The revolution will not be [make your own joke here].

October 2, 2009 10:01 AM

We think it’s normal to work all day every day at a dead-end job. It’s normal to fight with our spouses and our children. It’s normal to eat and drink and drug ourselves to escape, to veg out and stare at a screen for hours a day just to dull the pain. It’s normal to hate our lives and be miserable, it’s normal to be lonely, it’s normal to feel hollow. The Freak Revolution Manifesto.
posted by fiercecupcake (97 comments total)

This is not normal at all! We’re not meant to live this way, in a virtual cage with clocks that demand our attention from birth to death, with no time to breathe or dance or sing.

The solution for this is to start your own company.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:03 AM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

they're young, aren't they?
posted by msconduct at 10:05 AM on October 2, 2009 [9 favorites]

I see snowflakes. Special, special snowflakes...
posted by Thorzdad at 10:06 AM on October 2, 2009 [5 favorites]

Huh.
posted by COBRA! at 10:07 AM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

They include Seth Godin among their links to "Revolutionaries" on their sidebar. So, y'know, FAIL.
posted by dersins at 10:08 AM on October 2, 2009 [4 favorites]

We think it’s normal to work all day every day at a dead-end job. It’s normal to fight with our spouses and our children. It’s normal to eat and drink and drug ourselves to escape, to veg out and stare at a screen for hours a day just to dull the pain. It’s normal to hate our lives and be miserable, it’s normal to be lonely, it’s normal to feel hollow.

Good lord. None of that is normal. If you feel that way about life, please do try something different. You're doing it wrong.
posted by rusty at 10:09 AM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I sometimes miss the dot-com bubble, too.
posted by Graygorey at 10:12 AM on October 2, 2009 [4 favorites]

I think that's exactly what they're saying, rusty.
posted by rocket88 at 10:14 AM on October 2, 2009

This is the part where I say that I just thought they had some interesting ideas and that it might foster a good discussion about how to *actually* make good things happen in this world. We're all special snowflakes, y'know.

Wait, does that mean none of us are? Now I'm confused.
posted by fiercecupcake at 10:15 AM on October 2, 2009

LOLMANIFESTOS.
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:17 AM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

The "This is not a money-making document" crossed with the usual PayPal logos was pretty predictable. This is pretty lame stuff...
posted by kmennie at 10:17 AM on October 2, 2009

All the nay-sayers in the adult trick-or-treating AskMe thread need this.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:18 AM on October 2, 2009

The revolution will PDF'd.
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:18 AM on October 2, 2009 [7 favorites]

The solution for this is to start your own country.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:21 AM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

LOLMANIFESTOS is right. Their 44 page manifesto is more like a 5 page text list. One of the items is "read a book on productivity". The most interesting part of the whole thing was their labels:
We’re Pace and Kyeli. We’re both freaks: Pace is a poly bisexual lesbian kinky pagan transgender unschooler gamer geek, and Kyeli is a lesbian poly unschooler geeky edgewalker witch.

And you can talk to them both for only $150 an hour on the unschooler anarcho-something advice line. I feel a little bad snarking as I'm sure they're earnest and nice kids. Just naive.
posted by anti social order at 10:25 AM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I've got a little commune and we hang out on an old ranch in Death Valley.

Any attractive young women that this resonates with is more than welcome to join us. Bring dad's credit cards and we'll buy some dune buggies.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 10:26 AM on October 2, 2009 [3 favorites]

These are the people lotteries were designed for.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:26 AM on October 2, 2009

About Kyeli:

I spent my childhood bewildered by the loss of sparks in those around me. I still played long after my friends outgrew play, still clapped for Tink, still heard the bells of Santa’s sleigh. I wandered the halls of my high school whispering to faeries only I could see. My heart beat to her own drum, too loudly to ignore. I never grokked in fullness the ways of the “real world” – the real world was a place I never belonged.

Totally my first choice for a $150 phone consultation on what I've been doing wrong all these years.
posted by Graygorey at 10:29 AM on October 2, 2009 [4 favorites]

I can talk nonsense for 149/hr on the phone if anyone needs to save a little cash.
posted by zennoshinjou at 10:32 AM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Satire?
posted by molecicco at 10:38 AM on October 2, 2009

On the first few pages of that 44-page .pdf, we're daydreaming about how we'd rule the world without force or coercion. By page 25, we're reading businessman self-help books and taking ourselves out on dates. By page 34, we've stopped reading the news. Kind of a letdown.
posted by box at 10:43 AM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

This would make much more sense if the proposed solution was a killing spree.
posted by Pastabagel at 10:43 AM on October 2, 2009 [10 favorites]

I don't think it's satire, but rather marketing. The manifesto reads like a road-tested PowerPoint presentation.
posted by box at 10:44 AM on October 2, 2009

This fills me with irk.
posted by doublesix at 10:47 AM on October 2, 2009

Huh. The Subgenius people will sell you some Slack at a much more reasonable price, and offer you eternal salvation or triple your money back.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:47 AM on October 2, 2009 [6 favorites]

What's "clapp[ing] for Tink"? Sounds like it should be an Urban Dictionary entry.
posted by orrnyereg at 10:48 AM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

You want a manifesto? Here's a freaking manifesto.
posted by doublesix at 10:50 AM on October 2, 2009

It's a reference to Peter Pan.
posted by box at 10:51 AM on October 2, 2009

So, bloggers with a small business release a free "manifesto" (dripping with hyperbolic "revolution"-speak and glaringly obvious life lessons) to drum up interest in their own consulting and information products, usually aimed at getting other bloggers to start their own consulting/info product business. Recursion, meta, ourobouros reference, whatever...head asplode.

Granted, multi-level marketing has worked a similar vein for ages, but I'm pretty sure we can lay much of the blame for this current wave of "social entrepreneurs" at Tim Ferriss's feet.
posted by anthom at 10:54 AM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

I'm as freaky as the next person, possibly more, but if your manifesto is so all-fired awesome, it can probably suffer being in plain text, right?

Love,

the people from dial-up land who are freaky too sometimes.

That said, more power to these freaky people, but it can be a little difficult to effect real change when you're so busy telling people that they caused your misery. One of the things that is so difficult about this is the whole "wake up sheeple!" approach, even if true, rarely resonates the way you'd like it to.

You have to give people genuine options to change their lives starting now, not say "hey reconfigure everything so that you can homeschool your kids" and the project seems so huge that people give up before they've started. I have what I consider to be nearly the perfect life-work balanace and yet it took me a long time to get here with a lot of annoying on-the-way compromises. How do you help other people get to good places in their lives without taunting them into it? How do you balance people's unhappiness with their resistance to change?
posted by jessamyn at 10:55 AM on October 2, 2009 [7 favorites]

It's hard to not say something incredibly sharp against this. I really want it to be satire or a plain old self-help moneygrab, because at least then I can laugh along with them. Otherwise, it just seems so trite and so naive. The manifesto is a newage altculture popqueer self-help comic for the clueless. They'll probably make a ton of cash from this, however.
posted by Sova at 10:57 AM on October 2, 2009

Kind of like "We're losers. Be like us." ( Hey, pass that joint.)
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 11:07 AM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

if you have to tell us you're freaks, you're really not
posted by pyramid termite at 11:21 AM on October 2, 2009 [17 favorites]

Opt out of your (religion, culture, identity) and join ours instead.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:23 AM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I’m a total freak. I’m a bisexual lesbian poly kinky pagan transgender unschooler gamer geek

Not a freak. She's describing half the women I went to grad school with.
posted by futureisunwritten at 11:24 AM on October 2, 2009 [3 favorites]

The woman in green at the front-right of the cartoon people lineup looks exactly like my ex-girlfriend, which is reason enough for me to oppose this.

Well not really, but it's true that the resemblance is uncanny.
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:29 AM on October 2, 2009

Unschoolers? Jesus H. Macy, get off my lawn already.
posted by EatTheWeak at 11:31 AM on October 2, 2009 [3 favorites]

As tempting as it may be to make fun of these characters, I think I'll just stick to pointing out the essential flaw in the endeavor: you can't sell your innocence without losing it, and you can't buy innocence without already possessing it.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:32 AM on October 2, 2009 [5 favorites]

I hoped this was something to do with Freak Power. Sadly not.
posted by dickasso at 11:34 AM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Upon review, what this movement needs is a heapload of Packard Jennings.
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:35 AM on October 2, 2009

Sova...me too. I want this to be genuine, and at first I thought - hey good for you! - but on reflection and looking at how this is some kind of coaching set up, it leaves me wondering if it isn't a little predatory. Kids who are "freaks" are in pretty fragile places in their lives and they DO need connection and places to make contribution. In fact, freak culture is the result of people like that finding connection.

Now there is lots of good in this stuff, but the "change a world in one minute" thing gives the impression that this IS possible. It's not. But it will win you a great prize. (And these prize winners don't look particularly freaky to me...)

Does anyone know how this site is being received in neo-pagan or wiccan communities?

This strikes me, in a less charitable moment, as a set up to move kids AWAY from their freak friends by cultivating a reliance on experts and their own individuality, seperate from their group. Is this about freaks changing the world or is it about changing freaks? It's confusing because it's targeted at people who seem to be "changing the world" but it tells them they are living in a mass hallucination.

Really when you're a teenager, you say you want to be an individual, but only if everyone else is saying it too. It's about belonging AND finding your own self.
posted by salishsea at 11:39 AM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Speaking as a self-identified freak, I say that there is no part of that manifesto that isn't pure bullshit.

I'll be happy to go into more detail. For $150 an hour (pinky to lip).
posted by adamrice at 11:45 AM on October 2, 2009

I think that old hippie guy in Century of the Self pretty much summed it up:
Socialism in one person. That's capitalism.
posted by wuwei at 11:46 AM on October 2, 2009

I've got a little commune and we hang out on an old ranch in Death Valley.

Any attractive young women that this resonates with is more than welcome to join us. Bring dad's credit cards and we'll buy some dune buggies.

You're probably gonna need 25 rifles too. You know, just to keep the population down.
posted by gompa at 11:52 AM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

One last thing. I couldn't read the tagline, "The world will not be changed by those who fit in. That leaves you." without imagining it on Courage Wolf.
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:59 AM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

the "change a world in one minute" thing gives the impression that this IS possible. It's not.

Sure its possible. In fact it was already pointed out how one can change the world in a minute upthread.

This would make much more sense if the proposed solution was a killing spree.

Oh and is 'life coach' the new words for 'unemployed'?
posted by rough ashlar at 12:01 PM on October 2, 2009

I see snowflakes. Special, special snowflakes...

...in this comment thread.

Congratulations, you broke free from samsara, figured out how to lead a fulfilling existence, live without dead time, whatever. Not everyone has. Are the folks responsible for that manifesto actually hurting anyone?

And if they want to try and pay some bills through it, and if they reckon some people want to help them (though I hope they're not holding their breath), who cares?

Y'all are being sarcastic on the internet. Not exactly high ground.
posted by regicide is good for you at 12:09 PM on October 2, 2009 [5 favorites]

Pace is a poly bisexual lesbian kinky pagan transgender unschooler gamer geek [....]

I'm just glad these two crazy kids were able to break out of the terrible oppressive boxes the world tried to force them into, and crawled safely away inside new boxes. Bless.
posted by webmutant at 12:22 PM on October 2, 2009 [10 favorites]

Are the folks responsible for that manifesto actually hurting anyone?

Well, based on my reading of the manifesto, I'm not convinced they have any new or unique information. And the thing they're selling? People are giving it away for free.

I think it hurts people when you prey on their ignorance in order to get their money. Admittedly, that's just my opinion, but I read on the internet that I should work on having more strong opinions, so, yeah, there goes one now.
posted by box at 12:29 PM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

This is not normal at all! We’re not meant to live this way, in a virtual cage with clocks that demand our attention from birth to death, with no time to breathe or dance or sing.

This is why I went to an occupational hypnotherapist. Now I just think that I'm fishing all day.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:33 PM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

I couldn't get past the part that stated that only happy people change the world, therefore you must be happy. Really? I kinda doubt that MLK or Ghandi's plan started with reading a blog about happiness or hanging out with happy people.
posted by lekvar at 1:27 PM on October 2, 2009

Awesome! How do I sign up?

This one’s easy! First, you email Kyeli to set up your free, no-pressure 15-minute chat. Give her a range of times that work for you. Easy, simple, and fun — Kyeli is friendly and fun to talk with.

The revolution will be telemarketed?
posted by naju at 1:29 PM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

We’re Pace and Kyeli. We’re both freaks: Pace is a poly bisexual lesbian kinky pagan transgender unschooler gamer geek, and Kyeli is a lesbian poly unschooler geeky edgewalker witch.

I must be too old for trick-or-treating. I have no idea what any of that means.
posted by madajb at 1:49 PM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

>sigh<

I feel old and jaded.
posted by small_ruminant at 2:00 PM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Maybe you need a good hobby?
posted by alasdair at 2:06 PM on October 2, 2009

it can be a little difficult to effect real change when you're so busy telling people that they caused your misery.

Definitely the problem here. People, even happy ones, don't know how to talk to each other. However, for $150/hour, I'll consult over the phone with anyone who needs to learn how.
posted by Obscure Reference at 2:11 PM on October 2, 2009

At least a couple of times in their manifesto they advise you to write a book.

Please don't. At least not if you can't write better than these "freaks."
posted by kozad at 2:14 PM on October 2, 2009

I wrote a lengthy, snarky comment deriding these silly people but their philosophy was so bad it knocked out my internet and I spent three hours on the phone with verizon trying to get back on the internet.

Here's the short version: As a revolutionary freak (check my credentials) I hate these people and their counter-revolutionary ways. What generic capitalists they are, what straighties who allow a series of buzzwords to determine their self-view, and how dare they just be no more than self-help-marketeers.

Pace is a poly bisexual lesbian kinky pagan transgender unschooler gamer geek, and Kyeli is a lesbian poly unschooler geeky edgewalker witch.

How dreadfully uninteresting they are.
posted by fuq at 2:14 PM on October 2, 2009 [7 favorites]

To derive some possible value from the website: the title indicates "What to do after reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn".

Rings a bell. Has anyone read this book before? Thoughts?
posted by trev at 3:13 PM on October 2, 2009

I’m a total freak. I’m a bisexual lesbian poly kinky pagan transgender unschooler gamer geek

Wouldn't it have been easier just to type "fat?"
posted by hamida2242 at 3:19 PM on October 2, 2009 [10 favorites]

We’re Pace and Kyeli. We’re both freaks: Pace is a poly bisexual lesbian kinky pagan transgender unschooler gamer geek, and Kyeli is a lesbian poly unschooler geeky edgewalker witch.

I could actually physically feel the level of boredom antibodies in my blood rising the further along I read in this sentence.

"Look at me! I'm so wacky and nonconformist! Aren't I shocking? What do you mean 'No, not really'? Oh, please be shocked..."
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 3:25 PM on October 2, 2009

I am so freaky I mostly don't buy things. I love my jobs, have a delightful partner and am pretty satisfied with my friends and level of drug and food ingestion. What have you got for me?
posted by jessamyn at 3:31 PM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I am so freaky that I have no tattoos. Take that!
posted by small_ruminant at 3:49 PM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

I am so freaky that I have no tattoos of stars!
posted by box at 3:58 PM on October 2, 2009

Well, I'm a trisexual atheist geometrically-isogendered post-schooler gamey geek manwhore humanist grand wizard archduke supreme! I'm WAY MORE specials.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:13 PM on October 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

We’re Pace and Kyeli. We’re both freaks: Pace is a poly bisexual lesbian kinky pagan transgender unschooler gamer geek, and Kyeli is a lesbian poly unschooler geeky edgewalker witch.

Fortunately, there is a cure available, and it only takes 5 minutes.
posted by anigbrowl at 4:18 PM on October 2, 2009

Well, bless their hearts.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:42 PM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

FNORD
posted by donfactor at 5:07 PM on October 2, 2009

Don't snark. Investigate. Demonstrate some net literacy because snarky bitches, there's probably one of these sites designed for you, too.

So let's look.

Lots of SEO, even down to the meta keywords Google doesn't weigh on the off chance aggregators and lesser search engines will pay attentions. Keywords target lower competition modifications of personal development and relationship coaching themes +lesbian, +alternative, etc, along with trend piggybacking on Ishmael, of course. A backlink check shows some synthetic looking links, though to their credit their campaign is pretty high quality on this front.

On-page content matches search appeal, which is why it's repetitive. They have to hit those identity keywords to get proper density for search engine placement.

There's endorsement of a few different other self-help groups, so there may be MLM involved, or a scheme to hit a particular niche.

Conclusion: Let's just say these folks aren't going to be storming the ramparts at a G8 summit any time soon. There's nothing wrong with being freaky or making a decent living, but is this setup creepy? Hell yeah. It's razor-honed internet marketing designed to compromise the subaltern before they get it in their heads that instead of buyng happiness, they can *take* it.
posted by mobunited at 6:53 PM on October 2, 2009 [12 favorites]

Nicely done mobunited!

I've been reading the blog because I like things I hate, and the blog is all woo and neeners.
posted by fuq at 7:20 PM on October 2, 2009

bisexual lesbian

What does this mean? (Not asking in a smartassy way, am honestly confused by this phrase)
posted by little e at 7:46 PM on October 2, 2009

It means you're a lesbian who sometimes sleeps with men. Sometimes people find terms like lesbian useful for shorthand identification while not being entirely accurate in the who-you-boink sort of way.
posted by jessamyn at 7:49 PM on October 2, 2009

Ah, I see. I would have assumed that "bisexual" itself covered that. Interesting.
posted by little e at 7:55 PM on October 2, 2009

And bisexual lesbian transgender? To each their own, but, me, I like queer.
posted by box at 8:00 PM on October 2, 2009

Don't you wish your revolution was freaky like mine?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:57 PM on October 2, 2009

I Told You I Was Freaky. Conchords.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:11 PM on October 2, 2009

'And bisexual lesbian transgender?' To each their own, but, me, I like queer.

I remember reading an article about a young woman. She grew up with 2 moms, immersed in queer culture, but she likes boys, and has no interest in boinking girls.

So, she's straight sexual-interest wise, but queer culturally.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:18 PM on October 2, 2009

tl; dr
posted by bardic at 10:42 PM on October 2, 2009

jessamyn: How do you help other people get to good places in their lives without taunting them into it? How do you balance people's unhappiness with their resistance to change?

"42."
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:48 PM on October 2, 2009

We’re Pace and Kyeli. We’re both freaks: Pace is a poly bisexual lesbian kinky pagan transgender unschooler gamer geek, and Kyeli is a lesbian poly unschooler geeky edgewalker witch.

I could actually physically feel the level of boredom antibodies in my blood rising the further along I read in this sentence.

"Look at me! I'm so wacky and nonconformist! Aren't I shocking? What do you mean 'No, not really'? Oh, please be shocked..."

Pffft. Capitalized names? Puh-lease.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 11:40 PM on October 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Bring back National Service.
posted by the cuban at 1:41 AM on October 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

I am so freaky I mostly don't buy things. I love my jobs, have a delightful partner and am pretty satisfied with my friends and level of drug and food ingestion. What have you got for me?

I buy lots of stuff, but it's mostly for my daughter. There are so many cool kids' books out there. I mean, have you seen the me premieres decouvertes that Gallimard Jeunesse do? Whee! But other than that, this sounds familiar.

Is it really that odd to be happy with your partner and enjoy being a parent? Jobs, sure, happy-making jobs are less common, but still...
posted by rodgerd at 3:10 AM on October 3, 2009

How do you help other people get to good places in their lives without taunting them into it? How do you balance people's unhappiness with their resistance to change?

Hey, it's not my responsibility or obligation to provide teachable moments.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:40 AM on October 3, 2009

"As a revolutionary freak (check my credentials)"

Fuq, what credentials exactly? Because you're a member of the Biko Arts Collective?

You were probably just being funny, but it's weird when people play the "I'm more X than you could ever be" card.
posted by HopperFan at 7:28 AM on October 3, 2009

Fuq, what credentials exactly? Because you're a member of the Biko Arts Collective?

You were probably just being funny, but it's weird when people play the "I'm more X than you could ever be" card.

Thanks for asking!

If you know about the art collective, why didn't you come to our jazz/open mic night last night. It was better than usual.

You will have to excuse my rambliness and poor composition in this response to your call out, I'm still a little drunk from drinking liquor and watching ST:TNG last night.

In addition to the Biko Arts Collective, I also run a children's reading program in the Ocean Hill housing projects. It is planned by me and the other volunteers, but the kids really set the agenda and the schedule. We are trying to be unlike formal school and more casual, but to get kids excited about reading and arts.

Today, we are having a professional story-teller, the same that we had last year, which went over well. The only bummer is that the story-teller isn't going to make a huge mess in the park, which is what we usually end up doing. You probably don't come out so far, but after our acrylic paint day, I'm sure NYCHA was upset over cleaning paint off of everything in the park. We tend to create huge colorful messes because much of the activity is determined by the kids that attend. An important aspect of the program is that the kids are in control as much as we, the adult facilitators, are. Though, I think the parks staff is upset when the flagpole is covered in glitter and the trees are plastered with construction paper and paint and there are paper airplanes everywhere.

In addition to that, I've been moving the freegan bike workshop from their old place they got evicted from (and then destroyed, shame on them) into our basement. Sadly they haven't been getting much help from their people which is a real shame because the bike workshop is a great program. I've dragged in bike husks and seen kids ride away on on them after hours of work. I like to lift and move heavy things, and I particularly enjoy cleaning and organizing, but not silverware.

Furthermore, I live communally with 13 other people, all of whom are different than me. I'm the only straight white male around here. Trasnsexuals, lesbians, garifuna, indians, young and old.This place we live in in the place where we run our programs, so it's not unusual for me to go downstairs for morning/evening coffee and encounter a dance troupe (self-organized youngsters even!), alcoholics/narcotics anonymous (they also meet at my house every week), garifuna singers, old folks who are stopping by from the community garden or even taqwacore superstars the Kominas (I still have Basim's shirt from when we had a big punk-rock show and every band took showers in our big, communal bathroom). Everyone who lives here doesn't really fit anywhere else.

All of these things I do is for a sort of "freak revolution" (I call it "being an anarchist"). Much like the people linked, I am an outsider who is trying to improve and better the world, but I do so in relative anonymity, without marketing a book or lame self-help program. I try to take reasoned, concrete steps toward a better society without concern to my own financial betterment. I work toward a revolution of ideas and actions because I think that is the only way humanity will survive another 200-300 years. I don't make a big show of my actions because I'm not like the seven-sided snowflakes fiercecupcake linked and I don't need to constantly pat myself on the back for being a little different and trying to make the world a better place.

Actually, I guess I am a little prideful of my work because I did take the time to respond to your query of my "credentials." I might not be freaky enough for you (or the posted entrepreneurs) though because I'm straight and I like vanilla sex and boring porn.

So, HopperFan, who the fuck are you and are you coming to the meetup tonight?
posted by fuq at 10:35 AM on October 3, 2009 [3 favorites]

Let's imagine the world after our magic wish comes true. All the bad people are magically rolled up in a katamari or something, and the world is now populated entirely with good people.

Best mental image ever.
posted by lizzicide at 10:54 AM on October 3, 2009

Let's imagine the world after our magic wish comes true. All the bad people are magically rolled up in a katamari or something, and the world is now populated entirely with good people.

Oh how quaint. The seeds of a post-revolution pogrom.
posted by molecicco at 11:04 AM on October 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

"I'm more X than you could ever be" card.

Yes. The mainstream doesn't need to bother with the whole "divide and conquer" thing- we do it to ourselves.
posted by small_ruminant at 5:33 PM on October 3, 2009

> So let's look.

Mobunited, I'd like to understand your answer better (not snarking, just naive in the ways of the internet). Can you please explain a few things?

1. What are meta keywords and how do you find them?

2. What are "lower competition modifications"?

3. "trend piggybacking on Ishmael..." Whuh?

4. "backlink check shows some synthetic looking links ..." Huh?

There's more I don't understand, but let's start with these. Thanks in advance!
posted by Quietgal at 6:03 PM on October 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Regarding "Meta keywords":

Look in your browser menu for a command like "View Source" and you'll see that the web page has this in it:

*!-- All in One SEO Pack 1.6.5 by Michael Torbert of Semper Fi Web Design[391,416] --*
*meta name="description" content="Personal development for freaky people. Change the world by changing yourself and connecting with others." /*
*meta name="keywords" content="ishmael, story of b, daniel quinn, personal development, change the world, alternative relationship coach, alternative communication coach, lesbian relationship coach, lesbian coach, poly relationship coach, polyamorous relationship coach, poly communication coach, communication, authentic communication, awesome communication, how to be awesome, usual error, usual error project, interpersonal communication, awesomeification" /*
*link rel="canonical" href="http://freakrevolution.com" /*
*!-- /all in one seo pack --**/code*
posted by five fresh fish at 6:25 PM on October 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

The realization that most people are unhappy most of the time is an important one.

But, any solution that names advertising consultants as heroes and has the glossy, bullet-point feel of a corporate PR slideshow is going to have a tough time convincing anyone likely to listen to their ideas to take them seriously. (Still, I suppose they're doing far less harm than most of the hucksters on the motivational speaker and religious guru circuit. If there are people out there who find it valuable, then who am I to complain.)
posted by eotvos at 6:47 PM on October 3, 2009

Fuq, that was interesting reading, and I'm not being snarky. Thanks for sharing it, and yes, in my book you're plenty freaky, but in a good way.

I'm afraid I can't make it to the NYC meetup, as I'm about 550 miles away, but I'll raise a Guinness in your honor.
posted by HopperFan at 6:51 PM on October 3, 2009

I spend a little part of everyday, on average, in the same room as fuq. (Nothing to do with what he mentions above.) His revolutionary/freak credentials appear entirely in order to me.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:11 PM on October 3, 2009

Not only is fuq revolutionary and freaky, but he is also an incredibly lovely person to be around. I've never seen him get all BE LIKE ME BE A FREAK READ A SELF-HELP BOOK AND PULL YOUR KIDS FROM PUBLIC SCHOOL.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:24 PM on October 3, 2009

If you're repulsed or find it a ruse, then no big deal = It's simply not for you. Then move along. You obviously don't need what they are offering.

If it is of interest, well... FANTASTIC! I'm certain that there is a niche of people who'll find the manifesto of interest and of help.

What they wrote is interesting. I think they aren't hurting anyone... and they can probably actually help empower people who feel alienated, isolated, and lost. Since that means they're actually eliminating suffering, and thus of help in the world, all the better.

Good for them! And the people who respond and find it helpful!
posted by Schultzy at 6:50 PM on October 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

Sorry, to me, anyone calling themselves a "pagan" has lost their freak cred. ::yawn::
posted by Goofyy at 12:55 AM on October 6, 2009

they can probably actually help empower people who feel alienated, isolated, and lost.

For only $150 / hour, too. How revolutionary! How freaky! How empowering!
posted by dersins at 7:55 AM on October 6, 2009