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Very fine Article at The Atlantic. Remember, think of the children, and comment responsibly.
It's harder and harder to have an honest debate on the internet. Social-media platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook Groups are rife with trolls; forums are plagued by archaic layouts and spambots. Teenagers who are looking to talk about big issues face additional frustrations, like the fact that most adults on these platforms don't take them seriously.
Naturally, they've turned to Instagram. Specifically, they've turned to "flop" accounts—pages that are collectively managed by several teens, many of them devoted to discussions of hot-button topics: gun control, abortion, immigration, President Donald Trump, LGBTQ issues, YouTubers, breaking news, viral memes.
Just when I get a Facebook account, they have all moved!
The accounts post photos, videos, and screenshots of articles, memes, things, and people considered a "flop," or, essentially, a fail. A flop could be a famous YouTuber saying something racist, someone being rude or awful in person, a homophobic comment, or anything that the teen who posted it deems wrong or unacceptable. Some of the teens who run a given account know one another in real life; more likely, they met online.
Uh-oh, I am starting to suspect something.
"Flop accounts bring attention to bad things or bad people that people should be aware of. We also post cringeworthy content for entertainment purposes," said Alma, a 13-year-old admin on the flop account @nonstopflops.
According to teens, flop accounts began as a way to make fun of celebrities and popular YouTubers, but sometime over the past year they've morphed into something more substantive: a crucial way to share and discuss opinions online.
"Content [on flop accounts] is centralized around things that we think are factually or morally wrong, and it's how we critique them," said Taylor, a 15-year-old in Illinois who is an admin on a flop account. "Today, for instance, I posted a flop that was this lady making fun of someone for being homeless. That's a horrible thing to do."
Kids! Huh! What do they know?
The main thing teens who engage with flop accounts share is a strong distrust of the news media. Teens said they turned to flop accounts specifically because they didn't believe what they read in the news, saw on TV, or even were taught in their U.S.-history class, since, as one teen saw it, their teacher is just one person giving an opinion. Teen flop-account admins and followers said they found information on flop accounts to be far more reliable because it could be crowdsourced and debated.
Wow. Well. We just wait for the next generation, eh? Worked before. The barbarians actually cleaned up nicely.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @12:15AM (18 children)
How many genders are there? "17". "No, 16, you're probably counting leprechaun lovers twice". "No I'm not, and since I last posted I realize we should recognize lesbians-who-love-men as a gender." "Fuck this, I'm going back to SoylentNews for some sane discourse with the old folks there".
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @12:19AM
That's not teen debate, that's university level.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @12:23AM (14 children)
"SJW edition Dungeons & Dragons would have no classes nor races, but seventeen different genders to choose from." - Unknown
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @01:15AM
Dungyns and Dragonkin
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by jmorris on Wednesday August 01 2018, @02:44AM (8 children)
You haven't looked lately. Hasbro asked the SJWs to hold their beer and shouted "Watch this shit!"
Yeah, it is that bad and getting worse at warp speed.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 01 2018, @03:18AM (7 children)
What are you referring to? Something like this [escapistmagazine.com]?
Hardly the SJW apocalypse. So long as your DM doesn't tell you that you can't be a lesbian elf or genderfluid orc because you're a straight white male.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @06:16AM (5 children)
The mere existence of lesbian or genderfluid beings is an affront to these people, so being inclusive and embracing alternative choices somehow destroys his way of life. I met a woman who didn't want gays to marry because it would harm the institution of marriage. It is that simple, bigots who feel personally attacked by the existence of others.
(Score: 2, Informative) by ewk on Wednesday August 01 2018, @08:18AM (2 children)
and yet you get it wrong.
As you write yourself: The woman did not feel attacked by the existence of others (i.e. gays), but did not want them to get married.
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @03:50PM (1 child)
I don't think you understood. She felt the institution of marriage was under attack and took it personally. Like a patriot getting angry when their country is attacked.
Gays being married in no way affects any bible thumper except in their imagination, yet here we are.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday August 01 2018, @07:36PM
Attacked? As in, the military of another country shooting at their country or even invading?
Oh wait, you meant “criticised”.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @11:52AM (1 child)
I don't have a problem with lesbians but those promoting imaginary sky fairies or gender as a social construct nonsense can fuck off! Delusions like these can only be pushed onto others at the barrel of a gun.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @03:53PM
If you look up the somewhat official lists of genders there are 20 something if I recall and a handful of them were reaalyclose to redundant. None of them were social constructs, that is for the ridiculous trolls and silly kids on snapchat or tumblr or whatever. Basically you're flipping your shit over trolls making up nonsense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @04:33PM
It's been established by decades of battle reports by players and GMs alike that if a male wants to play a "lesbian elf or genderfluid orc" then 99 times out of 100 it's because it's his fetish and he wants to turn the game into his personal masturbation fodder. I can provide citations if needed.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday August 01 2018, @05:26AM (3 children)
Way ahead of you. Paizo are releasing their new version of Pathfinder (which itself was an extension of D&D 3rd Edition). They are replacing "Race" with "Ancestry".
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 01 2018, @11:20AM (2 children)
Race was never the right word to begin with. A race is a subspecies. The word they were looking for is species.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @04:28PM (1 child)
Except "race" has been the term of art for fantasy's various "human but X" groups for going on 50 years now, and nobody worth listening to has ever complained about it. Changing it now is pure virtue signalling, and Paizo Publishing has form in that; go look up the "dwarf falls on his head, starts thinking he's a girl and is told by God to go on an epic quest for magic HRT when a wizard will sell you Belts of Gender Changing just to get rid of them" subplot in their printed material for Pathfinder.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday August 01 2018, @11:29PM
Yeah, there are a couple of Trans characters/stories in the Pathfinder material. I agree - it seems very 'odd' to go to all of these lengths with special potions, alter self spells etc, when a Girdle of femininity/masculinity instantly and completely changes the person's gender. The fact that the item was originally (still is?) considered "cursed" strongly suggests that the wearer retains their original gender identity, so it would seem like an ideal solution for a Trans individual.
I get that Paizo want to be inclusive, and that the roleplaying community can benefit from seeing positive representation of LGB characters in the material, but the ability to change gender in D&D has been pretty straightforward since the 1970's.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @12:50AM (1 child)
Of course they are. That's because leprechauns are magical and delicious.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @10:20AM
Taste the Rainbow.