OK, this is what I get for feeding a well known, long-lived internet troll.

So I’ve gotten addicted to Twitter, the famed nano-blogging tool that is all the rage in the world of Web 2.0, mostly thanks to an Adobe AIR app called twhirl, which basically aggressively refreshes your twitter view for an almost-real time, not-quite streaming effect. It’s like RSS on cocaine, and I find myself chewing through hours of time using it.

So anyway, there’s this Internet persona known as Amanda Chapel, AKA Strumpette who is known for vitriolic, lacerating criticism of the PR world who takes pleasure in overturning hypocrisy. Depending on who you listen to, she is probably not a real person, but rather an amalgam fostered by three or four different people, who hide behind her image so as not to invite real-world repercussions and retaliation. Some might call such behavior cowardly. In Wikipedian terms, she is a sock-puppet.

Anyway, her incarnation has manifested upon Twitter, and I found myself following her, mostly because, as far as trolls go, her diatribes are somewhat entertaining.

My first mistake was to get involved in a conversation.

She preaches this apocalyptic message that the Internet is going to collapse from its own weight. I must admit, having watched the first dot-com bubble rupture in realtime and realspace, a voice like hers is a necessary counter-point to the unabashed evangelism of the Web 2.0-and-beyond crowd. Business is business, and if you ain’t making a profit, things are going to be very rough. Granted, Web 2.0 has none of the reckless exuberance that made the first dot-com boom completely insane. For the most part, companies have moved rather cautiously, carefully. Sure, there are a few voices out there that have overdosed on the Kool-Aid, but for the most part, it’s actually a lot more realistic than the first time around.

I did appreciate the link to Jonathan Zittrain’s The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, which recapitulates the rise and pre-eminence of the current consumer-oriented Net, and warns against the reactionary forces determined to lock it back down again.

Granted, the 140-character limit of each Twitter post is not conducive to deep analysis. It’s quite easy to take a comment completely out of context. So Amanda starts railing against how the demand for Web 2.0 is a manufactured demand. Consumers want services because they are engineered to believe they need these services.

Which struck me as an odd thing to rail against if you’re a proponent of the “free market.”

aswang Is this not the engine that drives “free-market” capitalism? Getting people to think they should want something?

amandachapel No. It’s not. Not all market “wants” are equal or good. Huffing is popular, too; that doesn’t mean glue companies should placate it.

aswang since when did ethics matter in “free-market” capitalism? have you ever really seen someone die from not having an iPhone?

The over-the-top condescension starts early, but that is to be expected.

amandachapel You failed in understanding basic business yesterday. I’m not very hopeful that you’re going to get it today.

amandachapel if the appliance is used to steal IP… that’s a problem.

aswang Seriously, I wish to be enlightened. I admit I don’t work in an industry that actually functions by market principles.

aswang I mean, what am I missing beyond the whole supply and demand thing?

We soon enter into ad hominem land.

amandachapel Go to college. Get a real job. Make a payroll. Build a portfolio. Then let’s compare notes.

aswang I have a real job. And my portfolio is unshareable due to federal laws. So I want to know where the disconnect is.

amandachapel to determine what all you are missing would be a long and tedious process that totally exceeds this medium.

aswang Or put it this way, why are you so sure you’re right? What makes you think I’m not?

aswang If evidence matters at all, I’m just extrapolating from the last 15 years. I just don’t see why it would stop suddenly now.

aswang the pharmaceutical industry, legal or not, leverages “free” all the time, whether you’re talking about crack or SSRIs

amandachapel For 1, your arguments are not progressive; they’re staccato. Also, the anchors of your beliefs are pure unadulterated Web 2.0 myth.

aswang but your arguments are purely reactionary and aren’t compelling. The only thing that links them is pure Web 2.0 antipathy.

aswang and you’ve got no evidence to back you up.

amandachapel To quote Woody Allen, “You’re nothing a fistful of Prozac and a baseball bat couldn’t cure.” I CAN’T HELP YOU!

aswang the anchors of Web 2.0 have been knowable since the early ‘80’s, comprehensible by children. you can’t get it w/o a long view

amandachapel Business = control. Business is about measurable return. The Web is a control machine. That’s all.

aswang just when I thought there was real wisdom. ah well. I appreciate your effort.

amandachapel Digest my favorites. Read Strumpette’s archives. Then, if you’ve got legitimate questions, come back.

aswang you make the mistake of thinking the web is a unitary obj. it’s a hallucination that we all somehow believe. the web IS a myth

aswang business is a very late comer to this hallucination

Aronado I feel badly for @amandachapel suffering from post-schizophrenic depression. God bless her ;)

amandachapel Indeed, the anchors of Web 2 are ONLY comprehensible by children, i.e. very young, sheltered and naive children.

amandachapel There you go. Good for you. Agreed. And business deals in reality.

aswang yes, but children grow up to be adults; and media–both old and new–traffic absolutely with myths

amandachapel No. That’s subjective Web 2 consensus crap. The moon is not made of cheese no matter how many of your friendz say so.

aswang if it ain’t tangible, it can be anything you want. such is the power and the flaw of the human mind shrug

aswang How many were fooled into thinking that Saddam Hussein actually had WMD after all? We can thank the media for that one.

amandachapel I don’t even know what the Hell that means. Sad part is you don’t either. You like the sound of it I think.

aswang the whole problem with IP is that it isn’t really a thing, at least not in the way we have evolved to understand things.

amandachapel No clock radio shuffled to the left and revealed its shadow. And there you have it.

aswang IP is a manifestation of the observer’s paradox gone macroscopic

amandachapel IP is property.

amandachapel See at the core, you OS kids don’t believe in property… because you don’t own any.

aswang so many would say. but ultimately, it is a fiction guarded jealously by lawyers. meet the next generation: renters, not owners

amandachapel That’s the fundamental problem. To accommodate the Web have nots, we need to dismantle the market economy. NOT GONNA HAPPEN!

aswang believe in it? like religion or the Easter Bunny? if it ain’t tangible, you’re asking me to exert energy. that’s the flaw.

amandachapel We’re done. We are NOT doing away with property. PERIOD.

aswang the market economy has gotten along fine without IP for centuries. our dependence on it may well dissolve our nation-state

amandachapel PS a dollar is a symbolic (fictional) instrument. We’re not doing away with currency either. Keep in mind, we feed you.

aswang we were screwed once we abandoned selling real things and started peddling mere ideas

aswang our only hope is if these ideas can actually lead to the creation of real things

amandachapel “May dissolve our nation state”! Ya know, every so often a true whacko comes along. Do you know Vaspers the Grate?

aswang hey I know as a fact that I’ll be one of the last against the wall when the Chinese decide they need us to pay now. shrug

aswang you may feed me, but I keep you alive :)

amandachapel Vapors spouts space fuck stuff, too. See http://tinyurl.com/5jy7rd. Go commune with him. Tell ‘em “zignord molgorfnu.”

aswang IP != real property

amandachapel Go grow up. When mom and dad kick you out of their basement, we’ll talk.

aswang ask the RIAA and MPAA how well that line of thinking is working for them

aswang I am entertained by how circumscribed your world is. Oh well.

amandachapel The cancer (the nonsensical anti capitalist theories you spout) certainly has spread. But the body is doing well and we own tanks.

Amanda seems to have this fascination with tanks.

amandachapel I am not entertained by how fucked up, naive and arrogant your world is. “Crush you like a bug” springs to mind.

aswang so well that every day we’re wondering if we’re in a recession or not? so well that smrt ppl deal in euros not dollars? ok

aswang the funny thing is, even if the whole thing collapses, i’ll still have my job.

amandachapel another non sequitur.

amandachapel Taking out the garbage for your mom is NOT a job!

aswang you’re being purposefully obtuse. but whatever. you know what i’m talking about. and you rail against myth. hah.

amandachapel Are you a communist?

aswang do a Google search and you will find that I am, in fact, gainfully employed. but you keep believing what you want to.

aswang all of us have our illusions to cling to

amandachapel Myth, no. I rail against bad fiction. Your beliefs are bad fiction.

aswang Evidence? Your just as full of shit as I am. :)

amandachapel I have a solid body of work on this topic. You have “Incantations of the Aswang.” Smoke opium much?

aswang You’re clearly not looking in the right place. You write words. I deal with lives. I understand. Most people need illusions.

aswang I’m sure it’s much more comforting to imagine me as an unemployed wanker holed up in the basement of my parents’ house

amandachapel You’re website is titled “disordered thought processes.” HELLO! Jesus.

And about here is where the rope is slung around the tree, and the crosses are planted in the front yard. Note the fine juxtaposition of the words “bullshit” and “diversity.”

amandachapel Actually, I imagine you an adjunct professor for a CA State School brought in as part of some bullshit diversity program.

aswang c’mon. how can you not use google properly?

amandachapel If not in your parents basement, per se; you’re still on the dole somewhere.

cbell619 that’s a pretty cutting remark. play nice

aswang Ah, that was nice. I dig the racism. Awesome. ;)

aswang wow, that’s a new one. that’s the first time I’ve been racially attacked on the Internet. a milestone there

cbell619 enjoying a great debate between @amandachapel and @aswang, but i think it’s getting to the point where a ref is needed

amandachapel No racism. Just cause I think you’re a lose doesn’t mean I’m racist in the slightest. I’m not.

aswang forgive me for dwelling on such a landmark occasion

amandachapel More “disordered thought processes.”

aswang spoken like a true racist. as if we didn’t know what “diversity” is code for.

aswang would you feel vindicated if I pretended that I got into college because of affirmative action?

cbell619 where’s ann coulter when you need her?

aswang go ahead and try that on the next person-of-color you meet in real life. i’m sure it’ll be endearing to him/her

amandachapel Like I said, smoke opium much? Are you hearing voices, too? More “disordered thought processes.”

aswang i’d love you to ask barack obama if they let him into harvard on some “bullshit diversity program”

amandachapel I think you need to bring up some of these things with your shaman. Actually, they might teach you something about business.

The “shaman” bit was very cute.

aswang do you subscribe to the beliefs of charles murray? because then this all makes sense. that’s awesome!

aswang that’s right, keep digging that hole. I’m sorry massa, I knows I’m an ignurant darkie who don’t know shit. please massa.

aswang ah promise ta don’t get uppity no mo, just don’t beat me agin’!

amandachapel and just like a PC parasite, you try to leverage pity and victimhood.

aswang hahaha! keep going, keep going! this is fresh! this is dope! this is tiiiiiigghh!

aswang may I remind you that you’re the one who chose to racialize this. I’m not the one who brought up “diversity.”

aswang c’mon, stand behind your words.

aswang i’m a parasite because i’m a person-of-color, is it?

aswang tell me, do you have any black or brown friends?

StaceyMonk quite an incendiary little conversation you’re having with @amandachapel. wow. just reading through the tweets. OMG

amandachapel Yo aswang… you’re now confusing me for someone who cares. I don’t give a shit if you wanna claim victim. Whatever!

aswang OK, racist, if that’s how you wanna leave it. hahahah!

aswang and I dig the patronizing “yo.” Thank you for respecting my language and culture.

Which just goes to show, even the supposedly wordly still circulate in tightly circumscribed circles. I have yet to really find someone who gets both tech and what it means to be a person-of-color in America. I may be highly (over)educated and informed about the world, and my identity as a person-of-color may be less conspicuous on the Internet, but somehow, I’m still a target. Which confirms and vindicates a lot of my beliefs about this place. I wonder how all the closet racists are going to react when Obama wins the election?