219: Teens Talkin Trash On Gaia Online

[Ashto]

furry cash is an endless font.

True dat. If your project is failing, give it furry aspects and make sure the furries catch wind of it. You will drown in money.

Here's hoping the podcast never runs into financial difficulties. Lest we go on the site one day and see a new header reading "The Fur-Plus: terrible things read with murr-tuthiasm"

[SuperTrainStationH]

Did Lemon not know the word "pogrom", or was the standards of what came before that word in the passage so low that he naturally assumed it was a poorly written rendition of "program", because frankly, I wasn't even expecting a word that "advanced" so to speak to be in that person's vocabulary.

I knew a friend who was all over this in 2005 or so, I just knew it as a harmless goofy forum thing with RP boards where you dressed up this ugly little pixelated doll.

Its really hilarious knowing that people are sitting on their asses with these cookie cutter anime avatars earnestly extolling the manly virtues of slaughter and bloodshed when they probably couldn't even make it through a 10th grade PE volleyball game. Its like when people were sitting around on James Cameron's Avatar forums whining about how much they value and love nature.

Also, it's weird seeing this MRA stuff on here, I never even thought of Gaia Online as having even the slightest amount of male appeal, I never even considered that this board had a large male userbase until hearing this reading.

[Dawnswalker]

The bit about the Dear John letter left me with my jaw hanging open.

I desperately want an edition of "So What REALLY Happened?" for that one.

[junior associate faguar]

Did Lemon not know the word "pogrom", or was the standards of what came before that word in the passage so low that he naturally assumed it was a poorly written rendition of "program", because frankly, I wasn't even expecting a word that "advanced" so to speak to be in that person's vocabulary.

I knew a friend who was all over this in 2005 or so, I just knew it as a harmless goofy forum thing with RP boards where you dressed up this ugly little pixelated doll.

Its really hilarious knowing that people are sitting on their asses with these cookie cutter anime avatars earnestly extolling the manly virtues of slaughter and bloodshed when they probably couldn't even make it through a 10th grade PE volleyball game. Its like when people were sitting around on James Cameron's Avatar forums whining about how much they value and love nature.

Also, it's weird seeing this MRA stuff on here, I never even thought of Gaia Online as having even the slightest amount of male appeal, I never even considered that this board had a large male userbase until hearing this reading.

I feel like part of the whole MRA thing, other than a massive overreaction to the fact that the internet makes the loudest, dumbest, angriest voices rise to the front and a continuation of the crippling fear that men might become less privileged, with maybe a tenth of a percent of real issues in society that face men that aren't their own fault and have been made radioactive by their association with hateful neckbeards, is about nerdy-ass dudes who are insecure about their masculinity. "It's clearly not because my idea of manliness is a composite of various fantasy and anime tropes and I don't actually look like Andre the Giant if he had all of his blood replaced with steroids, it must be those damned feminists who get all shrill when I threaten to rape them for disagreeing with me!"

Okay, I realize that went from nuanced to... rather not nuanced all of a sudden, but the idea of putting myself into the mindset of one of these people enough to write like them is sickening to me.

[Down10]

I expected a lot of things out of this episode, but disgusting far-right-wing bigotry was not one of them.

Can I just take a moment to say how distressing it is to hear arguments from teenagers modeled after the reactionary rhetoric of Fox News and AM hot talk radio? I would hope that the millennial generation would reject this form of dialogue, but it seems they've taken to it happily. That this line of thought comes alongside adorable little anime avatars makes it even more absurd.

[Dr. Buttplug]

I doubt very many of the people that were read were actually teenagers. They might have been teens when they joined Gaia ten years ago when it was still hot, but I doubt the site gets much fresh blood with so many teen centric apps and alternatives out there.

In the past people who stayed in the same town they were born and did nothing with their lives were called "townies". In this internet age what do we call people that stay on the same forum or internet communities and do nothing with their lives? Forumies? Myspace users? Needs work-shopping.

[Sovereign]

In the past people who stayed in the same town they were born and did nothing with their lives were called "townies". In this internet age what do we call people that stay on the same forum or internet communities and do nothing with their lives? Forumies? Myspace users? Needs work-shopping.

I'd just call them sad.

I did get the sense that the majority of the thread comments read were in spirit teenagers but most likely 25+ in age. Honestly, some of them didn't even really sound like teenagers, more like thirty-year-old Conspiracy Wikia contributors. But there is still the very real possibility that they all got their forum nesting tastes from Gaia years ago and just never left. I wonder where the Gaia moderators and admins are?

[EYE OF ZA]

I have no trouble believing that a lot of the people posting on there are in their teens, or at least, in the late-teens-early-twenty-college-age sort of years.

I know a number of people in that age range who are really heavy into alt-right/neoreaction/whatever bullshit.  And they all seem to really like CS:GO.  That sort of alt-right stuff seems to really get people who are, say, maybe anime nerds but also really into firearms and milsim stuff.

[Gyro]

I wonder where the Gaia moderators and admins are?

Based on the content in the episode, not on Gaia Online.

[Zekka]

I have no trouble believing that a lot of the people posting on there are in their teens, or at least, in the late-teens-early-twenty-college-age sort of years.

I know a number of people in that age range who are really heavy into alt-right/neoreaction/whatever bullshit.  And they all seem to really like CS:GO.  That sort of alt-right stuff seems to really get people who are, say, maybe anime nerds but also really into firearms and milsim stuff.

I think it starts with normal "I want to feel like I have the key to understanding the world." A lot of people need to feel like they're surrounded by unenlightened masses if they want to feel like that. The super alt-right stuff afaict is just another way for people to tickle their "I knew I was better than other people!"-bone based on some existing prejudices. If you had different starting views you'd probably start identifying super strongly with leftists to look more sophisticated, stuff like that.

The soft level of "I have all the answers" is just "I hang out with the people who have all the answers and know how to say what they say." I think the stuff that cements it into actual hate is things like having bad personal experiences with women/racial minorities/homosexuals/etc., or being exposed to a lot of media/news that can emotionally cement those feelings.

The most homophobic person I ever knew only had abstract reasons to be uncomfortable with gay people, but his church and family had bombarded him with a lot of fear and anger about them. (not even concrete lies, as far as I can tell) It was the sort of position he was completely inarticulate about defending, but he had very strong social reasons to believe in it, and he could kind of tap into the undercurrent of hate he got from family and media. (He was probably closet-gay too: one of those "you have to fight the homosexual urges!" types.)

Take above with grain of salt -- I grew up around a lot of people who were conservative to various degrees in various areas, but I'm not a sociologist or anything.

[positive stress]

"in college I tried to be gay and I loved the music and drugs but I just don't think that lifestyle was for me"

yr a fuckin idiot m8 also what are you doing on Gaia IF YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE BEEN IN COLLEGE

[moooo566 (taylor's version)]

Thing is, these adults aren't alone there. At this point, it's a forum for adults. Yeah, they're posting about their ex-wives and college antics, but so are a bunch of other people.

I assume there are children on gaia, but I can totally see how the forum population has aged and matured and carried the whole forum with them. It's theirs now.

[nuffkins, of all people,]

I think it starts with normal "I want to feel like I have the key to understanding the world." A lot of people need to feel like they're surrounded by unenlightened masses if they want to feel like that. The super alt-right stuff afaict is just another way for people to tickle their "I knew I was better than other people!"-bone based on some existing prejudices. If you had different starting views you'd probably start identifying super strongly with leftists to look more sophisticated, stuff like that.

I think it starts when white teens develop critical thought before empathy. This episode feels suburban. These teens are insulated, so they start to think "rationally" and stop treating people like people. I can taste the Gamergate in Gaia.

[stray dog freedom]

Id like to subsidize more type o negative references from lemon