The simple fact that the Internet exists means that at any given moment someone , in fact , be wrong. It's up to us (read: you, PZ) to make sure we know the truth.
The alt text is sometimes better than the punchlines on that comic. In this case it was 'What do you want me to do, LEAVE? Then they'd just keep being wrong!'
Don't ever leave us, PZ. Can you imagine how wrong people would be _then_?
Hell, I hang out in a usenet xian group so I have to pick and choose which wrongs I try and right. It is so hard there being only one of me ;-) though fortunately I am not the only one trying to fight the good fight in there. Best is when the xian inmates bitch about the 'invasion' of atheists (all 3 of us).
Then there are all the wonderfully glib and totally empty of meaning statements like "god is outside the universe" and "god sustains the universe" or the recent "god is eternal, has always been and thus needs no explanation"
I must admit, when I saw this yesterday I thought immediately of Pharyngula - but I owe you all a debt of gratitude! The comment threads are proof that not all human beings are vapid, hateful, self-deluded/absorbed, (insert-religious-text-here)-thumping, sexually repressed assholes who feel insecure unless the entire world endorses their particular brand of spiritual flagellation/masturbation. So, thanks!
That's what I love about the internet. In my real life, so many groups which bring up any topic which touches on religion seem to see debate, disagreement, and even honest discussion as hostile intrusions on what must now become a Sharing and Caring Mutual Support Group. "I don't think the earth is 10,000 years old myself, but how wonderful for you that you do, and that you keep strong in your own belief, if that is what is true for you -- I so admire that."
Without the internet I slowly die the death of a thousand cuts.
Pee Zed should be happy his Trophy Wife is so concerned with the trvth she spends all her tyme correcting ijiots on Teh Internets rather than, ah, sleeping.
Huh. That's the sixth time I've seen that image today: I saw the original comic, I posted it twice on various sites, I saw it twice in different threads on the same webforum, and now here.
I was on the XKCD forums last night and I read the thread for Monday's "How it Works" comic and I was just dumbfounded. Usually there's just a lot of programming in-jokes and congeniality, but for some reason all the bigoted evo-psych wankers decided to come out and spew their just-so stories for why women are just plain genetically inferior. Ick.
And then comes the next comic, "3 days later", where we see the same picture and hear:
"Are you still having that same conversation, talking to those same people?"
"Yes, it's the same thread. And, No, new trolls showed up to take the place of the original trolls."
Yeah, this pretty much sums up my interest with the internet. I don't necessarily have to argue, but i like reading about people who are wrong, mostly in politics, but religion is also an unavoidably delicious subject.
I used to be like that. Now I tend not to argue with people, but instead I find myself seeking out horrible wrong internet people's postings to read for entertainment.
I'll find some loony's complaint of blasphemy in an IMDB movie review, and read all of their reviews.
If you ever start to feel like you are overestimating the average human's intelligence, there's a two-word cure for it: youtube comments.
OTOH, Toronto just had a six-alarm fire in which no one was killed nor hurt. News commentators, bystanders and such said that it was amazing, surprising, fortunate, thanked the fire-fighters and other emergency workers, and no one said it was a niracle. The mayor said that the thoughts of Torontonians were with the people who lost their homes or businesses -- not their prayers.
In my real life, so many groups which bring up any topic which touches on religion seem to see debate, disagreement, and even honest discussion as hostile intrusions on what must now become a Sharing and Caring Mutual Support Group.
In your life it's limited to groups which bring up any topic which touches on religion?
Well I suggest a jihad against these evil cartoonists who defame our beloved prophet, Pee Zed (peas be upon him), and who may or may not resemble the caricature depicted.
Can I just say that I have the exact opposite reaction to this cartoon? The Internet is about the only place I know where I can reliably run into people who are right about anything.
News commentators, bystanders and such said that it was amazing, surprising, fortunate, thanked the fire-fighters and other emergency workers, and no one said it was a miracle.
What I'd like to see is a convincing explanation for the psychology behind this cultural assumption many people seem to share that anything involving "the internet" is automatically trivial.
At least PZ's dealing with people being wrong about science. I stay up late trying to correct people's misconceptions about "Death of Superman" storyline.
I note with glee that this comes just before the whale evolution post... and the guy *disabled* comments.
I know he'll never listen to anything. I know he'll remain willfully ignorant of anything which might challenge his comfortable views. The urge to try to explain anyway remains.
I can no longer allow myself to read any online discussion which includes ".999..." because it will make my head asplode. Who'll tell them they're wrong then?!
=LOL= Several years ago when DSL really started hitting the big time, a friend of mine had it installed. Not long after that, his wife was heard to say that the internet is the best form of birth control ever invented.
Yeah, this describes an insidious compulsive behavior that can be quite hard to overcome. You can't always correct people who are mistaken, even especially if they're insufferably confident about something ridiculous.
Occasionally doing it is good (you want to get good information out there). While obsessively doing so may not be bad for everyone else (unless you are the one who's wrong of course ;p ), it's generally unhealthy for the person doing it.
This cartoon reminds me of a joke I heard comic Mike MacDonald tell. He was talking about being lost in the forest and how someone had once advised him he should never go hiking without a cell phone. His tag to this was imagining himself calling for help and trying to describe where he was (like that was going to help somebody find him).
Then he related that on one occasion when he had told that joke an audience member had approached him after his set to explain that actually search & rescue people could triangulate on a cell phone signal and locate someone who was lost, etc, etc. He described this person pushing his way through backstage muttering, "Excuse me, excuse me. I have vital information for the comedian."
I just couldn't help thinking I know people like that (and I might be one of them).
This is hilarious. When you are trained as a scientist, that urge to uncover and refute errors is almost irresistible at times. It reminds me of the old insight that an effective way to improve your citation rate is to publish something that is controversial and wrong now and then...
The simple fact that the Internet exists means that at any given moment someone , in fact , be wrong. It's up to us (read: you, PZ) to make sure we know the truth.
You have a duty to destroy the wrong of the interwebs, no matter what a stupid stickfigure comic insinuates!
PZ, don't be paranoid about it.
It's probably just because you're easy to draw.
Brother Prof. Myers-
We have many things in common, you and I. We are not that much different.
-RPTH
Award Winning Interblogger
etc and so forth
Not enough tentacles to be PeeZed.
I think it is Truth Machine.
That's hilarious. I know the feeling full well, although I have succeeded in squelching it, for the most part, the last few years.
The alt text is sometimes better than the punchlines on that comic. In this case it was 'What do you want me to do, LEAVE? Then they'd just keep being wrong!'
Don't ever leave us, PZ. Can you imagine how wrong people would be _then_?
Second Cousin Rev. Paul T.-
That was rich.
Once a friend who directs an astronomical observatory received a job application from an astrologer.
It's not about you. You're wrong.
God, I'm sleepy...
Treason! That Phoenician is taking words out of my mouth! And besides, I think Carthage should be destroyed.
Hell, I hang out in a usenet xian group so I have to pick and choose which wrongs I try and right. It is so hard there being only one of me ;-) though fortunately I am not the only one trying to fight the good fight in there. Best is when the xian inmates bitch about the 'invasion' of atheists (all 3 of us).
Then there are all the wonderfully glib and totally empty of meaning statements like "god is outside the universe" and "god sustains the universe" or the recent "god is eternal, has always been and thus needs no explanation"
@7: I'm of the opinion that the alt text generally IS the punchline.
I must admit, when I saw this yesterday I thought immediately of Pharyngula - but I owe you all a debt of gratitude! The comment threads are proof that not all human beings are vapid, hateful, self-deluded/absorbed, (insert-religious-text-here)-thumping, sexually repressed assholes who feel insecure unless the entire world endorses their particular brand of spiritual flagellation/masturbation. So, thanks!
That's what I love about the internet. In my real life, so many groups which bring up any topic which touches on religion seem to see debate, disagreement, and even honest discussion as hostile intrusions on what must now become a Sharing and Caring Mutual Support Group. "I don't think the earth is 10,000 years old myself, but how wonderful for you that you do, and that you keep strong in your own belief, if that is what is true for you -- I so admire that."
Without the internet I slowly die the death of a thousand cuts.
That's so funny! It nails my internet personality to a t.
Heh, classic xkcd. Been showing up everywhere, because it's so freakin' true.
Wronger than the wrongest man in Wrongland, on the wrongest day of the year.
MO
xkcd is so many kinds of awsome. We definitely need this one on a tee shirt.
Pee Zed should be happy his Trophy Wife is so concerned with the trvth she spends all her tyme correcting ijiots on Teh Internets rather than, ah, sleeping.
No tentacles, no beard, and neglecting a trophy wife(TM), can't be PZ. However, if a hot Architeuthis video was on the monitor. . .
Oh my God! Wear?
Eh, old news: bloggers have been like this for at least seventy years.
Huh. That's the sixth time I've seen that image today: I saw the original comic, I posted it twice on various sites, I saw it twice in different threads on the same webforum, and now here.
Randall Munroe is obviously following me.
I was on the XKCD forums last night and I read the thread for Monday's "How it Works" comic and I was just dumbfounded. Usually there's just a lot of programming in-jokes and congeniality, but for some reason all the bigoted evo-psych wankers decided to come out and spew their just-so stories for why women are just plain genetically inferior. Ick.
And then comes the next comic, "3 days later", where we see the same picture and hear:
"Are you still having that same conversation, talking to those same people?"
"Yes, it's the same thread. And, No, new trolls showed up to take the place of the original trolls."
At least until he loses interest.
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080208
#23- Much as I love XKCD, the forums there are a strange and scary place. I avoid them.
Too funny. My husband taped this one securely to my monitor so I'd know it was meant for me. . .
Never went to the forums. Probably shouldn't. I spend too much time in front of the computer already.
Yeah, this pretty much sums up my interest with the internet. I don't necessarily have to argue, but i like reading about people who are wrong, mostly in politics, but religion is also an unavoidably delicious subject.
#23, #26
You should have seen the forums when "The Data So Far" came out. It was horrible.
I used to be like that. Now I tend not to argue with people, but instead I find myself seeking out horrible wrong internet people's postings to read for entertainment.
I'll find some loony's complaint of blasphemy in an IMDB movie review, and read all of their reviews.
If you ever start to feel like you are overestimating the average human's intelligence, there's a two-word cure for it: youtube comments.
That's you? I thought it was me...
OTOH, Toronto just had a six-alarm fire in which no one was killed nor hurt. News commentators, bystanders and such said that it was amazing, surprising, fortunate, thanked the fire-fighters and other emergency workers, and no one said it was a niracle. The mayor said that the thoughts of Torontonians were with the people who lost their homes or businesses -- not their prayers.
In your life it's limited to groups which bring up any topic which touches on religion?
Lucky bastard. <.<
Well I suggest a jihad against these evil cartoonists who defame our beloved prophet, Pee Zed (peas be upon him), and who may or may not resemble the caricature depicted.
Can I just say that I have the exact opposite reaction to this cartoon? The Internet is about the only place I know where I can reliably run into people who are right about anything.
ZOMG!! That's a miracle all its own!
What I'd like to see is a convincing explanation for the psychology behind this cultural assumption many people seem to share that anything involving "the internet" is automatically trivial.
That panel is so very true. Can't count how many times I've wasted a Saturday morning ripping someone else a new one on a forum for being stupid.
Well, at least you're sponge worthy. :)
Oddly enough, today's Dilbert was especially just for me - I have the cartoon referenced in that strip taped to my desk...
Haha win.
At least PZ's dealing with people being wrong about science. I stay up late trying to correct people's misconceptions about "Death of Superman" storyline.
I note with glee that this comes just before the whale evolution post... and the guy *disabled* comments.
I know he'll never listen to anything. I know he'll remain willfully ignorant of anything which might challenge his comfortable views. The urge to try to explain anyway remains.
I can no longer allow myself to read any online discussion which includes ".999..." because it will make my head asplode. Who'll tell them they're wrong then?!
Fertile ground.
=LOL= Several years ago when DSL really started hitting the big time, a friend of mine had it installed. Not long after that, his wife was heard to say that the internet is the best form of birth control ever invented.
Yeah, this describes an insidious compulsive behavior that can be quite hard to overcome. You can't always correct people who are mistaken, even especially if they're insufferably confident about something ridiculous.
Occasionally doing it is good (you want to get good information out there). While obsessively doing so may not be bad for everyone else (unless you are the one who's wrong of course ;p ), it's generally unhealthy for the person doing it.
The best way to get information from people on the internet is not to ask a question. It's to post an error ;)
This cartoon reminds me of a joke I heard comic Mike MacDonald tell. He was talking about being lost in the forest and how someone had once advised him he should never go hiking without a cell phone. His tag to this was imagining himself calling for help and trying to describe where he was (like that was going to help somebody find him).
Then he related that on one occasion when he had told that joke an audience member had approached him after his set to explain that actually search & rescue people could triangulate on a cell phone signal and locate someone who was lost, etc, etc. He described this person pushing his way through backstage muttering, "Excuse me, excuse me. I have vital information for the comedian."
I just couldn't help thinking I know people like that (and I might be one of them).
It's not paranoia. We are all taunting you in some way.
Cephalopod torture
This is hilarious. When you are trained as a scientist, that urge to uncover and refute errors is almost irresistible at times. It reminds me of the old insight that an effective way to improve your citation rate is to publish something that is controversial and wrong now and then...
Somebody has been spying on me!
Treason! That Phoenician is taking words out of my mouth! And besides, I think Carthage should be destroyed.