hanspampel
Banned
yes it's crazy next level trolling
pretty obvious, but at least well written and not a bad troll
pretty obvious, but at least well written and not a bad troll
-
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Petition to stop Far Cry 5 - this is next level craziness.
- Thread starter Hanmik
- Start date
Gravy Boat
Member
Surprised to see so many people thinking it's legit. You only need to read it to know that it's obviously a joke.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
This has to be trolling .. right ?
Bolivar687
Banned
They're trying to censor free speech!
KingdomHeartsFan
Member
You know what to do Ubisoft...double down.
InsaneLuchador
Member
Pre-ordered,
talkingood
Member
The more I read over this petition, the more I'm beginning to think this was written by someone whose first language is French, and not English.
I'll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about why or why not this may be interesting, but I'll start by saying that I have a degree in neuroscience of linguistics, and in French. I've also studied forensic linguistics, which deals with authorship attribution and textual analysis.
In other words, while it's very possible my suspicions are incorrect, and we don't have sufficient evidence to make a determination of any kind, these suspicions are nevertheless based in scientific analysis.
Here are some things which stood out for me.
It's also worth pointing out that the "infinitive to" (e.g. "to do", "to say" etc.) is different from the "prepositional to" (e.g. "come to", "give to"), and our minds rarely mix these up even in natural speech or typing. French verbs, of course, cannot split the infinitive as they are comprised of a whole, e.g. « demander » means "to ask", « annuler » means "to cancel". A French speaker writing or speaking English as a second language might very well leave off the "to" before "cancel" as it may seem to be a complete infinitive without "to".
In the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the use of "construed of" appears just once, whereas the more standard "construed to" appears 103 times, and "construed as" appears a whopping 644 times.
Most interestingly, the only use of "construed of" is attributed to a paper written by a Tracy B. Strong, a French-speaking professor in political science at the University of San Diego, who studied at the Collège de Genève and who is credited with the translation of many French works.
So it stands to reason that the author would know that this quotation is (mis)attributed to "Voltaire", not a "Boltair". In fact, if you Google this exact phrase, it always occurs with Voltaire's name next to it. But if you're trying to suggest that the author is sort of an idiot, getting the name wrong of one of the most important Western philosophers is a good way to signal that to your intended audience.
In the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the use of "scared to do" appears just 32 times, whereas the more standard "afraid to do" appears 171 times.
There are a number of other points of interest in the text, but the examples don't give us any strong information indicating one way or another who may have authored the text.
Something to think about.
I'll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about why or why not this may be interesting, but I'll start by saying that I have a degree in neuroscience of linguistics, and in French. I've also studied forensic linguistics, which deals with authorship attribution and textual analysis.
In other words, while it's very possible my suspicions are incorrect, and we don't have sufficient evidence to make a determination of any kind, these suspicions are nevertheless based in scientific analysis.
Here are some things which stood out for me.
Grammatical errors are of course not completely uncommon, but this is especially telling. In French, we say « demander à quelqu'un de faire quelque chose » — literally, "to ask to someone to do something". Splitting the infinitive is not unheard of in English (e.g. "to boldly go"), however splitting the infinitive with the object in this way is very unusual.
It's also worth pointing out that the "infinitive to" (e.g. "to do", "to say" etc.) is different from the "prepositional to" (e.g. "come to", "give to"), and our minds rarely mix these up even in natural speech or typing. French verbs, of course, cannot split the infinitive as they are comprised of a whole, e.g. « demander » means "to ask", « annuler » means "to cancel". A French speaker writing or speaking English as a second language might very well leave off the "to" before "cancel" as it may seem to be a complete infinitive without "to".
This is really interesting. The use of "construed" in this way is extremely unusual for English speakers. An English speaker will think of "construe" as meaning "to interpret". For someone to say "construed of" meaning "comprised of" or "made up of", highly suggests a native French speaker. Most likely the author of this text is thinking of the French verb « construire », which means to construct, build, or form.
In the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the use of "construed of" appears just once, whereas the more standard "construed to" appears 103 times, and "construed as" appears a whopping 644 times.
Most interestingly, the only use of "construed of" is attributed to a paper written by a Tracy B. Strong, a French-speaking professor in political science at the University of San Diego, who studied at the Collège de Genève and who is credited with the translation of many French works.
Often in forensic linguistics we see that someone tries to disguise their identity by intentionally misspelling words the "target voice" is assumed not to know. As dumb as the goal of this petition may be, the author isn't a complete moron—punctuation is used correctly, the arguments are coherently presented even if fundamentally absurd, and so on.
So it stands to reason that the author would know that this quotation is (mis)attributed to "Voltaire", not a "Boltair". In fact, if you Google this exact phrase, it always occurs with Voltaire's name next to it. But if you're trying to suggest that the author is sort of an idiot, getting the name wrong of one of the most important Western philosophers is a good way to signal that to your intended audience.
This is a bit unusual, but not a particularly strong example. In English, the more common construction would be "are you afraid to do so?" Usually in English "scared to do" occurs when you're saying you are "too scared to do" something.
In the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the use of "scared to do" appears just 32 times, whereas the more standard "afraid to do" appears 171 times.
There are a number of other points of interest in the text, but the examples don't give us any strong information indicating one way or another who may have authored the text.
Something to think about.
Drillary Clinton
Banned
Do they need a safe space?
BotoxAgent
Member
Looks like I'll be buying my first Far Cry game
Day 1
Day 1
BRocknRolla
Member
In any other year, I would have been pretty certain of that. These days? Who knows?
DirtyLarry
Member
Well you have me convinced. It would appear that Ubisoft is on top of that viral marketing. Well played if that is the case, and I am leaning towards it definitely is thanks to your detective work.
You know, I can definitely see this being the case, since this gives me a greater desire to buy the game than before.
soulchilde
Member
Yeah, I don't get this...
talkingood
Member
Considering everyone on Twitter posting about the petition is talking about buying a copy now, I'm certainly not going to rule it out.
The best part is that this is actually probably the most reasonable scenario they could come up with given the rise of white nationalism over the last 25 or so years. These fucking people with their Gadsden flags and military sized armory's out in Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and wherever else in Bumfuck, America have me sweating more than black people in Chicago or their imaginary Muhammed on a plane.
There's no way this is real. The quotes and references this petition makes actively parody itself. This feels like a surrealist art piece more than an actual call-to-action.
But if this is real, and oh boy do I think some of my fellow Americans are capable, then this is just super depressing.
But if this is real, and oh boy do I think some of my fellow Americans are capable, then this is just super depressing.
Donald Trump is the President of the US because of sentiments like those listed in the petition, I don't see any humour in this.
Have you watched american news over the last 6 months?
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
this was my first thought too. it's definitely a troll, but who would take the time to do this besides someone who has skin in the game?
TeddyShardik
Banned
Is Boltair one of these new pokemans?
I would probably find this petition much funnier if there wasn't this tingling in the back of my mind telling me this could be real.
I would probably find this petition much funnier if there wasn't this tingling in the back of my mind telling me this could be real.
"Guys, do you really think there are white supremacists on the Internet?"
Sho_Nuff82
Member
There were things equally as crazy written during the GG fiasco. Remember the responses to the Bayo 2 Polygon review and anything written by Anita?
That's why people are saying it's a case of Poe's law. It's indistinguishable from what people have actually posted. It doesn't go far enough to be good satire.
Triggered tumblrina snowflakes et cetera et cetera
Yup. It definitely isn't unreasonable to think this is fake, but it's just as likely (if not more likely) that it's real.
There are small few who wish it was legit. Gives them fodder for the day. Trolling apparently.
If it's trolling, it's nearly identical to the "trolling" going on in the Steam forums. I don't know whether this was intended as a joke or not, but deciding it is because what they're saying is ridiculously beyond the pale ignores the people saying the exact same stuff that clearly aren't kidding or trolling.
Yeah people saying there is no way this can be real are either delusional, or extremely misinformed about the current state of politics in the West.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
Tony Redgrave
Member
Hahaha!
Wow
Wow
It's not obvious at all.
I read it knowing (at least according to this forum), that it's a troll and I could still see it being legit.
That's bad, isn't it. I could totally fucking see this being real.
MajorPoopStorm
Banned
Are you asking if there are posts on the Steam Far Cry 5 forums mocking "SJWs" or alt-righters? Have you ever seen the Steam forums?
Like I said, I have no idea if the original petition was intended to be real or a troll, nor do I know if any particular comment is a troll or not. But deciding it's all a troll because it's too over the top, like I said, ignores that you'll see many of the same complaints on the Steam thread, and at alt-right hangouts.
Considering Breitbart, Infowars and Fox News, this isn't a stretch of the imagination.
Muppet of a Man
Member
Those comments in the OP are enough validation that Ubi hit the nail on the head: the rise of violent white evangelical nationalism.
CocaMantis
Member
If this is not some kind of publicity stunt, then we are fucking doomed as mankind and nothing can save us from this black hole of stupidity.
Or its a troll. And we are doomed etc etc.
Or its a troll. And we are doomed etc etc.