Be Excellent To Each Other

I don't know if you guys have been following a lot of news lately, but a march is being organised in London this weekend - starting from Hyde Park and ending outside the Daily Mail's headquarters - by fans of My Chemical Romance in response to the DM basically labelling "emos" as a "suicide cult" (and not for the first time either). As someone who respects the culture, I and some friends feel inclined to join them.

They made a website and everything which explains it all (currently down at the time of writing however, but here's their Youtube page instead). (Just beware of a fake website allegedly created by Anonymous that uses the same URL but with only one "t" in it, and which is a near-carbon copy of the original site except it replaces some text with suggestions of gathering together to commit "mass-suicide", and accompanied by some videos advertising the day with the intention of trying to convince people to kill themselves rather than, say, just enjoying the march).


I have a feeling that there'll be an "anti-emo" stance on this board, but I felt inclined to discuss it anyways. Do you feel they're doing the right thing by staging a peaceful protest? IMO, at least they're reacting to the Mail's bullshit by doing something major like this.

I think they have totally the right idea and they have my full support.

As long as their protest isn't to congregate outside the DM headquarters and then just whine about how shit life is and cut their wrists.

/bad joke.

Won't people be not in the DM offices on a Saturday?

The Mail on Sunday doesn't write itself, man. Someone has to fill in the blanks in the MoS precedents.

"[insert ethnic minority here] are [insert verb]ing our young women on a regular basis. Why doesn't the government [bring back corporal punishment]/[send them back home]/[do something about house prices]?"

"[insert celebrity name here] has lost her pregnancy weight in just 3 weeks! Is that healthy?

"[insert internet]. Ban this sick filth!"

"[insert random event of the week] has caused a house price crash!"

It just reads that way.

Isn't the Mail on Sunday just made up of stuff copied from the internet and then run through some sort of "outrage generator"?

I thought My Chemical Romance had renounced Emo-ism?

I'd prefer it if they had renounced music.

You can't "renounce" Emo, man. It's in your bones, it runs through your veins. It's part of who you are, and once it's got you it ain't ever letting go.


Or is that the blues?

Fairly sure that's skag.

Surely being labelled as a suicide cult would be character forming?

Always get those two mixed up

* cancels trip to take parents to the "House of Skag"

If you lasted long enough to be labelled it'd be crushing.

That Mail article is totally hilarious. You'd have to have absolutely no sense of humour to take it seriously.

Oh.

If they can get their arses together to do a protest, they're not proper emos. Unless it's an indoor, sit down, protest, where they can keep coming their fringes without worrying about the wind.

Emos vs the Daily Mail? If they could just take each other out in some mutually assured destruction, it'd be a win for everyone else.

But it'd be good if folk were more bothered about actually standing up to The Man, like in the fables days of old. Y'know, instead of just sitting around all day Being Sarcastic On The Internet. Like what I do.

Even if it is about Emos.

I'd love to field a conference of Emos, and make my opening remark "So, are Emos now the Nigger of the world?" Ah, the discomfort!

Calling Al-Qaeda, calling Al-Qaeda...

I'll be showing my support
\

Man, how can anyone protest against this article??

Maybe they are doing the black parade through london.

Emo is good music, dont see everyones problem.

MCR are a great pop rock band IMHO with some great tunes.

Title it "The Day Rosa Parks Just Sat At Home and Cried a Bit".

MCR are not emo, nor have they ever been.

+10 CUS Points to Craster! You have nearly enough for a wicker plate.

City of Caterpillar? Orchid? Fugazi?

Emotional hardcore. MCR are a pop-musical band, the 'Black Parade' is the latest concept album in a story Gerard Way wrote when he was 13, or something.

Seriously, 'Chain Wandering Deeply' by Envy is an emo song. 'I'm Not OK(I Promise)' is not.

Aiden are a terrible, poorly-executed AFI ripoff, an AFI have been shit since about ten years ago anyway.

Agreed, BUT, the Daily Mail is not referring to that, and I expect the legions of androgynous teens with annoying haircuts who would call themselves "emo" have not heard of those bands.

It's not short for "emotionally retarded", then? Oh. That would have made more sense with MCR.

Also, having actually bothered to read that article, I'm firmly on the side of the emos. And that's not something I though I'd ever say!

I think I'm being dragged to World of Emo (aka Nottingham Rock City) on saturday. Lucky, lucky me...

I sympathise to an extent. If I was the 14-year old me right now, I'd be labelled 'emo', as I was a proper little goff. Back then, there was nobody else there for me to talk to, at least now there's hundreds of them about and the ones with genuine problems have some friends that might be able to help them out.

That's probably the (unintentionally) funniest thing I've read in a long time.

I posted a rant on the comments, but since it was largely calling the author an idiot, it probably won't be published.

MCR, the band that made all emo people believe they go to a parade when they die, and also all have straight, parted black hair...

...oh, apart from all the emo peoples with half a brain cell... and apart from the lead singer, with his bleached hair (does he still have that?).

I quite like MCR, but only for their singles. They're ace pop music.

Ah yes Emos, expressing their individualism by looking and acting exactly like everyone they know....bless em.

How dare you.

My lawn is emo.

Which is handy, because it means it cuts itself.

Fugazi were emo. Emo, emo, emo, emo, emo.

The good kind.

Did they commit suicide too?

That's the best kind, isn't it?

Ha! Ha!

You are the funny man.

Not so much. Emos are an easy target, hence the Dail Mail going for them.

It'll be the Teddy Boys next.

It'll all kick off when the Rollers fans weigh in.

I said my lawn is emo. It cuts itself.

Hello? *blows* Is this thing on?

Right, rant time.

Whilst, as I made clear, the whole emo thing bothers me, that doesn't mean that all of them do, should, or will cut or kill themsleves. Frankly, the opposite is often true - by being with other people who UNDERSTAND that sort of negativity, rather than goiing "(insert emo joke here - ed)" they have far more chance of getting through adolescense unharmed. It's about time the Daily Mail, and a few people here actually realised that.

Dudley, it's not about expressing individuality, youth movements never are. They are about fitting in.

Now, I understand people here are probably joking, but it's coming very close to people actually saying that unhappy, and possibly actually depressed or otherwise mentally ill, teenagers should actually kill themselves. That's fucking out of order.

Now, as you know I suffer from depression, and everyone here has been very kind about it. I hope no-one thinks they have to tiptoe around it from what I'm saying here, but there's a time and a place for that sort of joke, and when anyone in a public forum can read it may not be.

I also know people who cut themselves, and that REALLY is no laughing matter. I'm not talking the scratching to make a cool scar, I'm talking the needing stitches and having to hide the marks sense.

end rant.

Do lawns do that, though? Maybe if you keep goats.

Oh fer crying out loud.

That's how a couple of posts sounded to me. Clearly people were joking. It was, however, remarkably unfunny.

Make up? No. Wanky clothes? No. Emo? Hell no.

I've heard this line of reasoning before, and I really do have some sympathy with it. But it does strike me that it's just as likely to have the opposite effect. You get a bunch of depressed kids together listening to shitty, depressing music and they're hardly likely to be cheering each other up, are they? I've seen one or two "emo" boards where there's an awful lot of negative encouragement going on.

Plus, "emo" is a sub-culture - it's not a support group. I'm sure that there are depressed kids who help other depressed kids (and I hope there are), and they also just happen to be "emos" as we'd categorise them. But the whole "emo" thing as a sub-culture seems to be wallowing and almost glorifying that sort of depression. Turning depression into a fashion statement is really, really pathetic. I know it's not every emo kid that does this, but it's the net effect of the whole grouping - from the pseudo-emos to the proper-emos. That's what leads to the jokes - most of the kids that would be described as emo by themselves or others aren't clinically depressed or suicidal, they're just whiney teenagers making out like they are. And therefore rightly fit for a pisstake.

No-one on here, I'm sure, would ever take the piss out of someone who's depressed or suicidal because they're depressed or suicidal. It just happens that the emo grouping includes some people who are genuinely depressed, and I can assure you those aren'tthe target of any piss taking.

I get the sense we pretty much agree with each other on this, too.

...There are two Emos.

THAT'S NOT EMO