Why is this site named Antipope?

(antipope.org)

83 points | by turadg 14 hours ago ago

45 comments

  • gerikson 12 hours ago

    Maybe the drunken sysadmin had a more classical or historical education than most.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipope

    • catoc 3 hours ago

      Then, since it’s about publishing (emails), they should have picked

      e-mprimatur

      (⌐⊙_⊙)

    • The_Blade 10 hours ago

      hell is round the corner where i shelter, isms and schisms

      i really enjoyed Crusader Kings 2, for 3 you need a mod to antipope

  • richardfey 13 hours ago

    Some reference to Les Technopères by writer Alejandro Jodorowsky?

    • pavlov 13 hours ago

      Calling him a writer is somewhat underselling his talent. Jodorowsky was a world-class clown and mime (yes, really) before becoming an award-winning filmmaker, visual artist, and comic book writer.

  • Procrastes 13 hours ago

    I'm having a Mandela Effect moment. I could have sworn it was a typo for "antipode" instead, but that must be a false memory I picked up somewhere.

    • neksn 13 hours ago

      A Mandela effect is when it happens to a large group of people. I’m afraid you’re alone in this.

      • tgrowazay 13 hours ago

        Only when large group of people die and have to be switched to another timeline via quantum immortality.

        This person died independently. Welcome to our timeline!

    • shwaj 13 hours ago

      Not on my timeline, this has been the name the whole time.

      • h3t08 13 hours ago

        what does that even mean

        • andyjohnson0 13 hours ago
        • thenewwazoo 13 hours ago

          "I reject your reality, and substitute my own."

        • stavros 13 hours ago

          They retconned it as a typo for antipode in their headcanon.

        • pessimizer 10 hours ago

          It means you were only interested in apartheid when it was on TV a lot, you completely missed the ending (and all news involving South Africa for the next 30 years), then you get all mystical about it because you think you're psychic. "I'm not dumb, actually reality changed..."

          Meanwhile, a bunch of other people who also don't pay attention to world events refer to this woman's ignorance as if it means something because the name that the psychic made up to describe it sounds scientifiky.

  • jmercouris 13 hours ago

    What does AutoPope mean though? The author glosses over this implying it means to pontificate- however- I have not seen this definition anywhere.

    • d-us-vb 13 hours ago

      “Pontifications by email” makes it clear enough. Email is an automated message delivery system, and the pope delivers messages from above, soooo…

      Such are many of the names coined by creative minds using the early internet.

    • AdamH12113 13 hours ago

      Automatic Pope, presumably. Offering pontifications (opinions) via technology (automated). “Pontiff” is another word for pope.

    • hammock 13 hours ago

      Pontificate in its original sense literally means to perform the duties of a pope or priest (a pontiff). The auto part I guess because it’s email? That part is shakier

      • beardyw 13 hours ago

        "to speak or express opinions in a pompous or dogmatic way" is I think the intention.

        • hammock 10 hours ago

          Yes. I didn’t bother to mention that part, only the polysemous connection to pope.

      • bombcar 13 hours ago

        Pontoon pontification - bridge building.

      • dfxm12 12 hours ago

        Auto as in you get it automatically in your mailbox. No need to ask for it or otherwise seek it out. It's just sent to you.

        ETA: other meanings likely don't fit. It's not about self pontificating (well maybe only from Charlie's point of view), and the motorcar related to the Pope is already called the Popemobile.

    • layer8 12 hours ago

      Clearly it means self-pontification.

    • geor9e 13 hours ago

      look up the word pontiff

  • darrenf 13 hours ago

    Disappointed it isn’t to do with Robert Rankin. Oh well.

  • ineedasername 13 hours ago

    Typo when it was created.

    • PeterWhittaker 12 hours ago

      Not at all sure why this is downvoted, since this is essentially a five-word tl;dr of the article.

  • once-in-a-while 12 hours ago

    [dead]

  • nephihaha 13 hours ago

    [flagged]

    • jrochkind1 13 hours ago

      Why read the link when you can just make something up and put it on the internet?

      • nephihaha 10 hours ago

        What would be the point of making up such a story? There isn't one. I live in the same neck of the woods as Charles Stross and see him around occasionally, as well as a few folk that know him. I'm not sure what the big deal with that is? I used to run into Ken MacLeod too sometimes, who is/was a friend of Stross', and in my view a more enjoyable writer. (I've never got into Stross' novels.)

    • sevg 13 hours ago

      I don’t get it. You’re suggesting that the article is untruthful?

    • ErroneousBosh 13 hours ago

      You know you could just read the linked page and it'll tell you exactly why it's called that, right?

      • nephihaha 12 hours ago

        You know that I used to know one of his close friends and she had Antipope in her email address? Kind of worth mentioning. I never got on with her particularly and her email caused an incident I remember VERY well.

      • krapp 13 hours ago

        We don't do that here.

  • 13 hours ago
    [deleted]
  • Mistletoe 13 hours ago

    I just assumed he was against the pope and nonsense like that.

    • tialaramex 13 hours ago

      Charlie explains why his site is named this, but the word "Antipope" does mean something already and it means specifically a person who says they are the Pope, but you recognise somebody else as Pope instead.

      It's thus sometimes unclear which people are "really" Antipopes until some time passes and you're like OK, Steve was an Antipope, the Roman Catholic Church still exists, the Pope is now this Dave guy, so his predecessor Geoff was also Pope, and Geoff's rival Steve's group died out, so Steve was an Antipope, even though for a few years my church said Steve was Pope, I now know that was wrong because God wouldn't let the One True Church vanish and once Steve died his whole church went back to Geoff.

      • nephihaha 13 hours ago

        I think it is a reference to the song by the Damned, but given Stross has lived in central Scotland for decades, you'd think he'd realise by now that it sounds more like someone from the Orange Order (Protestant supremacists) in these parts. There is historically a major issue with the Orange Order and Loyalists in the areas in and around Edinburgh and Glasgow, and they organise anti-Catholic marches in many working class communities as well as violence at football matches. I have met him and doubt this is what he is after, but it comes over like this.

    • mcmcmc 13 hours ago

      Which is a terrible assumption given an antipope is just a self-declared pope

    • nephihaha 13 hours ago

      Charles Stross has lived in Edinburgh for years and you would think by now that something like "Antipope" comes off as Protestant supremacist rather than secularist in central Scotland. One of his close friends has a similar background and she had antipope as part of her email back in the nineties when I was acquainted with her... It caused a lot of issues when she was emailing someone who was Catholic, because they thought it was some kind of Orange/loyalist account.

  • orliesaurus 13 hours ago

    "Automatic pope." WAT