/ot/ - Off-topic

Pre'y sure Ubuu's at least attempting to maintain the chill middleground. /pol/shit is discouraged, but we're also not some super safe space. If things offend you, so be it. Take life as it comes. Just leave the hostility at the door, kthx. Come, relax, chat, live!

relax, it's not that bad. maybe if you don't browse places where political/general discussion prevails it would help to change your outlook.
this imageboard has an unspoken "no politics" or "joos did dream diary" (excessive, unnecessary hate speech that's not funny or brings nothing to the discussion) rule and it's small and focused enough to effectively get moderated unlike something like 4chan or tumblr which are so large its impossible to save them.

there are also imageboards which don't follow that divide by a certain degree, ubuu included

to be honest, as someone who stays oblivious to the political climate, I can't really tell what things you're talking about. if its people saying "nigger" or the like in /v/ or an equivalent, it's to be expected because it's the largest anonymous imageboard that has virtually no moderation, which is highly populated by people in their teens or college students which have a desperate desire to fit in or try to be edgy
and in the opposite spectrum, if you come across, say, some article promoting gender rights or apache helicopters on reddit's/tumblr's frontpage, why care? It's not like you have to click the thread and browse it. ultimately, you should try to avoid (number/word)*chans (but not uboachan please), most of them follow the same 4chan model of allowing vitriol and the like or some try to be nazi mods to fit their perceived agenda. most imageboards dedicated to a hobby or media like desuchan (RIP), mechachan, etc maintain the friendliness as a whole and rarely have any spill from outside influences

>>19075
The thing is, it's not even contained to imageboards. Even on youtube, you'll see people complaining about joos. A video where some guy is making a knife will have some conspiracy nut rambling about the proletariat and how the earth is flat. Forget about any national or folk music. You're right about number chans. It's like a sewer there.

Maybe the problem is that the places i've always been going to are the ones that are getting worse. It's a shame because those are the places with a good amount of activity. I've been on ubuu for awhile actually and it seems like it's the only place where this effect isn't noticeable. Pretty much any forum or place populated by normal fags will be subject to actual mod tyranny and over sensitivity. It's not relaxed. I don't know. It feels like i'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm just glad that ubuu is still chugging along.

>>19076
The thing is, the people complaining about the jews or those conspiracy theories? Those are the normies. I've met so many people in real life that unironically believe that shit and spew vitriol all over the place.

And what you call mod sensitivity is exactly what those people would claim if they were banned for peddling their conspiracies. Whenever they get told to fuck off or to stop shitposting, they immediately jump to bitching about people being triggered or the mods suppressing their right to free speech.

Things are going to get worse before they get better. There's very little way of reconciling a lot of these beliefs because most of them are poison to intelligent debate. Ultimately the best thing that can happen is strict moderation to ensure that the quality of posts is high and that the culture of a board remains intact. So even though those safe spaces are filled with communists upset at everything, they're going to be the most stable in terms of retaining users that align to that posting style. I've seen what happens to places that completely absolve themselves of moderation back in the Usenet days and the result is similar to what you see now.

The problem is mostly western-prevalent. Places like nichan and futaba remain almost the same; if anything, they conserve the spirit, in contrast to their western counterparts.

Imageboards were a place to have fun anonymously, without needing to keep pretenses. You were valued and judged for your words, not your name. And thanks to that, you could have fun being a dick (/b/ styled), or reading interesting things, or talking with other people; but overall they were just a place to discuss niches and have fun. And that's exactly the problem, we've forgotten imageboards were a place to have fun. Considering most people who used the internet daily around 13 years ago to discuss about anime, paranormal and such topics were called out as filthy nerds and otaku, or, to put it in modern words, "Non-normies", it's easy to see why the atmosphere was so great. We were all weird guys getting passionate about interesting topics and enjoying ourselves, but we specially enjoyed the content imageboards provided us. Because they had the quality we wanted.
But nowadays, most of these people have been displaced, and in their place a new userbase pollutes the sites. They came and couldn't see through the smoke that we were having fun, and instead believed that imageboards were just a place to rage about silly stuff like those conspirancy theories or other such stupid drama. To make things worse, the whole "politically correct" movement that has surfaced over the last years has gained enough popularity to make other people sick of it, so /pol/ naturally came to be thanks to that. These people aren't the same kind of userbase imageboards used to have. They weren't otaku, they weren't niche-oriented people, they were exactly the same kind of people who years ago wouldn't have even touched imageboards just because they weren't popular at all, or because they wouldn't have been interested in their content. And to make things even worse, because they kept repeating the same words and circlejerking with that disgusting attitude, they created a mentally that poisoned the atmosphere of imageboards and turned them into filthy hiveminds with full shitposting 24/7.
It doesn't matter anymore whether or not your post has any value overall. And for that very reason, they've lost their value. Imageboards aren't different from facebook anymore, and actually, it's the same crap but without needing to create an account.

Western imageboards aren't much about fun anymore. If anything, they're populated by fucking bastards who ironically are the same kind of cancer they bitch about. People who get "triggered" about every single opinion that doesn't agree with them, calling shit on people that is "cancer" but get fucking annoying when being called for being the tumor that is killing the culture they proclaim to be "part of".

It's small places like this one that I want to protect, because even if they're severely crippled compared to their old selves, they remain true to their former convictions and respect themselves enough not to fall into the cesspit.

>>19078
I agree with your post, but to add to it, a thing that contributed greatly to the decline of quality is the prevalence of phones. Websites are dumbed down and made more appealing to phone users and people in phones can't go through the trouble of typing a worthwhile & long post in fast moving imageboards so they just resort to templates/shitposting, which indirectly spuns off even more low-effort methods and buzzwords to 'trigger' people for that instant gratification. On the topic of the eastern side of the Internet, Japan's web design has been backwards for a while so it also helps to maintain quality, even though iPhones are as prevalent as anything there. There's the people that flocked off to social media, the people that stay in defunct blogging platforms and wiki's and the chansphere. While Futaba is rampant on shitposting in most boards, I do enjoy that people don't take it as serious business™
Other sites and communities in languages other than English, even if western *usually* retain a higher quality than their English counterparts.

>It's small places like this one that I want to protect
You brought an heartwarming smile to my face, anon. Better to protect & care for them while they're still innocent and small. All the large websites out there usually come from the same Web 2.0 cultural blueprint, so you're deadset spot on that most of the sites reek off the likes of Facebook and co. so in the end you usually have the same experience just with a different flavour. I generally don't agree with elitism and gatekeeping, but it's a hell lot more easier to maintain quality and etiquette on smaller communities. Medium-sized communities are actually the worst, moderation starts to become ineffective/understaffed and the userbase usually undergoes a tonal shift which means only the wheel in motion decides what sticks and what not. Large-sized websites usually, like the OP said, have an overly present moderation or almost none at all, which puts the users at large, media events (&spambots) in charge of what sticks and what doesn't.
>It doesn't matter anymore whether or not your post has any value overall
At least back then, even if posting was anonymous, one usually felt that they contributed in some way and inspired people to make quality posts by doing so, nowadays they just get buried. Maybe one day this thing will sort itself out, I always loved to imagine what would happen to the Internet if it wasn't so centralized or if social media and corporations didn't take over.

>>19078
>>19077
What these people don't get is that the wolrd is a clusterfuck. There is no hidden significance or meaning or ultimate goal to anything. The majority of people just fester and make each other miserable for their own benefit. That's it. They're doing the exact same thing. They think that just because they have views outside of what's pushed by society at large they're different, but really that's just superficial. It's the ideologue mentality that's the same. They don't even see being an ideologue as a bad thing. Some boards even have little identifiers people can use.
Anything people make starts to rot on the inside if it's not maintained. The only thing that can be done is to keep them out becuase they will never change.
>>19079
Social media was a mistake. I don't think anything can change my mind about that. If every social media platform was completely destroyed right now I would celebrate.

And this site will soon become the later. Congradulations on becoming part of the status quo. Next step is banning hate speech, then you can become just another 4chan/reddit/facebook/tumblr! We need to remove TOXIC elements of the community!

Worthless fucking normaltrash will infect everything to get validation from society.

>>19082
Have a nice day anon. I know you're only acting tsun-tsun because you're dere-dere for us.

>>19082
Lol. Obvious flame baiting. We will not be manipulated by your weak mind fuckery. Nobody's gonna stop you from trying, but it wont work.

>>19084
Normalfags are incapable of conscious though, i stopped trying to convince them of anything a long time ago. You will believe whatever the powers that be tell you to.

>>19085
"What the powers that be tell you" can mean literally anything.

>>19123
That's the reason why this kind of mentality is so prevalent. "Horseshoe theory", is bs because it has nothing to do with extremism and everything to do with how ideology works on a fundamental level.

It's easy to make people behave a certain way if you can convince them that they want to do it on their own free will. When you dive neckdeep into one of these "communities" one of the first things you will find are always platitudes that are designed to perpetually convince people they're being different, they're being smart, and they're thinking independently outside the box. Stroke a fool's ego into thinking he's being intelligent, and you get things done.

I'm by no means saying this is some big controlled conspiracy. And I'm not saying that all these people engaged in it are complete morons. It's more just a problem of the naivety of the masses (as opposed to the individual), and it has existed forever, but used to be small and contained. And through the chaotic power of the internet at some point it spun completely out of control. Every person in the world with a broken message to spread has received a free audience and a huge box to stand on. Where they used to be able to reach only few, now they can easily reach millions, and bullshit spreads on the internet like wildfire.

I want you guys to try reading through this thread and tell me what you think.
https://8ch.net/tech/res/944635.html
>Stop fucking suggestig this bluefucking pill hopefagging shit. Everyone else ITT has the proper fucking idea. It's all fucking down the drain, and that's the fucking thing about chans, they actually fucking see the truth of everything, and has higher intelligence than the rest of modern society about these fucking things. Now take your cuck shit back to reddit.

>>19272
That guy needs some help. Internet iz zerious biznes was meant to be a meme, not a lifestyle.
But not all is bad on that thread, I managed to get a copy of "Creating Adventure Games on your Computer".

OP you must be stronk like us Slavs. Whenever someone shits on us we just laugh. But yeah I remember back in '05 when the whole niggers and Jews thing was just a joke. Pushing boundaries, saying things you couldn't say IRL. I never would've imagined some morons would actually start taking it seriously.

8chan is a cesspit of this kind of thing. I go there because it's uncensored, but the incessant "oy vey" bullshit drives me half-insane sometimes. You can't discuss a goddamn videogame without somebody saying the Jews invented DRM or some bullshit. Absolutely delusional people.

But they didn't just come from nowhere. There are reasons why this kind of thing is happening. Income inequality is getting worse and it's getting harder to make a living. In times of hardship, people look for someone to blame. People won't direct their anger towards some complex concept like inherent failures in our system of government or capitalism. No, people need an easy target. So they blame immigrants and Jews. I suspect there may be some government interference too, but who really knows.

I hope it'll resolve without violence, but I'm getting serious pre-WW2 vibes from all this. Humans don't exactly have a good track record of dealing with this sort of thing. Regardless, all we can do is weather these "interesting times", and try not to get carried away by the madness. I feel like this place has done a good job of that. Yeah, bad stuff comes up now and then, but it's nowhere near as bad as 8chan. We should be thankful for that.

>>19291
I'm half Slavic on my mother's side side actually. I'll keep that in mind though.

I tried debating some hardcore WNs before about the actual deeply rooted problems in our system and their entire counter argument boiled down to the idea that it's not harmful practices that should be banned, only the people they don't like should be. They have no problem with media manipulation of the public when it's done in their favor. A lot of what they talk about is how to make less extreme propaganda to slowly indoctrinate people. They don't actually believe in open discussion either. They're also exactly like sjws in how they obsess over perceived hidden motivations or meanings behind what a person says. In their mind, if a person has the wrong reason for saying something, or they have ideas they hate, everything that person says is instantly invalidated and should be ignored. It's ridiculous.

They don't actually have any kind of long term plan or any idea of how'll they'll deal with the inevitable infighting once they beat, "the enemy". At this point I hope they try something so there can be a conclusion and end to this shit.

>>19292
Yes, SJWs and Alt-Right are remarkably similar in how they push an agenda with no interest in rational discussion. If you aren't willing to sit down and justify your position through logic and debate, it makes me wonder how much your beliefs are really worth.

>>19292
>They have no problem with media manipulation of the public when it's done in their favor.
>>19296
>If you aren't willing to sit down and justify your position through logic and debate, it makes me wonder how much your beliefs are really worth.
The suffering of others, in the realm of politics, is simply irrelevant if it benefits you. What matters is the strong rhetoric and harsh words of vicious hatred that inspire the spark of national fervor within the populace through emotional and psychological manipulation to the point where the rationality behind it, although there, becomes of second-rate importance. You don't have to care about and fight for your people in order to be a nationalist and a man of those people through an outwardly lense. You don't have to be anti-anything in order to target a specific group of people so long as it gets you to where you want to be or achieves a desired outcome. Least of all should hypocrisy be something that bothers you.
Let ideologies overtly define you, to rationalize and humanize you, but don't let it control you, and maybe try to remember that politics is something akin to a game and that man is a political animal which likes to play, even though losing is inevitable.

>>19300
>Let ideologies overtly define you, to rationalize and humanize you, but don't let it control you
Or you could be rational, think for yourself and reject any form of extremism in favor of pragmatism. I think what you're describing is philosophy. Philosophy encourages thinking, learning more about the world to better understand it, and being receptive to others. Things all ideologies, at least in practice, reject. You don't even need to pick any specific philosophy to unconditionally follow. You could learn about what other people think and work out your own outlook on life(Übermensch). A country led by people like that sounds better to me than one led by ideologues, especially deceptive ones.

>>19302
The ideology can be a sham beneath the true opinions which you hold in regards to the world and all things in and outside of it, which should be comprised and guided by rationality, or at least as rational as a human being can get before inherent biases kick in. The ideology needs to be used in order to influence others, for which Fascism, Communism, and Islam are excellent tools.

>>19303
>The ideology needs to be used in order to influence others, for which Fascism, Communism, and Islam are excellent tools.
Or you could put trust in people's innate ability to think critically and in the interest of themselves and their family. You could rationalize with them and expose manipulators. If people can't think critically, there's a problem with the education system.

>>19305
>Or you could put trust into people's innate ability to think critically and in the interest of themselves and their family
The assets (or lack thereof) which people possess can be used against them in order to get them to help you. Many people are desperate and uneducated, which makes them good targets to be guided by a leader who will promise them the world.
>If people can't think critically, there's a problem with the education system.
The weaknesses of the system, of which human beings are a part of, need to be abused, if not by you, then by somebody else, and at the end of the day, what is more important in this world than you? Think about it.

>>19306
I understand where you're coming from, but personally I think having people with your mindset running things is ultimately harmful to the quality of a society. I think the prosperity of society is more important than any individual and ideologues and their mind lords hinder the kind of prosperity I want. I want to live in a place where people can think and create freely without people with a mob mentality standing in their way and poisoning communities.

>>19071
Thanks for the /pol/ thread, wanna see my collection of infographics?

It's bots and groups of people with vested interests (governments, right-wing and left-wing extremist groups) paying shills to post.

>>19305
"Education" is designed to brainwash people into accepting slave-tier roles in factories. It's the antithesis to thinking for oneself.

>>19386
That's like, so deep man.
Except without education people are blithering morons. Learning how to do math and understand literature on a deeper level doesn't turn you into a worker drone. If anything, schools are pushing people to go to college way too much. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the idea that people should be required to learn a number of skills as a child for the betterment of themselves and society. This thread is already getting off topic, so that's all I have to say about that.

Sushi girl is really chill

>>19389
Tried going once or twice. It was too depressing for me. It felt like uboachan lite or something. I just don't like its aesthetic and atmosphere. For whatever reason, ubuu just has this energy to it that appeals to me. To be very frank, Uboachan is to Sushigirl what a raging hard on is to a shrived up, limp dick, at least to me.

>>19390
I think the biggest difference is that ubuu focuses on a specific, creatively oriented niche that people are passionate about.
YN is also something that naturally appeals to weebs and other people who don't care about politics. I've noticed that a lot of the roaming politcfags I've come across heavily look down on nip stuff and people who like it. Ubuu naturally doesn't attract those types of people, so moderation can afford to be somewhat relaxed.

>>19300
Rhetoric is indeed effective, the Ancient Greeks knew this. Politics seems to be mostly rhetoric these days, and yes it works well. However I prefer to be a rational person. I can't make myself believe something if it sounds good, but doesn't make logical sense when you break it down.

As for self-interest. Well I suppose I can't argue for or against that. It's a fundamental thing like our sense of morality. The great irony is that a person acting in self-interest often ends up destroying themself in the process.

>>19405
Motality isn't fundamental, self-righteousness is. Morality varies depending on the person and place, but everybody thinks they're right about it.

>>19405
>However I prefer to be a rational person. I can't make myself believe something if it sounds good, but doesn't make logical sense when you break it down.

everybody thinks that they're logical and won't believe things that they can't understand.
saturn has two moons which occupy the same orbit, the could collide but never do, one moons is always traveling faster than the other, but neither moon ever overtakes and passes the other.
that sounds illogical if you haven't had orbital mechanics explained to you, but that how it works.
don't award yourself so much credit for being rational, if you're a headstrong egotistical moron then your mental condition will leave you oblivious to your own idiocy, you might be a braying ninny and not even know it. a lot of stupid people and a lot of irrationally insane people are very certain about themselves, is that the kind of people you want to affiliate yourself with?

>>19408
>Morality varies depending on the person and place, but everybody thinks they're right about it.
this is extremely true

>>19413
They never said they were totally sure of themselves, just that they don't believe everything presented to them right away. People should at least make an effort to be rational, even if that can't be absolute or whatever.

>>19415
Your own rationality is a myth that you create and only you believe in. Your version of rational behavior is based on the seemingly logical conclusions you've drawn from your experiences in life, but other people have difference experiences and different brains and they draw different conclusions. Its the most common thing in the world for some oblivious narcissistic retard to be dismissive of anyone who contradicts their point of view as irrational or crazy.
How the fuck is it rational to be spending your time posting off-topic posts in a derailed thread on the off topic imageboard of a website modeled after an east asian archipelagic animation discussion software that was started by an ex 4chon mod? What are you accomplishing here by telling two or three other people that people other than yourself are rational? Would it make a difference in any way at all if we were arguing the merits of our post numbers or making inane penis jokes instead of trying to accuse other of being mentally inferior to yourself?

>>19437
Except that's not how logic works. Everything depends on context. There's no such thing as a universal logic or moral system that applies to every situation. Being rational doesn't mean basing everything on personal experience alone and saying everybody else is wrong. That's exactly what ideologues do. It means looking at the facts and analyzing the situation on a case-by-case basis. It's a mindset. You wont always end up being right, but it's still better and allows you to learn from mistakes. You're implying that nothing is irrational in any situation. As for why i'm posting on this board, within the context of me having zero free time becuase I have to study for an exam, it wouldn't be rational. If I have free time, it is because it makes more sense to do things you enjoy then.
Your perception of being a reasonable person tells me that you're probably not one. Wouldn't be suprised if you only think what other people tell you to. All of your posts so far have just been of you being a standoffish faggot.

>>19444
>Except that's not how logic works
yes it is