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wank: it's not just for fandoms any more!
Nov. 20th, 2004 08:12 pmI am truly amazed by the discussion on this board about the new Alexander movie -- or more specifically, a debate over whether Alexander was Macedonian or Greek. Just for kicks, I'd suggest going there and checking the first oh, dozen or so posts -- it's hella long, but you don't need to read the whole thing, or even as far down as I did (halfway) to parse out the structure. Ladies and gentlemen, WANK: it's not just for fandoms any more.
These people are arguing ancient greek history, dropping the names of scholars I don't even recognize left and right, quoting from historical theses from Nobel prize winning scholars, and yet the discussion still reads almost exactly like any argument you'd find, say, on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer discussion board. The wank, the flamers, the BNFs, the insults, the namecalling, the accusations, and don't doubt that it's barely a fraction of the way down the page before Hitler is mentioned.
The exceedingly prolific user Thunderbrand is the finest example, but after a page or two you'll see this pattern repeated constantly: each new post starts by referring to the previous post as "the dumbest piece of shit ever to cross this board" or some variant. Thunderbrand himself (or herself, difficult to tell; the aggression speaks male to me, but the venom speaks female) is particularly good at expressing the "You are as dumb as toad turds, and I have already proved your utter intellectual inferiority to me a hundred times over, but as a kind soul for the benefit of those in the balcony I'll do it once more." No attempt at maturity or civility is made anywhere on this board. Not even the most token effort is made to acknowledge the possibility of academic controversy on any given subject, even a subject as malleable as the definition of words such as "nation" or "race." By a dozen or so pages the whole thing has disintegrated into accusations of partisanship/nationalistic propaganda, angry caps, swearing, and chatspeak.
In conclusion:
-It's nice to know that some things are universal.
-It's also nice to know that my wank-management skills gleaned in fandom will continue to serve me even should I continue on to an academic field.
-I'm still going to see the movie for the gay.
[edit] In unrelated news, it's my turn to be completely geeky fangirl over Japanese lesson vocab words.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
linadarkstar? "人体.” As in ”人体の錬金術.” So amused.
These people are arguing ancient greek history, dropping the names of scholars I don't even recognize left and right, quoting from historical theses from Nobel prize winning scholars, and yet the discussion still reads almost exactly like any argument you'd find, say, on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer discussion board. The wank, the flamers, the BNFs, the insults, the namecalling, the accusations, and don't doubt that it's barely a fraction of the way down the page before Hitler is mentioned.
The exceedingly prolific user Thunderbrand is the finest example, but after a page or two you'll see this pattern repeated constantly: each new post starts by referring to the previous post as "the dumbest piece of shit ever to cross this board" or some variant. Thunderbrand himself (or herself, difficult to tell; the aggression speaks male to me, but the venom speaks female) is particularly good at expressing the "You are as dumb as toad turds, and I have already proved your utter intellectual inferiority to me a hundred times over, but as a kind soul for the benefit of those in the balcony I'll do it once more." No attempt at maturity or civility is made anywhere on this board. Not even the most token effort is made to acknowledge the possibility of academic controversy on any given subject, even a subject as malleable as the definition of words such as "nation" or "race." By a dozen or so pages the whole thing has disintegrated into accusations of partisanship/nationalistic propaganda, angry caps, swearing, and chatspeak.
In conclusion:
-It's nice to know that some things are universal.
-It's also nice to know that my wank-management skills gleaned in fandom will continue to serve me even should I continue on to an academic field.
-I'm still going to see the movie for the gay.
[edit] In unrelated news, it's my turn to be completely geeky fangirl over Japanese lesson vocab words.
linadarkstar? "人体.” As in ”人体の錬金術.” So amused.
