Monday's Most Active Threads

For the first time in a long time, none of the top 10 most active threads were ones that I previously discussed. That almost made me feel that something is wrong. The most active thread was titled, "SMU? Really?" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. As I have been saying in recent blog posts, we are now in the college admissions season and will have many threads such as this one dealing with admissions decisions. The original poster says that her son applied to Dartmouth University during the early decision round and was turned down. He is now considering Southern Methodist University, and the original poster and her husband are worried about job prospects from a non-elite college and find the choice very disappointing. Unfortunately, the original poster is a troll. Almost immediately after starting the thread, the original poster began posting replies using different personas. Mostly, the original poster posed as a third party responding to the original poster and fluffing SMU as a great college and Dallas as a liberal bastion in conservative Texas. The original poster defended herself from criticism from other posters and, in turn, posted criticism of others. The personas used by the original poster changed, sometimes having a son, sometimes having a daughter, sometimes claiming to live in Dallas, and sometimes claiming to live somewhere else. Looking at other threads started by the original poster — which I subsequently removed — it appears that the original poster has been following this pattern from as far back as August. Since then, the original poster has undergone racial transformation, gender changes, had children who experienced gender changes, and considered a baffling range of colleges. Just yesterday, the original poster started a second thread titled, "Reed v Swarthmore". Strange that a student planning to commit to SMU is also planning an early decision strategy (presumably for next year) for those two schools. Based on the IP addresses used by this poster, my guess is that the poster is a college student who is currently home for winter break. If so, it is sad that trolling DCUM is the best way the individual has found to spend their free time. As an anonymous website, DCUM is very easy to troll. It really takes no talent. However, as this poster shows, if you do it long enough, you will eventually be caught. Perhaps that doesn't matter, but hopefully, the karmic effect of a significant number of people simultaneously thinking you are a loser will have some impact.

The next most active thread was posted in the "Off-Topic" forum and titled, "Multiple injuries at Wisconsin Christian school". Obviously, the thread is about another school shooting, this one in Madison, Wisconsin. A 15-year-old female student at the school shot and killed a teacher and another student before killing herself. Five additional students and one teacher were injured, two of the students critically. Shooting threads on DCUM have become grotesque and, if this trend continues, I may prohibit them. Nobody really cares about the dead and wounded. Rather, dead children simply provide an opportunity for posters to try to score political points. The now traditional debate about whether the cause of such shootings is guns or mental health is, of course, to be expected. But now there are several additional layers resulting from current culture wars. Because the school in which the shooting took place is a Christian school, posters felt the need to weigh in on any role played by religion. Republicans have sometimes argued that school shootings are encouraged by a lack of religion in schools. It's fair to point out that was not the case here. But some posters couldn't resist this opportunity to pontificate about their religious (or more commonly, anti-religious) views. School shootings have now become entangled in the current wave of anti-transgender hysteria. When it emerged that the shooter was a girl, some posters immediately engaged in an effort to cast her as trans. One poster, whose posts I've since removed, engaged in very obvious trolling. The poster switched between anti-trans posts and posts that appeared to support trans rights. And, of course, there was a rush to peg the shooter as either a Republican or Democrat. It was disappointing to see that many posters still relied on X (formerly Twitter) for information about this shooting. This had the predictable result of spreading disinformation. Apparently, some posters are still not aware of how Twitter has become a disinformation machine. Because tweets have been monetized, users are incentivized to produce viral tweets. The most likely tweet to go viral is one reporting apparently new and controversial information about an event such as this shooting. A tweet saying that "few details are currently known about the shooter" will get little exposure. In contrast, one saying that "the shooter was a trans girl who worshipped the Devil" will be widely viewed. Moreover, the X algorithm will propel such a tweet to the top of everyone's timeline. No matter that the viral tweet is completely false. The worst aspect of this is that people tend to believe the first thing they hear. Once posters get it in their heads that the shooter was trans, it is near impossible to convince them otherwise. So, good work, everyone.

Yesterday's next most active thread was titled, "Do you miss every day ordinary service?" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. The original poster reminisces on the past when there were more people employed in service roles. For instance, grocery stores not only had cashiers instead of self-checkout kiosks, but had actual people to bag groceries and carry them to the car. Department stores had clerks who would assist customers in changing rooms by bringing different sizes of clothes. Gas stations had attendants, and restaurants had wait staff who would place a napkin on your lap and serve bread and water without being asked. Many of those responding remember the same things as the original poster and miss them. The one exception seems to be napkins being placed in laps, which several posters find "creepy" and are glad to see go. One poster says that she is currently living in another country that has cheap labor, and all of these services still exist. She is very appreciative of it. This highlights the dilemma with providing such services in the United States. As wages rise, the cost of employees obviously rises as well. This results in higher prices that upset customers. Not true, argue other posters. The lack of services is a result of corporate greed. If corporations were not paying their CEOs millions of dollars, they could afford to hire more service staff. Many posters have fond memories of performing these now-extinct service jobs during their youth. For them, the loss of these services represents a lost era as well. On the other hand, many posters are reasonably happy with the current situation. Many posters are particularly happy to see the end of gas station attendants (outside New Jersey at least). They find pumping their own gas to be quicker and cheaper. There are still a few holdouts, however, who prefer attendants. While some posters look at the past as almost idyllic with its plethora of service workers, others see it as a time of great inequality, especially between races. But not all posters see increased racial equality as a positive development. One poster claimed that people are not as nice these days and then went on to blame changing racial demographics, saying, "diversity really isn’t all that great and hurts communities of all races". It seems that for some posters, it is not simply the loss of service employees that bothers them, but rather the loss of White service employees. However for most posters, this issue simply comes down to money. Places that pay a decent wage for service employees generally have helpful and polite service staff. One poster cites Costco and Aldi as businesses that attract dedicated staff who are skilled, polite, and experienced.

The final thread that I will discuss today was posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum and titled, "ED really has to go!" The original poster says that she has just received a telephone call from her daughter's high school counselor due to her daughter having a meltdown regarding expected college admissions results. Apparently, the original poster's daughter submitted an early decision application to her dream school and, on the day that results were due to be released, another student told the original poster's daughter that the college would not accept any students from their high school. This caused the original poster's daughter to unload on the counselor regarding how hard she has worked to have this opportunity. The original poster is herself somewhat distraught, worried about her daughter and how they will handle the expected bad news. She blames the practice of early decision admissions for causing students to get fixated on their dream schools, then announcing a specific time and date that results will be released which causes anxiety to build up, and then releasing the results just before the holidays which ruins them for some kids. She says she is at a loss as to how to handle the situation when her daughter gets home from school. The original poster is either particularly neurotic or a troll. Just hours before she started this thread, she started another one asking how others make it through the day when they are expecting big news. In this thread, she sock puppeted a response in the guise of a third party. As posters are quick to note, the original poster's daughter's anxiety — as well as the original poster's own anxiety for that matter — have nothing to do with ED. The daughter has become particularly focused on this university and would feel the same way if she had applied in any other round of admissions. Some posters blame the original poster for not doing a better job of managing her daughter's expectations. What is notable to me is that this thread and the drama reported in it all occurred prior to an actual decision being released. As far as I can tell, the original poster never updated the thread once a decision had been received. For all we know, the girl might have been accepted. Some posters agree that ED should go, but not for the reasons cited by the original poster. Rather, in the view of these posters, ED benefits the wealthy. Because ED requires committing to attend the school if accepted, students are often forced to commit without knowing the amount of financial aid, if any, they are likely to receive. For this and other reasons, ED is often seen as an admissions round that particularly benefits those with money. As such, some posters would like to see it eliminated in the interest of fairness.