Ah, memories.

[bao]

You know, I'm thinking that "wank" is just one of those evolving words, like "soulbond", that totally didn't mean three years ago what it means now. Once upon a time, post comment threads could consist of something other than vague target-bashing that's supposed to be witty but mistakes wit for acid. Not that it has to be positive, but seriously? There are more amusing ways to make fun of something or somebody than to go "ZOMG STUPID BINT SHOULD DIE NOW LOL DEAD FROM COKE IZ PASTEDE ON YEY".

So, "wank" once meant masturbation, then humorous self-importance, and now has devolved to mean anything set up for mass mockery that fails to be humorous AT ALL 99.999999% of the time, because no one's really putting any effort, thought, or consideration into it. Sarcasm isn't always funny. Heck, judging from most examples of Impromptu Snark Humor, most of it isn't. (I wonder if this is why oldtimers were always complaining about newbies.)

I did get some good advice that time around in poetryslamming, if you exclude the useless one-word potshots. And heck, after a while of bashing heads in religiousdebate, those one-word potshots are downright cuddly. So I might take another try sometime with this journal. That is, if the mod doesn't still think I'm naienko or that she was a sockpuppet of mine. You'd think that her replies all being quotes from Pope and mine being actual direct replies to the comments with good criticism would tip people off, but. Then again, we'd both have been technically "trolling", right? (There's a question. If take it seriously and aren't being an ass to anyone, are you a troll? Or a disgrace to wankers everywhere?)

Maybe sarcastic humor has passed its prime. I wonder what would happen if everyone let it rest and tried, say, Dada for while, or least tried to say something funny WITHOUT using "stupid", a synonym of "stupid", statement of innate unchangeable inferiority, or statement that someone should "get off the planet" (or internet, or what). Remember "the wank is coming from inside the house"? Well. Have fun with the endless unexplained injokes, at least.

Comments

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

Once upon a time, post comment threads could consist of something other than vague target-bashing that's supposed to be witty but mistakes wit for acid. Not that it has to be positive, but seriously? There are more amusing ways to make fun of something or somebody than to go "ZOMG STUPID BINT SHOULD DIE NOW LOL DEAD FROM COKE IZ PASTEDE ON YEY".

Nobody online knows the difference between wit and cynicism any more, it seems. That distinction was apparently lost sometime in the late 90s when every cynical dipshit with a book of witty quotations decided that being able to self-publish their bile on the Internet and get fans for it meant they were famous and clearly being venereated for the masses for their brilliant humour. Or they took it as a mandate to pronounce judgement on everyone and everything, I don't quite know.

So, "wank" once meant masturbation, then humorous self-importance, and now has devolved to mean anything set up for mass mockery that fails to be humorous AT ALL 99.999999% of the time, because no one's really putting any effort, thought, or consideration into it.

"Wank" seems to have evolved to have a meaning similar to "drama"; in other words, "anything I don't like." Everything and everyone you don't like, every instance of someone expressing an opinion you disagree with, can now be written off as wankery.

Then again, we'd both have been technically "trolling", right?

I got accused of trolling on rltherianthropy once because I was trying to straighten out someone's very stereotypical views on multiplicity. elenbarathi also got called a troll by the mods in the same discussion even though she was a community member who had posted there before. Apparently trolling in that group was defined as presenting any facts that might challenge the views held by the mod.

[adham-al-yatama.livejournal.com]

"Wank" seems to have evolved to have a meaning similar to "drama"; in other words, "anything I don't like." Everything and everyone you don't like, every instance of someone expressing an opinion you disagree with, can now be written off as wankery.

The irony is that actual masturbation is no longer as terrible as OMG WANK. The glories of porn are decried from there and back again, sometimes even IN "There And Back Again", especially if it involves men and their dangly bits. Thus, there's now the utterly ridiculous situation of people starting off essentially going, in their literal terms, "You are the stupidest piece of gutter-trash there ever was, you MASTURBATOR YOU" and then getting more than pleasantly giddy and giggly in tangental conversations about men giving each other blowjobs.

The terms are a farce, I guess. I never did figure out what made sense about insulting someone with something like, "I bet you have no life and spend all your time jerking off to porn", and then going off to... er, do the same. But it's an RP!/fanfic!/etc. doesn't clear the matter much. (I think this wanders into the whole "Pornography vs. Erotica" argument that no one can resolve, though, so I'll just avoid it.)