So I decided to make a post in the subreddit for my nearest city. It was about development corruption by the University, and the fact that they have used money, power and influence to skip due process and corrupt both local and state government.
The first hour or so? Pleasant enough. Highly upvoted. Tolerant discussion. And then the fucking shills and trolls came. And they attacked. They attacked hard. Full on slanging match.
Guess what? Turns out they all, all work for the Uni, or at least claim to. We "outed" one of them as a fucking Zoom lecturer (surprise surprise that she referred to the fucking vice chancellor on a first name basis), after she had attempted to personally attack me, and even went for the full doxx.
It's crazy, there, now. Wild. Everything pointing out the obvious corruption, or widespread community disagreement (literally no one in the community, and off Reddit, wants this. Not a single person in any other forum, except for the manufactured consent on Facebook, has been positive. Not one) has been heavily downvoted, and every comment "supporting" the University, and saying how anyone in disagreeement is "dumb, ignorant hicks", have been highly upvoted.
It's frankly... Bizarre. Totally inorganic. Almost like they must have... People whose job it is is to to literally search out posts like mine, and run damage control. Like a very local version of hasbara, or Russian trolls...
Absolutely wild. I reckon they'll ban me, soon, for "being aggressive", or some bullshit.
Oh, and guess who one of the main "defenders" of the Uni, and the council, has been, all over social media? My old philosophy prof, at school, who was literally sacked for being an alcoholic ebebophile (you know, paedo for teen girls) and drug dealer, and has fled the country, but who feels the need to still comment on all local socials, because he is "a distinguished academic", and also happens to be "a philosopher", just like the completely corrupt VC of the Uni.
Former VC, who started all this shit, happens to have also been outed as a paedo, and sexual predator. Funny that. Almost like there's a pattern, innit?
Why are these places, and people, always like this? Lol...
Isn't human psychology fun?
You mentioned you were in Aus, which means there is a slightly different dynamic than the usa - you mentioned tall poppy syndrome, which I actually researched for my senior capstone 13 years ago.
What is most likely is there are some bots and inorganic users -- they are going to be your most vitriolic. But what they are also doing is providing an anchor point for discussion. They start being rude and inorganically upvoting themselves, and normies will fall in line because that is the cultural expectations they have grown up with.
Same is true in China and eastern collectivist societies (different culture and different manifestation, but same principle). Same is true in Europe to a much lesser extent (but the highest concentration would be in cucked, pro-eu countries in the west - belgians for example).
Don't really have much of that here in the US. Or... we didnt. Universities are creating fragile adults who are terrified of not doing things the 'consensus' agrees with.
My big point is this: I bet there are a good number of organic users also dog piling you because consensus has been curated to say its okay. So many people are blind psychological followers nowadays, and it is a major contributing factor in so many shitty governments. They dont need to build real consensus - just a loud minority.
Sorry its happening to you.
Yeah. You’re right, I think. Oh well.
It got so low, today, that I decided, “Fuck it, may as well message this girl I used to be close to” (not on Reddit. She doesn’t know about any of this).
She blocked me. Instantly. Before even reading what I wrote. Before I even finished typing my message of “Hey, I know it’s been a while, sorry about that, but how are yo-….”
Wild. Totally unprovoked. Totally… “Out of character” with the girl I thought I knew. With the girl I loved, though I never told her.
So that… Took over my evening. Far outweighed all this other petty shit. I would love to say I just moved on, and didn’t give it another thought, but nah, that’s not how this works, is it?
Still in shock, honestly. That someone who I still thought was great, even if we hadn’t spoken in a while, would slam the door in my face like this, literally without even a word, lol…
So… There’s that, I guess.
That's just women everywhere mate.
Anyway, it turns out this bitch moved states to the same place I was in (and didn’t tell me), befriended some of my classmates (outside of Uni, for her, lol. Through sport), and joined my local (suburban) football club…
A place I passed nearly every day, for 3 years, and had some involvement in…
I know all this, now. That place is mine, just as much as hers. I haven’t even been there for some time, now, but when I get back, I will live my life to my utmost best, in that fucking town, oh, and well she damn well ain’t keeping me out of the footy club, either. Not when the lads are playing.
If she has a problem with that, then, much like tonight, that’s on her. 🤷🏻♂️
I got there first. I lived there first. I had friends involved in that club first.
She damn well doesn’t get to move to the other side of the country, to my new local area, and take that away from me.
Petty? Maybe. But fuck that, lol…