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ljwritesIn the seething sea of humanity that is the Internet, it's inevitable you'll encounter some pretty wild comments every once in a while. There's your racists, your conspiracy theorists, your religious zealots, or people just plain having a bad day.
And then there are the people that totally blow your mind with the stuff they're willing to say anonymously. Here's a small but memorable sample I have directly encountered. There's some bad language, because srsly you canNOT expect me to keep this PG.
3. Victim-Blaming: It Works for War, Too!
Seen on: Avatar Spirit Forum
If piss-poor storytelling weren't reason enough to hate Legend of Korra, the repulsive social views it brought out on the fandom should be. And yeah, it was a bit rage-inducing to me that some people thought there was no problem between benders and non-benders until Noatok came along and made the whole thing up, but whatever. That's more "laughably naive" than "jaw-droppingly amoral," and it's also one possible reading of Book 1 given what a bang-up job Dimartino and Konietzko did of writing it.
I found my rage button pressed a little harder when one of these commenters, AtoMaki, started spewng Fire Nation apologia left and right in a thread about whether there could be lingering prejudice against the Fire Nation after the war. Here's one gem, with AtoMaki arguing there should also be prejudice against the Earth Kingdom by that logic:
Umm... yeah. The Earth Kingdom is far from perfect, sure, but assigning moral equivalence to the aggressor for invading and the defender for failing to surrender seemed a bit iffy to me.
So AtoMaki's issue was that the EK didn't plan its resistance well enough and/or didn't surrender soon enough. And certainly, if the EK had been more competent the war would have ended sooner. But is incompetence really the moral equivalent of invading another country? Never fear, AtoMaki had an answer.
Sure fella, wink wink. "Please, please let me weasel away from my inconsistencies and irrationality, I have such a cute avatar!"
It might have been enjoyable to watch him fumble through this one but this was, happily enough, the last time I spoke to AtoMaki on the open forum. He wrote me a message whining about how I was taking everything too seriously and my world was too black-and-white and he was just here to have fun so wahhhh why do you have to call me out on my ignorance and total inability to make a logical argument he was going to ignore me from now on.
Yeah, you BET I'll call you out when you make ignorant comments about real-life issues, you little shit. You don't get to wiggle out of repulsive views by saying you were just having fun.
And you know, I won't even go into much detail about the whiff of genocide apologia in AtoMaki's posts: Yeah, Ozai and Azula tried genocide but the execution was terrible and it was probably impossible anyway so... so? I told him, and I think this is the part that caused him to bail, that the supposed impossibility of genocide on such a scale was a common form of Holocaust denial. Genocide apology and false moral equivalency? Totally AtoMaki's idea of fun. Of course it becomes less fun when someone calls you out on your bullshit, poor thing!
2. There's Nothing Wrong with Impersonating a Charity for Murdered Children to Make Money
Seen on: Jezebel
So this was a comment on a story about some lady who was accused of posing as an aunt of a Sandy Hook victim to collect money under the pretext of helping victims' families. This was pretty rage-inducing to everyone who commented--except one very amoral or very attention-starved person.
Below is a screencap of the exchange. I blurred out my handle because I use my real name on Jezebel (for a while my Facebook account was the only way I could log in), though you can find it easily enough if you're curious.
This continued with darmo saying this woman's action was harmless because the amount she scammed was small, and me saying that was only true for a person who had no principle. The darmo person left off at this point, maybe s/he got tired of trolling me. Like, wow. It seems there's a defender (sincere or not) for everything, even profiteering from the murder of kids.
WARNING: Below are direct quotes from a rape apologist and homophobe who advocates corrective rape.
1. On People Who Totally Want to Be Raped, and the Curative Power of Corrective Rape.
I did warn you. If you're retching at the title, better turn back now.
Seen on:Internet cesspool Youtube
Snarking aside, I'm actually having some pretty good discussions on a video about gaming and sexism. I got to know a couple of intelligent and thoughtful people, too, regardless of whether they share my views. Sure there are your usual cranks and sexists, but they're small-time, nothing to write home about.
Except one, Merlynn132. This guy refused to be just another face in a crowd of casually sexist guys. This guy turned out to be the most blatant, dedicated sexist I have ever had the displeasure of talking to.
For the purpose of this post it hardly matters what the topic of the video was, The subject turned to rape, and pretty soon I realized, holy shit, I'm talking to a real-life rape apologist, or someone who is attention-starved enough to impersonate one with bloody-minded determination. When I challenged Merlynn about his views he brought up, among other things, romance novels (presumably bodice rippers) as support for the proposition that some women love... rape? He also spouted forth about how some people who were raped love it, and some people liked getting tied down an beaten.
Where to even start? I replied rape fantasy and rape were nothing alike, that bondage and rape were nothing alike, and he really needed to understand the difference between consensual sex and rape before he got in trouble. Here's his reply:
I don't know whether to laugh or cry at his belief that a "rapist" would respond to safe words, but whatever. It goes on and on this way, with constant confusion between bondage and rape, rape fantasy and rape.
Now, one of the planks of Merlynn's rape apologia platform was that sometimes it's "necessary," for instance to stop a delusional evil woman from killing a lot of people (??) in some shitty-sounding zombie apocalypse game that he evidently bases his life around. Since he had expressed homophobic views before (anyone surprised?...anyone?), I posed this question:
He weaseled around this question for a while until called on it by another poster, WiseSonUK, who is a pretty cool guy as you'll see from the screencap. Below is the exchange. You might want to keep a little distance from the screen while you read so you won't destroy your monitor in a fit of rage.
Compared to this level of fuckery, this guy's sexually harassing me was more an amusing sideshow than anything--calling me a slut out of nowhere, defending himself when I called him on it by saying how women love dirty talk, talking about what an unsatisfying sex life I must have (if any) if I don't lose my shit during orgasm etc. Shyeah right, dude, like your mouth-breather ass can make me come. His attempts to browbeat me were so transparently desperate, it was almost endearing.
And there you have it, my adventures with People Who Say Shit on the Internet. I don't know if these people are sincere in what they're saying or are willing to say anything to get attention, but either way it's pretty damned amazing, in a "You won't believe what he just ate!" kind of way. It's a wild and woolly web out there, people. Have fun and be careful.
So I'm all amoral'd out. What's your "did they seriously just say that?" story? Give me them so I can take comfort from how others had it worse than I did.
And then there are the people that totally blow your mind with the stuff they're willing to say anonymously. Here's a small but memorable sample I have directly encountered. There's some bad language, because srsly you canNOT expect me to keep this PG.
3. Victim-Blaming: It Works for War, Too!
Seen on: Avatar Spirit Forum
If piss-poor storytelling weren't reason enough to hate Legend of Korra, the repulsive social views it brought out on the fandom should be. And yeah, it was a bit rage-inducing to me that some people thought there was no problem between benders and non-benders until Noatok came along and made the whole thing up, but whatever. That's more "laughably naive" than "jaw-droppingly amoral," and it's also one possible reading of Book 1 given what a bang-up job Dimartino and Konietzko did of writing it.
I found my rage button pressed a little harder when one of these commenters, AtoMaki, started spewng Fire Nation apologia left and right in a thread about whether there could be lingering prejudice against the Fire Nation after the war. Here's one gem, with AtoMaki arguing there should also be prejudice against the Earth Kingdom by that logic:
AtoMaki: And then... what about the Earth Kingdom? Why didin't they simply surrender after, say, 20 years? How many lifes [sic] were wasted just because the EK was too stubborn to give up and fight another day?
Umm... yeah. The Earth Kingdom is far from perfect, sure, but assigning moral equivalence to the aggressor for invading and the defender for failing to surrender seemed a bit iffy to me.
lunatique: You did see that episode "Imprisoned," right? Also "The Puppetmaster?" The FN wasn't about to leave the other Nations strength to fight another day. After your reaction to the Equalists, I didn't think you'd find it acceptable for benders (in this case earthbenders) to lose their personal liberty just for being benders.
AtoMaki: Army of non-benders maybe? Benders in hiding? There are many ways to keep your fighting strength even while your opponent is hell bent on rooting it out (IRL example: the Taliban in Afghanistan).
So AtoMaki's issue was that the EK didn't plan its resistance well enough and/or didn't surrender soon enough. And certainly, if the EK had been more competent the war would have ended sooner. But is incompetence really the moral equivalent of invading another country? Never fear, AtoMaki had an answer.
AtoMaki: If you can't win your war then you shouldn't force it. And yes, a war is always the fault of two nations: the one who attacked and the one who fought back. It is hard to fight a war alone ;).
lunatique: Wow, so by that logic robbery is the fault of both robber and victim. If only the victim had given in, it would have been an act of donation! It's hard to commit an act of robbery alone, you know? Way to victim-blame!
AtoMaki: I guess you know that war is a little bit different than a robbery... ;)
Sure fella, wink wink. "Please, please let me weasel away from my inconsistencies and irrationality, I have such a cute avatar!"
lunatique: Nope, you can't dismiss it that easily. Why doesn't the analogy apply? In both cases A pressed a situation on B that B didn't want, and B needs to give something up (property, dignity, freedom etc.) to get out of the confrontation. And you're saying B is at fault for refusing to give up his right, as much as A is for instigating the situation and trying to take from B. Explain how it's different, or admit you're victim-blaming.
It might have been enjoyable to watch him fumble through this one but this was, happily enough, the last time I spoke to AtoMaki on the open forum. He wrote me a message whining about how I was taking everything too seriously and my world was too black-and-white and he was just here to have fun so wahhhh why do you have to call me out on my ignorance and total inability to make a logical argument he was going to ignore me from now on.
Yeah, you BET I'll call you out when you make ignorant comments about real-life issues, you little shit. You don't get to wiggle out of repulsive views by saying you were just having fun.
And you know, I won't even go into much detail about the whiff of genocide apologia in AtoMaki's posts: Yeah, Ozai and Azula tried genocide but the execution was terrible and it was probably impossible anyway so... so? I told him, and I think this is the part that caused him to bail, that the supposed impossibility of genocide on such a scale was a common form of Holocaust denial. Genocide apology and false moral equivalency? Totally AtoMaki's idea of fun. Of course it becomes less fun when someone calls you out on your bullshit, poor thing!
2. There's Nothing Wrong with Impersonating a Charity for Murdered Children to Make Money
Seen on: Jezebel
So this was a comment on a story about some lady who was accused of posing as an aunt of a Sandy Hook victim to collect money under the pretext of helping victims' families. This was pretty rage-inducing to everyone who commented--except one very amoral or very attention-starved person.
Below is a screencap of the exchange. I blurred out my handle because I use my real name on Jezebel (for a while my Facebook account was the only way I could log in), though you can find it easily enough if you're curious.
This continued with darmo saying this woman's action was harmless because the amount she scammed was small, and me saying that was only true for a person who had no principle. The darmo person left off at this point, maybe s/he got tired of trolling me. Like, wow. It seems there's a defender (sincere or not) for everything, even profiteering from the murder of kids.
WARNING: Below are direct quotes from a rape apologist and homophobe who advocates corrective rape.
1. On People Who Totally Want to Be Raped, and the Curative Power of Corrective Rape.
I did warn you. If you're retching at the title, better turn back now.
Seen on:
Snarking aside, I'm actually having some pretty good discussions on a video about gaming and sexism. I got to know a couple of intelligent and thoughtful people, too, regardless of whether they share my views. Sure there are your usual cranks and sexists, but they're small-time, nothing to write home about.
Except one, Merlynn132. This guy refused to be just another face in a crowd of casually sexist guys. This guy turned out to be the most blatant, dedicated sexist I have ever had the displeasure of talking to.
For the purpose of this post it hardly matters what the topic of the video was, The subject turned to rape, and pretty soon I realized, holy shit, I'm talking to a real-life rape apologist, or someone who is attention-starved enough to impersonate one with bloody-minded determination. When I challenged Merlynn about his views he brought up, among other things, romance novels (presumably bodice rippers) as support for the proposition that some women love... rape? He also spouted forth about how some people who were raped love it, and some people liked getting tied down an beaten.
Where to even start? I replied rape fantasy and rape were nothing alike, that bondage and rape were nothing alike, and he really needed to understand the difference between consensual sex and rape before he got in trouble. Here's his reply:
Merlynn132: I'm not talking about play rape. I mean real rape. Some people seek it out. Play acting just isn't enough,they have to be in real danger. Fortunately,most are satisfied with play acting but it doesn't change the fact they like to be forced to do it even if they silently consent to it. They like it rough and hard and begging their "attacker" to stop. Look up the concept of "safe words" some time. It's needed for "heavy play" and it's largely to make sure you don't die.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry at his belief that a "rapist" would respond to safe words, but whatever. It goes on and on this way, with constant confusion between bondage and rape, rape fantasy and rape.
Now, one of the planks of Merlynn's rape apologia platform was that sometimes it's "necessary," for instance to stop a delusional evil woman from killing a lot of people (??) in some shitty-sounding zombie apocalypse game that he evidently bases his life around. Since he had expressed homophobic views before (anyone surprised?...anyone?), I posed this question:
lokisdottir: Are you also okay with raping lesbians to turn them straight ("corrective rape"), and if not, why not? Homosexuality is also evil/crazy, according to some people.
He weaseled around this question for a while until called on it by another poster, WiseSonUK, who is a pretty cool guy as you'll see from the screencap. Below is the exchange. You might want to keep a little distance from the screen while you read so you won't destroy your monitor in a fit of rage.
Compared to this level of fuckery, this guy's sexually harassing me was more an amusing sideshow than anything--calling me a slut out of nowhere, defending himself when I called him on it by saying how women love dirty talk, talking about what an unsatisfying sex life I must have (if any) if I don't lose my shit during orgasm etc. Shyeah right, dude, like your mouth-breather ass can make me come. His attempts to browbeat me were so transparently desperate, it was almost endearing.
And there you have it, my adventures with People Who Say Shit on the Internet. I don't know if these people are sincere in what they're saying or are willing to say anything to get attention, but either way it's pretty damned amazing, in a "You won't believe what he just ate!" kind of way. It's a wild and woolly web out there, people. Have fun and be careful.
So I'm all amoral'd out. What's your "did they seriously just say that?" story? Give me them so I can take comfort from how others had it worse than I did.
