I wasn't aware an explanation was forthcoming beyond "it's funny" or "it's fun to do." People slow down as they drive by car accidents because they want to see the damage. Then later you get to describe to others how the car was literally wrapped around this one tree with half a motorcycle jammed up its wheel well at the same time.
Isfahan, August 14, 2014, 06:38:35 am
Oh hush up Isfahan. It's a valid question.
Personally, it's just fascination. You always hear these interviews of famous, successful people. They always say "dreams do come true!" or "work hard enough and good things will come!" For the longest time these were the
only stories you heard because hey, reporters weren't lining up to interview losers. Now we get the losers' stories, direct from their own mouths, in their own words. And not just losers, of course! Crazies, idiots, the willfully ignorant, the irrationally angry, the selfish entitled jerks, the obsessive fetishists... now we get to hear their tales. In many ways their views on the world paint a very unrealistic picture of reality. There are no gangstalkers, magical griffon dimensions, or jobs for "idea guys" out there. But in the grand scheme of things it does show us a much more accurate view of humanity. It shows us that not everyone achieves their goals, not everyone slays their demons, and a lot of people just straight-up never learn their lesson no matter how shitty they make their own life and the lives of those around them. It shows us that despite what the famous folks tell us, life isn't some cute fairy tale. For every real life rags-to-riches hero, we have hundreds of dopes like these. I just find that very interesting.
I love the range of topics the podcast covers, but my biggest interest is in fucked-up communities. For the first time, we can easily look at how culture develops by using these types of subcultures as a model. In these little microcosms you can see the rise of an idea, then watch the idea spread, then see people band together for different reasons. Then the jargon forms, the taboos are established, and the criteria for becoming a leader are set. Heroes and villains rise out of this, factions form, and then you get a clash of ideologies. Then people who have no connection or even an idea of what the movement was originally about try to form their own tangentially-related criteria and they add more arguments into the mix. Then huge groups break off and declare war on each other.
Crazy communities serve as a particularly fascinating model because this process can form over the dumbest, most unrealistic things: "I'm unhappy with my life" -> "I've decided I'm an elf because I'm happier that way!" -> "Wow, you can be an elf? We're elves too then!" -> "Well I like dragons more so I must be a dragon!" -> "... And so are we!" -> "If dragons exist in some way, why not Digimon or Sephiroth or Indiana Jones?" -> "Hey, you don't believe that I'm a Pokemon, yet you're a griffon? That's soooo not fair! I'm going to start my own club then!" -> "If these beings can travel dimensions then they can live in my head! Because why not!" -> "I HAVE LIKE 50 CARTOON CHARACTERS THAT LIVE IN MY BRAIN AND THEY'RE ALL VALID AND I SWEAR THIS IS A PHENOMENON THAT'S BEEN GOING ON FOR DECADES (PS I AM 16 AND DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER LOL)" -> "It's an IDENTITY ok so telling me I'm wrong is literally abuse! ^_^"
This will all form over nothing! Elves and dragons and Palmon and shit don't exist and yet you will get a whole culture based around the notion of them existing, yet so far removed from the basic idea that its goofy founder came up with. That's just really intriguing to me.
Also because a lot of these people type funny things about dicks.