So the lovely people on Kotaku in Action on Reddit have discovered my post yesterday about the reactions of various Gamergaters on Twitter to Hulk Hogan’s recent legal win over Gawker.
Naturally, gators being gators, they manage to get themselves pretty worked up over a number of points I didn’t actually make. Gators remaining gators, there’s really no point in trying to correct them, as this will only give them more opportunities to misrepresent me.
Instead, let’s take a moment to look at some of the most highly upvoted comments in this edifying discussion that are, well, a bit more personal.
Here, with 98 net upvotes, is the most-upvoted comment in the thread, the comment that KiA collectively feels is the most valuable of them all:
This next comment, which garnered dozens of net upvotes, spurred a somewhat surreal discussion:
![[–]PR_WEL 56 points 16 hours ago and to no one's surprise is a fat neckbeard. lol permalinkembedsavereportreply [–]BaconCatBug 25 points 13 hours ago I am a fat neckbeard too but I am self aware enough to not try and pretend otherwise. :P permalinkembedsaveparentreportreply [–]Pakars[?] 3 points 11 hours ago I'm not fat, but I'm lazy and sometimes have a neckbeard. Do I count? permalinkembedsaveparentreportreply [–]BaconCatBug 9 points 11 hours ago It's not the fatness in your heart that counts, it's the fatness in your heart that counts!](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/neckbeard.png?resize=553%2C432&ssl=1)
I may have to put this one in the We Hunted the Mammoth press kit:
This one only got a couple of upvotes, but it’s defintely going in the press kit. Hell, I’m tempted to make it the official WHTM slogan:
This one is a bit puzzling, but I do like the suggestion that telling someone to drink bleach is basically the same as saying they need to have their mouth washed out with soap. (Note: while neither of these procedures is recommended, only one will result in painful death.)
Given that to Gators will happily upvote insults and nonsense, you may wonder how exactly one might go about getting downvoted.
Here’s how:
It may be a little hard to see, because the text is small and light grey, but this comment has negative 26 points.
Gators will forever be gators, I guess.
Dear KiA,
God, these people are pathetic.
I don’t shave my legs and I’m fat, but I’m not a woman. But, I am afab and femme, so can I still have my legbeard licence??? :U
@Nobody special:
Great, now I can’t stop thinking about cuckodiles.
OT–but someone’s been inspired by the rise of Donald Trump!
Serena Williams, apparently unable to take a compliment, doesn’t see it like that:
Also, a few pesky facts got in the way:
It seems that, in addition to Serena Williams, some other really, really mean women shamed poor Raymond Moore for calling it the way he sees it:
How does a person who writes a sentence like that even function?
Awww, diddums, KiA thinks it matters. How sweet.
@David:
“One sad fat dude with a couple of cats” is a terrible tagline. I hope you’re not sad, you’re an absolutely decent human being who deserves every happiness.
“One fat dude with a couple of cats”, however, is a description of a website that I’d spend ages on.
You are awesome and so are your cats, David.
Echoing EJ (the Other One) and Lea: David, you are brave and funny, and it shows in WHTM.
Re: legbeards etc
How does body hair know how long to be?
If you shave any hair it grows back. But only head hair keeps on growing for ever. As far as I’m aware, all the rest reaches a certain length, then stops. Unless you shave it again, then it starts growing again. This seems to be the case even if you wax or trim with scissors.
How does it know!
(I appreciate everyone else here spends their time trying to make the world a better place, but this is the sort of question that keeps me up at night)
I don’t mean to be pedantic Alan (although I am quite clearly about to be) but head hair does not keep on growing forever or even for ever for that matter. FACT.
Also, as a long time lurker I really appreciate your posts. 🙂
Ooh, I’m definitely a legbeard, and I shall wear the label with pride. That said, now Spring is here and I don’t need my natural legwarmers so much I will making use of the Veet strips.
It cracks me up how tiny these GGers think the world is, as if the actions of some shoddy online tabloid like Gawker will send out these shock waves causing progressive blogs to collapse like a house of cards. I don’t even read Gawker, and I barely glance at Jezebel.
@Alan – thank you very much now I can’t stop thinking about this either.
And yes, as many have already pointed out, what a tiny wee binsy hive mind that is on KiA. So cloistered & sheltered: medieval monks would be proud.
@ mish singh
The only explanation I can think of is that hair is sentient!
Hmm, so maybe that’s why dying your hair red makes you left wing.
@ pol
Well, there’s that old myth that it keeps on growing after you’re dead (I do know that’s not true)
This barnet seems to be having a good attempt though!
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/media/6562234/99247-longest_hair_2.jpg
… They do realise that red is a natural hair colour, right?
Most body hair falls out at a certain point (or a certain “age”). We usually don’t notice it, though. Given how fast hair grows and how long it ages before it falls out, it tends to reach a certain common length. We don’t notice all the new hair growth because of the longer hairs.
I take it there’s no actual proof that Hogan’s successfully suing Gawker will actually destroy the company?
(also, have they never heard of damages being reduced on appeal?)
Coolest cats on the internet.
SFHC:
It’s kinda funny, in that mildly nauseating way, because so many of them also actively fetishize women with “natural” red hair. Hence their “mascot”.
(EDIT: I’m putting natural in quotes because half the time they can’t tell if a woman has dyed hair or not.)
Legbeard? really? And they don’t shave themselves? Does not compute.
P.S. For awhile back in the 70s, I dated a competitive guy swimmer who shaved his legs, and I found that very attractive. Just sayin’.
P.P.S. My grandfather was born in the 1880s and had a genetic quirk which resulted in having no hair on his legs…he became a minister, and refused to ever wear shorts for fear someone would think he was shaving his legs. I have pictures of him on the beach in Texas wearing long pants in the surf. Good grief.
P.P.P.S. Now can we stop having these silly gender norms so people can look as they please, shave or not shave, dye or not dye, decorate (or not) oneself as one pleases, and these fools quit behaving like chicks pecking the different one to death?
I’m most confused by BaconCatBug’s implication that David pretends he’s not “a fat neckbeard.” What?
Hey, so I absolutely don’t want to derail the thread at all, but I noticed that you’re here EJ and I wanted to take the chance to officially pull out of that group that you so nicely set up. This is absolutely the wrong forum, and I was going to send you an email, only I guess I don’t have your address (the messages we exchanged were directly through docs I guess) and I absolutely cannot bring myself to open the documents themselves. I tried all weekend. I had such a fabulous time with everyone but I’m in a sort of fucked up place where I’m about 80% guilt and anxiety and dangerous thoughts 20% human being, and this is the only source of those feelings I’m currently able to drop.
Anyway this is the last time I’ll talk about this here and I’m so sorry for bringing up these things in a non personal thread!
I shave my legs, like, once or twice a year as most cause I simply don’t grow noticeable hair there. Can I still have my legbeard certificate?
My father had few hairs on his legs that fell when he was 40 or so. He doesnt give half a damn, gladly ^^
Oh, god, I know, right? Muscular male legs look so fine shaved, I don’t know why this is not popular. My bf likes to shave himself completely (even chest, sadly 🙁 ). We make a funny couple in that sense, he is always silky smooth every where and I am always neglecting a bit because I have foliculitis and because we simply don’t care about that. He never even mentions, its so wonderful to have that freedom! Even though, ill laser shave everything (except legs) when I have money, cause the foliculities is driving me crazy.
@Alan
This is why I love the Internet.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/hair-care/scalp-treatments/question100.htm
What baffles me is how the little protein-making machines inside your cells know how to read the DNA and build proteins from it. I know a little bit about it, but the little I’ve learned just makes everything more mysterious and wonderful.
@ kupo
I prefer asking the people here because they tend to know what they’re on about, rather than random internet articles (see image). That link was interesting though. Having said that, it’s not quite clear. On their explanation your body hair should grow for a bit, fall out, then start growing again.
Oh, and how DNA translates into body parts is amazing to contemplate. I’ve often wondered if we could engineer/duplicate HOX genes in humans so we could have an extra set of arms.
http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/gaimancarpetquote.jpg
That last one really gets me. “Suggest we be the better persons? How DARE you!”