The meaning of based

[possessor]

"Based" is NOT a.. uh.. positive complimentary slang term.

[chuft]

Actually the Urban Dictionary defines it thusly:

A word used when you agree with something; or when you want to recognize someone for being themselves, i.e. courageous and unique or not caring what others think. Especially common in online political slang.

The opposite of cringe, some times the opposite of biased.

I've only seen it used in this positive sense, never seen it used as a negative.

[possessor]

Holy crap im an idiot

[chuft]

Everyone makes mistakes. The lesson here is that it's a good idea to "look it up" first before you accuse someone else of being malicious or even just wrong about something. The Internet makes it a lot easier than it used to be to quickly double check things, and if you are still unsure, you can always say "I am not sure what you mean, can you explain?"

I remember years ago I used to game with someone who liked to research things and then wait to start arguments with people who weren't prepared. For example there was a German general named Paulus (of Stalingrad fame) who was often mistakenly given the German aristocratic prefix "von" by people. So people would refer to him as General von Paulus. Wargames even had rules like the "von Paulus Pause" to cover a strategy of his.

Well Paulus actually wasn't a von, as this guy knew from his reading, and he would play these wargames about Stalingrad, waiting for someone to say "von Paulus" and then jump in and say "You're wrong, he wasn't a von, it's just Paulus" knowing the usage was so common the other person would have read it somewhere and would insist it was von. After a long argument, consulting books etc it would become clear he was right. He relished ambushing people with these kinds of arguments that he had researched in advance. He liked to set traps like this and make you feel embarrassed.

It's always best before contradicting or accusing someone to double check and make sure you are right, and if you're still unsure, ask for clarification instead. It's a hard lesson and I've been corrected more times than I can count in my life before I learned to be very slow to make absolute statements unless I was very sure I was correct.

[possessor]

You're absolutely right. I think the interwebs changed what based means, as whenever somebody does something stupid, like a racist joke someone types "based". Didn't know they liked those jokes.

[chuft]

Yes some do like those jokes, and will use "based" to show approval.

The Internet is like a school, a workplace, a club like a chess club, or a bar, you can't control who walks in the door, so you often find yourself in the company of people you would not hang around with in any situation where you have a choice. That was precisely one of the problems with YTMND. The price for anyone being able to participate, is people you don't like will participate. The fact they can do so anonymously makes them even more obnoxious than they would dare be in person.

Just like every job is somewhere on the spectrum between boring and stressful, every social media site is somewhere on the spectrum between free speech and censorship. Extremes tend to be bad and extremes of free speech/censorship are no exception. The two gaming sites I have spent the most time on are an example. One is pure free speech, with all the hate speech and racism you could imagine, and the other has very heavy handed content-based censorship, with suspensions and bannings for things that would be perfectly acceptable elsewhere, such as being "argumentative". I am often not sure which site is worse so I limit my time on both of them.

On the positive side, anonymity helps people avoid discrimination, as many adults face for liking LazyTown. I suspect the 2007 LazyTown community would not have existed if everybody had to use their real name. Always two sides to the coin.

[Buzz]

You're absolutely right. I think the interwebs changed what based means, as whenever somebody does something stupid, like a racist joke someone types "based". Didn't know they liked those jokes.

based

[boredjedi]

Based - When someone is laying down a whole lot of truth bombs without care of the consequences. One would call that person Based. To add more complexity to this discussion you can refer to that person as The Goat (also used in sports for the MVP)

One could call George Carlin Based and The Goat.

Example:

'They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That's against their interests.' - George Carlin

"It's a big club, and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club. And by the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head in their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table is tilted folks. The game is rigged, and nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care." - George Carlin

That's why one would say he's based and.....

[possessor]

based

Very contributing to this topic

[LazyPooky]

Based on a memory