What is everyone's honest thoughts on the normalfag discourse that has been around on the internet, and in particular imageboards, for the past two decades? Why is there such an obsession with said normalfags? Is there any legitimate points to be extracted from it or is just self-indulgent whining?
normies are just autistics fixated on social norms. dont take my trvke, speead it
>>726948>4chan screenshot thread>>727465never got bullied for being a freak and had plenty of friends while growing up, and so did most people that engage with the normal/freak nonsense. "normie" has come to replace "square" or any other word to say that someone is boring
in latam you usually hear "bourgeois" being used with the same connotation in left-wing circles, the idea is that the people that fit too well (and are thus unremarkable and uninteresting) have merely internalized bourgeois society. the word doesn't have the same connotation in english, this isn't the same as the people on social media that call everything they don't like bourgeois
I don't think it matters and I don't think anyone here should pay attention to it, neither for nor against. personality is fake, consumer identity is fake, and by this I don't mean anything deep, it literally does not matter, it isn't real
it kinda makes sense when your trying to parse out nerdy imageboard autists from the general population but most of the time its just arrogant NEETs with main character syndrome who think there hot shit for having no fucking friends basically as this anon describes
>>727465>>727473I think an ironic twist of fate wrt 4chan is that it basically got gentrified from actual autistic wierdos to surburboid /pol/acks who are all basically clones of the same annoying capital G Gamer.
>>727474>actual autistic wierdos to surburboid /pol/acksno difference lmfao. both are autistic and live in suburbia
>>727473ok and at the end of the day one watches netflix and the other watches anime or whatever
and if you are below 30 there isn't even that difference because anime is mainstream now. and so is being a nazi or a pedophile or anything else that separated 4channers from the average. a vanguard only in the sense that they happened to be the firsts with the grade of collective, internet-assisted voluntary isolation that has now become the norm
so no, the word, be it normie or npc, just means that you find someone boring, maybe unauthentic. nothing deeper than that
>>727477makes me think of how to many chvds "transhumanist" is basically equivalent with "procensorship sjw". like thats why they use it so often
>>727475That's the problem there really aren't any.
internet uyghas will talk all day about normies being hive minded community enslaved people dependent on society and external approval but go to the same forums everyday to interact with other people and seek approval themselves.
you are normal, you are just on the internet all day, truly exeptional autist beings don't need to talk to ANYONE or validate their opinions or identity externally, true autists just vibe, you don't really vibe.
>>727477The difference is that one leaves the house and has a job and friends and relationships, while the other doesn't and resents the former because of this. All chuds wish they were dudebros deep inside, they cope by inverting the moral compass like the Christians did to the Romans.
>>727476true on both being autistic and suburban but all the shit /pol/acks hate is arguably less mainstream than just being racist dork from the burbs like being gay furry who plays obscure indieRPGs is farther from what I would consider "mainstream" in the current US zeitgeist than some random channer who plays triple A titles.
>>726948i remember when i used to care about normies a lot because i was into weird shit and it impacted the way i socialized. pandemic worsened that too and it was hard to socialize in high school because of that. as well as the fact my mental health dropped during high school due to the amount of work i had to do thanks to me getting distracted by the shit i see on the internet and my fucked up untreated ocd my guardians refused to get me help for. the high schoolers were also immature to talk to as well. i think ai addiction contributed to the worsening of it as well. now im trying to recover
>>727465the internet used to be dominated by freaks a decade or two ago before the middle class started to rule it and make it more cooperative and and chuddies somehow breached containment and/or got access to the internet (not sure how it all happened but i did know the gamergate stuff is when it started going downhill) and now you can’t be a freak on the internet anymore without getting bullied for it
>>727511most people don't do that much, and most chuds also do those things. there is this narrative now that chuds just want a girlfriend and that if women would just concede a little then that would placate the right, but that's liberal nonsense - from "an enemy is someone whose story you haven't heard" to "an enemy is a guy you haven't fucked"
and by the way, it is significantly easier to make friends being a chud - it is "normal" people that struggle
all of this reinforces my point about the word "normie" meaning just "boring"
>>726948it's just an inane outgroup based on historical (and questionably-ever-existing) stereotypes.
the culture of an imageboard is ultimately determined by the moderation of that board, not by the social background of the people entering into it. 50 platonic normalfags dumped into a board that moderates in such a way as to encourage schizoposting will give you a schizoposting board, 50 platonic imageboard users dumped into a board that moderates in such a way as to encourage "normalfag" posting will give you a normalfag board.
>>727465the main people doing the bullying are freaks themselves
"i may be an autist, but at least i'm not chris chan" is the underlying principle. "normalfags" don't know you or care to interact with you at all, but weirdoes who need something to make them feel better about themselves will be absolutely ruthless.
>>727523the internet was never really dominated by freaks and was always dominated by the middle class.
in a certain sense there has never been a better time to be a freak on the internet. in 2005 you could be a furry, in 2025 you can find 100 people who share your exact specific variety of goth-sparkledog-nostalgia-revival-aesthetics with anarcho communist characteristics while still basically flying under the radar.
bump
bump again
>>727490This.
For all the talk about “free thinking” they sure are quick to anger whenever they hear about some new meme or other cultural product.
They also seem to obsess over cultural stereotypes to the point of psychosis.
>>727624Imageboards are more toxic than the average social media platform.
For all the criticisms against Reddit, TikTok, Twitter,etc. they all screenshot posts or embed videos from said sites to drive discussion traffic.
CP looms large as does gore. A lot of nonsense words and inside jokes which are excessively recycled.
Imageboards brag about originality and hobby boards but it’s often the same handful people on those boards and they have snobbery about them.
it's just semi-understandable resentment elevated to corny metaphysics, that's been 4chan's MO for as long as i can remember which is way before the MAGA takeover. it's always been about how you're intrinsically special for being on 4chan.
as someone who's a loser myself i roll my eyes immediately whenever a fellow loser starts up this talk about how the normals fear us because we're better than them or whatever. it's the cope that's always been given to us since we were kids: autism is a superpower, bullies are just jealous, etc. meanwhile if you ask us to name what amazing thing actually sets us apart from the normies who supposedly waste their time with vacuous things like partying half of us will start talking about stupid shit like how good we are at MOBAs.
>>734277
It is kind of funny how places like 4cucks /v/ will rail on and on about the "Woke and normalfags" and how above the "mainstream slop" they are when Youtube channels like Sseth, Asmongold, Cr1tikal, Crowbcat and many others just regurgitate talking points and "memes" straight from /v/ and end up getting millions of views and comments just blindly agreeing with them and saying how based they are.
Like, you ARE the normalfags now uyghas
>>734302>Like, you ARE the normalfags now uyghasAlways were but this isnt a good thing.
>>726948>Why is there such an obsession with said normalfags?What is s normalfag/NPC depends completely on what type of chan critter says this. What unifies them is the need to feel special and unique and separate from the rest.
>>727622>and by the way, it is significantly easier to make friends being a chud - it is "normal" people that struggleProof?
hey man how's it going
>>734585join literally any discord. even when they have rules against being a chud, people will trust you more if you signal that you're hiding your power level and that you don't take the anti-chud rules seriously. if you take a principled stand and go "uhm, akshually" every time someone uses a dog whistle, or if you don't engage with those people, or if you try to counter that with some other strategy, you end up either tired, expelled or excluded
it is stronger on the internet, but it also applies to real life. when you hear every single one of your coworkers say rather non-woke stuff, maybe you don't say anything because you don't want to be that guy, maybe you will even go along with it. but deep down you know you don't want to hang around with those people, you will never be friends
>>734722Cope and seethe, divergoid
>>734732This is unironically true and why I struggle socializing with men because casual cruelty is normalized and disguised as banter for plausible deniability
>>734732There's a difference between being politically incorrect and being a chud.
If the stereotypical image of a chud in mestspace were to say anti woke stuff, they'd be silenced.
But if it's a good looking guy, they'd let it slide.
But yea I guess you're right.
Reddit was having a freakout over Trump winning and accusing Gen Z males of being spiteful edgelords that helped him win despite the fact that everyone and their mom loves Trump.
I meet more women and ethnics that like Trump than those that like Harris.
>>734260It's a result of motivational speaking adults forcing artificial sociodiversity amongst children
>>734751Women are the same way
>>734755Yeah idk I've never had female friends
>>734732you're half-right, basically the coolest thing you can be in the eyes of the normie is a tolerant person who still uses slurs (see eminem, tarantino). most people don't like actual bigotry (obviously this varies depending on the groups being targeted, but few people will admit to liking bigotry "in the abstract") but they also don't like social policing because they believe this is a matter where they should be allowed to police themselves. no one likes being told that they're not allowed to use a word, especially when they feel it carries the implication that by wanting to use that word, they are bigots – when they likely don't see themselves as bigots.
it gets annoying with dog-whistles because the whole point of dog-whistles is to make you look like a nut for questioning them to people who don't know what they are. and to the credit of /pol/tards they've been able to manipulate this masterfully in some cases such as turning the "OK" sign into a 'white power" dog-whistle. because they know "progressives" always care more about "being right" in their own terms than actually sounding persuasive and reasonable to people around them, so while you're out there screeching that the OK sign is racist because you know in your mind that the /pol/tards have, factually, conspired to use it as a racist dog-whistle, the average person thinks you're an obnoxious nutcase who's calling everything racist.
>>734756Ofc typical image board user deifies women as automatic youthful empathy who never say mean things casually.
I have female acquaintances and the typical preachy chivalric stereotypes do not match reality.
>>734758Fucking this.
But what's it's really about is "think of the children". They don't care about bigotry.
>>734759I wasn't deifying them tho lmao I just never see women openly do the thing where they try being as edgy as possible
>>734758This, so much this
>>734758Sadly true. I once called a coworker out for posting transphobic "jokes" on the company chat group and nobody would talk to me for a month.
>>726948The problem with most of the discourse surrounding "normalfags" is that it comes from people who do not consider themselves to fit within that lable.
The idea of a normalfag is, to begin with a statistical lie. There are certain views, tastes, behaviors, and lifestyles that are technically more common than others, but it's generally not the kind of 90/10 split that the normalfags vs nerds framing seems to imply. Any society that exists at-scale is going to be comprised of thousands of subcultures of varying sizes. Obviously some of them are going to be larger than others, but there's never going to be a singular subculture with a majority share, let alone a supermajority. And even within this, very few people fit into the platonic ideal of whatever subculture they best fit within.
What I suspect it really comes down to is that people who grew up in environments where they didn't really properly fit in with any of the subcultures available to them end up constructing this kind of generalized ideal of the what the people that rejected them look like, and the result is a bunch of random, unrelated traits attributed to an abstract "normalfag".
>>735706The ultimate paradox is that relativity is the law of reality, both in physics and sociology
>>734758the way to counter this is to turn it into a game. they hate being policed but they love being in on the bit. this is where you get the more recent trend of obscure "references" in memes nowadays. heheh look its a dogwhistle
"DUDE IS THAT A FUCKING DOGWHISTLE DUDE BRUH" in ironic detachment
>>735777strangely enough twitter aka x and obviously rage bait taker og leftypol has not caught up to this line of thinking yet except for small pockets onsi/b/eria that get no replies but theres tons of skits echoing this bit of playing the lefty on instagram and tiktok, playing the role of the lefty by blurring the line between making fun of/embracing the bit in a way that mirrors and thus is able to play in the same realm as the dogwhistles ambiguity
once again the youth are leading a revolutionary movement.
>>735779in other words like lenin and stalin, we must take up stage names and act out our roles. CHOOSE YOUR STAGE NAME NOW COMRADES
>>735779of course it could just be my algorithm now that i read my own post but yeah. its not exactly ironic detachment making fun of extremists its toeing the line between schrodingers anarcho-stalinist at all times, an aura of confusion and ambiguity and
PURE AUFHEBUNG AKA ABOLITION play and realitu are blurred into an incalculable role that cannot establish itself until the given moment. a sleeper agent but not quite
>>735777but not exactly ironic detachment. youre not making fun of communists anarchists youre playing a fun role, a fun bit that you can dip into at any time depending on the situation. and when you dip too far and the "dialectics" gets a little too suffocating for the context, you can just turn it back on them by saying youre policing you and youre ruining the bit.
>>735782you may say this is a rightist tactic but the truth is they dont go far enough. they always retreat at the crucial moment of playing the bit by themselves. they cant invite others to join in the bit with them. its always them the individual against the world. they cant possibly imagine another individual having their same "unique" feelings which is why their friend groups just turn into competition into trying to hint hint nudge nudge the same jokes over and over again. this bit is meant to ease them back into normalcy. but why the fuck would you do that. the play is supposed to expand. it doesnt stop there. other people are playing the part of normalcy and now we're slipping back into it just become you virtue signalled raping minorities and saying slurs? HOW FUCKING LAME. what fun is that to do all of that playing just to return to the original play. HAHAHAHAHAHAH WHAT THE FUCK.
>>735777The way to counter it is to not directly counter it, but instead make fun of it eleswhere. It's a waste of time to try and out-propaganda someone with a home-turf advantage.
>>735777>>735779You can pretend to have a Reddit like soy meltdown over le problematic chud dog whistling only so many times before everyone will start thinking you're an actual soyman losing your marbles over nothing and you'll become the designated clown of the group.
>>727465This always sucks so hard
>>726948cant fucking stand normies
never have, never will
i feel it is imperative that i mention i have a real history with normies, an impassioned hatred dating back to posts i made on /R9K/ in the year 2015
i fucking hate normalfags
>>727475thats very presumptuous of you, anon
i KNOW how to blend in with fucking normies I JUST FUCKING HATE THEM
>>734758> the average person thinks you're an obnoxious nutcase who's calling everything racist.You know, this is really driving me nuts. You start to develop triggers and OCD.
Chuds literally took a psychiatric term (trigger) and turned it into a meme: "Look, our shitpost and bigotry have driven her nuts, how hilarious."
>>736225people wokely misuse clinical terms all the time, like this thread which i now consider my *hyperfixation*
>>736222what is a normie in your eyes? what makes someone fall into that category
>>736226No, the term "trigger" is used correctly.
It's bad that rightards turn neutral numbers, symbols, and words into dog whistles. This really does interfere with everyday life and is a constant trigger.
>>736230go shit up some other thread with your obvious bait
>>736227you're asking as if it's some singular thing
Autistic nerds who were too much into Japshit at the time when only 1-2% of people outside East Asia cared about Japshit; this makes their brains shortcut and they get convinced they're special and smart (they're neither).
>>736270>only 1-2% of people outside East Asia cared about Japshitbro that is a massive amount of people
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