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A user on hacker news years ago put it well like this: "Any community that gets its laughs by pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by actual idio
by Jonnax 8y ago
A user on hacker news years ago put it well like this:
"Any community that gets its laughs by pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by actual idiots who mistakenly believe that they're in good company"
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1011498 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1011498
- legopelle 8y agoI was going to rain on the parade by saying that that quote is old. But then I saw that it was posted almost 10 years ago and could very well be the source.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- danburbridge 8y agoIsn't this how the whole flat-earth thing started?
- spacehome 8y agoThat’s certainly what happened.
- Rotdhizon 8y agoThat quote is kind of eye opening. Once you think about it and start making connections to the ridiculous hate communities it has given rise to, it's fascinating.
- js2 8y agoThat's a variation of Poe's law: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
- seren 8y agoIt is a corollary but it is an application to people in large numbers. Since, in the long term, there is always less people in on the joke than new followers, you are guaranteed that the community is going to be taken over in the end.
- settler4 8y ago4chans version: "Ironic shitposting is still shitposting"
- Asooka 8y agoNo, the original version is actually the 4chan version. "Ironic shitposting is still shitposting" is the distilled version we started using later. Edit: Ok, I stand corrected. After checking it turns out the HN post is probably the source. It's just I saw it posted in its original form on 4chan most often.
- bcaa7f3a8bbc 8y agoInteresting! For many years on 4chan, that quote can be seen in a daily basis and produced hundreds of memes, which trolls and trolls trolling each other for being trolls. But it in fact was actually originated from Hacker News?! Even more interesting, it was originally intended as an exact critique to the 4chan community, but then completely picked up by 4chan and became part of the collective consensus of 4chan, and now ended up as a self-fulfilling prophecy... I don't like the shitposts or trolling, but always fascinated by them as a social and psychological phenomenon, and the way how idea travels and spreads.
- beauzero 8y ago...and sometimes it is a profitable business.
- microtherion 8y agoAnother variation is what Popehat calls "the Rule of Goats" (easy to google, a bit NSFW).