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> They had a constant, sarcastic, tired energy about them. They had difficulty being genuine about anything. I knew such a guy on IRC back in 2003. We all kind
by lqet 4y ago
> They had a constant, sarcastic, tired energy about them. They had difficulty being genuine about anything.
I knew such a guy on IRC back in 2003. We all kind of looked up to him on the channel. He was quite eloquent and had (what seemed to us) an enormous knowledge of history and philosophy. His sarcasm bordered on sophisticated nihilism. He spoke to us like Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. His occupation was nebulous.
Now, 20 years later, a former channel member and I (both in our mid-30ies now, with families and jobs) exchange a few nostalgic mails every 1-2 months in the typical lingo of our channel. We still make fun of this guy as the personification of nihilistic evil, a kind of mythical uber-mephisto of the internet. But in reality, we all realized decades ago that he was just this strange, bitter, unemployed guy in his late 30ies or early 40ies (older than we are now), who spent his entire life in front of mIRC. His history knowledge and nihilism boiled down to repeated Nazi jokes, and his philosophy knowledge was based on a few Nietzsche texts he must have read. We were a bunch of pubertal school kids on some Quakenet channel, and he, more than twice our age, was a kind of tribal god to us. He clearly enjoyed it. It was pathetic.
Some of the people described in this (excellent) article very strongly reminded me of him.
- polishdude20 4y agoI wouldn't say it's pathetic. People try and get power/control/ a sense of meaning anywhere they can. This man probably didn't have a great life and found his only refuge and belonging to be in IRC. The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone.
- sharkjacobs 4y ago"pathetic" means pitiable, from the greek "pathos" > This man probably didn't have a great life and found his only refuge and belonging to be in IRC. The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone I think this fits the bill
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- the_only_law 4y ago> The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone. God I wish more would.
- Loughla 4y agoWhy? I don't understand what you're getting at.
- clnq 4y agoMost people are much too self-important. If you think at the global scale, each of our existence (except those in position of extraordinary decision-making power) is pretty unimportant/inconsequential outside of the realm of chaos theory. I think that understanding this is the first step of putting yourself in a position of power. Self-importance is very blinding.
- Loughla 4y agoIt's exactly like Reddit power mods, or that one guy that edits half of wikipedia or whatever the statistic is. It's pathetic to some people, sure, but if it isn't hurting anyone and the person chooses that life, not simply falls into it for lack of options, what's the harm? It's power in a place they are comfortable with. The issue is when that impacts actual human relationships, or is turned for purposes that are (for lack of a better way to quantify it) bad. Power mods using their influence to make sure the subreddits follow the individual sub rules, and ensuring that nothing nefarious slips into the general consciousness- it gives that person a sense of worth and meaning. Great! Power mods using their influence to sell products, market products surreptitiously, squash stories they don't personally agree with, or otherwise abuse said power - bad bad bad. Not Great!
- clnq 4y ago> It's pathetic to some people, sure, but ... what's the harm? Hmm, pathetic doesn't mean harmful. It's closer by meaning to "feeble", which I agree with in the case of Reddit moderators. I don't think they are very influential at all.
- lupire 4y agoDo you think schoolteachers are pathetic? They have much less influence than a reddit mod.
- clnq 4y agoNo influence makes a moderator feeble and ineffective because it is the purpose of their job to have and apply influence to conversations. A schoolteacher's job is different. However, I suppose some could be called pathetic at it, just as workers in any discipline.
- lmm 4y ago> It's exactly like Reddit power mods, or that one guy that edits half of wikipedia or whatever the statistic is. It's pathetic to some people, sure, but if it isn't hurting anyone and the person chooses that life, not simply falls into it for lack of options, what's the harm? In my experience even the "respectable" cliques are like this too. Artists, journalists, the honest-to-god English aristocracy. Any scene of "cool" people ends up being kind of pathetic once you get close enough to see the details, however many drugs they're taking or pictures they're putting up in galleries or whatever.
- austhrow743 4y ago>This man probably didn't have a great life and found his only refuge and belonging to be in IRC. The alternative may have been to confront harsh reality and realize you're nobody to noone. That sounds quite pathetic to me.