Shitposting/'Parafiction' Watch

[killer b]

But Jo Swinson is a Squirrel Killer isn't taking the same form as disinformation campaigns, its satirising them. It's taking the piss out of the people who fall for them, as well as piercing the pomposity of the politicians targeted.

This is just how satire works isn't it? It's not much different from much of the content in the private eye (or even viz) - the main difference is that it isn't sanctioned by power in the same way.

 

[killer b]

Thing is that this kind of stuff doesn't even need to be a bad thing for the pols - anyone with a bit of nous can leverage it to their advantage by simply not taking it very seriously. Rory Stewart has been targeted by various Trevor Bastard accounts and just joined in, to his obvious advantage. No-one can tell me that Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer hasn't been a net positive for Ted Cruz - his wry embrace of the meme has allowed him to portray himself as a normal guy who can have a laugh rather than the cold eyed psychopath he actually is.

 

[xenon]

Who is Trevor Bastard?

 

[Idris2002]

WE ARE ALL TREVOR BASTARD.

 

[Whagwan]

Trevor Bastard is a GOD DAMN HERO

 

[FridgeMagnet]

seriously though this is UK politics Twitter circlejerk stuff

 

[xenon]

I had a brief search and saw he's, one of them, is Grannymugger medir. What ever that is, some bloke on twitter.

Was just curious but am none the wiser...

 

[Whagwan]

 

[Proper Tidy]

I had a brief search and saw he's, one of them, is Grannymugger medir. What ever that is, some bloke on twitter.

Was just curious but am none the wiser...

He's just a bloke on twitter, does lots of characters like streatham rovers and that labour centrist one, seems sound and can be funny but fridgemagnet right that it's just a little twitter bubble that speaks mainly to itself (and also contains a fair old chunk of wankers and people with dodgy politics, although this fella is neither as far as know)

 

[JimW]

Plus Twitter is blocked here and I never see the fucking things you all post anyway

 

[killer b]

Who is Trevor Bastard?

This section from the essential academic text 'Rearranging Authority through Acts of Deception: Trolling and Parafiction in Participatory Art' explains it much better than any of us could.

The Trevor Bastard Extended Universe

The past three years or so have seen a network of associated twitter accounts created under the guise of a user who calls himself ‘Trevor Bastard’. The accounts he has created, or co-created (authorshipin trolling is often left unclear), form a constellation of avatars collectively known as the ‘TrevorBastard Extended Universe’. With varying degrees of plausibility, the thoughts and opinions of each character are fed into Twitter feeds across the world, in live-time.A consistent political position is maintained throughout the work, with slight inflections in the structuring content depending on each character’s preoccupations, (football, music, journalism). Once the viewer has decoded their way through the instances of irony, it turns out that all of these characters are saying pretty much the exact same thing.

The accounts’ collective voice is one that attacks the foibles of dominant capitalist ideological narratives, and specifically, centrist political discourse. It mocks performative appeals to sensible, rational discussion that are often used to denounce socialism without engaging seriously with its theoretical underpinnings. As the saying goes, ‘read some ‘effing Orwell!’

The project therefore amounts to an ideological critique, and using the variously falsified media personas to engage with other users on the Twitter network, the TBEU makes a public display of deceiving those incapable of correctly interpreting the intended political meaning in each interaction.When people demonstrate that they have misrecognised the characters (e.g. by irately engaging with them at face value), the trolling is entirely successful on the level of providing pleasure for those whoare in on the joke, but it is also through this successful deception that the authority of dominant ideological values is effectively misrepresented. For the deception to be revealed, the viewer must recognise the positions of both
Trevor Bastard and those he is attacking through the characters’ dominant, affirmative voice. Since these positions are always in contradiction to one another, a working through of the contradictions must occur in order to enjoy the payoff that comes with siding against the dominant voice. Those who fail to make the narrative cohere in this way are duped into accepting Trevor Bastard’s fantasy as reality, as opposed to successfully reading it as politically motivated deception and getting to enjoy the ride.

 

[killer b]

But also this - it's pretty insignificant in the great scheme of things.

seriously though this is UK politics Twitter circlejerk stuff

 

[Whagwan]

But also this - it's pretty insignificant in the great scheme of things.

I'm alright with that. It's the in-jokes that build solidarity between disparate faceless avatars. Just as it used to be on forums, now it is on Twitter.

But yeah, it's still hilarious that someone wrote their thesis on it...

 

[Whagwan]

How a fake football club exposed Twitter's hypocrisy

#FREETAFFGOOSE

 

[Orang Utan]

Just realised that Trevor Bastard is Wolfgang Moneypenny, who ran (or pretended to run) for mayor in 2012 on a South London separatist ticket

FREE SOUTH LONDON

freesouthlondon.wordpress.com