July 9, 2020

Shut the Fuck Up and Put On Your Mask

https://twitter.com/TDen2020/status/1279012007581290499?s=19

October 15, 2018

"NPC" accounts on Twitter

I apologize if this has been covered already, but I haven't seen it on DU, so...

If you're on Twitter, and have noticed a sudden influx of crudely-drawn, grey-faced, apparent bots parroting the Resistance, here's what you're seeing:

About a month ago, a meme ... took root on 4chan and among anti-progressive online communities. It’s called the NPC meme and it goes like this: Out there in the world, there are literal NPCs—the term for non-playable characters in video games—who have no internality whatsoever. There are some giveaways, of course. They spit out canned lines—“Good weather today, huh?”—and flock to normie trends (are Ugg boots still a thing?) and, for the most part, share the same uncritical worldview. ...

In some corners of the internet, NPC is beginning to replace the term “SJW.” According to ex-World of Warcraft dev Mark Kern, NPCs have the following qualities: “Incapable of independent thought. Wants everything done for them. (Quests) Constantly needing coddling (escort quests).” He published his checklist after another developer accused him of being a “right wing hack.” The tweet evidently was meant to compare so-called SJWs to these NPCs.

What makes this marginal, stale meme built on edgelord logic worth half a thought is what the idea of an NPC speaks to. NPCs have no agency; NPCs don’t think for themselves; NPCs don’t perceive, process, or understand; NPCs arrive at the same worldview not because it’s authentic to their experiences, but automatically. As a descriptor, it suggests that those to whom it applies aren’t even human, but are rather, functionally, robots, or clusters of computer code. That this has resonated as widely as it has is funny, but also a little scary.

It’s one thing to claim that a person’s strongly-held views are informed by nothing at all, but entirely another to imply that they’re completely on auto-pilot. That is dehumanization, a way of reconceiving your enemies as objects, pawns, strawmen, tools. At best, dismissing large swaths of people you disagree with this way betrays a lack of empathy for people whose experiences differ from yours, and an unwillingness to consider that if a vast number of people happen to agree over something, it may be good to examine why; at best, it is a great utility for spreading bogus conspiracy theories. ...

More:

How The 'NPC' Meme Tries To Dehumanize 'SJWs'
https://kotaku.com/how-the-npc-meme-tries-to-dehumanize-sjws-1829552261

Right-wing circles online have become increasingly obsessed with “NPC” memes, which they’ve utilized to compare their critics to non-playable characters in video games. The comparison, they hope, serves to ascribe a degree of intellectual apathy to, and dehumanize, those who do not hold their own far-right beliefs. ...

In early September, the meme experienced a brief renaissance on 4Chan’s “politically incorrect” anonymous image board (known online simply as “/pol/”) but appeared to wander out of the spotlight nearly as quickly as it had entered. But since the publication of a Kotaku article explaining the meme last week, users have made a play to replace the term “SJW”—referring to the caricature of a “social justice warrior”—and has given birth to a new tangle of spin-offs. ...

Now that the NPC meme has been re-framed as a way to “own the libs,” it’s inspired a new wave of enthusiasm among Trump supporters online. ...

Users at Reddit’s largest pro-Trump forum board have praised the meme’s supposed potency, one user writing, “I guarantee this is demoralizing enough liberals to make a difference on Election Day.” Users adapted the meme to depict NFL player Colin Kaepernick, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, and panel guests on CNN. One user even created a custom snapchat filter that users can apply to transform anyone’s face into the “NPC” meme. ...

More:

The Right-Wing Internet Gets Hip to ‘NPC’ Memes
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-right-wing-internet-gets-hip-to-npc-memes/

August 11, 2018

Why do you think Avenatti is running for POTUS?

First, my opinion, so there's no question about where I stand. When asked on Twitter if he should run, I replied:

No. He has no governing experience, and he cannot just leapfrog into the presidency like some Green Party candidate who will do nothing but split the Dem vote.

Speaking of which, he's never answered my direct question of whether he would even run as a Dem, or go third-party.

That said, I'm beginning to wonder if Avenatti is a plant. He appears to have let drop the Stormy Daniels case, and turned his attention to the presidency.

Go ahead and call me paranoid, if you must. But kindly give me your thoughts.

August 1, 2018

The Qanon nuts are getting crazier.

Re the article below: Crokin isn't quite up to speed on the latest idiocy; the general consensus among the Qanon conspiracy kooks is that JFK Jr. is dead, all right -- murdered by (who else?) Hillary.


Liz Crokin: John F. Kennedy Jr. Faked His Death And Is Now QAnon

Last weekend, right-wing “journalist” and fringe conspiracy theorist Liz Crokin did an interview with online psychic and YouTube host Jenny Moonstone in which she laid out her theory that John F. Kennedy Jr. faked his own death in 1999 and is now behind the QAnon account.

QAnon is an anonymous figure at the center of a right-wing conspiracy theory known as “The Storm” that alleges that high-ranking members of the Trump administration have been using the 8Chan forum board to drop hints revealing that Robert Muller’s [sic] special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is really cover for a secret operation to take down a global network of satanic pedophile cannibals. Proponents of this conspiracy theory have increasingly been making their presence known at Trump rallies.

More:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/liz-crokin-john-f-kennedy-jr-faked-his-death-and-is-now-qanon/

July 15, 2018

Anyone play HQ Trivia?

I've been at it for just about a week, and was thrilled I made it to Question 9 tonight, but seriously bummed I didn't know what element was furthest to the right in the Table of Elements.

Running through Tom Lehrer's lyrics in my head in under ten seconds didn't help.

July 14, 2018

Anti-LGBT pastor who wears a crown of bullets crashed a GOP event to pray for victory

A controversial anti-LGBT pastor who once urged his followers to bring guns to church has turned his attention to delivering invocations at campaign rallies for Scott Wagner, the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor. Wagner and his campaign say the pastor sneaked in because he knew the owner of the venue.

Pastor Hyung Jin “Sean” Moon made his way into the public eye in the wake of the Parkland shooting in February, when he instructed his followers to carry AR-15-style rifles into their Pennsylvania church and wear crowns of bullets. (The church was labeled an “anti-LGBT cult” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.)

A spokesman for Wagner told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that the pastor wasn’t invited and didn’t get permission from anyone to speak. He also noted that the venue that hosted the event, Tommy Gun Warehouse in Greely, is owned by the pastor’s brother. ...

https://news.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/a3qdxp/anti-lgbt-pastor-who-wears-a-crown-of-bullets-crashed-a-gop-event-to-pray-for-victory