Eonwe posted:

drat

ManofManyAliases posted:

Although I already once stated they I am NOT Toast, I really think you guys need to give it up already. This is the reason the thread was locked once already, and speculating more about it will lead no where. Plus, that isn't what this thread is about.

C'mon 2.4 hype! I also got that $5 coupon from April fools. Sale time!

quote:

I was a recent college dropout, angry at the world after losing an eye and having surgery after surgery on the other. As great as I make my life sound here, I was spending most of my time bedridden recovering from retina surgery and pretending I didn’t have any emotions.

My escape was my buddies I knew through the Wing Commander community; they were the guys still around when my friends from high school went off and got lives of their own. We were typical obnoxious geeks, confident we had it all figured out and everyone else on the planet was a moron. We idolized Something Awful and that whole burgeoning internet humor culture, pretended we were Lowtax (without the audience!) I’m sure some of that comes across here; it's in-jokes belonging to old friends and terrible ideas all the way down.

quote:

No, if we hated you we'd be talking about that weird cop thing. We miss our #Wing-Commander bretheren... Except not Eagle. Or Dana. Or Tigershark. Or CBF. But we miss the rest. #17,762
Being gay isn't a 'choice', it's just something that happens to people. #15,385
Eagle is *always* gay. #15,386

peter gabriel posted:

I am thinking about starting a site where I can put my edgy stuff in one place

Sunswipe posted:

https://twitter.com/BenLesnickSays

Eonwe posted:

quote:

Hello! I see folks have dug up my old Livejournal to troll me about. I’d like to start by issuing a sincere apology to any of the folks who had to read through all this to find the juicy bits: it’s pretty tepid!

I do know that I was pretty big into pretending I had life figured out. It likely doesn’t come across, but I started this as a personal diary back in 2002 after a pretty bad time in my life. I was a recent college dropout, angry at the world after losing an eye and having surgery after surgery on the other. As great as I make my life sound here, I was spending most of my time bedridden recovering from retina surgery and pretending I didn’t have any emotions.

My escape was my buddies I knew through the Wing Commander community; they were the guys still around when my friends from high school went off and got lives of their own. We were typical obnoxious geeks, confident we had it all figured out and everyone else on the planet was a moron. We idolized Something Awful and that whole burgeoning internet humor culture, pretended we were Lowtax (without the audience!) I’m sure some of that comes across here; it's in-jokes belonging to old friends and terrible ideas all the way down.

Eventually, I worked my way back to school (I think that’s covered here!) and (after this ends) went out into the real world and figured out I wasn’t anybody special at all, and my ideas about things like politics and history were pretty freaking stupid.

I’m not fond of deleting the past, or pretending anyone has always been perfect. I’ve spent my life becoming a better person, and I’m happy to let folks see where I've been. I suspect this journal doesn’t even show the worst of who I’ve been; the thing I most regret from years past was what a jerk I was on message boards. I’m sure that’s all out there to find, too! I don't want to say I've figured out how the world works, but I've learned to respect everybody else in it instead of imagining they're out to get me.

So, visitors of the future, enjoy my ancient Livejournal! If you’re here to troll me, I’ll confess I don’t quite know why (he works for a company I hate!) but I’m not going to pretend to be someone else

Ben

(And if you can get past the morose know-it-all tone of the writing, there’s some fun and interesting stories in here!)

fuctifino posted:

https://twitter.com/SandiGardiner/status/721504590026432513

peter gabriel posted:

I am thinking about starting a site where I can put my edgy stuff in one place

Sunswipe posted:

Hey, let's not start having a go at Hitler. The poor guy can't defend himself, and it's not like he's Ben Lesnick.

Variable 5 posted:

Make sure you don't bother deleting it when you get your dream job of picking up your hero's dry cleaning

ManofManyAliases posted:

Although I already once stated they I am NOT Toast, I really think you guys need to give it up already. This is the reason the thread was locked once already, and speculating more about it will lead no where. Plus, that isn't what this thread is about.

C'mon 2.4 hype! I also got that $5 coupon from April fools. Sale time!

Sunswipe posted:

Hey, let's not start having a go at Hitler. The poor guy can't defend himself, and it's not like he's Ben Lesnick.

Eonwe posted:

How is he this dumb to post stuff like this on the internet holy gently caress

A Neurotic Jew posted:

posting for posterity.

WebDog posted:

Hah he's updated his LiveJournal.
He uses the angry kid defence and hilariously tries to latch the blame onto Something Awful's brand of humor.

So under the rug it goes. Note he hasn't actually removed anything from the site.

WCnews history bit.
Now checking in again with my friend, turns out Ben really was a horrid person. He brings up this story.

The community once had a member called Eagle-1 (who was African American). Eagle apparently was the one who setup the IRC channels in 1996 and began the WC community well before WC news.
From what I can gather Eagle was a very well respected and kind community member. Being an older member (he was 58) many mentioned that he was a mentor to them dishing out advice to life's problems and encouraging awkward nerds to give it a go. He even rang up Ben to offer kind words before his eye surgery.

So what does Ben do? Gets annoyed that, unlike Eagle, he wasn't being seen as some sort of leader despite his knowledge of WC. Ben also hated that Eagle ran a competing IRC channel where you couldn't swear and things were kept in order and people felt safe. Basically Ben muscled him out and fostered that toxic community we now all love and quote.

But as my friend points out, Ben's distrust was allegedly racially motivated - he could not stand that at the end of the day the guy who everyone loves happens to be black.

Sadly Eagle died in 2007 from a heart attack. Despite the terse obituary on the website over on IRC Ben lapped up his demise, ripping into a beloved community member because of his own selfish reasons.

This isn't some angry kid, but some man who's wrapped himself up in a bubble of ignorance and tried to blame his life situation as a cause.

Toops posted:

I'm sorry to shill my band, but we just got the mixes back for this little guy, and I think it would make a solid soundtrack to the apocalypse:

https://soundcloud.com/user-455463481/i-want-it-that-way

(I play guitar and keys. The singer is my gf. The band is how we met.)

(I have a lot of hobbies)

SurfaceDetail posted:

Was reading some more on Wikipedia. Looks like he was repeatedly doxxed and bullied by the Allies for years. They made gross movies and cartoons of him. Called him names, all sorts of awful things.

He was eventually bullied into suicide.

Variable 5 posted:

Prediction: CIG hires an actual serial killer next week so they can say that Ben isn't their worst employee anymore

Three people die during the special RTV that introduces him

Ben "the Japanese get to have sex with thirteen year olds all the time. Instead of once or twice a month" Lesnick posted:

I’ve spent my life becoming a better person

SurfaceDetail posted:

Was reading some more on Wikipedia. Looks like he was repeatedly doxxed and bullied by the Allies for years. They made gross movies and cartoons of him. Called him names, all sorts of awful things.

He was eventually bullied into suicide.

EminusSleepus posted:

lol

Codependent Poster posted:

gently caress that fat piece of poo poo.

WebDog posted:

Hah he's updated his LiveJournal.
He uses the angry kid defence and hilariously tries to latch the blame onto Something Awful's brand of humor.

So under the rug it goes. Note he hasn't actually removed anything from the site.

WCnews history bit.
Now checking in again with my friend, turns out Ben really was a horrid person. He brings up this story.

The community once had a member called Eagle-1 (who was African American). Eagle apparently was the one who setup the IRC channels in 1996 and began the WC community well before WC news.
From what I can gather Eagle was a very well respected and kind community member. Being an older member (he was 58) many mentioned that he was a mentor to them dishing out advice to life's problems and encouraging awkward nerds to give it a go. He even rang up Ben to offer kind words before his eye surgery.

So what does Ben do? Gets annoyed that, unlike Eagle, he wasn't being seen as some sort of leader despite his knowledge of WC. Ben also hated that Eagle ran a competing IRC channel where you couldn't swear and things were kept in order and people felt safe. Basically Ben muscled him out and fostered that toxic community we now all love and quote.

But as my friend points out, Ben's distrust was allegedly racially motivated - he could not stand that at the end of the day the guy who everyone loves happens to be black.

Sadly Eagle died in 2007 from a heart attack. Despite the terse obituary on the website over on IRC Ben lapped up his demise, ripping into a beloved community member because of his own selfish reasons.

This isn't some angry kid, but some man who's wrapped himself up in a bubble of ignorance and tried to blame his life situation as a cause.