By David Futrelle
Over the weekend, I put up a brief post about the sudden proliferation of “NPC” accounts on Twitter — noting the small irony that right-wing trolls were using a veritable army of sockpuppet accounts all spouting identical rhetoric and posting identical memes in order to prove that liberals and leftist are soulless, robotic “Non-Player Characters.”
Naturally, my mentions on Twitter were quickly overrun by, well, a veritable army of sockpuppet accounts all spouting identical rhetoric and posting identical memes in order to prove that I’m a soulless, robotic “Non-Player Character.”. After my post was retweeted by Paul Joseph Watson, the Boy Wonder of Infowars, the NPC meme sockpuppets were joined by an assortment of other far-right trolls.
Their message? Aside from a few who insisted I had failed to properly appreciate the glorious humor of their “parady “accounts, most responded with variations of the classic argument beloved by five-year-olds: No, u! By noticing their meme campaign, they declared in unison, I had proven that I was the real NPC.
Some had slightly more sophisticated arguments than “no, u.” Some of them insisted that the fact that I was just so darn mad about the NPC memes proved that I was a soulless NPC.
Yes, they are seriously claiming that the fact that I have emotions means that I’m a robot, because of course robots are so well-known for *looks at notes again* having strong feelings about things.
That said, my post about the NPC meme army wasn’t an angry one; I was, rather, a bit bemused that so many trolls were throwing themselves so enthusiastically into a meme campaign that was such an obvious self-own, revealing them, not the SJWs they were trying so ineptly to “parady,” to be the most prone to robotically repeating the same jokes, the same memes, the same accusations, over and over and over again, many of them using sockpuppet accounts created just for that purpose.
The one aspect of the NPC meme that does make me a bit angry, and more than a bit sad, is its dehumanizing nature. As I noted in my first post on the subject, the person who got the meme going in the first place was a 4chan anon who argued, in all seriousness, that those he disagrees with have no souls. As I pointed out in a tweet, this kind of dehumanizing rhetoric has historically been used to justify violence — up to an including literal genocide — towards those deemed less than human.
Naturally, the NPC memers have a response to this, which is that anyone who points out that their dehumanizing meme is dehumanizing is, you guessed it, less than fully human. I’ve already pointed out the strangeness of this logic on Twitter:
trolls: *create NPC meme that literally denies the humanity of people who disagree with them by saying they're preprogrammed automatons*
people who disagree with them: huh, this meme that literally dehumanizes me is kinda dehumanizing
trolls: this somehow proves you're an NPC! https://t.co/p4tOTSy7YN
— David Futrelle (@DavidFutrelle) October 15, 2018
Here’s that meme in full:
And here’s a similar one that’s been tweeted at me so many times I’ve lost count: 
Needless to say, the independent-minded thinkers who mock so-called SJWs for taking offense at their dehumanizing meme get quite offended if you suggest that they might be acting a bit robotically.
Indeed, many of them seem to be nursing deep grudges at all those who may have accused them of being Russian bots — or who have simply noted that many of their favorite meme campaigns have gotten the support of actual, honest-to-goodness Russian bots.
There are so many of these guys that when I tried to fit a bunch of them in a single screenshot I ended up with this blurry, glitchy mess.
The reddest and maddest of the Russian-bot-complainers was probably this guy.
Do they have a little bit of a point here? Is being called a Russian bot equivalent to being called an NPC?
Nope.
Here’s the thing. NPCs don’t exist, at least not outside of tabletop and video games. The meme — which, as I said, was invented by someone who literally thinks his opponents don;t have souls — is intended to suggest that actual human beings are somehow less than humans.
Russian bots, on the other hand, are very much real and used to create all sorts of shenanigans on the internet, often with the help of paid Russian trolls, who are also a real thing. Numerous detailed studies have shown that Russian bots (and Russian trolls connected to an entity called the Internet Research Agency) have been involved in all sorts of social media campaigns in an attempt to influence political discussions and sow discord generally. Russian bots may have been responsible for the disastrous victories of Trump and Brexit. They’ve pushed anti-vaccine propaganda on Twitter, exploited the death of college student Mollie Tibbits to divert attention from the legal woes of former Trump pals Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, and helped to sharpen political divisions generally.
These Russian bots and trolls have something of a symbiotic relation with right-wingers and channer shitposters generally — amplifying the complaints of both groups and having their own disinformation campaigns assisted by both groups in return.
It’s true that some liberals area bit too quick to cry “bot” when faced with right-wing Twitter trolls who are more likely assholes of the human variety.
But when people call right-wing trolls “bots” they aren’t saying that the people who disagree with them are less than human, They’re suggesting that certain twitter accounts are so predictable and unimaginative and repetitive that they might just be Russian bots. Given that thousands of accounts like these have in the past been unmasked as actual Russian bots, it’s really not an unjustified accusation at all.
But I’m not going to accuse any of those who descended upon my post of being literal bots, though for all I know some of them might be. I’m going to pay them the great compliment of treating them as human beings — albeit some of the shittiest and most pathetic human beings on planet earth, the sort of people who make me sometimes wonder if maybe the inevitable robot takeover of planet earth might turn out to be, well, something of an upgrade.
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@PocketNerd
Part and parcel of how ignorance and “innocence” come into play here. The “cuck” insult only has sting to those that share their particular racial insecurity, which they think is a default. Same thing with “All Lives Matter”: the assumption is that such sentiment is a default for people, but then knowledge of the individual cases comes along and shatters that right quick.
The same dynamic actually played itself out in my own head over the course of the year. You guys all know about that Pride Parade in Toronto that was protested by Black Lives Matter and the right seized upon as “the SJWs are eating themselves”? Well, at the time, I was hesitant to join in a blanket condemnation of the cops. I rationalized it in the same manner a lot did: “Don’t we want the cops on our side? And what about the LGBT officers?” While I still disagree on the tactic of stopping a parade in high June heat, it’s incredible what a couple years of knowledge can do.
For instance, knowing a serial killer was murdering gay minority men a mere stone’s throw from where you live and the cops clearly not connecting these disappearances–and the Chief straight-up blaming the community for not doing the cops’ job for them–kinda puts their biases into sharp relief for you. This article by Anthony Oliveira outlines other examples of police bias and failure just over the past couple of years in light of the recent permit granted to the Toronto Police Service to march in uniform.
As such, now I have to agree that Toronto Police have not earned the right to march alongside the avatar of the LGBT community. Not with all this baggage that makes it clear that the other 364 days of the year, LGBT Canadians are at best ignored and at worst mocked and harassed by their ranks. Because it’s those days that matter, not the one day when you have 100,000 eyes on you. Of course you’ll be on your best behaviour. It’s the day after we’re not so sure about.
And the only way one can disagree in good conscience is to remain ignorant of these events. I don’t have that luxury any longer.
Still trying to figure out my favorite individual self-own has been on Twitter. It’s either…
Some NPC troll successfully convincing another Trumpist that they were genuine by mentioning “impeachment.” They’d clearly been in the same echo chamber long enough to genuinely think that’s how “SJWs/leftists/marxists/whatever” talk. Or…
Another troll posting that NPC version of “name one racist thing Trump has done” (that inexplicably leaves the gray man speechless), someone responding with racist things Trump has done (Central Park 5, redlining, etc.), and the troll claiming they’re robotic NPC responses. It was like watching someone try to move the goalposts, but the goalposts fell on them, instead.
It’s literally just the umpteenth iteration of using “u mad?” as an insult.
I don’t think we can downplay how much of their behaviour is group signalling.
It doesn’t matter if their accusations are true, it doesn’t matter if their jokes are blatantly wrong. What matters is that their memes show what side they’re on.
That’s how it works for humanity as a whole, that’s one of the expressions of confirmation bias. It’s universal. We all do it to an extent, though some of us are better at being critical about our own groups.
On the chans and twitters, though, where everyone is anonymous? Group signalling is centrally important. And if you’ve happened to define your self-identity with one of these anonymous groups, you take on those signals as your identity.
It’s a failure of self-criticism. Arrogance, forever the undoing of the dude.
That they’re also TRUE is lost on the igno-right because, with absolutely no sense of irony, they feel that the left must say something different every time, or else the igno-right canned response of “sjw”, “npc” or whatever “insult of the week” is justified
One of my fave t-shirts shows the Mexico City Olympics winners podium from 1968, with John Carlos and Tommie Smith giving the Black Power Salute and the Solidarity with Oppressed Peoples Salute as the U.S. national anthem plays. Colin Kaepernick is kneelinr. This shows clearly that, yeah, we been saying the same thing for 50 years, cuz Y’ALL AINT FIXED THAT SHIT!!!
And when we do say something different (“wait, trans people have it as bad as gay people, if not worse,” or “climate change is a more accurate term than global warming”), they pretend it’s a sign of flip-flopping or disingenuousness.
Bad faith, all of it.
@Scildfreja
I think this is also a major factor in the absurd results that opinion polls often show. The ones where a significant majority of Republicans blame Obama for Hurricane Katrina, or describe Trump as “honest and trustworthy.”
My theory is that many authoritarians ignore the actual content of such questions, and respond to them purely as group signalling. So in a poll about Obama, they will read every question as “Obama good or bad?” and pick the answer that corresponds to “Obama bad!” to signal their group membership.
Same thing with Trump-related polls amounting to “Trump good!”
I suspect that you could fill a poll with ludicrous questions (Does Obama cause cancer? Does Trump cure cancer?) and large number os Republicans would give the “Obama bad/Trump good” answers regardless.
JenniferAndLightning:
I guess it depends on perspective. If you’re a horrible misogynist shitstain, you’ll find your every encounter with feminists revolving around their condemnation of your horrible misogyny, with every feminist condemning it the same way.
It’s like some reverse Anna Karenina principle.
“NPCs aren’t real”
“Russian bots are real people.”
Dude, seriously, learn what the hell a bot is. Just because some research group called a group of fake twitter accounts bots doesn’t mean they know what a bot is either. In computer/internet terms, it’s kind of like telemarketing robocalls, the kind where all you get is a recording, that are preprogrammed to dial up a series of phone numbers at random.
It’s literally the same thing as an NPC, especially now that they make them to respond to your questions so you think it’s a real person until about the second or third question (God, I HATE those kind).
In closing, way to fail the Turing test, Bozo.
Because they constantly treat slight annoyances as outrages (see the whole Taylor Swift thing) so clearly everyone else does! /s
As usual, it’s alway projection with thoses guys..
Ray of Rays skrev:
If it weren’t for bad faith, they’d have no faith at all.
@Katamount:
And the way some of the police are lying about being excluded from the parade doesn’t help, either. As people, they’re perfectly allowed to march in the parade, they just aren’t wanted in the parade as representatives of the police force. There’s nobody stopping them if they want to march in plain clothes. The insistence that they must be allowed to march in uniform or they’re being horribly oppressed is just so much canine property-marking.
I’ve said before that McCormack, the head of Toronto Police Association (don’t call it a union because they aren’t legally allowed to have a union), is the perfect example of everything that is wrong with the police.
@Ariblester
I don’t know, how exactly does ‘common media portrayal’ ‘square up’ with the San Antonio Four (just released two years ago)? Or nationwide anti-trans bathroom panic? Or anti-gay adoption laws? Or anti-lgbt child abuse panic as a whole? Or Roy Moore’s lavish treatment by the right wing? Or the fact that Nathan Larson is a candidate instead of an inmate?
Hell, just a year ago I read a story of an elementary school that called the cops on a guy for being black too close to the school grounds. It wasn’t even unusual by the tone of the article.
That’s the thing about nebulous concepts like media stereotypes versus real-life discrimination. There’s often a lot of doublespeak in the former that results in discordant realities in the latter.
My best guess is that it has everything to do with class and nothing with being a white man (i.e. being “white trash” or a social outcast).
@Vucodlak: Ah I see. The placement/wording of the phrase “they really are doing it” was misleading to me.
@Katamount:
And, after I wrote the last message, I just saw this:
Pride Toronto ends standoff with police over marching in parade, but not everyone’s happy
Yeah, no kidding not everyone’s happy. Especially not with the way the announcement was sprung as rather a surprise on a lot of people.
@Jenora Feuer
Surprised the crap outta me too… jeez, I just have a feeling this isn’t going to end well….
Since ignoring the antics of Far-Right trolls isn’t an option, I’d like to offer this idea: Don’t give them the reaction they want.
Forget the dark implications of the situation of all this stuff and just treat it as a huge joke….
….Just laugh at them. Laugh at it all. Keep on laughing! Laugh until they feel truly impotent! “Giggle at the Fashies”!
Trying to reconcile “get offended easily” with “offensive T shirt”.
Shouldn’t it be the Russian Chad bot getting all offended by his T shirt* and racing to the computer to write a 30,000 word polemic on how cucked society is?
*Which is probably something perfectly innocuous, like a woman laughing, or a black puppy and a white puppy playing together in a meadow, but which the Chad holds to be Degenerate Art.
AUGH! MY POST CAME OUT WRONG!
I’M TRYING TO POST A VIDEO, HERE!
TRY AGAIN!….
Since ignoring the antics of Far-Right trolls isn’t an option, I’d like to offer this idea: Don’t give them the reaction they want.
Forget the dark implications of the situation of all this stuff and just treat it as a huge joke….
….Just laugh at them. Laugh at it all. Keep on laughing! Laugh until they feel truly impotent! “Giggle at the Fashies”!
HOW DO I MAKE THE VIDEO APPEAR?! I REMOVED THE “S” FROM THE “HTTP” AND ADDED SPACES BETWEEN THE LINK AND WRITING!
OH! IT DID APPEAR!
Sorry! I wasn’t aware that it took a few seconds and leaving the page to make it happen.
Computer stuff is weird.
Who are you quoting?
I sometimes wonder at times like this why we should even bother with social media. It has been the direct cause of discord on an unprecedented scale despite its alleged purpose in bringing people closer together. In light of their operators’ obstinate refusal to moderate their sites and the impossibility of maintaining a meaningful discussion on all but the most inane subjects without it being derailed by trolls, fools, or fanatics, I am increasingly convinced that the only solution here is to shut Twitter and its cousins down completely to prevent their further abuse. While this solution might sound extreme and I do not deny that it would impact innocent users, I see no other way of dealing with what are essentially tantrum-throwing children save for treating them as if they really were tantrum-throwing children.
I don’t know that “bot” is the best designation for these guys. For reasons which should be evident, I don’t like it. OTOH, I think the phrase “useful idiot” fits the bill precisely.
@SpukiKitty
HTTP dumb aside, I think you have the right idea. People with a vastly inflated sense of their self-importance really, really, really don’t like to be made fun of. I mean, look at the raging meltdowns The Orange Cowpie goes into if he even *thinks* he’s being poked at. The same goes for the rest of his ilk, including all his little anonymous enablers online.
Not that they can’t do serious things, but being taken seriously is how they gain a lot of their power. Being shown up as the essentially ludicrous figures they are takes that all away.
The truly secure don’t give a damn what others think, and these people are anything but secure.
“The Devil cannot stand to be mocked,” and all that.