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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   29429 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 31, 2023

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Let he who has never anonymously posted edgelord comments on the internet cast the first stone. I honestly can't imagine how dull and intellectually lazy one would have to be to never once let a single cancellation-worthy thought enter their mind.

Maybe this is one of those generational differences. (IE those who grew up with the internet vs those who didn't) But to me there is a vast gulf between a thought entering your mind and committing that thought to the public record. As the old saw goes, don't put anything in writing that you wouldn't have read at your funeral.

If your funeral doesn’t include ceremonial recitations of the having-a-daughter-is-the-ultimate-and-final-cuck copypasta and the contents of the late FBI crime statistics bot, were you ever really alive in the first place?

What about memes? Can they project all the memes I've saved onto a screen next to a youthful happy picture me at my funeral?

As the old saw goes, don't put anything in writing that you wouldn't have read at your funeral.

At my funeral, I'm beyond (mortal) punishment. Which would make it one of the least constrained places to express my thoughts, if that were possible. You have to be a hell of a lot more careful than that to safely express right-of-center-views today. But of course you can always just-world it.

don't put anything in writing that you wouldn't have read at your funeral.

I've never heard this before, but it's really good advice.

don't put anything in writing that you wouldn't have read at your funeral.

I have a sudden urge to attend a 4channers funeral.

More seriously, yeah it's probably generational. If the internet took off during the dumbest part of your adolescence and young adulthood, it would probably be unfair to expect all that much restraint and wisdom from you.

The other issue is - do you seriously believe you wouldn't get cancelled for the stuff you post here, if you lived around or worked for the blue tribe?

The weird thing is, the kind of stuff that people typically get cancelled for is usually not that different from things I occasionally hear boomers and older people say in person, but which would get you banned from almost any online platform. The standards for what's acceptable in person seem to be much more relaxed than what is acceptable online, at least when it comes to certain topics. I suppose the opposite is true when it comes to swearing and talking about sex. But certain opinions which are actually quite common (especially those related to transgenderism) have been utterly tabooed by young people online.

This is why I find some of these cancellations so confusing. People aren't just getting cancelled for saying edgy stuff when they were anonymous teenagers. They're getting cancelled for stuff that is well within the Overton window if you step outside the terminally online bubble.

For example, try asking anyone over 40 whether transwomen are women. Few would say they are. But you say this on almost any social media, and they'll react as though you're some kind of extremist. Or ask someone over 60 what they think of gay marriage.

I think that the kind of people who hold to dogmatic political ideologies also tend to be the kind of people who don't do much mingling with strangers in real life, at least not anywhere that isn't pre-selected to be mostly filled by people who agree with them.

Also, in real life one can see the person one is arguing with and most of time time realize that they do not fit your worst stereotypes of what people "on the other side" are like, which naturally tends to de-escalate conflict.

Also, in real life being loudly dogmatic about politics can lead to unpleasant consequences ranging anywhere from being viewed as a buzzkill all the way up to possible violence, so most people probably have a natural tendency to avoid getting into dogmatic political debates with strangers in real life if possible.

The above has to do with talking to strangers. When it comes to talking with people one already knows, people have even more reason to not get into vicious political disagreements.

On the other hand, people who know each other well in person often have an emotional desire to change each others' minds about things they disagree deeply on, and generally also feel like they can trust the debate to not spill over into violence, so sometimes people who know each other in person are actually emotionally incentivized to get into vicious political disagreements more than they would with strangers.

The internet collapses space. When you go online anywhere in the world, you are effectively stepping into an American university campus and required on pain of cancellation to comport yourself accordingly.

deleted

The actual wisdom to Hlynka's advice is to have control over your funeral's invite list.

Touche'

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