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I miss UlyssesT complaining about Game of Thrones (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by to c/chat@hexbear.net
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sicko-wistful Feel like shit, just want him and his excessive emojis back.

EDIT: Jesus Christ guys

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[–] 36 points 2 years ago (9 children)

I'm glad people have decided they don't like him now because he was just not cool. He would get into extremely heated arguments over anything, I had to just stop engaging with any of his posts and block him as soon as that became a feature. He loved to call people redditor debatebros but was easily the most toxic debatebro on this website. He also just hated anyone who enjoyed something he didn't, even if you have legitimate criticism of something doesn't mean someone cannot enjoy it and also agree with those criticism. The obsession with Star Citizen was just annoying and spammy and overly negative - like, why spend so much time on hating something relatively unimportant and making other people hate it too. Just every post he made was overwhelmingly negative and brought down the vibe of the site so much. To this day he is the only person I've ever blocked because he was so annoying.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago

    I thought he was pretty cool, mostly. Yeah, he would definitely get into heated arguments over what was ultimately mundane things, but then... so do most of the regulars/power-users here, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. On the whole, it just means you're passionate about a lot of things and have strong opinions. There's nothing wrong with that and nothing wrong with arguing about those things, even passionately. Now, if a person who gets into a lot of heated arguments over these small things does so with toxicity, then yes that is bad. But it's a separate issue of toxicity being bad. I would concede that UlyssesT did way too often approach being toxic and even cross over that line sometimes in the way he'd get mad and go super personal in attack mode. (And again, he was not the only regular user here to do that). Just saying, we should criticize that and not the fact that he was opinionated about things that other people aren't. I also feel like if we are going to criticize a user for that, UlyssesT is far from the only one who should be put in the crosshairs for it. He was just so prolific, it was impossible to miss.

    He also just hated anyone who enjoyed something he didn't

    See, I don't feel like that's true. I enjoyed Gambo's source material (still do, actually) and even defended it against UlyssesT once. He did get mad at me and he was very vehement about it, because of course he was. But then he talked to me about other stuff a day later and was perfectly comradely with me, even while mentioning the previous argument in a non-confrontational way.

    As for the Star Citizen thing, if I remember right, he was one of the people who put money in early on and got duped. So it was really personal for him for understandable reasons. He probably did post too much about it, but I just didn't read or engage since I wasn't interested. I think people should be able to post about their pet peeves as much as they want, so long as it is in kept in the appropriate places and made so that it can be ignored by those who don't want to see it.

    I just disagree that he was "overwhelmingly negative." He was intense and that doesn't jive with a lot of people. But "overwhelmingly negative"? No. He contributed a lot of positive things here too, the way I remember it.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    lmfao the tone policing in lieu of actual substantive criticism is strong in this thread

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    actual substantive criticism

    I found UT's whole world view simultaneously too focused on pop culture but also not particularly deep in it's analysis of pop culture. He often attributed the rise of the far right in America to a pessimistic and nihilistic underlying theme in popular television, melting the brains of the American people and turning them towards the alt-right, and openly called for media that was more optimistic, wholesome, and straight forward and blatant in it's moral messaging.

    But the American people's brain's have always been melted, what was causing it before the advent of prestige TV? Some really nihilistic vaudeville plays? Media is part of the broader cultural hegemony but only one small part of it, the relative level of cynicism in media is dwarfed by the broader history of settler colonialism and deeply ingrained racism. The rise of this current, vulgar expressions of fascism, MAGA and the alt-right, to me seem more a reaction to the declining status of America as a global empire than due to Breaking Bad's popularity.

    Even if media is as powerful at UT claims it to be, his analysis of it was often just wrong, or at least very one dimensional. There was the famous Barry incident where he just straight up said things that were factually incorrect about the show only to then admit he had never watched it (and never intended to). Also, his analysis of the overall media landscaped seemed caught a decade or two in the past. He had a particular hatred of Breaking Bad and Fight Club, but the latter ended in 2013 and the former 1999. If anything I'd argue our current media landscape isn't defined by cynicism and darkness, but saccharine feel good vibes and light irreverent comedy. The biggest media empire in the world right now is Disney, who's whole brand is wholesomeness. An anecdotal survey of the Chuds in my life reveals more Disney adults than Fight Club fans. But UT's defense of the wholesome often lead him to dismiss any substantive criticism of it, he was convinced that the dislike for the character Barney was born of some edge-lord hatred of love and kindness, but would never engage with anyone who tried to point out that Barney is an extremely one dimensional character who behaves almost like a parody of a children's show protagonist, his saccharine continual bubbly-ness grating even to a lot of young children, myself being one of them. I myself tried to contrast the distaste for Barney with the fondness most people have for Sesame Street, a children's show with a far more interesting and engaging cast of characters who actually have emotions beyond ecstatic happiness, but he refused to engage with this argument.

    It was difficult to debate UT on anything because he was very arrogant and sure of his own opinions, and interpreted even the most politely worded disagreement as people either slavishly defending their "treats" or trying to "silence" him (despite him posting more than anyone else here at the time). Even when people weren't defending any treats, just criticizing it from a different angle, that was still treat chasing, since any criticism besides his own was illegitimate and born purely out of an addiction to pop culture. It's not a surprise most people who disliked him ended up blocking him leaving only those who had positive interactions with him in the crowd when he made his exit.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago

    Dude thought TVs were literally the machines Jim Carey's Riddler made in Barman Forever. Media isn't a hypno ray and while they did reprogram Alex in clockwork orange by making him watch TV, there was more than just that going on there. Very agreed on the datedness as well, we are living through the consequences of saccharine anti-irony pablum right now and here's something from the current front page to prove it

    Nihilistic edgy people don't think these thoughts. And the far right, and I'm talking more online and farther right than punisher logo poster Maga guys (boomers), the imageboard genuine fash are just as bad for it in their own way. Things get shittier and shittier and the art that people have clung to for the last while has been hiding from it, not reflecting it. Everything on TV is written by a millionaire on their third marriage who's in therapy and it shows in the writing or it's a 'heartwarming' 'inspiring' drama disguised as a comedy series. Ted Lasso and The Bear would have been mid as hell Oscar bait films in the past and not marketed as comedy. And I don't think everything needs to be slimy and grimy but everything thst isn't specifically trying to be dark has this pastel veneer that seems so fucking faked to me.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    An anecdotal survey of the Chuds in my life reveals more Disney adults than Fight Club fans.

    there's overlap between Chuds and Disney Adults?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Oh yeah totally, well less so now since Ronnie D went on a whole "Disney is WOKE" campaign, but before that I knew a fair few. And even after, CHUDs can be pretty selective in what parts of the culture war they get mad about, if Trump or some other ghoul goes on a tirade against a thing they really like they just ignore it or talk themselves into thinking he didn't really mean that and was just worked up.

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