about:stuff

Hey, look at me go. I’ve finished the final installment only a month after Part 2 debuted. I think in the future I’m going to stick to the short and sweet pieces that need saying. These long winded, Tolstoy-esque posts are a little too daunting for me to control regularly. I would’ve stopped and given up but I didn’t want to stop or give up so I didn’t.

Here you go:

POPULAR = EVIL

There’s always going to be a small niche of folks who simply dislike something because it’s popular. Sometimes it turns out to be a good thing, in the case of say popped collars or guido spikes. Other times it actually affects them negatively and makes it a real drag to converse with them. Usually when it’s about music, or movies, or books these people live in perpetual obscurity. They will continually make references and receive props for being so “out there” but no one is more full of shit. I mean I could spend all my time soaking in all things non mainstream but what would I get out of it? The e-pat on the back from other loserville – population: us folks who never stop pining for the pinnacle reference that gets noticed by the least amount of people. All they are doing is creating the environment for the truly inside joke and skimping on the best that popularity brings. This is actually why many people will choose Linux over any other OS options. It’s not because they crave eye candy or want something easy to use, nope. They want to be different and will shit on your favorite artist/film/book to do it.

A derivative of this cultural schism is the beautiful irony of the non-conformist. Forget what I said about the anti-pop pro being the most full of shit. I forgot about the resident non-conformist. These guys live in a dream world. A world which “the man” and “big brother” and “society” are the eternal enemy. From brand name merchandise, to popular coffee shops, to crème de la crème of Internet communities, it all must go. Somewhere along the line these people said “Hey, let’s stop conforming to what advertisers, teachers, parents, “the man” want us to be and let’s do our own thing!” The irony flag gets waved as soon as a group of these ass clowns congregates to express their “similar or identical” views, which by its very nature makes one a conformer. These guys are so biased and pointed in their opinions it really comes down to which has a higher name recognition and it’s the sole basis of their attack. Specific stores, specific brands, specific lifestyles disgust them. The reason for this attitude probably varies from person to person. I mean one guy could’ve been raped by a Buddy Lee doll when he was a kid and now hates that brand and any other kind of blue jean out there. Who really knows, but it’s important to recognize who these people are so you can call them on the absolute drivel that emanates from their various screen names.

Many people want to lump in specific groups into this point of view, from the true punk, to the goth and the wuss’ goth: the emo. While some may very well register as a popularity-hating, self-absorbed douche bag others may not be this way and I’ve met my fair share that sit on both sides of the fence. With the looming next generation’s kids coming of age the lines separating these three groups will become increasingly blurred. I’ve seen “punk” girls who dye a string of hair pink, wear socks with finger holes cut in them, and rock out to Hawthorne Heights or some other crap and actually think they’re punk. Same with guys, who wear women’s jeans so they’re skintight, maybe some nail polish, and are generally as pasty as possibly allowed. Both think they’re part of the punk movement when they’re simple one pair of thick plastic rimmed glasses from being 100% scene. Apply some makeup and they’re goth. Through on some whiny, heartbreaking, soul-exposing shit music and you have an emo too. Actually if you do the make up, glasses, and emo music you could have a Voltron of FAD coming straight for you. For the so called nonconformists in this group, it’s one giant fad and they make one giant hypocrite. The others are mostly the unpopular kids in school and with the implementation of the Internet they’re able to reinvent the meaning of “cool” and actually garner tons of friends who share their pointed, objective opinion. They actually wait silently in dark computer rooms waiting to rip apart anyone who might’ve been part of the ‘A group’ in school. It actually does make them feel better, too.

WELL, LIKE, THAT’S JUST YOUR OPINION… MAN… IMO

One of the many drawbacks to Internets discussions (read as: arguments) is the inability to grab hold of your opponents neck while you jab your knee into his scrotal-region. Research and development is of course in the works as the inventor of such a device would become the world’s wealthiest man. At no point in the heated battle would this thing come in more handy when the opposition is almost at the point of conceding but cops out with the timeless coward’s cry of “Well, that’s just my opinion”. Sounds familiar, yes? Well that’s because it’s what racist old ladies would say in defense of their unvarying points of view. It’s a completely ignorant path to succumb to when you’re cornered and on the ropes. What distinguishes these people from normal people is they absolutely refuse to admit to ignorance. Everyone once in awhile you’re see an “I stand corrected” or a “Sorry about that I jumped the gun” but the majority of the time those will instead be something juvenile and derogatory. Because when you’re argument has no substance it becomes 100% about who can lay down the epic burn first. Unharnessed wit and can mistaken for pure knowledge because both require a certain degree of intelligence. You’d do better to recognize the difference so you end up on the right side of the fence.

Part of the cause of some pretty outrageous flame warring is the fact no one has to take much responsibility for their actions. The minimal punishment is moderators doing nothing to the extreme of IP banning an individual from the site. So with a new IP and a new username that person is back in action, lowering the lowest common denominator just a little bit further and generally being a little douche. In a world where Lori Drew can use a fake Myspace profile of a boy to get the attention of a girl her daughter knew. To build up the beginnings of a relationship then to “dump” her in some huge blow out, causing her to commit suicide over it. In this world Lori Drew is charged with misdemeanors instead of felonies, there really is no accountability for Internet activity. It’s a sickening story of a 49 year old woman harassing a 13 year girl and ‘outsmarting’ her and tricking her into feeling some pretty powerful emotions, enough to hang herself over. Lori Drew is now pretty much the greatest provocateur of trolling the Internet has seen thus far. With anonymity comes absolute zero responsibility, don’t reach for the bait and certainly don’t feed the trolls in the process.

Whoever coined the phrase ‘opinions are never wrong’, was obviously not an Internet user. I actually don’t know if someone coined the phrase or not but it does get dropped in quite often. Opinions are pretty much the pilot light of every flame war to grace browser pages. There’s no accountability so there’s no respect of someone else’s views. However there are many times where someone else’s views and opinions are simply wrong. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it. When someone is blatantly incorrect, there is no gray area. You’ll see a lot of conspiracy theorists channeling this cop out from time to time. From “In my opinion, the moon landing was fake. 9/11 was an inside job. JFK was shot by multiple people. Obama is the anti-Christ/Muslim/terrorist/socialist.” It’s painful to view but these people are enveloped in such a dream world they cannot think things out for themselves, they are like sheep to the words of louder idiots like Drudge, Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Coulter, Robertson, etc. For once and for all, there was a moon landing, there were several. 9/11 happened, get over it and get off the high horse that brought on that attack in the first place. Obama is not a any of those things you were mislead to believe and for the last time, JFK was n— ok he might’ve been, that one kind of doesn’t add up at all.

THERE IS NO GOD

This might be jarring to hear, even if it’s the 1,687,234th time you’ve heard it. You might think I’m some kind of sin-filled, immoral, God-hating atheist but I’m not. I’m actually quite a nice person if you really break it down. I hold doors open for everyone, I treat people with basic respect unless they manage to immediately prove they do not deserve it. I’m polite to others in attempt to nail every last please and thank you. And I’m willing to lend a helping hand to someone asking a favor of me. But there are people out waiting to shoot their righteous indignational load all over everything and these people have to be stopped. As an individual you can believe in whatever you want, I could care less. It’s the people who dictate public policy that really get my blood boiling. These people responsible for the laws and policies of this nation that have to account to us for their actions and “God” is not a reason to do anything. Whether it’s to stop homosexuals from marrying each other, to invading a foreign country because you think an invisible sky wizard is directing you to do so. People who talk to imaginary entities are insane, pure and simple. There’s no such thing as a talking snake. The entire legend is passed on down, dictated by the highest of authorities. Think about it for a minute: If the Germanic god Odin riding through the sky on an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir in the 13th century can become Santa Claus riding through the sky with eight reindeer in less then 800 years time than the legend of God and any affiliations could’ve started anywhere.

Dawkins has been quoted as saying “We’re all atheists, some of us just take it one god further.” This couldn’t be more precise. There are so many different religions and gods out in the world, not to mention the ones that have long since died out. To be so certain that your Muslim neighbor’s God is a false one and so certain that yours is the real one puts you in a permanent state of flux. The same goes for the Muslim neighbor who thinks the same of you and your beliefs. This is a topic that can span several large volumes of books and I’m not here to write one. I just want to express the basic points are not refutable. When you’re dealing with simple structures like non-living entities like rocks and dust their existence is of course very probable in every corner of the universe. When you deal with complex structures like the human brain, even DNA/gene structures, their existence (overall) is the opposite in terms of probability. It’s so unique that it probably doesn’t exist anywhere else in the universe. The main body of a Creationist’s argument is that it’s too complex to come into existence by chance, that it must be by design. They fail to realize that chance and design are not the only two players on the board. But the bigger question is that if something is so complex it must have been designed, then the Designer must be EVEN more complex in order to have made it. Since the Designer must be EVEN more complex, It couldn’t have come into existence by chance, something must have designed the Designer. This is where they walk away from you, unable to cope with the logical flaws they base their lives on.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that if religion was all butterflies and happy bunnies and created peace I would not take issue with it. As I’ve said before, as a person you can believe what you want to. But when that belief thrusts us as citizens, a nation, a race, into potential ruination, I can’t swallow that. There’s no reason why we can’t be solving the world’s diseases and health issues utilizing stem cells. Our progress is being halted due to what should be a nonexistent moral issue. We’ve spent nearly a trillion dollars on a war we shouldn’t be fighting, but because God said so now we all have to pay the price. Over the course of history the amount of people who have died due to religious reasons is astronomically high. Hell, even in the Bible the one killing everyone is the same God that loves you and wants you to have him in your life. The murderous Satan, yeah he got to off Job’s family, that’s pretty much it. Who’s setting the good example now? From the Crusades to the Ku Klux Klan, a cross symbol has been at the center of it. The things people will do because they think they were told to do it by someone that exhibits zero proof of his existence is too dangerous a phenomenon to be left to grow out of control on its own. These people base their actions and lives on a collection of books and policies that were systemically chosen to be included where as the other hundreds of books were excluded because they didn’t paint the right picture.

In case you missed them, here are the direct links to parts 1 & 2:

The Top 9 Things Forum Nerds Will Never Admit – Part 1

The Top 9 Things Forum Nerds Will Never Admit – Part 2