White Knighting
From Encyclopedia Dramatica
White Knighting refers to the misguided online defense of attention whores, "DeviantART Artists", or douchebags, all under the pretense of supposed compassion for some sort of benefit. Generally, this action occurs on websites like DeviantArt, Stickam, and other places which foster self-proclaimed Internet Celebrities, whom are protected by people who seek some sort of benefit in return- be it secondhand popularity, sex, or just attention. This invariably results in making the defended look even stupider, making the defender look pitiful, and making the entire situation one big clusterfuck of fail/lulz. Recently there seem to be some faggots who white knighting for the sake of it. Complete opposite of troll. However no one knows who the fuck they are because the first three google results of "Nobody" returned nothing interesting.
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Psychology
Boiled down to simple terms, white knighting is when some idiot protects some other idiot on the internet, presuming doing so will make them look better or doing so will bequeath them some benefits. The most stereotypical form of White Knighting is some basement-dwelling nerd on a popular social networking/camwhore site like Stickam, DeviantArt or Facebook protecting some popular girl he has a crush on in order to possibly win her favor, and thus get her to fuck him. This can also apply in a lesser sense to random users on various message boards who defend other members of the board (generally higher ranking members with higher post counts or those with moderatorships) to look "cool" or "in the know".
In the real world, protecting those who are harassed is entirely normal and acceptable. However, on the Internets, protecting someone who posts gay furry shit is tantamount to taking a shit on someone's chest, as Internet culture dictates (rightly so) that pretty much everything must be hated/parodied. Where suffering and bullying in the real world is the realm of heroes, those same things online end up only being absolutely hilarious and full of hilarity- because you are never forced to do anything online. White Knighting thus exposes itself as a pathetic attempt at social mobility -
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In most cases, a White Knight will also possess whatever crippling social disorder their victim has (garden variety stupid is included in this statement), providing him or her with all the empathy they need to create a special online friendship with their newfound chum. However, when this bond is between members of the opposite sex (where the White Knight is typically male), the relationship goes from bully savior to one of predator-and-prey, where the White Knight desperately attempts to woo their "girlfriend", usually unsuccessfully. The image of the dashing /b/tard, sweeping their Asperger's-diagnosed damsel off in their tattoo-covered, hillbilly arms, is too powerful an incentive to resist, so they go to great pains to flatter their victim and make them feel loved. This generally leads to the "Nice Guy Syndrome", where the White Knight later goes on Livejournal and cries about how he's so nice and so helpful and yet the girl of his dreams doesn't love him because she's off fucking cooldude.
White Knighting is also sometimes connected to Internet tough guys, as oftentimes said White Knights will try to attack anyone who threatens their respective Internet Celebrity ferociously, threatening anyone with physical violence. The typical Modus operandi is to TYPE IN ALL CAPS, swear incessantly, post huge blocks of text that make Ulysses look like fucking bathroom reading, brag about your job/life/car/muscles, and claim that your girlfriend is hot and totally not a meth addict.
Common White Knighting Locations
White Knights and their sycophantic schemes are typically found on message boards, blogs, or other social networking sites. The ones most frequented by these irritants are:
- Something Awful
- Gaia
- i-mockery.com
- DeviantART
- Stickam
- MySpace
- YouTube comments
- Enturbulation
- Newfags supporting camwhores on /b/
- /r9gay/
- IMDB
- Newgrounds
- The motherfucking chris-chan talk pages
- Furaffinity
...almost everywhere in our Web 2.0 world.
See Also
- Moralfag
- Internet Tough Guy
- Unwarranted self-importance
- Unrealistic expectations
- Internet Vigilante Group
- Ethical Hacker
Examples of White Knighting on the Internets
- Awfulvision Exposé: Gone too far?
- Lurkerbunny's Last Journal Entry
- Chris Crocker in all his glory - An old but classic example of White Knighting distilled.
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White Knighting is part of a series on Internet "Good Guys". |
