A-Logging
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PROTIP:
This article is about the term "A-Logging", not about Anthony LoGatto himself. Information on the latter should go to his Encyclopedia Dramatica page.
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| “ | What Saddam did in the Gulf War was potatoes to what Chris has done. | ” |
| A-Log providing a helpful example of A-Logging. | ||
A-Logging is a term used to describe one expressing disproportionate levels of hatred for Chris, often including wishing him physical harm, usually for perceived "crimes" that Chris is "guilty" of. The people who do this are known as A-Logs, and are considered at the other end of the spectrum from white knights; where white knights try to defend Chris from trolls and help him to improve his situation, A-Logs hold the belief that Chris is deserving of whatever scorn and harm he is subjected to, and then some. A-Logs are sometimes interchangeably referred to as weens, as many A-Logs also tend to be weens and vice-versa, although weening has a different meaning to A-Logging, namely unfunny or failed attempts at trolling Chris. While once fashionable, A-Logging has become associated with people trying to "trollshield" themselves, like the original A-Log, and therefore is looked down upon by Christorians.
The term originates from Anthony "A-Log" LoGatto, a YouTuber who is known for making commentaries on Chris, which are often considered to be the worst ever made. He often points out the obvious (a no-no in the commentary community) instead of making points about what Chris is doing is wrong, and goes on about how Chris is an awful person (and how he, A-Log, is better) who needs to have harm inflicted upon him. However, A-Log's monomania led trolls to wonder what he was trying to hide, leading to them doing a bit of research on him. The result was that A-Log became known as "Chris-Chan 2.0" because, as it happened, he had several faults similar to Chris himself, and could be considered worse than Chris. Among other things, he is a furry, has made terrible erotic fanfiction, is doing a laughable college radio show (from which he was almost fired after being caught watching porn in the studio), did some awkward interviews at WolfDork.com, was the subject of a leaked video of him doing a painfully bad stand-up routine, and much, much more. Ultimately, A-Log became subject to trolling himself, and is the inspiration for this very term. At one point, A-Log even received his own wiki called the "Logattopedia", which was relatively short-lived and unpopular. He also spawned the phrase "Hi, A-Log!", used to mock A-Logs.
Features of A-Logging
There are a few qualities which are common in A-Logs, and many of them can be seen in the original A-Log's commentaries.
Justifications for trolling Chris
Some would argue that it is sinister and just plain wrong to mock a mentally deficient person such as Chris. A-Logs therefore try to justify trolling him by arguing that, regardless of his autism and other undiagnosed problems, he has shown that he is a bad person who "deserves" to be trolled. Many A-Logs are themselves autistic, and they can often be heard making arguments along the lines of Chris "giving autistics a bad name." Others will appeal to his many instances of bigotry (most of them debatable) as reasons to troll Chris. By establishing that Chris is a bad person, it seems to justify that Chris not only deserves the treatment he currently receives, but also deserves physical and/or psychological harm inflicted on him.
While Chris has done some horrible things, including cursing his former friend Megan Schroeder for trolling him (which of course, she didn't) and hitting Michael Snyder with his car, it is still somewhat ironic that A-Logs think the best recourse is to wish him death and curse him back. Not to mention, they tend to ignore the factors that led Chris to behave in this way--unsurprisingly, unbridled malevolence is never one of them, as discussed in further detail below.
Trollshielding
Often times, people who A-Log Chris do so to "trollshield", that is, to avoid becoming subject to trolling themselves. Like A-Log himself, they tend to have many traits in common with Chris; they generally have an autism spectrum disorder, still live with their parents well into adulthood, are unemployed and/or are living off welfare, are sexually frustrated virgins, have trouble socializing and forming relationships, or are fixated on cartoons, toys and other things that most people their age would have little interest in beyond their nostalgic value. Some perhaps have even more faults than Chris, especially bizarre fetishes, as seen in the case of A-Log himself. However, A-Logs will argue that at least they are "not like Chris" and are fervent in their vitriolic condemnations of Chris so that people don't troll them instead. More often than not, as in the case of the original A-Log, this backfires and they find themselves becoming the subject of trolling.
Arguments against A-Logging
While Chris is far from perfect, it is generally accepted that calling for him to be harmed or abused like A-Logs do merely legitimizes Chris's sense of victimization, and makes the A-Logs themselves look sociopathic and unbalanced.
Chris is not Hitler
While the CWCki certainly doesn't vindicate any of the bad or stupid things Chris has done, what A-Logs must understand is that Chris, while he may not exactly be a likable person, isn't guilty of "crimes" that must be punished with violence or abuse. We really shouldn't need to point out that Chris being compared to people like Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler is at best hyperbolic, and at worst, utter insanity. Hitler was responsible for the death of nearly 11 million civilians during World War II.[1] Hussein actively persecuted and murdered almost 200,000 Kurds and Shiite Muslims.[2] Chris's antics hardly compare to the atrocities committed by two feared and reviled dictators; he's just a gullible idiot who spends his time trying to hit on women (very badly) and make them his sweethearts, crossdressing and playing vidya.
While he is quite prone to rage and has a noted tendency to wish very unpleasant things on those who wrong him, it should be plain to see that he is simply too lazy, weak, cowardly and incompetent to actually carry out whatever he threatens. After all, do you really think a man who took 20 seconds to open a Swiss Army knife is capable of killing anyone? Plus, there's only one extant account of him even getting close to fighting someone, and in that instance, he pussied out, so it seems that even Chris himself knows that there could only be one outcome if he ever tried to get violent with anyone. Moreover, when taking Chris's childlike mental state into account, it's also quite possible he doesn't fully understand the gravity of what he wishes upon people when making death threats, especially when he's blinded by anger.
Chris is also known to exact violent retribution from those who have wronged him in his fictional works, which A-Logs tend to use as evidence of him being evil or psychopathic. For example, he is known to have beaten up representations of his real-life enemies in Soul Calibur, and subjected some of them to particularly gruesome deaths in the Sonichu comics. However, not only are these gory episodes in CWCville isolated incidents, but again, one must remember that he is resorting to this because he is sensible enough to realize that he could not do this in real life, due to his own weakness and because he knows he'll be punished for it, which is, in itself, an encouraging sign. Moreover, even if this were taken to be evidence of a violent streak, it does not merit abuse or punishment because obviously, he hasn't actually hurt anyone except an NPC in Soul Calibur. While violent fantasies like these do merit anger management classes and/or a few sessions with a psychiatrist, they are not a green light for A-Logs to demonize Chris; he's mentally ill, and as such needs help, not hate.
Even compared to many other infamous Internet personalities, Chris is actually fairly benign. While many A-Logs tend to justify their actions by arguing Chris could someday act on his fantasies and commit violence or even rape, they tend to forget about people who have actually done those things. For perspective, fellow lolcow Vade is widely believed to have intentionally caused her boyfriend to commit suicide in order to gain sympathy on Tumblr. She then used this sympathy to build a sizable legion of followers who would spam any Tumblr user Vade deemed offensive or unworthy, for a time she practically ruled the site like a micro-dictatorship. Yet for some reason countless A-Logs direct their scorn at Chris even though his purported violent and authoritarian fantasies have remained exactly that.
A-Logs also tend to turn to the October 2011 GAMe PLACe incident to try and portray Chris as a truly violent individual. More likely than not, Chris's actions on that day were the result of his mother's influence, his non-existent driving skills, and sheer blind panic rather than outright malevolence.[3][4] Likewise, Chris's decision to visit a local GameStop despite being banned and subsequent macing of an employee who tried to get him to leave were not the product of malevolence on Chris's part. It was caused by Chris's assumption that he would be allowed in because he was in disguise, and because he had decided that his ban didn't apply because he was there to buy, not to vandalize merchandise, which had got him banned in the first place. Additionally, the leaked video of the incident shows Chris merely spraying at the employee's shirt rather than his face, which lends credence to Chris's own account that he was simply issuing a warning shot in case the employee tried to detain him, or merely spraying in his general direction as a parting "fuck you" to the staff in an attempt to look sassy, not trying to actually harm the man. All in all, the GameStop incident was caused not by a violent streak, but rather by Chris's persistent habit of trying to circumnavigate rules when they inconvenience him, and his tendency to forget the consequences of his actions.
There's no legal defense over attacking Chris for real
Perhaps the best reason against A-Logging is the legal liability (i.e. being charged with and possibly convicted for stalking, terroristic threats, assault, or a myriad of other possible charges). Whatever feelings you may have against Chris, there is no legal defense for taking the law into your own hands, and chances are you will end up with a life-changing felony conviction. In addition to this, part of the charm of watching Chris is in his eternal rage over a nonexistent enemy. Committing actual violence would only legitimize Chris's victim complex.
Chris's beliefs are simply ignorant, not supremacist
While Chris has held some politically incorrect, even bigoted opinions in the past, they hardly seem to suggest Chris is an amoral monster. One must consider that Chris was raised by and has spent his entire life around 2 elderly, disturbed rednecks. Of course he has socially unacceptable beliefs on controversial topics such as race and sexuality--they were given to him by people whose every word he has unquestioningly accepted since he was young.
Aside from this, Chris's discomfort around black people likely has more to do with Bob's influence and his own failure to understand social norms. Chris simply doesn't understand that one does not announce to the world one is discomforted by African-Americans; this is far from the outright ideology of white supremacy that your average neo-Nazi would have. Chris has no history of actually going out and lynching blacks or other minorities that discomfort him. Chris's notable offenses have been applying stereotypes to and picking on the black kids who defeated him in TCGs at the GAMe PLACe, as well as using "Jew" as a pejorative against Michael Snyder, who Chris inaccurately thinks is Jewish, and taking photos of an elderly black woman who was giving him "a hard time" and putting it on Facebook without her permission. One of Chris's grievances, if you can call it that, is that non-white women don't fit his ideal vision of a sweetheart, which he constantly fails to properly articulate; it is entirely possible for a non-racist white man to not be sexually attracted to non-white women. Chris has also used the racial slur of "nigger" in a few of his means of communication, though he shows some degree of reservation where he uses this word. During the Lars Call, Chris showed great apprehension towards using the word "nigga" and only did so when Lars gave him implicit permission. One of the most famous instances of Chris's use of the word "nigger" is in his video confronting Surfshack Tito on his trolling efforts.[5] In this video, Chris's racism is often found humorous as Tito is Hawaiian, not black. Moreover, Chris's usage of the word in Don't Trust Any Homos Over There is the result of it being an adaptation of a song from the racially-charged show The Boondocks, and pure laziness to change every racist part in the song to homophobic parts. When one examines Chris's use of the word, he does not show any understanding of the complexity, history, proper context, or underlying implications of the slur.[6] He simply repeats it blindly as he knows that it is edgy and offensive to black people.
In regards to his homophobia, while his reasons are ill-informed at best, again, Bob is the likely source of Chris's dislike of homosexuals,[7][8] not to mention the fact that Chris has had very little friendly interaction with anyone, never mind true homosexuals. It is also worth noting that trolls are at least partially to blame for his hatred of homosexuals, as they would often pretend to be homosexuals, or spam his websites with homoerotic images, to get under his skin, not to mention that they often pretended to be black for the same reasons. As a result, Chris, in his autism, began to believe that all trolls are gay black men, thus cementing his disdain for both homosexuals and black people, as he thought they were responsible for the trolling he was subject to. A-Logs also like to appeal to his attempts to "cure all the homos" with a vaccine made with his blood in the comics as proof positive of his homophobia. While this may be so, it is often seen as unintentionally funny by Christorians--not only because it shows his ignorance of science, but also because vaccines are made with dead cells infected with the disease they are curing--meaning that Chris unknowingly implied that he was gay. In short, Chris is not the Westboro Baptist Church--he doesn't go around picketing the funerals of dead gays, nor is he head of a power-lobbying group against LGBT individuals in Washington. He's just a redneck who's too indoctrinated by his parents and unused to minorities, or the concept of people being different to him, to know better.
It is also worth noting that with Bob gone, and Barb soon to follow, Chris has begun to emerge from his parents' influence, and has back-pedalled on his bigotry towards minorities. In particular, Chris has begun to express his desire to become a lesbian transwoman, and has accordingly publicly apologized for his old bigotry towards homosexuals, first on Facebook, and later in a YouTube video, and he has become a staunch supporter of LGBTIQ rights. He has even been attending gay bars, the one thing he said he'd never do.
Chris just cannot get a job
Some A-Logs contend that Chris is a bad person because he "steals" taxpayer money. What is almost always overlooked by A-Logs who make this claim is that it wasn't Chris who applied for social security disability; it was Bob who applied for it and convinced Chris that he would make more from disability benefits than working at a minimum wage job. Realistically, Chris didn't have any say in the matter because Bob was the head of the house, and as such it was at his whim that Chris had food, shelter and clothing.
So why doesn't Chris "get off his lazy butt and earn his keep"? Well, because there are a couple of very difficult barriers that stand in his way that many A-Logs simply don’t take into consideration.
First, there is the bureaucratic red tape and regulations involved in someone working full-time while receiving disability benefits. Ironically, it isn't Chris sitting around playing video games day after day while living on government handouts that would likely get him in trouble for disability fraud, it would be working full-time at a minimum wage job while still getting a disability check that would get him in trouble.
Second, there is the issue of Chris's lack of preparation for independent living, as well as his lack of coaching in finding a job and being able to keep it. Moreover, given the existence of this wiki, and the fact that it is standard these days for employers to Google potential employees, it would more likely than not take someone working in human services or in the employment field (that has extremely good connections) and a job coach (on a long-term basis) to convince a skeptical employer to give Chris a realistic chance at successfully getting and keeping a job. In addition, given Chris's rap sheet, even under ideal circumstances Chris's chances at decent employment may be slim at best. Chris has been convicted for the events of 28 October 2011 and 26 December 2014, which would deter potential employers, regardless of his ability to perform to tasks they set him. While it may sound attractive to the uninformed to "kick his ass" when it comes to Chris working, in reality there are deep-seated issues that go way beyond the expertise of a few trolls, and no amount of A-Logging can change this.
Chris is just an idiot
Chris is not mentally retarded as defined by medical standards and as he claims. His IQ is within normal range. What trips him up is his lack of common sense. He actually believed that an attractive celebrity was interested in him sexually and that he was talking to her. He used to insist that he'd had many sweethearts, all very attractive women, and never seemed to find it curious that they all either died, disappeared, or were unmasked as trolls. He is an easy mark, not a criminal mastermind.
Most people can avoid being trolled
Chris does share traits with a lot of people, and some of these traits are quite disturbing and embarrassing. It's a fair assumption that a lot of people who follow Chris's antics are unemployed gamer losers, for example. A lot of people have seen Chris and uttered in their minds "Finally, here's someone who's more pathetic than I am!"
But before you fall into the fallacy of believing that vociferously condemning Chris will save you from the same fate, remember that having embarrassing traits like Chris's doesn't automatically make you subject to the sort of trolling Chris has had. It may make you subject to ridicule, but what's more important is how you respond to the ridicule. You could be like Chris and get BLANGRY at every traitorous troll under lucricities, and give the trolls power over you just like Chris did.
Or you could laugh with them at your faults, or even just ignore them and go about your business. Trolls generally aren't interested in people they can't coax a reaction out of. This vital recognition is something Chris never managed, and what set him down the path to perennial trolling in the first place. All in all, if you don't want to end up like him, A-Logging isn't the way to do it. But avoiding the myriad of mistakes Chris and A-Log made is.
The Hall of A-Logging Shame
In this section, the CWCki has compiled several comments (and plenty more to come) from A-Logs on YouTube and elsewhere.
| “ | Obviously you've never heard of what he calls other people who are autistic, and that he calls people with Aspergers(such as myself) "fakers". he doesn't deserve some, he deserves everything for giving us a bad name. The trolls are also doing what they do to him for a good reason. it's not about the autism to them, but more of that he's a moron who is evil reincarnate and deserves to go back to hell. I don't believe you know what all CWC has done to us on youtube. | ” |
| GamerXZ0, in a YouTube comment on an original upload of an A-Log video. | ||
| “ | 29 years ago today, satan was born and molded into the fucktardian PENIS we know & despise today! Should i ever see him i'm gonna destroy him worse than new jack did to mass transit! | ” |
| ISLAVERDE29, another YouTube comment on an older A-Log video. | ||
| “ | actually, I think I prefer putting many bullets in this faggots head instead. | ” |
| hanchiman on the FUTURE MESSAGE. | ||
| “ | Hooray he's dead. Now he'lll be spending his eternity in hell while I go piss on his grave. | ” |
| mxc82, again, another YouTube comment on one of A-Log's older videos, referring to Bob's death. | ||
| “ | Mostly because I was hoping the video would end with him getting shot dead. by the Ruckersville police. You can imagine how disappointed I am to find him still alive and kicking when the video is over. | ” |
| CKO92 on YouTube, reacting over the Lego High School video. | ||
| “ | You fucking brony piece of shit, go kill yourself. If i was your mother i would have an abortion. | ” |
| randomletters on the Lego High School video. | ||
| “ | Chris Chan u are the single worst human being who ever live. If it wasn't for u fellow autistics and Sonic OC creators like me would be respected by the world. What you have done is unforgivable. I hope Barb dies and you spend the last minutes of your life crying about how your a pathetic failure fuck you | ” |
| OfficialSteroidHedgy, in a comment in Chris's YouTube account. | ||
| “ | I hope you are ashamed that a retarded autistic person (just like yourself) killed 20 innocent kids....all autistic people should be wiped from the earth and aborted before birth since you are all evil i wish the worst fates that heaven and hell can bring upon you and all the other autistic pieces of shit like you | ” |
| RealReplyGirl4Ever, in a comment in Chris's YouTube account- comparing Chris to a man who shot up an elementary school and advocating genocide. | ||
| “ | Guess whose house burned down today. CHRIS-CHAN! | ” |
| Bad Webcomics Wiki, gloating on their Facebook Page about Chris's house burning down. | ||
| “ | HAHAHAHAHA | ” |
| A response by the Bad Webcomics Wiki when a troll calls them out for the above. | ||
| “ | Sadly, yes. | ” |
| Another post from the Bad Webcomics Wiki's Facebook Page, when told that Chris survived the fire. | ||
| “ | Words cannot adequately describe my utterly all-encompassing hatred and disgust for the grotesque entity that is Christian Weston Chandler. You Christian, are a shamelessly gruesome, inhuman monster. Everything you do and say only adds to your, almost incomprehensibly massive, list of atrocities. Were I to load up http://www.sonichu.com or some other Chris-Chan-related news source and saw that you finally died a death which properly corresponded to what you've inflicted upon this world, it would be the happiest day of my life.
Happiest. Day. Of. My. Life. |
” |
| ephewe, on I Love You, Catherine. | ||
| “ | Listen, you fat, autistic piece of shit. I've tolerated you so far because you're going to be my new neighbor, but this is the last straw. You traipse around your yard carrying blow up dolls and singing awkwardly, not to mention I can constantly hear you screaming at your mother. I am serious considering finishing cleaning this lot and selling this property to someone better equipped to handle someone like you. I was well within the city ordinances with this controlled brush burn. Also, if I see any other videos of me on my lot portraying me in a negative light, I will take up a libel suit with you. | ” |
| Mac Slims, trying much too hard to pretend to be Chris's neighbor. | ||
| “ | God I fucking hate this piece of shit. I hope he dies. | ” |
| JAZZ HANDS, on the GameStop assault video. | ||
| “ | Why the fuck is he still alive!?
God, I mean, the guy looks ridiculous, he is also racist and an anti-social idiot that attacks people for no reason, and now he's a fucking burglar!? What's next, he will become the next Hitler? |
” |
| Rafael Gutierrez, on the GameStop assault video. | ||
| “ | Yes people, THIS is the person Chris's trolls have been whiteknighting and pussing out on trolling because hes "had enough done to him" seriously, give me a break, this guy is an asshole and deserves anything that happens to him because its his OWN DAMN FAULT | ” |
| TheMojoCorps, on the GameStop assault video. | ||
| “ | shut up you fatass faggot. go jump off a cliff and die. | ” |
| Boner Dix, responding to a YouTube comment left by Chris | ||
| “ | Why can't this fucking freak of nature just die already?!!?! | ” |
| Gogol ginn, on "The Best of Chris-Chan, Vol. 1" | ||
| “ | Someone strangle this fucker to death. Please. | ” |
| Darkside780 on CWC Music Video Holding Out For a Hero | ||
| “ | I just saw a semi-censored version. WHO THE FUCK MAKES THESE KINDS OF VIDS? He's acting like a retard and at the same time running around naked. I wish this man a slow, painful, death. I don't care about the lulz he gives us. This man is disturbing,creepy, and should not be allowed to join society. | ” |
| thesideshowman212 on CWCFlyingElephants | ||
| “ | Proof perfect that autists should be dumped in the nearest alligator pit when their condition becomes apparent. | ” |
| GalVorbak on the Sign Destruction Video | ||
| “ | Whatever happened to predictability? |
” |
| videogamenostalgia, on FullHouse | ||
| “ | I'd like to see someone argue that all human beings are worthy of life after watching chris's videos | ” |
| xXJakethesnake117Xx, on KCWC Top 10 Dedication Special | ||
| “ | ugh i hope chris chan dies a painful death i mean i think he makes the japanese look like stero-types. | ” |
| evil-vivianne, on the CWC Soundboard on DeviantART | ||
See Also
- Weening, another type of failed trolling, and a key aspect of A-Logging
References
- ↑ 36 Questions & Answers About the Holocaust
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ "Mom took the wheel"
- ↑ Chris exhibits poor judgement while driving
- ↑ On camera use of the word "nigger"
- ↑ Chris's liberal use of "nigger"
- ↑ "[...]conspired together with a couple of other people- kids there that I think were gay[...]"
- ↑ "[...]and my father threw the damned "fag" card at me."