The Walking Dead : The drive to identify the catfish

The drive to identify the catfish

Only some people are really invested in this. Typically, these are men. In the Erica case, hungry and Orson were the prime movers and shakers. Putin was involved initially, but he's always been more interestingly androgynous about the whole thing. Women tend to be less bothered about catfish, except if they are very male-identified and want to be liked by the catfish-hunters.

I suspect that the real energy in this business comes from male posters who wish to monitor and police the boundaries of gender. They are threatened by intelligent female posters and want to humiliate them. The easiest way to do this is by implying that they are old, or ugly, or (horror of horrors!) male.

Erica is not particularly socially adept, but she's certainly far more intelligent than the thugs who have been going after her.

Women who contribute to catfish-hunts need to closely scrutinize their motives. You can't be any kind of feminist and get involved in such nonsense.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

I'm still waiting for your identity to be exposed. You're not a professor. You're a politician.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

Whether I'm a prolitician or a polfessor is beside the point. I'm a brilliant analyst of trivial doings and a shit-stirrer of extraordinary proportions. Let that suffice.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

polfessor

Yeah, you're not a professor. Your reply sounded like how a politician would reply. Women are superficial too. We want to know what the guy looks like. What makes you think that a woman wouldn't be interested in hosting that series Catfish or is one herself. For all we know, you guys could be convicts, rapists, serial killers or con men.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

My favorite part of this is you a man speaking on what constitutes feminism

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Better than you coming on the side of the catfish stalkers. I'm disappointed in you, dude.

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Haha, I'm on no side homie, especially "Orson & His 1000 Socks." That dude is a fucking tool.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

Okay. Good to know. He'll be along soon to make a scything comment and tell you you used to be 6/10 on his spectacularly useless scale but you are now at 4.3876592.

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Dude, I'm been at "Full Mongo" since Day 2 of my arrival.

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He seems to have taken a really violent dislike to you. I think he's pissed at how welcome TWD OGs are made when they return. GoT was more like a seedy YMCA than a home.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

over something as petty as me saying masks don't really work (which I believe but I'll save my detailed reasoning for another time.)

The call out that one time was hilarious because to me it's the most chicken shit way to call out someone because I am "user blocked." Such weakness.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

I’ll offer a different take from the one I shared in the Klam thread. Perhaps the reason it’s mostly men who are doing this is two fold:

1) Homophobia: where it concerns interactions with “women” online, it’s difficult to know if the other party is female. What if they’re male? What if you start flirting with them and it leads to you actually being catfished!!? Oh lord! This rouses up all sorts of challenges to what it means to be a straight man,

2) Dominance: where it concerns interactions with any person, it is usually better to be the dominant party. If there are apparent holes in another person’s story, on a message board that’s a weakness you can use to exert pressure on the other party to get them to submit to your will. E.g. maybe you drive them off the board and that awards you notoriety

Ultimately it’s all very petty. I can be an asshole but I didn’t want to actually contribute to causing the girl to leave.

Cheerio.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

Ultimately it’s all very petty. I can be an asshole but I didn’t want to actually contribute to causing the girl to leave.
Very admirable of you. I wouldn't mind if she left.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

Interesting. I like the dominance angle better, maybe because I don't really see message boards as potential hook-up spaces. But the whole "you are not who you say you are" angle has always struck me as the weakest trolling. It's a distorted version of existentialist concerns about authenticity, which is, for me, the only interesting thing about it. I mean, it's fascinating that someone should sustain a lie about who they are for a decade or half a decade, but that tells us more about what a sad world we live in than about the person who's sustaining the lie.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

One thing that both you and Klam have brought up, and that I haven't given too much consideration to, is the argument that the person accused of catfishing ought not to be too concerned if his/her identity is questioned, if he/she is really what he\she claims to be. This is a very interesting point. I don't care, as is obvious, if anyone questions my claim to be a professor, but that may just be because the claim is not seriously doubted. What if you are a hot young female (more or less), and people imply that you are an ugly old hag? Is that offensive because: a) women are always vulnerable to such claims, even if they are considered pretty by a lot people? b) there is no way to prove your claims except by doxxing yourself, which is precisely what your tormentors want?

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

Lots of people come here to escape real life, I’d imagine. Now, imagine you come here and become a regular. Part of joining any group entails their acceptance of you and who you claim to be. Voices expressing doubt about who you are might make you feel that you could lose the group’s acceptance.

I’ll be honest, I think if someone challenged me and if I’m who I claim to be (a sexy millionaire), it would probably not bother me. But if everyone started doing it? This place is not relatively important to me but clearly I come here regularly for some reason. I might become a little insecure over losing the group’s acceptance and it may then cause me to me to leave whether I’m a catfish or not. But being a fake just amplifies the stakes and so you might be more apt to be bothered by accusations of catfishery

Cheerio.

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Re: The drive to identify the catfish

They hate women and are intimidated by women who are smarter than them. It’s very simple , my dear.

"You had me at Elk Tartare"
-Erin Wotherspoon

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

You're comparing apples to oranges. She posts vocaroos you can barely hear, and is probably faking being drunk. Who posts drunk vocaroos? No one is that transparent. We don't like the way she lies.

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Re: The drive to identify the catfish

Women are seen as more of an oddity on the internet still (even though it's probably an even split at this point) so they probably get more attention in general, but everyone is questioned when claims seem too far fetched. I've seen people doubt a guy is black, accuse them of faking pictures (Geewiz, PE to name two), assume guys are lying about their profession, question the type of house a guy claims to own and on and on. It's all about context, insecurities of accusers and past fishy behavior.

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Re: The drive to identify the catfish

I find it odd how there were no black posters on TWD board.

The fuck?

Cheerio.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

This is interesting because I think the assumption is people who have the option to socialize offline will do so and not bother socializing at all online.

Men see women as having say more options in dating and i think most guys find it unfathomable to find attractive women here. Yet there are several in this thread! Damn that was smooth

Cheerio.

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Re: The drive to identify the catfish

Whatever it is you're becoming, I approve. You're sounding really intelligent and interesting.

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Re: The drive to identify the catfish

I swear I've seen this thread somewhere before…

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

It bears a superficial resemblance to "The Thrill of the Catfish Hunt" but that's essentially a bestselling work of fiction. This is a dull sociology textbook.

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Re: The drive to identify the catfish

I thought Klam's OP was quite well done, but definitely defends the catfish-hunters as though they are good-hearted private detectives. I've always said she is overwhelmingly male-identified.

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Re: The drive to identify the catfish

I can disagree with its content but approve of the style. I do that all the time when grading papers. Klam is intelligent, but lacking in the more familiarly human qualities. She's a kind of well-constructed fambot who has limited access to human feelings.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

Didn't defend them… I questioned why they have a lack of empathy pretty blatantly. The private detective angle was just one possibility I was giving, but never suggested it was done with noble intent

Your post boils it down to gender even though catbug is one of the most avid catfish hunters I've ever seen and is female. My post is far superior and more nuanced.

Re: The drive to identify the catfish

I think Vlad brought up the primal thing and I said it could be. My actual belief for the drive is people hate having their intelligence insulted by the obvious lies these catfish post. Of course wouldn't understand or relate to this; you don't have any intelligence.

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Re: The drive to identify the catfish

More like it’s annoying.

I have a friend who is very insecure. He always exaggerates everything to make himself look better. But it’s so transparent. It’s so obvious he does it for attention and because he thinks it will lead to him getting respect. In truth, it leads to resentment.

Online, resentment is less likely to build. Instead, people voice their opinions freely. Where it concerns someone lying to the board, they’re going to get called out. When they try to argue about being called out, there will be a debate or an argument. That’s normal, it will never stop happening.

Cheerio.

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Re: The drive to identify the catfish

I agree. Someone posting the same lies over and over again is going to annoy anyone.

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Re: The drive to identify the catfish

I beg to differ on one point Dr. Bentley. I’m one of the few socially adept people who post here. I’m the only one besides Chika who takes months off from here to live life.

Now in the realm of substantive education I’m definitely far ahead of the majority of this board at a younger age.

"You had me at Elk Tartare"
-Erin Wotherspoon

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Re: The drive to identify the catfish

My apologies. I'm not particularly socially adept myself, so I may have been projecting.
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