what is life?

  On 2/15/2010 at 10:38 PM, chassis said:

Of course, who is actually going to interact with forum strangers on a real level.

Yes, perhaps but even if you try to interact on a "real" level, they are busy putting you into a little box of your own. I'm certainly aware of the boxes I get assigned to when I speak my mind. (Even if they are contradictory boxes, people would much rather believe that one is a hypocrite than accept that individuals behind internet masks are more complicated entities than one would allow in our limited interactions. It's quite odd.)

  On 2/15/2010 at 10:47 PM, Masonic Boom said:

  On 2/15/2010 at 10:38 PM, chassis said:

Of course, who is actually going to interact with forum strangers on a real level.

 

Yes, perhaps but even if you try to interact on a "real" level, they are busy putting you into a little box of your own.

this is pretty much true in my experience, but its their box, not mine. i cant control how people categorize me

oh come on. i find these schizophrenic threads entertaining. and interesting... sometimes

also im sick of the picard facepalm and the bear knocking over the trash can. everyone uses them too much (even if they are appropriate most of the time)

If you meet people at a party or whatever and have a talk with them I find it really easy to pit labels on them. But if someone asks me to put a label on my close friends I actually cant.

its easy to label people you dont really know.. too easy. i find myself doing it a lot but i try to catch myself. unless that person is a complete and utter asshole.

  On 2/15/2010 at 9:09 PM, troon said:

there will come a time when we will leave and this horrid human creation will be lifted off, it will all be destroyed.

then we will be able to see the subtleties of what is beneath more clearly and enter the next stage

of our understanding in truth. as it is now the callus of this fallen world consumes us and

completely overwhelms most of us. we are unable to see what truth is while we are so

covered in falseness.

when did it go horrid ? and what exactly is horrid ?

Well arsehole isnt really a label. Its more of a filter. Kinda like.

Arsehole>Jock>Dont speak to this person anymore.

Not Arsehole>Some sort of hippie dude>awesome.

thats pretty scary actually

life is my conscience being

  On 2/16/2010 at 3:46 AM, data said:

only if you're a sucker

  On 2/15/2010 at 10:14 PM, Masonic Boom said:

Troon is one of the few people I've encountered on the internets lately that I find genuinely intriguing.

 

Most people turn out to be exactly who you think they are within five minutes of meeting them - be that student, bored office worker, wanna be popstar or tin-hatted nutter.

 

Troon doesn't seem to fit any of those easy categories. Which makes me curious and willing to entertain the idea of learning more.

You have boxed me correctly, that's all there is to my being.

  On 2/16/2010 at 10:22 AM, Gocab said:

  On 2/15/2010 at 10:14 PM, Masonic Boom said:

Troon is one of the few people I've encountered on the internets lately that I find genuinely intriguing.

 

Most people turn out to be exactly who you think they are within five minutes of meeting them - be that student, bored office worker, wanna be popstar or tin-hatted nutter.

 

Troon doesn't seem to fit any of those easy categories. Which makes me curious and willing to entertain the idea of learning more.

You have boxed me correctly, that's all there is to my being.

Me, too, when it comes down to it. I never said I wasn't in any boxes. Just that the level of interaction one generally experiences on the internet produces box-like behaviour and box-like results.

These kind of open-ended, opaque threads are some of the few where people actually get to step outside their box and show a bit of their non-box personality. Which is why people who are inherently quite Conservative (socially as much as politically) really hate them. Sometimes because they don't like seeing other posters as human beings outside their labelled boxes, and partly because they might be totally unable to escape their own particular box.

  On 2/16/2010 at 11:35 AM, Masonic Boom said:

  On 2/16/2010 at 10:22 AM, Gocab said:

  On 2/15/2010 at 10:14 PM, Masonic Boom said:

Troon is one of the few people I've encountered on the internets lately that I find genuinely intriguing.

 

Most people turn out to be exactly who you think they are within five minutes of meeting them - be that student, bored office worker, wanna be popstar or tin-hatted nutter.

 

Troon doesn't seem to fit any of those easy categories. Which makes me curious and willing to entertain the idea of learning more.

You have boxed me correctly, that's all there is to my being.

 

Me, too, when it comes down to it. I never said I wasn't in any boxes. Just that the level of interaction one generally experiences on the internet produces box-like behaviour and box-like results.

 

These kind of open-ended, opaque threads are some of the few where people actually get to step outside their box and show a bit of their non-box personality. Which is why people who are inherently quite Conservative (socially as much as politically) really hate them. Sometimes because they don't like seeing other posters as human beings outside their labelled boxes, and partly because they might be totally unable to escape their own particular box.

i understand that your saying shy people don't like to talk, but what is so personal about this thread exactly? all I see are troon jokes.

i find your need to constantly judge and box people kind of strange honestly. yes there are interesting people here, but it seems a tad ridiculous to characterize them just based on their activity in this thread or threads similar. your correlations and conclusions, shy people are conservative(?... wtf) and , "not like seeing other posters as humans outside their labelled boxes" (which ironically is what you did in your quoted post) , are kind of over thinking things a little imo

if we are going to talk about life, then I guess my interest is in human nature... how we think, why we have always needed to behave and act violently... and right now, i'm curious as to why you seem to think so much about the psychological/political backgrounds of otherwise complete strangers

i don't mean anything personal by this post btw, its hard to convey an emotional tone in text, but you're a new face here, and i'm a bored student

It's a fairly fundamental human quirk to categorise and assign and define patterns. That's the way our brains work, how we make sense of the huge bombardment of random information our senses receive. We express this in almost every aspect of our lives, from putting the people that we meet into "types" to assigning the music that we listen to into genres. It's a way of making sense of the world, making sense of an otherwise overwhelming situation, to compare it to previous situations we have encountered.

I'm not saying that this is good or bad - just saying that the communication format of the internet heightens this experience, as we do not have access to the quirks and foibles that enable people to transcend "type" into full human being of the level at which you think of your friends.

Also, there are "types" that are meaningful, and types that are not meaningful or even downright harmful. (As I said in other threads, typing individuals based on their experiences or choices can produce much more meaningful results than randomly assigned characteristics.)

People have certainly already assigned me into certain boxes or categories based on viewpoints I've expressed, not all of them very nice, shall we say.

You misunderstand my meaning if you think that I mean it's shy people who protest against these threads. That's not my point at all. Generally, people who are "shy" don't tend to express an opinion either way - or else they lurk. It's people who are quite attached to ways of thinking about how certain "types" behave, or how certain posters correspond to certain "types" (see the endless "posting in an X thread" jokes) who seem to be opposed to the more abstract or opaque threads.

This is in response to karmakramer, sorry if this x-posts but I actually had to do some work for a while there.

So, Masonic Boom, troon and ET all like each-other.

Wow. let's ban these pricks now, please.

ban the Cs too while youre at it

Okay, and weed too then.

You guys are aware there's a hide user function, right?

It might make more sense to just go ahead and use that on people whose posts you consistently dislike. Because constantly moaning about people is such a good look, and contributes so much to forums in general.

Masonic has balls. I like balls.

masonic is a dick

even better!

WAT IS DIS