poptimists | The Bullies Win

Rolling teenpop got trollbombed again so Dave had the mods lock it for good, not wanting to have to tattle on the trolls every month or so. Dave and Mordy say that I shouldn't look at this as the bullies winning, but I think that's a very good way of looking at it, actually, though obviously the situation is more complex than that simple statement. Really, ending the thread just ratified a situation that was long in place, which is that most of the smart people have decided that ilX is no longer worth fighting for, so they're no longer around to contribute to the tone of the place. Dave and I both had been willing to let the thread die at the end of 2007, and it had already lost some of its sparkle by the end of 2006.

Dave says "we have found something that's post-poptimistically maligned with the same vehemence as 'disco sucks' (basically most of what we're calling teenpop) and I still think it's an important conversation to be had, just not where p3dophile jokes are the funniest thing ever."

I agree; not only is teenpop worth discussing, so's the emotional disturbance we caused by discussing it seriously, though I wouldn't want to read too much into the fact that we were under attack. Bullies attack teenpop because they can, and they attacked us because they could, just as they attacked Paris Hilton because they could. Bullies like to hurt people, and they don't need deep reasons, just a target.

In any event, if you've never given it a look, rolling teenpop 2006 and the beginning of rolling teenpop 2007 were glorious.