careful, you can get lost in these stories they are kind of a train wreck. the worst one I've read about so far was (cw: torture) the attackers who tortured a guy for an hour with a heavy drill and made his four-year-old daughter watch

  • Mizokon [none/use name]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    meatspace :michael-laugh:

    Bitcoiners are the most oppressed minority :deeper-sadness:

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Any techbro that says "meatspace" is a timelessly spectacular level of cringe. :kombucha-disgust:

      • Ligma_Male [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        i dunno it's better than "real life" etc implying online interactions aren't "real". That's how you justify shitty takes about harassment

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          So offline activity ("offline" isn't a bad term IMO) is "meat" in some reductionist way which aggrandizes online activity while diminishing life itself into meat and that's fine? Pass. I'll just call it offline if "real life" is too dated.

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              My point, again, is that it sounds reductionist and dehumanizing to me. Sure, within some cliques I'm sure it's hip and cool to say but I don't think I'm the only one that may not like it outside of that.

              • Ligma_Male [comrade/them]
                ·
                2 years ago

                "meat space" is a pair with "cyber space" where we do other things besides cybering in our robes and wizard hats. the reduction is deliberate and if that's meaningfully dehumanizing to you when it's not about a minority group or specific person I guess we need to talk about why dehumanizing all of humanity simultaneously is a problem.

                i'm not over here referring to the non-cyber world like that constantly but I also really don't understand what motivated the doing of enough analysis to have a problem with it. For me at worst it's merely cringe.

                • UlyssesT [he/him]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  I know what it refers to and I've consumed cyberpunk fiction and game materials since the early 90s.

                  meaningfully dehumanizing

                  That sounds condescending but I'll try to deescalate this by comparing it to when someone asks us to stop saying a "funny" pejorative because it is construed as a slur, however minor. I've had to do that recently, particularly with words that have become catch-alls for "not acting intelligently" or "unwise" in shorthand that are seen as ablelist. While I didn't mean them in an ableist way, I still respected the wishes of those who did.

                  I'm not even asking you to stop saying "meatspace." Say it all you like. I just said to me it sounds arrogant and offputting and that I know a number of offline people that say it a lot in a dismissive and hostile way, often regarding people that aren't as online or tech savvy as themselves. One recent example involves a barista getting an order wrong and the friend I was talking with saying that was an "ID-10T error that only happens in meatspace" which is kind of presumptive about how flawless order-taking and order delivery is in cyberspace and also was condescending and hostile toward the barista herself.

                  I'm not emotionally traumatized by the term as much I find it just arrogant and tiresome. I can't stop anyone from saying it. And even now, with someone blowing up on me for not liking it, I wouldn't want to stop people from saying it. I myself just don't receive it well anymore, especially as so-called "cyberpunk" is shedding more and more of its "punk" over time and is more like cyberboug where I live now, in the shadow of Silicon Valley.

                  • Ligma_Male [comrade/them]
                    ·
                    2 years ago

                    That sounds condescending

                    there are certainly contexts where calling people meat is dehumanizing but it seems closer to "humans are animals" to me than a fratbro objectifying a woman. I'm not around your shitty friend though. Thanks for explaining, I can see where you're coming from now.

                    And even now, with someone blowing up on me for not liking it,

                    who is blowing up?

                    • UlyssesT [he/him]
                      ·
                      edit-2
                      2 years ago

                      but it seems closer to “humans are animals” to me than a fratbro objectifying a woman

                      That actually sounds like the same justification for dismissing anyone that doesn't like it or feels demeaned by it: "actually this is scientifically accurate and technically correct" :very-intelligent: You're also reducing all animals to meat which is both arrogant and kind of gross for some, even outside of a vegan mentality. It's practically designed for sci-fi villain dialogue: "struggle if you must, meat, but the Killzor Empire will grind you and your planet down to useful edible components." Coincidentally, the "human female" talk could fit similar dialogue, thus the comparison I made. "The feeemale of the humans, bring that one to the Killzor Emperor's chambers!"

                      who is blowing up?

                      The other person in this reply chain that wasn't you or me, primarily.

      • crime [she/her, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I'm a tech bro that says meatspace, partly cause like comrade Ligma_Male said it emphasizes that what happens on the internet is still real, partly cause meatspace sounds cyberpunk as fuck, but mostly because it makes it easier to revitalize the term "cyberspace" as its corollary and that will always make me think of 90s TV writers trying to write about technology they dont understand and youth lingo they don't understand

        can you jam with the console cowboys in cyberspace?

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Online/offline is probably fine enough if "real" is too dated, which it probably is. To me, reducing life itself to "meat" is both reductionist and sort of :im-vegan: hostile at the same time, kind of grotesque and diminishing with the implication that an internet connection magically makes things enlightened and transcendent by comparison.

          • crime [she/her, any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            The "meat" refers to the things that humans are made of and has nothing to do with :im-vegan: people unless they've developed cell walls and chloroplasts recently. Online/offline are adjectives to describe state, not the places themselves.

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
              ·
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              How is that not both reductionist and kind of gross to say or hear for people that don't eat meat?

              It's like the "calling women feeeeeemales" :quark: thing. You can't blame the listener for not liking the reductionist talk.

              • crime [she/her, any]
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                It’s like the “calling women feeeeeemales”

                lmaoooooo between the two of us I don't think you're the most qualified to be making that analogy

                And I'm sorry but if the mere word meat is upsetting to you then you should probably not spend any more of your time in cyberspace.

                It's not any more reductionist than any other synechdoche. You're welcome to cut that whole rhetorical device out from your vocabulary if you don't like it. I do, I will be keeping it. This doesn't seem to be a productive conversation so I'm not going to reply again.

                • UlyssesT [he/him]
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  2 years ago

                  lmaoooooo between the two of us I don’t think you’re the most qualified to be making that analogy

                  Sounds like you're taking the criticism personally and the "lmaoooooo" doesn't hide that. You can take it or leave it but sounds like you want to turn it into a slapfight.

                  If you can't see how eye-rolling or kind of gross your high and mighty labeling of "meatspace" can be, clearly bringing it up is just making you act even more arrogant.

                  Keep doing it. I can't stop you. It may make you seem arrogant and obnoxious outside of your clique but that's your problem.

                  • crime [she/her, any]
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    2 years ago

                    How the fuck am I concern trolling? I like the expression, you've gone on like a five-post tirade about how it's inherently offensive because it has the word "meat" in it

                    • UlyssesT [he/him]
                      ·
                      2 years ago

                      I’m not going to reply again.

                      Again, be arrogant and reductionist about other living people and their lived experiences anywhere you like, but sometimes it may not be well received.

                      • crime [she/her, any]
                        ·
                        2 years ago

                        What's your fucking problem? I clearly wanted to disengage but then you came in here calling me a concern troll for pointing out that it's ridiculous for someone who isn't a woman to compare usage of the term 'meatspace' to men actively dehumanizing us by calling us 'females'

                        • UlyssesT [he/him]
                          ·
                          edit-2
                          2 years ago

                          you’ve gone on like a five-post tirade

                          I’m not going to reply again.

                          I feel "meatspace" is dehumanizing and reductionist. You did a "lmaoooooooo" reply and mocked me for feeling that way.