WGDF

[Gorrath]

I've got no idea what's going on or what this comic is about, but clearly something is going to happen. Guess I'll make some popcorn, camp the thread, and try to work out why people are angry about super-sentai Jesus fighting a swarm of bees.

In case you are not joking it is a reference to a previous comic that they did.

WGDF stands for White Guy Defence Force.

The other one was... divisive to say the least.

EDIT: Double Ninja'd.

EDIT 2: I just noticed the Yellow one has a Fedora and is tipping it constantly, plus they mention Euphoric. I don't think I had a clue about those stereotypes back when it first came out.

Beta holding an MLP doll was crossing the line in my opinion.

That was my favorite part about the last comic. =P

Bronies get enough **** for going against the grain for what they love.

Not an MLP fan myself but I can empathize with them on this one.

Do you understand that that's exactly why it was put into the comic in the first place? The entire comic - from start to finish - was specifically designed to poke as many possible hornets' nests as they could. That's why they're not just making up "white guy" excuses. Red is a "bro", Blue is a "brony", and Yellow has a fedora. It's layers upon layers of flame-bait!

I thought they were caricatures for the people who have kneejerk reactions to claims of racism or sexism in media or society.

Indeed they were, but Grey wasn't saying that bronies have knee-jerk reactions to racism/etc. They knew that the topic for that comic was likely to gain a lot of heat considering the nature of this forum. On any given day you can always find at least 3 topics created on sexism/racism/gender issues/what-have-you somewhere on this site. But why stop there? They decided to go all out and just started adding in little details to rope in even MORE heat. Which is why Twilight Sparkle is tucked comfortably under Blue's arm. It's why Yellow's current status is Euphoric. It's why Red thinks that Erin is "mirin'".

As I said: it's layers upon layers of flame-bait. The entire comic is flame-bait just for the topic that it's addressing. All the little details in the comic are just flame-bait sprinkles on top.

True I guess. Still really mean though.

That was pretty much my problem with the whole thing. It seemed to rely on being as vicious as possible to as many people in the target as possible. It was, of course, also aimed at people who are by far and away the least likely to have anyone outside the target group be sympathetic to them. I was a bit unnerved that people who expressed anger at the comic were then in the comments section ridiculed simply for being upset.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Finally got tired of baiting the Evangelion fans did we lads? Decided it was time to try and break your record for the most replies and biggest shit stirring thread since the MovieBob's original Expendables review thread?

I look forward to whatever result is gained from this exercise.

 

[Zealous]

I see that this thread will be composed exclusively of people waiting for people to be offended by the subject matter.

But there's no reason to be offended by this image out of context.

Wait till Tuesday when they post something actually inflammatory to see if someone takes the flame bait.

 

[Gorrath]

Right or wrong, if a similar comic had been written about any other group/subject, there is no doubt in my mind many more people would have found it appalling.

That's the point. It's making fun of the insecurities of certain members of the most secure group. Doesn't work if you are doing it to a less secure group.

Indeed, and I don't find it particularly admirable or humorous to attack the insecurities of people, regardless of what group they belong to, unless there is some larger point to be made. I took no personal offense to the comic myself, I just found it to lack humor and thought it was in bad taste. Insecurities are derived by the individual based on their own experiences, not on which group they belong to (though you will find correlation between the two, it isn't axiomatic.) I just don't find being vicious to people all that amusing is all.

 

[IceForce]

Just because he stands there and belongs to the WGDF doesn't mean we'll get people raging. I think....

Not in this thread, no.
But what's important in the comic is the bit at the bottom where it says "Coming soon..."

So any raging will likely happen in the next WGDF thread.

Unless this is just another potential future thing we get promised, but it never happens, which has happened before.

 

[BrotherRool]

Think of this like a bug lamp. Every now and then you make a comic like this and all the worms come out of the woodwork (and mix my metaphors), the mods zap them and we're left with a chiller less-frothy community.

 

[Gorrath]

I see that this thread will be composed exclusively of people waiting for people to be offended by the subject matter.

But there's no reason to be offended by this image out of context.

Wait till Tuesday when they post something actually inflammatory to if some pour soul takes the bait.

Well, given the nature of the previous comic and its effect, I'd say we have a context. At least until the next one is made, the context is the previous strip. If they leverage the expectation created by this image to get people arguing and then turn around and put out something far less inflammatory, it will be a little bit brilliant. If they put out nothing at all and are just using this single image to spark debate, that itself would be interesting.

 

[IceForce]

Decided it was time to try and break your record for the most replies and biggest shit stirring thread since the MovieBob's original Expendables review thread?

So, we're going for an attempt at breaking the record for most number of bans in a single thread?

What is the current record anyway? And what thread currently holds that record?

I can only imagine that it was indeed the previous WGDF comic.

Don't forget Jimquisition's Adblock thread. That one was chock full of warnings and bans too. Heaps of them.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Right or wrong, if a similar comic had been written about any other group/subject, there is no doubt in my mind many more people would have found it appalling.

That's the point. It's making fun of the insecurities of certain members of the most secure group. Doesn't work if you are doing it to a less secure group.

Indeed, and I don't find it particularly admirable or humorous to attack the insecurities of people, regardless of what group they belong to, unless there is some larger point to be made. I took no personal offense to the comic myself, I just found it to lack humor and thought it was in bad taste. Insecurities are derived by the individual based on their own experiences, not on which group they belong to (though you will find correlation between the two, it isn't axiomatic.) I just don't find being vicious to people all that amusing is all.

I believe there was a larger issue being made, about the way that majority groups are always (as a whole) somewhat afraid of minority groups with much less power, and that this fear very often leads to oppression.

These false inequalities tend to go unquestioned by most who share them, which is very dangerous. This is very much an issue that needs more condemnation and possibly ridicule...you'll note when the comic does something like this, people wonder what controversy or horrific crime sparked it, because there's always plenty to chose from.

Having said that though, I might be reading into the creator's motives too much, they do seem a bit too keen on just attacking people at random. I think one mentioned "punching in every direction, like a drunken octopus" or something as a response to a concern about their attack on gender neutral names.

 

[1Life0Continues]

Out of curiosity, do you often find humor in people being emotionally upset and angry? I mean that as an honest question as I find it fascinating.

What I find humorous is often considered by others to be insensitive. I like dead baby jokes, and I find people offing themselves in idiotic ways intensely funny. I also tend to laugh at people who are part of a majority group with nothing to be offended about getting offended by a comic that was designed specifically to offend insecure people.

So yes, in this case, I derive a LARGE amount of humour from it. Because assholes who treat others with disdain getting upset when someone else does it to them is intensely satisfying. I don't apologise.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Having said that though, I might be reading into the creator's motives too much, they do seem a bit too keen on just attacking people at random. I think one mentioned "punching in every direction, like a drunken octopus" or something as a response to a concern about their attack on gender neutral names.

Yeah, being both a follower of Grey on Twitter and a reader of this comic it's pretty obvious that he likes to throw his opinions down like a challenge. There's not a whole lot of cushioning language, the "in my opinion" or "to my mind" sort of stuff that usually acts as a "THIS IS MY OPINION, I AM NOT STATING IT TO BE FACT, CHILL THE FUCK OUT" buffer to mitigate offense. He just goes right for the throat.

Wouldn't call it random though. The trolling in the strip always seems to be guided by authorial opinion on a topic rather than choosing who they can piss off today from a long list of assorted subcultures.

Y'know, in my opinion.

 

[deth2munkies]

Nothing you do about Donald Stirling could approach what he did to himself in a deposition from a few years ago.

Spoiler

 

[IceForce]

... Is it bad that I don't get it or why the topic suddenly turned to banhammers? Or maybe I missed the poster explaining it...

Yeah, it's been explained.

Basically: This is the second time the WGDF has featured in a Critical Miss comic.
The first time the WGDF was featured, it resulted in a 40 page thread full of bans.

 

[PunkRex]

So he put a brony in there to... oh Grey you mutha fudger WHY YA TREAT'IN ME THIS WAY!?

 

[Kerethos]

Just because he stands there and belongs to the WGDF doesn't mean we'll get people raging. I think....

Not in this thread, no.
But what's important in the comic is the bit at the bottom where it says "Coming soon..."

So any raging will likely happen in the next WGDF thread.

Unless this is just another potential future thing we get promised, but it never happens, which has happened before.

Funny, I was just thinking about whatever happened to the Suchong-story just the other day. But WGDF might be quite amusing too

 

[Gorrath]

Right or wrong, if a similar comic had been written about any other group/subject, there is no doubt in my mind many more people would have found it appalling.

That's the point. It's making fun of the insecurities of certain members of the most secure group. Doesn't work if you are doing it to a less secure group.

Indeed, and I don't find it particularly admirable or humorous to attack the insecurities of people, regardless of what group they belong to, unless there is some larger point to be made. I took no personal offense to the comic myself, I just found it to lack humor and thought it was in bad taste. Insecurities are derived by the individual based on their own experiences, not on which group they belong to (though you will find correlation between the two, it isn't axiomatic.) I just don't find being vicious to people all that amusing is all.

I believe there was a larger issue being made, about the way that majority groups are always (as a whole) somewhat afraid of minority groups with much less power, and that this fear very often leads to oppression.

These false inequalities tend to go unquestioned by most who share them, which is very dangerous. This is very much an issue that needs more condemnation and possibly ridicule...you'll note when the comic does something like this, people wonder what controversy or horrific crime sparked it, because there's always plenty to chose from.

Having said that though, I might be reading into the creator's motives too much, they do seem a bit too keen on just attacking people at random. I think one mentioned "punching in every direction, like a drunken octopus" or something as a response to a concern about their attack on gender neutral names.

I can't say I took that from my readings of the strip and I felt it was likely far more the latter situation you mention than the former. Picking on the insecurities of people who belong to the majority is about as safe as you can play it, since pissing those people off is easy and no one's going to care except those being negatively portrayed. As the thread that accompanied the strip showed, people expressing anger over how they thought they were being criticized actually just got more ridicule dropped on them.

I don't even mind the idea of the drunken octopus punching in every direction, but that's not really what they do. What they do is they punch in very specific directions. I've seen good, funny comedy done that picked on people because the comic would pick on everyone. If no one is safe from the bite of the comic, everyone can laugh. If the comic seems to have it out for only certain people though, it makes the comic look like they are vicious. Based on what I've seen of this kind of strip from Critical Miss, they look far more like the latter than the former.

This is all opinion of course, and mine's probably not worth the screen it's typed on, I freely admit.

 

[balladbird]

I've got no idea what's going on or what this comic is about, but clearly something is going to happen. Guess I'll make some popcorn, camp the thread, and try to work out why people are angry about super-sentai Jesus fighting a swarm of bees.

In case you are not joking it is a reference to a previous comic that they did.

WGDF stands for White Guy Defence Force.

The other one was... divisive to say the least.

EDIT: Double Ninja'd.

EDIT 2: I just noticed the Yellow one has a Fedora and is tipping it constantly, plus they mention Euphoric. I don't think I had a clue about those stereotypes back when it first came out.

Beta holding an MLP doll was crossing the line in my opinion.

That was my favorite part about the last comic. =P

Bronies get enough **** for going against the grain for what they love.

Not an MLP fan myself but I can empathize with them on this one.

Do you understand that that's exactly why it was put into the comic in the first place? The entire comic - from start to finish - was specifically designed to poke as many possible hornets' nests as they could. That's why they're not just making up "white guy" excuses. Red is a "bro", Blue is a "brony", and Yellow has a fedora. It's layers upon layers of flame-bait!

Oh, was that it? I thought it was poking fun at the fact that a large number of internet MRAs/video game boyz club members happen to also be bronies?

I'm probably wrong, though. I go out of my way to avoid these kinds of controversies for the sake of my peace of mind.

I think one mentioned "punching in every direction, like a drunken octopus" or something as a response to a concern about their attack on gender neutral names.

Ah yes, "punching in every direction... like a starfish. A starfish made of fists."

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Fucking awesome. I've been hoping you'd follow through on your Twitter musings on this, Grey.

 

[The Wooster]

Swarm of bees? I guess you mean Bioshock, but I was the swarm.

 

[Gorrath]

Out of curiosity, do you often find humor in people being emotionally upset and angry? I mean that as an honest question as I find it fascinating.

What I find humorous is often considered by others to be insensitive. I like dead baby jokes, and I find people offing themselves in idiotic ways intensely funny. I also tend to laugh at people who are part of a majority group with nothing to be offended about getting offended by a comic that was designed specifically to offend insecure people.

So yes, in this case, I derive a LARGE amount of humour from it. Because assholes who treat others with disdain getting upset when someone else does it to them is intensely satisfying. I don't apologise.

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate your candor. I find off-color humor to be funny at times as well. If you'll indulge me further, what makes you think someone's status as belonging to a majority group means they have nothing to be offended about? It seems to me that offense stems from an emotional reaction to something based on personal experience. To suggest that they have nothing to be offended about because they belong to a majority group seems to assume that you know what their personal experiences are based on what majority group they belong to. That seems really illogical to me. More specifically, that seems like it might be really racist/sexist. I don't mean that as an accusation towards you, I'm just trying to work my way through what your thoughts on this are.

You also suggest that people who were offended by the previous comic were "assholes who treat others with disdain." I'm curious as to how you know the people in that thread who were upset were themselves "assholes who treat others with disdain." It seems pretty presumptive, so I'm curious as to how you arrived at that conclusion.