Poll: Is the internet a good thing for humanity?

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chadachada123

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GunsmithKitten said:
chadachada123 said:
Did you only go to /pol/ or something? Because no one can tell if they're being serious or not with the whole race/racism stuff.
No, this was /b/. And /pol/.

Regarding women, most of that shit on /b/ is joking, and doesn't denote actually feelings or real life behavior. I'm not about to be super defensive about that part, though. That's in regards to threads specifically about women. The standard "Tits of GTFO" or "GB2Kitchen" is a part of the culture that evolved from when attention-whores used to spam /b/ with threads seeking attention. It just stuck around and later got applied to all women. As a joke. For laughs. Haha. Ask any girl that frequents the site, and they'll assure you that it isn't meant to be taken seriously.
And there's some sort of indication that it's a joke? Anywhere?

Thanks for calling me a dick without knowing anything about me, though.
You're the one that said you enjoy being one, not me. You brought that into the argument, I'm just going with it.
Never go to /pol/. It's pretty much a safe-haven for trolls/jokers pretending to be White Supremacists (and Zionists), and actual White Supremacists/Zionists. They're the laughing stock of 4chan.

Again, for women, ask a girl that frequents 4chan, and I doubt they'll agree that 4chan is full of true, actual sexism. Most of it is a joke, which is something you wouldn't understand unless you've been there for some time.

Your last point is addressed in my edit, that I'll repeat here:

"Edit: DAMMIT. I forgot something once again. I do not "desire to be a dick." Were it my choice, politeness would be reserved only for the workplace, and most social interaction would be as impolite as it is on 4chan. It makes context and the ability to read others very important, and also means that people will have thicker skins overall and not get offended over trivial things. The "dickishness" isn't true asshole behavior, it just seems like it to an outsider, the same way that you may call your best friend an asshole."

When I said that it's nice to have a place where I can be a dick, it's not much different from some guys going to a bar where they're allowed to loosen their ties and swear like a sailor, and saying that it's nice to have a place where they can be a piece of scum and not worry about the wife or boss.

Oh, and the atheist-bashing is very obvious trolling. You...do know what trolling is, right? You may not be able to recognize it, since it's essentially completely absent from this site.
 

Myndnix

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I believe the internet is a great thing, not only for the access to all the world's knowledge, as people have already mentioned, but because of how it brings us all closer together.
Thanks to the internet, you can become friends with someone across the planet from you. Silly prejudices of the past don't really matter anymore in the face of this- you can now befriend people based solely on what you have in common instead of being driven apart based on what you don't.
And I think that's a wonderful thing to have.
 

AngloDoom

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I can't think of a reason why the internet could be bad for humanity as a whole.

I guess that answers that question: it's very, very good.
 

Rinshan Kaihou

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yeah the anti-women threads on /b/ are definitely not serious. At least 99% of the posts about it aren't.
 

chadachada123

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GunsmithKitten said:
chadachada123 said:
Never go to /pol/. It's pretty much a safe-haven for trolls/jokers pretending to be White Supremacists (and Zionists), and actual White Supremacists/Zionists. They're the laughing stock of 4chan.
How do you know they're pretending?

Again, for women, ask a girl that frequents 4chan, and I doubt they'll agree that 4chan is full of true, actual sexism. Most of it is a joke, which is something you wouldn't understand unless you've been there for some time.
Prove it's a joke.

Were it my choice, politeness would be reserved only for the workplace, and most social interaction would be as impolite as it is on 4chan. It makes context and the ability to read others very important, and also means that people will have thicker skins overall and not get offended over trivial things. The "dickishness" isn't true asshole behavior, it just seems like it to an outsider, the same way that you may call your best friend an asshole.
For starters, I don't call my friends assholes. Because I don't generally insult my friends. Alien behavior, I know.

Second, while I understand the value of thick skin, it's nto a trivial thing if perfect strangers went about constantly referring to me as a slut or a cumdumpster on the basis of my gender. Oh, and interesting you fussing at me about thick skin when me just saying that you are what you love to act like.

Oh, and the atheist-bashing is very obvious trolling.
Prove it.

You...do know what trolling is, right? You may not be able to recognize it, since it's essentially completely absent from this site.
Good. Trolls are even worse than the actual bigots. At least bigots have the courage of their convictions.
Like I said, it's hard to tell which is which on /pol/ anymore. That's why they're the laughing stock of 4chan.

As for "proof," I cannot provide it. It's something you have to live through yourself to understand. The alternative would require that I have pages upon pages of specific posts to indicate it, but /b/ moves far too fast for me to come up with anything on a whim, nor are suitable records kept.

So you're someone that doesn't have the capacity to joke around with friends. Good to know. Many friend groups (especially guys), however, aren't so bland. Hell, me and my last girlfriend spent a good deal of our time making fun of each other, to the point where people who didn't see us normally couldn't tell if we were joking or not. And it was a lot of fun.

The "cumdumpster" thing is a continuation of when all instances of "feminist" automatically word-filtered to "cumdumpster," and is treated as a term and little else. All bronies on 4chan are called ponyfuckers, all women are called cumdumpsters, all fans of anime are called weeaboos, the list goes on. Users quickly learn to take their labels and roll with it. Seriously, half of the time I see "cumdumpster," it's from a female identifying herself as such.

I could even go into the fact that there are rules regarding "Tits or gtfo." It's only supposed to be used on specific types of women seeking attention, and not on everyone that identifies themselves as female. To explain much more, though, I'd have to dive into the entire culture/language of 4chan, which would take several pages and loads of researching.

I don't see how defending myself is being "fussy." You called me a dick because of a strict, literal interpretation of what I said, and I corrected it by pointing out that by "being a dick," I meant it in a similar manner to going to a bar and using speech that you wouldn't use in front of the kids, not ACTUALLY being a dick. I can assure you, I am far more moral than the vast majority of humans.
 

Buzz Killington_v1legacy

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uchytjes said:
So, is it a good thing that humanity has so much knowledge at its fingertips and can communicate so effortlessly?
I will bet good money that you were born in the 90s, or the late 80s at the absolute earliest. No one old enough to remember, say, having to use card catalogs or look something up in an encyclopedia would ask this question.
 

Rawne1980

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captainfluoxetine said:
Rawne1980 said:
Now just to wait for the self diagnosed depressives to chime in with the "but it's full of bad things".
HELLO!

I would question if our lives are not 'better' than they were around 20 years ago. I think a lot of the 'social' aspects of our lives have become very superficial and I find it worrying how many of my interactions lack any real human contact.

I'm not bemoaning the whole thing, I'm just saying its rather easy to become disconnected from people.
Well, we didn't have the internet at all when I was growing up.

It didn't appear until I was in my late teens and by then I was away in the army so it didn't impact my life in any way.

I've only actually had the internet personally for about 4 years. As such it's not really a big part of my life and I don't use any of the "social networking" sites that are around, I still use the old land line telephone and "gasp" letters.

So, for me and nearly everyone I know, the internet hasn't replaced an actual social life.

My kids don't use the web for all their social interaction either, because I won't let them. They want to talk to friends then they either ring them or bugger off out. A couple of them do use Facebook and what have you but only when it's unreasonable to go out. I am strict on that, i'm "old fashioned" in many ways. I didn't need it growing up, neither do they.

We gave them computers to do schoolwork not sit around chatting shit all day (some younger folk here would hate me being their dad).

Can't really blame the internet for people being lazy as fuck.
 

flarty

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tippy2k2 said:
The internet is neutral.

It's a tool. You might as well ask if a hammer is good for humanity. I can use a hammer to build a house or I can use a hammer to murder my neighbor.
qft

For every positive for the internet there is a negative against it
 

NemotheElvenPanda

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The very existence of sites like Wikipedia, TV Tropes, and other sites like them show that the internet can be very useful in learning and discerning information. The internet also allows people to unite behind common causes for the greater good from parts all over the world; Kony2012 being the most obvious, if also misplaced, example along with the "It Gets Better" campaign. Yes, you have sore spots like 4chan, the comments section on Youtube and the like, though to be honest it's hard to take anything related to those areas seriously.

Overall, I believe the internet is a beneficial force. It opens us to places we could never visit and ideas that we'd never consider. I can talk and become friends with people all over the world simply by having common interests. No doubt, the internet has and is serving as a catalyst for the more favorable aspects of globalization where people are staring to be defined more by their ideologies than their country of origin or ethnicity.
 

Akytalusia

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i can't vote. i can't say it's in no way harmful, but it's also a lot more than just a good source of information. it's progress. it's a necessary evolutionary supplement. yes it's a good thing for humanity, though it does cause it's fair share of grief.
 

Scarim Coral

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I would say it's a good thing.
I'm pretty sure that without it/ wasn't invented the world would of progress alot slower in a bad way.
 

uchytjes

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Buzz Killington said:
uchytjes said:
So, is it a good thing that humanity has so much knowledge at its fingertips and can communicate so effortlessly?
I will bet good money that you were born in the 90s, or the late 80s at the absolute earliest. No one old enough to remember, say, having to use card catalogs or look something up in an encyclopedia would ask this question.
you, sir, are absolutely correct! but living in the absolute middle of nowhere has allowed me to have my fair share of experience with the things. I'm just glad that I don't have to do it in the university's library. I honestly can't imagine looking for a single book without the use of the virtual search options.
 

runic knight

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hmm, anyone get the feeling that the defense of 4chan comes off very similar to how one would defend an unusual culture to someone seeing it only from the outside? The explanation of oddities, the meaning and rules behind terms, the history... hell, I would even go so far as mention the acquisition of the "culture" by outsiders as part of misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the source.
Though, this is 4chan, so that seems a little deep for the discussion.
 

Canadamus Prime

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Jun 17, 2009
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Well... like many things it has it's light and dark sides. The dark side in this case represented by Internet trolls, Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory, Rule 34, 4chan, and the creepiest most disturbing shit that can be found if you look hard enough or sometimes even without trying.

EDIT: And no, any reference to Star Wars was unintentional.