Do the memes justify the ends? What if it never ends? All we have are memes.

No one spread a butthole before the internet? A bold claim, but I think you own the idea due to lack of prior documentation.

correct, a complex system of information sharing devices is way too busy for that

I did not stutter. I said liberals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledildonics

can’t.

That’s the spirit!

Hide the sharpies, at least.

Typical liberal crap. They have to tell stories to themselves that make their relative security and comfort into a sign of moral superiority, not just a roll of the dice.

I think that a lot of rank-and-file professional scientists share that motivation. I know that deep down I am still a wide eyed child who got into science for those very reasons.

I find that trait less common once you get to director/general manager type roles. There’s a selection process that favors less idealistic (aka sociopathic) mindsets.

I personally think the innovation we need desperately is to figure out how to stop putting machiavelian monsters into positions of power.

I have found too as a teacher that there are a lot of people who straight up hate teachers specifically. Culturally we pay a lot of lip service to teaching being a respected profession, but we all know how hollow that is.

I get it. Schools are anxiety-factories. Your weaknesses are often put on display and not every student/teacher interaction is supportive.

Now there is this belligerent core of folks who celebrate their ignorance and I see that as a maladaptive coping mechanism to that anxiety that comes from confronting (or being confronted by) one’s own ignorance.

Easy access to copious quantities of high production value porn in later generations.

You grow up wanking to clean shaven actors and that’s what you end up wanting in real life.

That’s my theory.

As a kid we had a neighbor that ran a bee-brothel and had hives all over the region. Since his hives would just sit on un-used corners of farmland, he would offer some honey annually as ‘rent’. (He was also generous with his boat so a couple waterskiing trips were also on the table).

We (2 parents, 4 kids) would get a 5 gallon can of honey every other year or so.

That has been over 45 years now and my father is still working through that supply. We put it in sealed mason jars and it has remained good all this time.

The traditional conservatives are suspiciously quiet right now, so I count them as fully complicit.

It will be me. You have freedom of speech. I am also free to ignore, mock or ostracize you if you spout hateful nonsense near me.

They could have not voted for his nominees and fought every single one with mountains of procedural bullshit.

They could have charged the treasury building instead of standing politely outside.

Hard agree! I do think fediverse platforms are perfect for public entities to disseminate information.

I’m US based so my example is say a county. They already have the IT infrastructure and staff. Make an instance for the county and a community for each department.

The road department can post road closures and upcoming traffic diversions. The parks department can promote events, etc.

These type of instances can just disable comments. They are read-only so moderation is not needed.

It’s trivial from a resource perspective and even easier than updating a website.

It is a feature, not a problem.

I have, like, this whole rich life offline. My curated list of instances and communities (plus my user block list) is just my entertainment and a small portion of my day.

You may not believe this but I have numerous thoughts, activities and interactions that never leave a trace online. I have no obligation to drink from the firehose that is being pumped from the septic tank of the human psyche.

“Building on this literature, I propose a definition of shitposting that embodies four distinct elements: a reliance on absurdity or “meaninglessness,” the critique or disruption of online discourses, the employment of an “internet ugly” aesthetic, and the use of meta-languaging”

Good lord, it took them forever to spit out a coherent definition!

Does this paper itself represent a form of academic shitposting? I mean, the subject is sound but the convoluted and discursive presentation is maddening.

But, yes, shitposting is worthy of significant further study and all grant applications in that area should be automatically approved.