Have you ever tried acting as a Poe?

[Rocknrule]

On Yahoo, FreeRepublic, Topix, etc? What sort of persona did you create (conservative, fundie, etc.)? Did people buy into it? How far did you push it? (I try to be as realistically outrageous as I can, but keep it within certain boundaries of good taste) What are some of the things you said as a Poe?

Oh, and the definition of "Poe" is: a person who writes a parody of a fundamentalist/conservative that is mistaken for the real thing. Generally, it is almost impossible to tell if a person is a Poe unless they admit to it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Nevermore.

Um, what's a Poe? I assume it's not Edgar Allen...

[villager]

16. May we quoth you?

;-)

[hfojvt]

17. you mean you did it once

when you'd had too much amontillado?

[canetoad]

2. Before I admit to being a POE

You'd better tell me what it means.

[Rocknrule]

3. Original post edited to include the definition

[canetoad]

4. I admit, only once

I have a hard enough time sustaining conversations with people I like, let alone those who bare every tiny meandering of their limited intellect in a public forum.

Five or six years ago I heard about a group who decided to settle in South Carolina, turn the state into a religious haven through sheer numbers then secede. Well, they had an online forum where they discussed things like, 'Should women be allowed to wear pants'. Apparently the bible has some words about women who wear mens clothing. This became a great bone of contention in this forum.

I threw in a couple of opinions, laced with theology and a big dose of self-righteous authority. They seemed to quite like it but I lost interest and didn't persist.

To me it speaks more to the person who has the time and inclination to carry out these deceptions - and that is what they are. Why the hell can you be bothered? What do you get out of it?

[RandomThoughts]

5. Actually that is part of doctrine.

There are many that are serious, and many that try to be paradoys.


What most don't understand is that what they think it means, is not what it means, so they can not parody or mock some things, because some will find good parts in it. At the same time, those that try to speak about good things will sometimes be thought to be doing a paradoy when they are not.


Although I agree that fundamentalist have some learning to do, as we all do. Most of it I think is fear of doubt, but without doubt you can't think on faith, so some just do what they think they are being told.


It is about the viewer, or 'in your eyes'.

Since there is bad and good in most of those things, if you try to parody, there is going to be some good that gets through, if you try to share something as you believe it, some blockers will be in there also.



Many people that say they are of a religion are actual Machiavellian, that religion teaches to lie and say you support a religion.

So I think there are actually three groups,
those that really have a faith,
those that pretend to have a faith for other reasons,
and those that have a faith and don't know it yet.

[Rocknrule]

6. I was a very committed Poe, and it caused me to lose a great deal of faith in humanity

This was fairly recent - on a Yahoo thread about DADT, I posted increasingly outrageous things under the name of a militant right-wing poster I encountered once on Topix years ago. I probably took my role a little too seriously, as I was able to goad a few right-wingers into openly admitting that they admired Hitler. Some of these people made explicit death threats against gays and liberals and one even said that his "fear of God" was all that kept him from carrying out a "gay Virginia Tech".

[canetoad]

8. How do you know they were serious

and not just doing a big fat reprise on you?

[Rocknrule]

10. These comments weren't just in response to mine

They were open, unprovoked threats

[RandomThoughts]

14. I would not choose to do what your choice on that is.

Although could be I have different view. And I do tell stories sometimes, mostly when building thoughts on things. So it is possible to extrapolate many ideas without meaning to make statements of belief, but just thinking on things, also why I think every person has to decide what is inspired, and why I don't claim that what I say is inspired, but it could be. Don't really need to know that.

And I don't worry if people are doing parody or not.

My view is that I think reason and faith go together, but that also means I can not see everything said by everyone as to be truth because they say it. And that includes many interpretations of holy text. But once you think that, it weakens your faith, so then you have to think on it, from that I realized many inspired writings include biases from many sources, some good and some bad, and also items with a social context based on the time.

So it became trying to find things I could learn from in many places, from there I started seeing things differently and seeing really good stuff in many places, and the 'bad stuff' really is not seen unless I try to see it now.

So I can find much good comfort and great things in either an honest attempt to share some joy, or even a paradoy, by how I choose to see it, and by finding what might be the attempt of a better thought getting through a thought trying to block it.

Although of coarse I got issues, and don't even think like most people do about what is sin and what is not, because it has to also make sense, and also fit into a balance of modesty in all things, but again that came from reason supporting faith.

So anyways, what was the comment again? Ahh fake posters, there are many of them in many places that are making fun of the entire population, and many in other places also.


There are some songs that I find great spiritual comfort in, even if they were meant to be a parody, and I don't try to figure out if the artist is trying to do a parody or not, why would it matter if I can find good thoughts in the song. That is what I think of as 'the can opener' destroyers being 'tin cans'


I also don't think that people are trying to do parodies, since that might not be there intent, you can't know, since there are blockers trying to get you to think it is a parody many times when it is not.

[Edweird]

7. You mean 'trolling'?

[canetoad]

9. No, POEing

but we still done know what POE stands for

[Edweird]

11. See, I was thinking "Poe Toasting" based on the subject line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe_Toaster

But the body of text describes 'trolling'. It's apparently 'trolling' by another name.

[Rocknrule]

12. I like to think of it as a slightly more sophisticated form of trolling

That is, trolling for the purpose of using very edgy satire to get a point across. But you're right, it isn't much better than trolling. Fortunately, my interest in politics and social issues comes and goes, so I do very little of it.

[Edweird]

13. Actually it's entry level trolling.

Sophisticated trolling is getting them to fight amongst themselves without them realizing that was your intent.

[dimbear]

18. Not just trolling.

It has to be in rhyme. Let's see:

I hear the best stuff on Glenn Beck,
It makes those lefties mad as heck.
Ann Coulter is my sweetie-poo,
She gives the left the fingeroo.

[Iggo]

15. I'm sure I don't know what you mean. (n/t)