Justin Bieber fans urged to cut themselves to stop him from smoking weed

[UnrepentantLiberal]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by REP (a host of the General Discussion forum).

Western civilisation hit a new low yesterday when some 4chan users decided to see just how much they could mess with the minds of Justin Bieber fans. The internet trolls took inspiration from an earlier stunt whereby a wise guy tweeted that Justin had cancer and that Beliebers should cut off their hair in sympathy. Upping the ante, 4chan seized upon the story that Bieber had been caught smoking weed and suggested that teenagers take drastic action to get him to quit. To quote Gawker:

Operation Cut For Bieber launched this morning with a hashtag on Twitter that proved so successful, it was trending nationwide within hours … "You stop using drugs and we'll stop cutting. You make this world meaningless and we've lost hope," tweeted @brittanyscrapma, one of several dummy accounts … The hashtags #cutforbieber and #cuttingforbieber quickly amassed dozens of photos from teens and tweens who claim to have slashed their wrists and forearms over Bieber's drug use, but it remains unclear how many of the photos are authentic, and how many have been seeded by 4chan users. Regardless, the fact that the hashtags are trending at all is disturbing enough.

Predictably, BuzzFeed does us the courtesy of publishing some of those “disturbing photos” on the shady pretext of letting us decide for ourselves how authentic they are. Are they real, are they fake? Who cares? They’re sick and there was absolutely no journalistic value served in printing them. That’s why there’s no BuzzFeed link in my post and probably never will be again.

The story raises several questions. First, why didn’t Twitter crack down on this immediately? If it can ban neo-Nazis from tweeting, then it should be able to exercise some discretion over a user advocating self mutilation. Second, who is running these scams and what on Earth motivates them to do it? I don’t want to jump on the anti-troll bandwagon: anyone who sends me an obnoxious tweet does so to a man who either doesn’t care or who has heard it all before. But the 4chan campaign was targeted at one of the most fragile minorities on the planet – teenage girls. Encouraging hormonal teens to self-harm isn’t a prank. It’s a form of existential assault.

More: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100197042/justin-bieber-fans-urged-to-cut-themselves-to-stop-him-from-smoking-weed-this-belieber-madness-must-cease/

[LARED]

1. It's hard to tell who is dumber

the idiots that twit crap like that, or the fans that would hurt themselves purposefully because a celebrity did or said something.

[Kalidurga]

2. It is horrible mostly because it's stupid...

I don't think teenage girls are that stupid though. But, if a couple cut themselves I don't know perhaps their parents should seek help for them. Twitter should shut that down though. That kind of thing just ain't cool.

[Confusious]

3. You're underestimating the stupidity of the average american. nt

[Kalidurga]

4. I always do nt.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. This story from a British newspaper is about a Canadian singer whose fan base is intenational

Goes number one in the UK, on tour there. Also international: the internet, Twitter, hackers, haters and 4-Chan.
The fans of Bieber are far from all American, they are however mostly teens and particularly girls.
So while I might not call it stupid to attempt to make this about Americans, I would say it is highly Americacentric to do so.

[Confusious]

11. I said nothing about bieber fans anywhere else

So what exactly is the problem?

Are you upset that I don't think fans of bieber in other countries are as stupid as Americans?

Are you upset that I think Americans would do stupid shit and others wouldn't?

lay off SJSally.

[hobbit709]

6. Idiocracy is a documentary.

[Tien1985]

5. It's 4chan.

It's the origin of trolls as we know them and they are proud of it. I'm not exaggerating, I don't suggest visiting them but maybe read more about them. They are horrific at times.

Twitter should shut it down and condemn it. And hopefully parents will use this as way to teach health and Internet safety. I know I'll be watering it down for my 9yr old son (a Beiber fan). I hope no kids really have hurt themselves from this.

[TheKentuckian]

7. Existential assault? No, there is no assault against the existence of teenage girls.

In fact no assault at all but rather Darwin Award winners doing what such folks do, shit so stupid that they shouldn't been in a dicey gene pool anyway.

Seriously, cut yourself so Justin doesn't smoke weed???? You really think that depth of stupidity is going to be recovered from?

Ignorance is a correctable condition but you can't fix stupid and cutting yourself to keep Bieber off weed is so far past stupid that it can no longer be seen in the rearview mirror. If this is your child you fucked up as a parent or have produced a regressive mess that wouldn't have lasted this long without modern intervention.

Can anyone honestly say they were ever this fucking stupid and ever recovered to normal? More importantly can anyone say that someone else was this stupid and recovered. Someone might think they have but are also considering going swiming in cement shoes like those hilarious people are always talking about in movies or warming the bathwater with a curling iron or moving to Texas so they can be represented by Louie Gohmert cause he is like soooo smart.

[RoccoR5955]

8. Perhaps someone should initiate a campaign

for people to cut themselves to stop voting RepubliCON!


This is as stupid as all the whoopla for Bieber!

[Demo_Chris]

10. Wait! You mean I cut myself for nothing?! (nt)

[Larrymoe Curlyshemp]

12. KEE-ripes!

[ZombieHorde]

13. Awesome. nt

[REP]

14. Locking

This topic violates the SoP of this Forum.