IC Forum Archive

BalbanesBeoulve · Posts: 2126

sheeple is a retarded term used by retarded conspiracy theorists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheeple

Anyway, as great as the democratic win is, they still don't have much say over what happens in Iraq. But getting rid of Rummy is always a good start. Though the Democrats might have some control over where the money is going. It's been 3 years and they are still having problems with utilities. that alone would turn me violent.

Captain EO · Posts: 371

GcDiaz wrote:

Sheeple = a little term I use for anyone who'd rather follow than think and analyze for him/herself. Filter it any fucking way you want.

So how's the view from the ivory tower?

GcDiaz · Posts: 1057

Captain EO wrote:

GcDiaz wrote:

Sheeple = a little term I use for anyone who'd rather follow than think and analyze for him/herself. Filter it any fucking way you want.

So how's the view from the ivory tower?

I honestly wouldn't know. Quit pigeonholing me.

extralife · Posts: 3316

showka wrote:

Damage control? Me no understand you.

I don't want to get into an endless debate about this, but I don't understand how any party or politics could be only a "little better" than Bush right now. I mean, fuck. The guy has done almost every thing he could wrong. 9/11 on his watch, Iraq as his idea, led on his watch, the national debt increased by several trillion dollars, a botched attempt to destroy social secrurity... How could anyone who lived through the last six years and reads Salon think Gore or Kerry would've been "not much better?"

I'm not really sure why people think the Democrats don't "stand for things." They all have platforms, and they all have ideas they push try to push forward, even though they, until recently, had no power. So what things are these things you guys talking about standing for? Broad based isms or idealogies?

I never said anything about Kerry or Gore, so lets not go there. I think Gore would've been a fine president, but I don't think he'd have been a popular one. Kerry...well, I don't know about Kerry. Oh well.

My previous post was a little confusing, I must say. What I really meant be Salon doing "damage control" is that this isn't the kind of sweeping referendum on the state of this country that people are making it out to be, I don't think. People weren't really voting for anything, so much as they were saying Iraq was a bad idea (memo: it was always a bad idea, but you voted for Bush to continue it two years ago. Good job). They weren't voting for democratic ideals--they were voting for an able bodied person that isn't affiliated with Bush or Delay to come out and say "Iraq was bad, corruption is bad...and I still don't like gays or abortion." The only issue I saw anyone voting FOR, nation wide, was the stem cell thing, and that was most probably only because a thirty second TV spot of a dude they used to see in movies.

This isn't '80 or '94, is what I'm trying to say. The democrats don't represent a clear change so much as they represent a hope that maybe our government doesn't have to be this incompetent. That's not really something I can get behind with a swelled chest and renewed vigor.

On the other hand, Rummy being canned is fantastic news. Hopefully he takes his neocon DoD cronnies with him, and someone locks Cheney in a closet for the next few years.

dhex · Posts: 2963

the ivory steeple sheeple were fucking with my feeble people.

the smugness of conspiracy theorists is pretty nifty up close. especially if you get them on a twin thread of "2012" and "maritime banking laws are the true rule of america." i pity the sheeple who don't get that. it's so obvious if you open your eyes to the truth, ruth.

Sawtooth · Posts: 2350

oh god sheeple

we did class critique in lithography and some guy made a print of a bunch of sheep weaving in and out of a flag with the TWIN TOWERS in the background and all that ridiculous hamfisted cliched bullcrap. I would have stood up and started yelling if I didn't have enough enemies in that classroom :(

GcDiaz · Posts: 1057

Jesus Christ, I've been using that fucking word, with the meaning outlined above, since 2000! I DO NOT CARE how it has been misappropriated, but I wish some of you would think of the historical record before guessing my intent.

Psiga · Posts: 3990

dhex wrote:

i'm sure whole foods/trader joe's is far too right-wing for you guys but the distinction here is always a bit more fashion-conscious.

I need to go to my local Whole Foods soon -- they've got some excellent mango gelato, and I'd also like to take pictures of the place with my newish camera. Also have to go back to Trader Joe's soon! Almost out of chocolate, and my favorite kind for the price is their giant "Pound Plus" bar of belgian chocolate with almonds.

On the topic of Wal-Mart, has anyone 'round here shopped at the new Wal-Mart grocery stores? They're awesome, have disgustingly low prices, and every day, rain or shine, there are picketers in front.

Maybe I should look into what they're picketing about some day! One of the signs that I read said something about how Wal-Mart costs the nation millions and millions in welfare for the people put out of jobs -- which, to me, seems like a nice use of tax dollars. It's like tax money going toward discounts on groceries. If we had any reason to believe that the government would reduce my taxes if I did not support welfare-necessitating business practices, that would be another story.

BalbanesBeoulve · Posts: 2126

GcDiaz wrote:

Jesus Christ, I've been using that fucking word, with the meaning outlined above, since 2000! I DO NOT CARE how it has been misappropriated, but I wish some of you would think of the historical record before guessing my intent.

You're the one who misappropriated it.

GcDiaz · Posts: 1057

BalbanesBeoulve wrote:

GcDiaz wrote:

Jesus Christ, I've been using that fucking word, with the meaning outlined above, since 2000! I DO NOT CARE how it has been misappropriated, but I wish some of you would think of the historical record before guessing my intent.

You're the one who misappropriated it.

The label seems to have originated among conspiracy theorists in the United States of a far right political persuasion. The Wall Street Journal first reported the label in print in 1984, where its reporter encountered the word used by the proprietor of an American Opinion bookstore affiliated with the John Birch Society

Confound you, charlatan! So I don't get credit for inventing it?

Sawtooth · Posts: 2350

guys political namecalling is silly okay. Save it for manekineko threads.

dhex · Posts: 2963

Psiga · Posts: 3990

dhex wrote:

I DO NOT CARE how it has been misappropriated

it's not misappropriated. it's just heinously arrogant, regardless of who is applying it.

i gotta get a copy of this video from this guy. it's one of his more favorite terms, despite using an aztec god (whom he claims to have speaking through him) and a mayan calendar (incorrectly) to basically say that modernity and materialism is self-destructive. the people buying his book, however, are of course not sheeple because they have teh truthz.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Quetzalcoatl+pinchbeck

I haven't the heart to watch any of those clips.

I used to know a guy who said 'sheeple', back in the 1999 times. He was a bit fringey, Libertarian, spoke of the contrails, gun rights, privacy, and while he wasn't big on the gold standard or investing in weirdo fiat-alternatives, he was big on investing in metals at the right time. He recommended certain metal investments to me which popped just as he said they would -- I didn't have anything to invest at the time, though. Ah well.

Back when I was 16, that guy was really useful. He had this really eloquent explanation of how everybody's brain is like a computer that serves to prove to itself that it's right, yet not everybody is self-aware of that function.

dhex · Posts: 2963

oh shit, those vids are awesome cause doug rushkoff casually drops the bomb that all the 2012 stuff was fabricated by the mckenna brothers on a lark. i think it was one of those experiments in memetic engineering things myself, which someone who had spent a lot of time doing massive amounts of dmt and psilocybin would clearly be at least somewhat interested in. i disagree with doug about a lot of stuff, but at least he's not irrational, and he seems to care more about truth than selling books.

five minutes of looking at a book on mayan cosmology would fix these fucking con artists; dunno how you fix the whole "hey, no one knew that the world would have electricity in 1680, so ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE." it fails so many tests on so many levels it's hard to figure out where to begin. it's basically intelligent design for atheists and hippies.

it also raises the question that, ok, i think pinchbeck is a thief and a liar (presuming he doesn't actually believe this nonsense) but if people are looking for that sort of thing, is it really theft? you can criticize the utter lack of critical reasoning skills or any moral center beyond "modernity is evil" and "pain is bad" but fundamentally people want this kind of flagellating fantasy about the eschaton, about the oblivion of humanity. and for fundamentally moral reasons - people deserve it because life needs death to grow. the flight from this fundamental fact of existence is where all the psychic hoo haa global heart chakra eschaton nonsense comes from, perhaps. that's why they're willing to listen to someone who is clearly utterly fucking retarded and hand them their guilt ridden green tickets in exchange for a hopeful spin on the coming darkness.

or perhaps they're just seven day adventists that never got the faith? perhaps a desire for oblivion is a universal one. i don't know about that, as it seems to be true in some cultures (most notably mesoamerica) etc but certainly not in others.

it reminds me somewhat of these posters in the subway that have popped up recently; "we are all darfur." it's a good selling point, and i am glad that for whatever reason this cause has become popular (even if its a few years late) but i have to wonder what that actually means. i know what the emotional hook is, but i wonder how people decode it.

LW Joestar · Posts: 1358

Guys unless you are Ben Franklin, everyone is a sheeple so let's just eat some grass and get all wooly ok

softlogic · Posts: 140

LW Joestar wrote:

Guys unless you are Ben Franklin, everyone is a sheeple so let's just eat some grass and get all wooly ok

That is almost partly halfway true. I maintain that if the intention of the word "sheeple" is to indicate herd mentality you might as well just use good old, not stupid looking or sounding "people," but that's not popular I suppose because people don't like to think that they are in fact animals who function at least partly on instinct.

Anyhow. I guess it's nice that a party in opposition to Iraq is now a majority in Congress, but what does that really mean in the long run? Added pressure to get the hell out of Iraq? A pullout is what everybody seems to want but we all know it's also totally unfeasable right now, unless we want to tarnish our international status even further by leaving the place in this proto-civil war chaos. So can anybody here point me toward someone in our government with a long-term Iraq plan that is neither a people-pleasing-pullout or some "stay the course" bullshit? Anybody?

LW Joestar · Posts: 1358

I don't know about you guys, but I look forward to opening my eggs from the other end from now on.