Possibly the most cretinous people on earth are on Usenet.

At my job, I spend all day putting together TV guides from station info (which probably sounds more interesting than it is, I assure you), and one of the things I’ve taken to doing is reading the aus.tv newsgroup at least a few times a day. Reading is probably too broad a term for what I do when I’m there though.

It’s just terrible. Really sick pathetic stuff for the most part. Either they’re mostly a bunch of insane sexist, racist, mysogynist, psychotic anti-social freaks, or they’re classic “trolls” who are almost as screwed up because they get they’re kicks from just pretending to be like that.

I might post a few of them later, but I don’t think it’s wise to spread the idiocy further.

Funny thing is, I was a big user of newsgroups at one point – from about 1995-1997 it was my main thing online. I don’t know if they’re degenerated with the gradual diversification of the online world, or if their total lack of moderation or control has made them attractive to pathetic arseholes. Either way, it’s a far cry from what usenet used to be, and a total waste of time to any sentient human being.

But I do look at work – either to pass the time, or to find out what the cretins think of us 🙂