBGTQ issues and there were comments below it with 400 upvotes literally praising Hitler and saying we need to kill all sexual deviants and stuff. Not a dissenting voice to be found.

It's gotten to the point that even basic reason, sanity, and humanity are almost nowhere to be found on the Internet, and are stuck in remote closed-off little enclaves where they're constantly bombarded from the outside. Take any random space on the Internet and you're more likely to get in trouble for saying shit like "racism is bad" than you would if you said something like "I think BLM is literally worse than the KKK". It's gotten to the point where if I open some random comments section, I will be extremely surprised and relieved if it turns out to meet even a baseline level of reason or compassion. Like finding someone saying "You know, BLM brings up some legitimate issues and may not be quite as bad as the KKK" is like finding a diamond in the rough. Anything stronger than that is basically a miracle.

And it's not just being horrible, 99% of the time Internet commenters are just really really really dumb. Like, even when they're not horrible. They're just fucking dumb. Not like acceptable, endearing, regular-level dumb. More like extra-strength, "how-the-fuck-do-you-even-put-your-shoes-on-in-the-morning" level dumb. It's mind-boggling.

I don't know if it really is just me or if the Internet really is getting more dumb and vile every year.

And I know the Internet is not really real life. Yes. Internet commenters are a self-selected group of particularly stupid crazy extremist people. But Jesus fuck, it is horribly depressing to find out just how many of them are out there. Like, there is just so. goddamn. many. of them.

Sorry but I'm just really tired and sad right now and I'm rambling. This is why we need transhumanism. (That's my new signature, probably.)

I liked your story btw. Lol.

Like, no matter where I go on the Internet anymore, no matter what the topic is, I steel myself for basically all the comments to be mind-numbingly horrible and stupid in some way, and probably extremely bigoted too.

Yeah. On multiple occasions I've decided to take a break from political things on the internet and just look at happy stuff, but even then there's no escape. Just with transphobia alone I can't get away from it; there might be an uplifting article about some heartwarming deed somebody did that helped lots of people, and there'll be comments about how we need to hear more about good people like this instead of sick freaks like Bruce Jenner. The IMDb boards are also getting worse: for almost every new film, either they're making satirical posts about how oh no, they're triggered because this movie doesn't have a one-legged transgender Muslim midget, or they're furiously ranting about the presence of characters who aren't straight white cis men. You can't win.

I don't know if it really is just me or if the Internet really is getting more dumb and vile every year.

It's not just you. Another friend recently commented on the same. It seems to have hugely spiked this year, probably because of the US elections. That and how there's an inverse survival of the fittest going on, where the sort of people who are horrified by internet comments stop commenting over time, leaving the worst of humanity to run rampant.

And it's not just being horrible, 99% of the time Internet commenters are just really really really dumb.

yes. Sometimes that bothers me more, because at least intelligent bigots are capable of logical debate and articulating why they believe what they do, which provides the opportunity to challenge those beliefs and have them considered. Whereas you can't do anything with people whose own beliefs make no sense or are already full of cognitive dissonance they're oblivious to.

I have a lesbian friend who actually enjoys reading the comments because she says it's hilarious to see how stupid people are. She lost faith in humanity long ago, so it doesn't bother her. Perhaps that might be a healthier approach.

I get called an SJW quite regularly these days. I kinda take it as a badge of honor now.

I've been called an SJW and an MRA in the same conversation.

CashRules wrote:I've been called an SJW and an MRA in the same conversation.

^Stupid atheist.

I've been called an SJW and an MRA in the same conversation.

But was it by the same person?

Meanwhile I got this random insult on Reddit and discovered for the first time that there's actually a submissions history tab:
"According to your submission history you're not even passable (like most trannies) so your opinion is irrelevant."

not sure if I should be honoured that he bothered digging up my post history, but somehow that one hurt more than the dozen or so other replies I'd been fending off this morning. That one came out of nowhere completely unprovoked. I was being polite and everything.

I kind of want to delete my Reddit account now. There's too much information in there that can be used against me.

EDIT: done. removed posts and deactivated account. hopefully life will get better now that I've extricated myself from that cesspool of humanity.

First time I've seen the term virtue signalling. Had to look it up.

It actually did have a useful definition once upon a time. It was originally used by LessWrong and the rationalist crowd to denote when someone broadcasts an opinion just to ingratiate themselves into a particular social group. It did explain something slightly interesting about social psychology before it turned into a reactionary buzzword.

It did explain something slightly interesting about social psychology before it turned into a reactionary buzzword.

The internet does that.

There also seems to be a sudden rise of victim-blaming in cases where there's barely any ambiguity. Like the above case with the trans woman who was stabbed 119 times and lots of people said it was her fault, and I just read a report where a girl was raped and committed suicide when the university failed to carry out a proper investigation. Her mom sued the university. Lots of comments suggesting that she wasn't actually raped, because if so why didn't she go to the police, or her mother just wants to exploit her daughter's death for the money, or talking about how most girls who claim to have been raped were just upset that the guy they had sex with didn't want a relationship and thus made the accusation or suicided to get revenge on him and ruin his life.

What is wrong with people? Is there any way for a woman to have something horrible happen to her and not be blamed for it in some way? They seem to have much less trouble feeling bad for men who suffer in much more ambiguous situations when they are actually partly at fault.

BruceSmith78 wrote:First time I've seen the term virtue signalling. Had to look it up.

I was called on that because I told people I was reading a philosophy/mystery/coming of age book. Sophia's World, some of you have probably read it, but if you haven't you should. Very charming book, I'm with Saint Thomas of Aquinas at the moment, about to enter the Renaissance.
DAMMIT I'm virtue signalling, AGAIN!!!!

I think that 'The Virtue-Signalling SJW Cucks' would make a great band name.

Meanwhile I've been clearing out old computer files and found a text document from 2009 where I'd saved particularly horrible comments I read on the internet. There were only about 7, including: "muslims are stoneage people, put them into gaschamber!"

That's practically compassionate compared to the dozens of comments you can find on any article about Muslims these days. So I think things have definitely gotten worse.

I think social justice movements have become more vocal recently, so the dissenting voices have also become more vocal in response to that. Maybe not necessarily a bad thing.

If those who support the status quo aren't posting angry vitriol on the internet, it's probably because the status quo is not being questioned.

^ that's a good point