I probably see everything two or more factors removed. References to references to references. Someone making a parody of “triggered” in some reddit thread wherein they’re actually parodying the parody use of it. And I have occasionally stumbled into a twitch channel… usually because of some kind of interest in the game.
Yeah, that might be because KYM is pretty stacked with Gamergaters and other alt-right types, so a lot of the articles tend to be either blatantly alt-right, or at least carefully worded to try and wave off criticisms of things like ableism. Between all the Pro-GG/Alt Right redditors and channers infesting the place, it’s basically /pol/ lite.
Usually if I block or tell Youtube to not recommend a channel to me; they’ll still pop up in the recommendations. If you watch anything that’s mildly feminist, you’ll get videos by anti-feminists even if you have your video blocker to block them. Youtube’s algorithms are flawed.
I learned about DrDisrespect through Jimmy Wong, an Asian Youtuber who I really enjoy and makes good content. Felt like an issue worth mentioning since Twitch is actively promoting the racist misogynist streamer and Twitch is a service I like to use.
These days I keep tabs on stuff like Rym said, so I can be informed and use my small level of influence to keep people from falling into the GG/Trump/Anti-Feminist trap. I’ve had to do that with 5 people I know personally. Hell, I did it this week telling a Polish friend of mine to not watch this “Poland is the Future of EU” video because the person making it was rubbing elbows with conservative crockpots. I can atleast tell someone from my personal experience that being a nihilistic Internet shit just to be keen on jokes is not worth human decency. There was a shitload of that going around last year with Jontron and Pewdiepie.
Twitch is now adopting stricter policies as a result of DrDisrespect’s…disrespect.
Being a shithead on Facebook, Twitter, etc. can get you insta-banned from Twitch.
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Yeah… that’s a pretty flattering portrayal of why feminists are mad at / avoiding Laci Green – considering her “red-pilling”.
The difference is, you grew out of it. You were adjacent because you unthinkingly mimicked the cultural behaviors of your peers, like most people, and that’s how this shit spreads. People are products of their culture / trust network more than they would like to admit.
Racism and sexism, for example, are ubiquitous and deeply entrenched memes that you will inevitably propagate, regardless of intention. Growing up, I mindlessly used slurs like “retarded” and “gyp” without understanding their contexts. I “wasn’t like the other girls”. I was anti-gay in the “love the sinner, hate the sin” kind of way. These are really no different than pepe and red-pill. They say a lot about what the person using them considers normal, and suggest what they have been exposed to & internalized. The difference is how you behave once you realize that you have been betrayed by yourself.
Now that I’m an adult, I try to take my memes with salt: try to understand their origin before I choose to propagate (Ignorance is not innocence.); continuously work on eliminating entrenched and problematic parlance; be open about my fuckups; unconditionally apologize when necessary. And I expect the same of anyone with whom I regularly and intentionally spend time.
That doesn’t mean I should feel guilty, or that I’m a bad person, but that I still (and probably always will) have ways I can be better.
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Useful notes on “triggered”: Alt-right people use them to make fun of social justice types’ use of the trigger warning, which is a term of art for warnings about content that might trigger a PTSD episode for people with specific kinds of trauma. For the alt-right/conservatives, those are evidence of leftists “being offended by everything.”
Maybe if you tried, y’know, reading the page you linked you would’ve had better results. From that same page :
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I stand by everything I’ve said. I never said Rym was wrong, but he definitely said I was.
Edit: Sorry I’m mid-raid, specifically Rym made a claim that “reeeeeee” is a reference that pre-dates the whole pepe meme thing, and I still don’t see that. I still stand by that part as well. I never refuted that some people might associate the meme with other things. I just think his “absolute” explanation is off and there’s multiple things going on.
There’s always multiple things going on in any meme, and many associations in different contexts. However, even though the near context determines the primary meaning of a piece of language, other associations are always going to be part of the message. It’s not so much that “some people associate the meme with other things”; those associations are themselves part of the language.
In the case of “REEEEE” there is clearly a strong association with developmental disorders here that cannot be separated from it. Thus there can be no benign usage of “REEEE”, and anyone who uses it either doesn’t care about that association, or explicitly intended that association.
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See, it seems like people want to have an argument about whether the word/meme/whatever is morally objectionable or not. I’m not arguing that. I don’t think anyone that hangs around here would. But it’s like blood in the water.
That’s fair enough.
As to the question of whether “REEEEEEE” long predates Pepe memes, I can’t say. I haven’t really seen anything to indicate that it does. That said, I don’t think the history is particularly relevant when the modern meaning is quite clear.
I would say that it pre-dates the alt-right use of Pepe memes, since I remember seeing it used on reddit before the alt-right really kicked off in earnest, especially among libertarians back around the time of Ron Paul’s last presidential run. If that predates other pepe memes, I don’t know.
Does pepe predate 2004? aka the first year I definitively know I heard and used the reeee meme? If he doesn’t then there’s really no discussion to be had, pepe has nothing to do with it and it was something long before he was a thing. If not then I guess there’s some ambiguity. (not really but on paper)
Welp, that answers that. It’s my memory vs what’s written on knowyourmeme but for me that’s definitely good enough. It 'ought to be for our prince too.
Maybe this is how you build bridges to reach others. But personally, I would never bother making so many placating statements to soothe someone’s ego enough so that they’ll listen to reason. It’s probably a valuable diplomacy skill but I don’t have the patience for it. Additionally, Dr. Disrespect isn’t a good person simple by the fact that he cheated on his wife.
Cutting off all ad income now, I would rather suspend his account fully - I think if he was a smaller one these violations would of been an immediate account suspension.
Yeah, I’m not a fan of how YouTube plays softball with the more controversial figures on its platform. PewDiePie loses his MCN, his show is cancelled, and he’s no longer in the recommendations, yet he’s still allowed to make videos and rake in millions in ad revenue. You really showed him, YT!
I’m a big fan of this.
I think if both YouTube and Twitch kept a joint ban-list, it would be super easy to make the punishment for racist behaviour and other offences way more meaningful. So far it seems like Twitch will punish you for things on other platforms, so it would be good for those other platforms to take that as a meaningful signal too.