Oshits Chanology

4chan vs. Scientology

I can't remember the source, but there's some sci-fi story I've read where the conclusion reads along the lines of "They could withstand the fiecest of our weapons, they could defeat us intellectually, but in the end, I think they died of sheer culture shock" - the looks on the faces of the scientologists when faced with a crowd in which a lone voice shouts:

"I HEAR TOM CRUISE HATES MUDKIPS!"

(all) "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

... how do you fight that?

How do you, ideologically speaking, defeat a crowd that is enthusiastically demanding that you "DO A BARREL ROLL! DO A BARREL ROLL!!" ?

Evidently The Internet is coming. I'm amazed by the people who are all about stopping these internet terrorists. It's fucking 4chan, you guys. These people sit around looking at lolcats and shitting dicknipples all day. Now look what you've done. Now they know that other 4chan users exist IRL. Now they are Legion.

At least I'm amused. However! arctangent on my friends-list has made a relevant comment in this entry on his own journal.

There's a reason many of the old guard of anti-Scientology advocates, like Operation Clambake, are distancing themselves from "Project Chanology" -- because Project Chanology has so far mostly done puerile, stupid things that put them on the wrong side of the law, reinforce individual Scientologists' persecution complex and sense that the world is against them, and *prove* the Scientologists' assertion that they're mostly "pathetic computer geeks".

I mean, I read an account of what is, apparently, supposed to be one of Project Chanology's most rousing triumphs and it mainly sounds like people being ten-year-olds and making asses of themselves. I can only think how pissed I would be if I went to a protest against the war in Iraq, or in favor of carbon emissions regulation, or gay marriage, and said protest was mostly dominated by total non sequiturs like people shouting Internet memes at each other. You can say meaningless bullshit about how you're going to kill them by "sheer culture shock", but no, sorry, a crowd of people in Guy Fawkes masks shouting "THE CAKE IS A LIE!" in a public place is accomplishing nothing but being annoying fuckwits. (By the way, Internet, thank you for destroying any pleasure I ever took in the amusing dialogue of the video game Portal. It's almost like the brief, shining moments of my youth when All Your Base Are Belong To Us, Chuck Norris Facts and Leeroy Jenkins were entertaining. You all are getting faster on the uptake -- this time I barely had time to understand what the whole "cake" thing was about before it became insufferable. Seriously, when it's "The Internet vs. Scientology", do you have to make it *actively difficult* for me to decide which one to hate?)

So yeah. 4chan has spread beyond my computer monitor, and I'll admit I got a lot of good laughs. But it's also important not to forget that there are real issues going on, and that 4chan is really only interested in having fun. Eventually they'll get bored and go back to their shitting dicknipples, and the CoS will go back to killing people in their collective basement.

Oshits Chanology

4chan vs. Scientology

I can't remember the source, but there's some sci-fi story I've read where the conclusion reads along the lines of "They could withstand the fiecest of our weapons, they could defeat us intellectually, but in the end, I think they died of sheer culture shock" - the looks on the faces of the scientologists when faced with a crowd in which a lone voice shouts:

"I HEAR TOM CRUISE HATES MUDKIPS!"

(all) "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

... how do you fight that?

How do you, ideologically speaking, defeat a crowd that is enthusiastically demanding that you "DO A BARREL ROLL! DO A BARREL ROLL!!" ?

Evidently The Internet is coming. I'm amazed by the people who are all about stopping these internet terrorists. It's fucking 4chan, you guys. These people sit around looking at lolcats and shitting dicknipples all day. Now look what you've done. Now they know that other 4chan users exist IRL. Now they are Legion.

At least I'm amused. However! arctangent on my friends-list has made a relevant comment in this entry on his own journal.

There's a reason many of the old guard of anti-Scientology advocates, like Operation Clambake, are distancing themselves from "Project Chanology" -- because Project Chanology has so far mostly done puerile, stupid things that put them on the wrong side of the law, reinforce individual Scientologists' persecution complex and sense that the world is against them, and *prove* the Scientologists' assertion that they're mostly "pathetic computer geeks".

I mean, I read an account of what is, apparently, supposed to be one of Project Chanology's most rousing triumphs and it mainly sounds like people being ten-year-olds and making asses of themselves. I can only think how pissed I would be if I went to a protest against the war in Iraq, or in favor of carbon emissions regulation, or gay marriage, and said protest was mostly dominated by total non sequiturs like people shouting Internet memes at each other. You can say meaningless bullshit about how you're going to kill them by "sheer culture shock", but no, sorry, a crowd of people in Guy Fawkes masks shouting "THE CAKE IS A LIE!" in a public place is accomplishing nothing but being annoying fuckwits. (By the way, Internet, thank you for destroying any pleasure I ever took in the amusing dialogue of the video game Portal. It's almost like the brief, shining moments of my youth when All Your Base Are Belong To Us, Chuck Norris Facts and Leeroy Jenkins were entertaining. You all are getting faster on the uptake -- this time I barely had time to understand what the whole "cake" thing was about before it became insufferable. Seriously, when it's "The Internet vs. Scientology", do you have to make it *actively difficult* for me to decide which one to hate?)

So yeah. 4chan has spread beyond my computer monitor, and I'll admit I got a lot of good laughs. But it's also important not to forget that there are real issues going on, and that 4chan is really only interested in having fun. Eventually they'll get bored and go back to their shitting dicknipples, and the CoS will go back to killing people in their collective basement.

Oshits Chanology

4chan vs. Scientology

I can't remember the source, but there's some sci-fi story I've read where the conclusion reads along the lines of "They could withstand the fiecest of our weapons, they could defeat us intellectually, but in the end, I think they died of sheer culture shock" - the looks on the faces of the scientologists when faced with a crowd in which a lone voice shouts:

"I HEAR TOM CRUISE HATES MUDKIPS!"

(all) "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

... how do you fight that?

How do you, ideologically speaking, defeat a crowd that is enthusiastically demanding that you "DO A BARREL ROLL! DO A BARREL ROLL!!" ?

Evidently The Internet is coming. I'm amazed by the people who are all about stopping these internet terrorists. It's fucking 4chan, you guys. These people sit around looking at lolcats and shitting dicknipples all day. Now look what you've done. Now they know that other 4chan users exist IRL. Now they are Legion.

At least I'm amused. However! arctangent on my friends-list has made a relevant comment in this entry on his own journal.

There's a reason many of the old guard of anti-Scientology advocates, like Operation Clambake, are distancing themselves from "Project Chanology" -- because Project Chanology has so far mostly done puerile, stupid things that put them on the wrong side of the law, reinforce individual Scientologists' persecution complex and sense that the world is against them, and *prove* the Scientologists' assertion that they're mostly "pathetic computer geeks".

I mean, I read an account of what is, apparently, supposed to be one of Project Chanology's most rousing triumphs and it mainly sounds like people being ten-year-olds and making asses of themselves. I can only think how pissed I would be if I went to a protest against the war in Iraq, or in favor of carbon emissions regulation, or gay marriage, and said protest was mostly dominated by total non sequiturs like people shouting Internet memes at each other. You can say meaningless bullshit about how you're going to kill them by "sheer culture shock", but no, sorry, a crowd of people in Guy Fawkes masks shouting "THE CAKE IS A LIE!" in a public place is accomplishing nothing but being annoying fuckwits. (By the way, Internet, thank you for destroying any pleasure I ever took in the amusing dialogue of the video game Portal. It's almost like the brief, shining moments of my youth when All Your Base Are Belong To Us, Chuck Norris Facts and Leeroy Jenkins were entertaining. You all are getting faster on the uptake -- this time I barely had time to understand what the whole "cake" thing was about before it became insufferable. Seriously, when it's "The Internet vs. Scientology", do you have to make it *actively difficult* for me to decide which one to hate?)

So yeah. 4chan has spread beyond my computer monitor, and I'll admit I got a lot of good laughs. But it's also important not to forget that there are real issues going on, and that 4chan is really only interested in having fun. Eventually they'll get bored and go back to their shitting dicknipples, and the CoS will go back to killing people in their collective basement.