Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:44 pm
barrel of cocks isn't jargon, it's a shibboleth
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Except about everybody older than my pre-schooler can immediately understand what "Go suck a barrel of cocks" means.Orion wrote:barrel of cocks isn't jargon, it's a shibboleth
I wonder if he thinks that plumbers also try to dehumanize others since they use specialized language in their craft? Actors? Journalists? Scientists? Baristas? Train hobbyists?erik wrote:Ugh. Jargon is not a secret language. It is specialized language. Specialized terms are necessary for discussing specialized topics. It is not dehumanizing to use jargon.Orion wrote:It's the same thing. Developing their own secret languages is what makes it possible for them to motivate and rationalize their harassment campaigns. Dehumanization 101 is to drape yourself with arbitrary culturall markers of in-group status.
Your argument as flavored with a dash of hyperbole:
If jargon, then Nazis!
If it doesn't has a specialized meaning, then it can't act as a ingroup/outgroup sorter because both groups know exactly what it means and there is no outgroup.Orion wrote: But it's not a phrase that points to a specialized concept, it's an arbitrary phrase chosen to express a basic concept so that it can also function as an ingroup/outgroup sorter.
Okay, I wasn't really gaining anything from using the term Mister Cavern. If you're worried about TGD becoming an insular circlejerk, I can certainly say GM instead.Orion wrote:
I am as far as I know the originator of the "barrel of cocks" meme, or at least the one who popularized it on this board. (I seem to recall that image files were found suggesting the idea has devloped elsewhere independently) I remember why I said it and I stand by it in that context. I'll admit, as a writer I was initially gratified when my phrase seemed to catch on. But But over time my excitement has faded into indifference and then dread. Enough is enough, and it's time to put that barrel of cocks back on the shelf.
Like a lot of posters, I was surprised and pleased to discover the Den's lack of a profanity filter. I quickly embraced those new notes in my register. However, I didn't stay at the Den just out of the exhilration of cussing. I also stayed because of the community standards it implied. What I valued about the Den's freedom of discourse was our ability to communicate clearly, directly, and concisely about matters of controversial opinion. Sometimes swearing was the best way to establish that Fighters fucking suck, that Mearls' design credits are less finished than a 5-week abortion, and reading Apocalypse world made me literally ejaculate with joy and inspiration.
Today, that barrel of cocks that once surged with vigorous creative energy has become the withered center of a flaccid ritual. We have become the Sambia, proffering the barrel to newcomers for no purpose other than initiation into the mysteriess of the Den. The effort to stuff our posts full ever more elaborate obscenities has gone so far that I myself often find a long post difficult to take in; for newcomers, I have no doubt that it makes our actual ideas difficult to swallow.
We all hate on 4chan and Something Awful for their deliberate perpetuation of memes and phrases taht render them unintelligible to outsiders, and the resulting groupthink. It's time we recognized that Den is evolving into its own language, and ask ourselves honestly what functions that language serves.
Put the cock down, and step away from the barrel with your hands up.
I dunno, the MC abbreviation is actually a more generic one than GM. Most people associate the latter with cars, but the former with "Master of Ceremonies" (although they may just use "Emcee" as an actual word). That's a way better phrase to associate with the hobby than "Dungeon Master," for reasons that should be obvious.Avoraciopoctules wrote:Okay, I wasn't really gaining anything from using the term Mister Cavern. If you're worried about TGD becoming an insular circlejerk, I can certainly say GM instead.
Huh. I hadn't made that association. Thanks for adding to my vocabulary, Whatever. That makes a pretty convincing case for me to hold onto MC specifically.Whatever wrote:I dunno, the MC abbreviation is actually a more generic one than GM. Most people associate the latter with cars, but the former with "Master of Ceremonies" (although they may just use "Emcee" as an actual word). That's a way better phrase to associate with the hobby than "Dungeon Master," for reasons that should be obvious.Avoraciopoctules wrote:Okay, I wasn't really gaining anything from using the term Mister Cavern. If you're worried about TGD becoming an insular circlejerk, I can certainly say GM instead.
That's actually the entire reason I like it, because it meant Master of Ceremonies way before Mister Cavern, and that is actually a decent description of the job of the GM/DM/ST/whatever.Avoraciopoctules wrote:Huh. I hadn't made that association. Thanks for adding to my vocabulary, Whatever. That makes a pretty convincing case for me to hold onto MC specifically.Whatever wrote:I dunno, the MC abbreviation is actually a more generic one than GM. Most people associate the latter with cars, but the former with "Master of Ceremonies" (although they may just use "Emcee" as an actual word). That's a way better phrase to associate with the hobby than "Dungeon Master," for reasons that should be obvious.Avoraciopoctules wrote:Okay, I wasn't really gaining anything from using the term Mister Cavern. If you're worried about TGD becoming an insular circlejerk, I can certainly say GM instead.
I assume nothing and I don't know who that is.Mr. GC wrote:Hey you, duck boy. Suck a load of dicks.
You do realize we're deliberately being ironic right? You're not actually Stormbringer in disguise, right?