I’ll admit it: I am a pearlclutcher who really dislikes it when people use this dehumanising phrase to talk about people, and who cannot understand why people don’t immediately grasp why it is distasteful.
Reposted from
Thomas Chatterton Williams
(And the NPCs showed up en masse just to validate the statement)
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If someone claims it’s not dehumanising, what meaning do they see in it? That only some people matter? Without power your opinion doesn’t count? What words would they substitute?
It's all just a pose.
“I was on a panel in Cambridge!” “I’m friends with Susan!”
“We live in a simulation.”
“We have to streamline the government like a business.”
Or maybe you’re just a greedy narcissist that needs therapy?
(I'm just chuffed that I've actually read that one. Hated every second of it).
Is he just assuming everybody is not white here?
that whole crew
Ironically, in some games it's important to listen to NPCs...
Which is a pattern of thinking not far off the worst excesses of the 20th century
In an RPG an NPC is any individual who interacts with the players but isn't an avatar of another player. They have zero agency, being completely controlled, either by a Dungeon Master (GM, Warden) or by a computer algorithm.
*parking for a moment, the wisdom of this particular phrase being coined in the place it was
“So much for the tolerant Left,” etc
Something, something, mote, something, beam.
The post it’s a follow-up to suggests that contempt for the little folk and their opinions is rather his thing.
"Oh, people around you are all non-sentient automatons, are they?"
It’s rude and arrogant in and of itself.
But being a signifier of 4chan edginess makes me look even more askance at anyone who uses it.
But man there are so many people out there who seem to move through life with no capacity for self reflection or awareness of the wider world that exists.
Can we use townies maybe?
Papa needs insults for all the people who are terrible.
Or are you just not curious or observant enough to see their humanity?
Has it ever occurred to you that literally every person has dreams and beliefs and desires? That if they haven't shared them with you, it's because they don't owe you that?
Everyone has self reflection, dude.
This whole discourse is lukewarm "sheeple" leftovers.
Some people are just hollow inside.
If I were a cruel person I'd say that without those things, I don't think this person has the capacity for self reflection. An NPC.
Instead, I think this person is deeply fucking lonely and looking for ways to feel better. It's sad and cruel.
The best explanation is a deficient capacity for self-awareness.
Tldr If people are so good, why do they keep acting so horribly?
If you really believe that why even ask for other words to say? What, functionally, is different about you changing your language? Are you embarrassed of the company using it puts you in?
Personality disorders are way way more common than people want to admit.
Maybe I will just call them "low information voters" and move on.
I tried expecting better of people but I am continually disappointed.
Personality disorders are made the fuck up. I'm not kidding. They are literally made to dehumanize people. Read up on the racist history.
*hoping he reads this joke and writes an additional screed on cancel culture and thus memorializing me forever hell yeah
Sorry I did. He sounds confused.
*I shamelessly proud of this.
Not unconnectedly - this didn't develop in 50 years of sweaty, male/basement-skewed nerd culture of people who got bullied at school.
Gaming culture is now huge and has multiple generations - knowing larp culture/table top/crpg culture doesn't mean I know shit about mmorpgs/what the kids do nowadays.
But many of the people using the term seem to actually be about my age (uh... prime middle age)
I'm not a hardcore competitive gamer - and I have no interest in Path of Exile - but that's so dumb and pathetic.