The Chainlink

Edit: Thanks to Peenologist for the Worst Thread Ever crown.

Edit edit: D'oh! he said Worst Possible Thread, not Worst Thread Ever.

7/17: "was Fight with Gabe" removed from subject line for the sake of beauty, privacy, and security.  Representative images added (too bad threads can't have their own custom avatars):

 

 

Picked up on OPCC listserv per Bill W; presumably posted today.

I don't know why Active Trans didn't put a warning out about the previous incident mentioned here.

===

Authored by Tom McGee and posted on the Oak Park Cycle Club facebook page.  :
LAKE STREET WARNING: With the warm weather, and newly added bike lanes on Lake Street, there have been more bike commuters heading into the city...unfortunately, there are some rough neighborhoods people need to cycle through and area street punks see the increase in riders as well.

On my way home from the city to Oak Park last night I was jumped by 2 male teens in an attempt to steal my bike. This occured at Lake & Lavergne. One guy was on the sidewalk, the other hidden behind an L pillar. As I was approaching, I sensed it was bad, but it was too late to react. They came at me from the left and right and pushed me off the bike. I was clipped in and went head first over the handlebars, landing on the right side of my face and shoulder. They did not go for anything but the bike, so when I realized that, I wrestled with them and kept my bike. A motorist stopped to help me, and seeing this they ran.

A number of good samaritans stopped to help me, called 911, and paramedics were on the scene within 10 minutes to get me to the ER. I'm stitched and bumped and bruised, but it could have been a lot worse.

I strongly suggest that riders get the word out to friends who commute, try to ride w/others (there are a number of group rides to/from the loop from what I've heard), and try not to ride too early or too late when other people may not be around to help. 

I've already spoken with John Lankford, Bikeways Campaign Coordinator w/Active Transporation Alliance. He said there was a similar incident on Lake the morning of Bike The Drive. So they are aware of the problem, and will be approaching people @ CDOT and the city to try and address it.

Ride safe,
Tom McGee
 

==

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Not that "social norms" are all that healthy or good either.  

Whatever happened to people being able to disagree with each other (and the social "norms" for that matter) in a somewhat less aggressive, argumentative in-your-face and  less confrontational manner instead of zero-sum censorship newspeak mode where only the politically-correct moral majority gets to promulgate the same-old/same-old paradigm forever at the expense of the minority that disagrees with these "social norms?'

If we are going to have any degree of people being able to freely voice differing opinions then the "offensive" (to some) speech must be equally protected as the speech made by others who fall into the current majority-thinking 

h' said:

 It's just that the Internet's anonymity makes it impossible for them to resist spewing vitriol from the protective cave of cyberspace. Psychologists call it the "disinhibition effect," in which "the frequency of self-interested unethical behavior increases among anonymous people." Non-academics refer to it as "John Gabriel's GreaterInternet Fuckwad Theory": the combination of anonymity and an audience bringsout the absolute worst in people.

"Social psychologists have known for decades that, if we reduce our sense of our own identity -- a process called deindividuation -- we are less likely to stick to social norms," wrote Michael Marshall in New Scientist . "The same thing happens with online communication... Psychologically, we are 'distant' from the person we're talking to and less focused on our own identity. As a result we're more prone to aggressive behavior."

 

Substitute "behind the wheel of a car" for "protective cave of cyberspace."

Online disinhibition ranges from benign -- oversharing of personal information -- totoxic, virtual hit-and-runs in which you call writers stupid racists, or in which youwrite, in response to the shootings in Colorado: "What kind of idiot parent bringstheir 3-month-old to a midnight movie. Morans." Hey, no one ever said you had to be a good speller to be mean.

 

"Morans" is an established internet meme-- maybe author needs to partner with someone with a little more insight.

You just entered the competition for most random words strung together! Congrats ;)

PS. People seem to have a hard time lately figuring out if and when I try to be funny or not. I hope the emoticon at the end of the sentence clarifies my intentions...

James BlackHeron said:

[...] zero-sum censorship newspeak mode where only the politically-correct moral majority gets to promulgate the same-old/same-old paradigm forever at the expense of the minority that disagrees with these "social norms [...]

:P

Just because someone has a hard time understanding something doesn't necessarily mean it is incomprehensible.    Sometimes, maybe even oftentimes, this is the case -but not always.

James sometimes has issues with advanced mathematics textbooks.  It must be all gibberish...

;)

But this commenter gets what you are saying there -and you are not the only one who has this same issue with people not getting their humor. 

Duppie said:

You just entered the competition for most random words strung together! Congrats ;)

PS. People seem to have a hard time lately figuring out if and when I try to be funny or not. I hope the emoticon at the end of the sentence clarifies my intentions...

James BlackHeron said:

[...] zero-sum censorship newspeak mode where only the politically-correct moral majority gets to promulgate the same-old/same-old paradigm forever at the expense of the minority that disagrees with these "social norms [...]

"O" used to post on the chainlink with links to his blog. I believe (but don't "know") that at some point "management" had a talk with him about using this site to drive traffic to his blog. "O" then disappeared for months. 
 
"O" is back, and while he no longer posts in his "links to my blog" format, he is apparently using these discussions to mine for content. I have reproduced his July 17th blog in its entirety, so you don't have to click through and generate traffic on his site. Think before you engage.
 
 
By Beezodog Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Gabe : ChainLink’s Entitlement Poster Child

The Rev. Corey Brooks is making a pit stop this weekend in Chicago.

Background

Background Reading:

If I were a political satirist I would write a monthly check to Julie Hochstadter for her tireless efforts in managing one of the fertile sources of horse manure available anywhere in the country. Pound for pound we have some of the most interesting characters imaginable spouting goodness knows what sort of misinformation each and every day. All of it served up with heaping doses of a sense of entitlement that is breathtaking.

The thing that is most obvious is that if this were a web forum situated in a black neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, the FBI and the CPD would have long ago found ways to have it dismantled as one more hotbed spawning violence. The difference of course would be that instead of rants about the “urban youth” being responsible for this or that it would be harangues against “hipsters” from the North Side who needed to be taught a lesson regarding who “owns” the southern end of the Chicago Lakefront Trail.

But instead this forum hosts threads in which a member sees a confrontation between a police officer and a cyclist and decides that it warrants a report to Internal Affairs:

I plan to call their Internal Affairs office. I didn’t do it today, because I was hoping that another witness got the license plates number. Regrettably, no one did. However, I have a very good description of the driver, and I did follow his antics the whole way, as I was driving immediately behind him. I did not want to write a long essay on Facebook, but it was very scary and reckless behavior, regardless of whether the cyclist had actually done anything wrong — he did not. Even when he was pushed against the car by the cop, he maintained his composure, and was just trying to diffuse the potentially explosive situation. I’m really glad that no one was hurt. This cop endangered easily a half a dozen cyclists by forcing them out of the bike lane and into oncoming traffic. I narrowly missed hitting one myself with my vehicle, because he appeared out of nowhere trying to get out of the way. I really couldn’t stop and take notes, because I had two kids with me in the car.

At this point there is no knowledge of how or why the confrontation occurred by the member saw something that folks on the South Side of Chicago see each and every day and suddenly she is ready to report it to Internal Affairs. She would be a very busy person in most minority neighborhoods in virtually every big city in the country were she to take that tack as a member of those communities.

Crime is a very real problem is most major cities. Indeed in Chicago it has become our number one issue. We are fast becoming the Murder Capital of the Midwest. We already have visitors from outside the city phoning to find out if their conventions need to be transferred somewhere else. The Mayor and Chief of Police have grave concerns about this. But unlike some ChainLinkers they don’t resort to public name-calling but rather have developed a plan to deal with the true source of the violence, namely, gang activity.

But alas this is a web forum whose membership is largely white and what goes on here is allowed because of that fact.

Take a listen to one of the ChainLink’s finest (Gabe) as he tries to set the rest of us straight on what’s wrong with Chicago neighborhoods:

Howard – i went to bed – and now I’m sorry I did. So the original deleted response was”

People shouldn’t have to be told that the west side is a shit hole.Hey Bikers, the West Side is a shit hole! ;-) “

I feel so much better now ;-)

Every now and then at least one person tries to channel Don Quixote on this forum. Daniel G makes an attempt :

If you let ghettoes form, don’t be shocked when people get territorial about their shitholes. It’s all they have. Just another hazard I don’t dwell on. If I let myself become preoccupied with whether cycling was “safe” on Diversey or Clark or Lincoln, I probably would stop riding in Chicago altogether. We are all basically activists treading a new trail and it is not safe. People get drunk and violent past 6pm, so ride fast. Segregation by race and income is a costly, bloody project, and we don’t get to cross between the good and bad sides of the tracks for free. Maintaining a presence there is very important and positive though, and the westsidecommuters should consider sending a rep to a neighborhood association meeting on the west side once in a while. Bicyclists are uniquely invested in the conditions of a neighborhood and its streets in a way that other road users aren’t, and nearly all west side residents will respect and acknowledge this.

Ride in groups, ride with mace, or take Armitage and just ride all the way around. Most parts of the west side are lovely at 7am, when I ride through. No parts are lovely for cyclists at 7pm.

At this point the thread has already devolved into name calling of one member against another. Dan Brown wades in with this version of the truth:

isn’t the chainlink great ? where else can we curse each other out and then make up over beers and washing bikes ???  I love to swear as much as the next guy or gal; and I will tell anyone to F*&% off.

Here is my $.02 :

the city and many suburbs have very bad sections many of us must ride through

crime rates always rise with rising temps (yesterday was hotter than H. E. double hockey sticks to ride home in btw)

we must all be extra vigilant as we navigate these “sh*tholes”

what really sucks is that is 100% acceptable for a thug to be wcalking around with a baseball bat

(he can claim “I am going to play baseball at the park…”) and the next minute it can become a

weapon against a cyclist or another innocent victim

let’s be careful out there and look out for each other !!!

happy friday ;-)

DB

p.s. kudos to everyone (esp. gabe) for calling a spade a spade

 Yes indeed Dan has identified the general ethos of this group. They love to swear at one another and to drown their bile in alcohol. What a wonderful combination. I found that very last line about “calling a spade a spade” especially clever. These guys always like to tiptoe up to the point where they almost call someone a “nigger” before backing off and thinking that “urban youth” is a bit more acceptable. But here he tries to slide under the radar of general sensibilities. Nice touch.
Dan goes on to give us a peek behind the curtain with this gem:

there are two things that are needed to survive on-line forums :

  1. thick skin
  2. short memory

Dan (honorary member of “Team Amnesia” (motto – “you don’t have to lie if you don’t remember what you did”)

Now for those who listen regularly to Rush Limbaugh you might recognize this as the rabid talk show hosts equivalent of “it’s just entertainment!” “Sure I just called your Momma a ‘ho, but it was all in fun. Don’t get Politically Correct on me!” And you should realize that Team Amnesia is his reference to being unable to remember because he was drunk at the time. A great line that and a motto for all of the hardcore ChainLink inner circle members.

Dave Barish finds this sort of thread a bit discomforting as well:

There are times when friends will all talk about a television program that excites them. If I have not seen the previous episodes I am lost when watching the current episode…I then viewed this thread and had that same feeling. Well…(and returning to our previosuly scheduled programing…)

Judgements aside, we all make decisions about how to get from Point A to Point B and consider the traffic, condition of the road and a variety of factors. Given the shared original post there is a valid assumption about routing. Frankly, its one that has changed very little in well over a generation.  Long ago I decided to ride to play Ultimate Frisbee with a friend’s team during the evening in Oak Park.  I was going from work in the loop. I decided to take a straight line path. I took Madison. I got there without incident but with great hesitation.  I chose to take Fullerton back east on my return trip. This was a less stressful trip.  I think I made a wise choice for the ride back east and would probably route myself the same way today.

His first paragraph contains a bit of a gem. As I read it there is a great deal about the ChainLink which can only be understood by having read the threads that led up to the current one. If you are not reading many threads you will certainly find yourself “lost” from time to time with innuendos regarding something else that happened in another situation. One more reason to suggest that like WordPress the engine that runsChainLink named NING also needs a Related Posts function.

Before I leave the thread itself, let me indicate that Gabe treats this sort of thread as a “game” of sorts. It’s all entertainment to him. He writes:

Worst Thread Ever?? Fuck that noise! I love how this keeps rollin on. It took longer than expected for someone to call me a racist. I laughed and laughed. It’s not race related to say an area is a shithole if the folks in that area agree it’s a shit hole and given half a chance would move. Decent folks leave the west side cause it’s a shit hole and more decent folks would if they could. Fuck pc nonsense and be honest – makes the world actually better vs better on the internet. Someone else brought up Englewood- wanna say – Also a shithole :) . Serge thanks for the Latin and grammar lessons and Craig love blasting Blackheron all day! Best sand box ever! :)

Ok. Now let me get to the reason for having dragged you through this verbal muck.

A Man of Principles And Most Importantly Action

Rev. Corey Brooks is a person who probably spends very little time in on-line forums beating his gums about this or that aspect of ghetto life. You can read about his efforts here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/15/rev-corey-brooks-rooftop-_...

Unlink the entitled few of ChainLink this man lives and breathes the painfulness of life in the Inner City of Chicago. He has not despaired. Rather than labeling an entire population on the basis of the crime rate in their midst he has decided to act. No blathering, bloviating, blustering, drunken discourse, just action.

When you are a black man living in a war zone the only real solution is what you can do to counteract the negative influences of dope dealing, gang warfare and prostitution. ChainLink could be a great tool for helping to spread some useful information about the work that this young man is doing. But not a single person in the thread above either knows about his efforts or is willing to come forward if they do. Why?

I think that reading about Corey Brooks and others like him who have given their lives to remaking the saddest parts of the Inner Cities should be mandatory before ever beginning a thread like the one cited above.

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About the Author: Beezodog

Yikes, this guy really needs to get a life.

My theory that O and James More are the same person is starting look better and better. 

Oh this is cool. He leeches content from chainlink for his blagh and the main window is a feed of chainlink threads. He's basically the perfect mess of entitlement.

What's worse is that he seems hell-bent on taking the "worst possible thread" crown away from this one with a thread of his own-- see "controlling the lane" for today's candidate.

MUST. NOT. SUCCEED.

Since O showed up I've been wondering what his deal is.  His grammar and flow of thought are normally pretty decent, at least above the general troll standard.  But people with that level of critical thinking normally doesn't waste their time trolling with this level of passion.

I was operating under the assumption that either:

A) a biker ran over O's cat when he was 8 and from that point on he vowed to do all he could to destroy, demonize, or annoy the cycling community

B) he's a tech worker at job that requires little to no effort

C) he really is a troll with no life

D) he's farming content for editorial pieces / blogs

Or maybe some combination of the above.  Excellent research ferreting out this trOll. 

A lot of it is pretty much boilerplate behavior for the sort of dude who figure's he's worked out the serious thinks in life and is ready to bestow his wisdom upon us. You get this a lot with guys talking down to feminists about feminism, straight people telling lgbt activists how they should do their thing, etc, basically they feel they've automatically earned everybody's ear and reckon they know better than whomever they're talking to, even if the person they're talking to has demonstrably more lived experience on the subject.

I mean since he's already got it all figured out, the only possible productive discussion would be agreement and accolades for his fantastic wisdom. Being contradicted is automatically unproductive because no one knows more about whatever than he does, somehow.

I see a similarity in both underlying style and the dogged single-mindedness of both O and JM.  

I agree that JM can write -which is perhaps why the sockpuppet James More's writing is purposely so abysmal.  I've run into people online who were very similar to O. Creating an entire crazy alter-ego and even publishing a book under that name wouldn't be a bridge too far for them. 

I not certain and can't prove they are the same person.  They very well may not be -but I have a hard time believing that James More is actually a real person, at least the image of the person he projects here.  He can't be for real, so therefore I think he's a fabrication of someone -someone bright enough to pull it all off, but crazy enough to think it is a good idea.  If he is a fabrication then there probably is more than one identity here. 

Looking at the blargh 'O beezleblub I have to believe that this guy is really putting some real effort into it with negligible real-world results.  Why?  Why does anyone do something?  I think your guesses are as good as anyone's. 



Derek said:

Since O showed up I've been wondering what his deal is.  His grammar and flow of thought are normally pretty decent, at least above the general troll standard.  But people with that level of critical thinking normally doesn't waste their time trolling with this level of passion.

I was operating under the assumption that either:

A) a biker ran over O's cat when he was 8 and from that point on he vowed to do all he could to destroy, demonize, or annoy the cycling community

B) he's a tech worker at job that requires little to no effort

C) he really is a troll with no life

D) he's farming content for editorial pieces / blogs

Or maybe some combination of the above.  Excellent research ferreting out this trOll. 

I have a very, very clear message for 'O' right here and now and I want him to perk up and pay attention:

If I EVER see you posting my words out of context, using my name or likeness on your blog and/or posting to/about me on a forum where I cannot respond to them you and I are going to have a very, very serious problem...

Oh, wait a little bit of research has shown me you are already playing this game...

Take that shit down or open your comments to allow those you are quoting and responding to a chance to respond back and defend themselves.  We allow you to continue to respond to our comments here, why do you not offer us the same courtesy on your website? 

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