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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   734 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 17, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Since when was trolling supposed to have a punchline? The point of trolling is to make people upset.

Faking social cred is an easy way to make people upset.

Imagine a famous person claiming to know a language really well. They then "prove" it by clearly reading a script and making some basic pronunciation errors. They deny any attempts for native speakers to have a conversation with them. The community of those language speakers would probably end up really upset with that famous person. Other people would mostly just feel confused "seemed like they were speaking the language fine, why would they fake it?"

People seem to forget that Elon is sometimes entertained by people being pissed off at him.

If you have never felt the desire to troll on the Internet then you are a better person than me. He just takes it to a new level with a billionaire's regard for cash and reputation.

Seems like you're giving him too much credit. What is the way to distinguish between such trolling and genuinely being retarded in this "he is only pretending" scenario?

I've seen trolls on the internet, the payoff in their case is obvious - they spark great wailing and gnashing of teeth, but they themselves don't risk anything. Either they're a nobody so they don't have any reputation to lose from someone genuinely believing they're retarded, or they have a group of people behind them who are "in" on the joke.

In this case, there are plenty of people who already have an answer to "why would he lie" (the ones who believe he's an insecure loser who got carried by his money), while the ones who are laughing with him, not at him, are conspicuously absent. The best defense I've seen is "why do you care so much about him cheating, you're so weird, and anyway unlike you losers he doesn't have the time to play games".

This is not trolling at all, he is not Elon Hyde who hides behind layers of irony, is his twitter addiction which is itself a full-time job given how active he is an effort at trolling people?

Asmongold made a joke that he is either lying about his gaming or he is lying about running 6 firms, what makes people uncomfortable about this info is that if he is this willing to lie about something as pointless as video games, the things he must lie about in his businesses must exist, you don't just lie about trivial things and then develop morals around what matters.

I don't see why it's not trolling. And to your second paragraph, yes. I'm not an Elon fanboy, he seems like a clearly flawed individual. The take I've seen that best explains him is that he has been taking lots of testosterone.

I don't see why it's not trolling.

It's the plain reading of the situation. Frankly, if you introduce T boosting into this, it looks even more like genuine ego trips rather than faking it for the lulz.

Framing it as trolling implies that one is "falling for it" by reacting as expected, but I don't see what I'd be falling for. Read plainly, Elon gave the Gamers (tm) a free shot to make him look like a clown, they've taken it, he then continued by having a spat with Asmongold on twitter... does he really need the extra views, compared to the rep damage he's taking?

The take I've seen that best explains him is that he has been taking lots of testosterone.

Him and Jeff Bezos represent the flirting vs harassment meme pretty well, going from very nerdy looking to far more imposing. Not accusing you of being a fanboy, his public image means more money for his firms at the very least, I do not think he is trolling at all, if he were it would have been funny. Pretending to be a world champion at chess and then playing like you only crammed some openings is not funny which is how his stituation looks like.

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