Ignorance bashing! Join me!!

[meaningless]

I just wanted to alert interested parties to a sorry event in the lives of Pearl Jam fans. In a certain Pearl Jam-themed chat room, a certain Indian Summer, aka Scott, had the following (among alot of other things...) to say: "And I am not about to remove Gay as a put-down from my vocabulary".

I think this speaks for itself.

But since you're here... I'll let some of his other dialogue speak to you...
" I have used Gay as a put-down for years. You all are the first to challenge it"
"Fuck it, I aint' politicallly correct"
"I'm never around Gay ppl!"
" I use Gay as a put down all the time"
"You all are blowing this way out of proportion! You all are being soooo gay"

So some words are spoken, and that leads me (meaningless) to say: "IS is just stupid, and thats' all."

And Indian SUmmer here replied: '"Stupid"??? I find that Offensive, are you making fun of metally handicapped ppl?... That's how I took it"
"Meaningless, I think the mentally handicapped community would find Stupid a derogatory term"

"Frink You are acting very homosexual!"
[he says this because...]"Cause it is politically correct according to this crew"

He also went on to say it was allright because he is from Kentucky, which is a piece of bullshit that I have all types of permission to call him on since I was fucking raised in Kentucky.

Shit and the words keep coming, I can't keep up with it. Now I realize that many of you will disagree with like my motives for making this post, or maybe even think thsi post is a horrible idea, but I cant' stand back and let someone be this ignorant and prejudiced. And he also gave me permission when I asked if I could post his comments on a bbs (or two or three):"Quote it print it, whatever you please!"

So this is what I please. I just think that... I dunno. Maybe I'm singling IS out, but you can bet that if you share hte same mindset as he, this is directed at you too. It's just so fucking PREPOSTEROUS! This is why the world doesn't run smoothly, is people hang on to preconceived ERRONEOUS points of view about people who are even slightly "different" from them... and it builds and builds... It festers... and it comes out in hate crimes, wars, fights, oh lots of evil things. We are all people, and we all have a right to be ourselves. Don't twist my words around to say that "well maybe 'myself' is someone who calls people 'gay' and 'fag' and 'kyke' and all that..." Because the point is, if everyone was allowed to be themselves without clhallenge, those words wouldn't exist. There wouldn't be any negatively connotated words to refer to peoples.

I don't know if I'm even making my point clear. I'm just really so livid about this that I can't put it into words. People wonder why I'm so bitter and sad, and it's because I run into people like thsi, and situations like this. I can't ignore them, and it hurts me deep inside to knwo that this shit goes on.

So...

Imagine all the people... living life in peace...

-Nicole






"if just once... i could feel love... oh stare back at me, yeah..."

[ProfessorFrink]

Gay-related insults should not be tolerated. If we just ignore it, it adds to the problem. It's time people are made responsible for what they say. I have no problem with your post Meaningless.

[GirlNewton]

Hey I join ya! The stuff IS says and people like him is just too fucking stupid for words. You know that name stuck with me since he's been polluting the BBS with some stupid crap too- freedom of speech is one thing, this is ridiculous..

"Guano-bowls.. collect the whole set!"

"Guano-bowls.. collect the whole set!"

[RogueTrader]

Maybe you should BOTH take this OUTSIDE.......

I for one would prefer it if my drink wasn't knocked over while the two of you slapped each other about. Next thig you know, Smirks will be employing bouncers and then no one will be able to enjoy thw place.

It really doesn't matter who started it, this is a childish way for both of you to act.

M

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25 in 30 Days, Makes this room feel like home

[northwoodsamyII]

2 actually....

1) here's an example I have heard using that word and was never offended.... imagine if you will doing something really silly/stupid. like stuffing eggs down your shorts and sitting on your heiney for 20 bucks ( don't ask, it as just the silliest/stupidest thing I could come up with at this early hour)....now, I can imagine one sitting there doing this with friends and saying "Oh man this is so gay" and laughing histerically. Using that word in that context has not a thing to do with homosexuality. Remember- gay was a word first employed as a descriptive measure - to describe something happy or joyous. it later was twisted to label homosexuals.....In the above example, i would not be offended one bit . In fact, my homosexual friends would not be offended one bit....I dont' know if this usage offends you, you can decide and tell me if you like. I'm just asking......

2) really, can we not post bickerings that happen at Synergy over here. Why must we taint everything. I have no problem with you discussing this here at all...and even if I did, it wouldn't matter cause it is not my board, but I think it can be done in a much more constructive manner.....when we bash someone because we are offended by what they say often makes us just as bad as that person

TO MY FRIENDS, I'M NOT A DRUNK DRIVER...I'M PRESIDENT ELECT.

[yer ardy]

while i do not condone what was said....in the chat..the chat
that isn't 'here' but in another forum...
to bring it here, in my opinion, and encourage a "bashing"
of any sort...to me....is not appropriate.
taken to a 'private' or a 'whisper' between the 2 parties
involved..may be the route to take..? just a suggestion...

there will always be someone or something that pisses people off.
this world is, and will never be, without imperfections....
and no matter how hard you try or wish..it ain't gonna spin the
way you want it to. but 'your' world can be the way 'you' want
it..and you can make it happen.

"if you hate something....don't you do it too"

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if i had one dollar for every brain you don't have, i would have one dollar

[meaningless]

I understand what yr all saying, but I still stand by my post... I tried to say that I wasn't necessarily singling IS out, altho essentially I was, cuz he was the cause of my anger at that particular point... And I'm not reneging that. I was just trying to use it as an example for a) everybody who shares that mindset, which I STRONGLY oppose, to the degree that I DO feel it's necessary to take my message to other forums besides where the incident happened. Fuck it, I can't just let it slide and only confront the "guilty party" because I want to scream my lungs out til it fills this room (of course, how much difference does it make, yeah, well now I know). Fuck it, if the world is a horrible place, I'm STILL not gonna sit back and ignore it and let it happen. That's MY way. and b) for the particular "offender" because it was this terrible argument, and it was so ludicrous that I just said to him, you know, if yr so gung ho about this, can I just let other people know about it? To try and get a po int across to someone who was not responding to any other methods... And he was very happy to allow me that opportunity. Well anyway I just thought it was a good way to get thru to soem people, and obviously people DO feel strongly about this type of thing...

Okay, granted, I understand the points about it being a personal battle between two people, but I'm telling you IT'S A BIGGER ISSUE THAN THAT! It's not just this one person. I guess a better idea would have been not to use names, but again, desperately corrupted mindsets call for desperate measures, in my humble opinion.

Still, I don't take offense to you guys expressing your opinions anti-my actions... I just hope no one takes a big fat personal offense to me for railing against ignorance. I happen to think it's a worthy cause.

Gotta go, tho... this room is closing.

-Nicole



"if just once... i could feel love... oh stare back at me, yeah..."

[ProfessorFrink]

Obviously the "Mother and Father"-figures would like you not to bring conflict into here and just deal with it privately. The only problem with that is that you're not going to get anywhere as far as reasoning goes with the guilty party (in this case anyways). Everything can't be a love-fest and sometimes there's problems. But putting this issue out of public view is just another way of ignoring it.

I realize some people here didn't like how Meaningless went about making her point, but so what? We're on the fucking internet. There are no face-to-face confrontations here. I realize we're trying to apply "real life" rules in the fact that we don't want to single out people. But this isn't human interaction. We get to hide behind our computers and say whatever we want. So scold Meaningless all you want, but she did what I feel people should be doing more often: Making people responsible for their ignorant comments. Maybe then it won't be accepted to put down certain groups in our society.

[northwoodsamyII]

this was discussed over at 13's as well. and apperantly, Indian Summer had it explained to him by 13 and another in a different manner and apparently, he apologized and said he was wrong. he also explained that he had never had any contact with homosexual people as many of us have, so perhpas we can try to understand that he might not realize the term isn't so kosher. what am I trying to say here? yes, he was "called out" in the open, yes, some of us wished he hadn't been- for the simple reason that it makes him look like a gay hater ugly person, when in fact it was all just a simple misunderstanding.....that's all....I just don't like to see people get crucified over and over ( i know, I've probably done this, sorry) for a smple lack of communication....does that make sense? he's not an awful guy- just made a mistake.

TO MY FRIENDS, I'M NOT A DRUNK DRIVER...I'M PRESIDENT ELECT.

[ProfessorFrink]

If you were in the chat at the time you would have realized that it wasn't a misunderstanding. Once he knew people were offended by it, he continued to use the term. It was a way of riling people up and getting attention.

[yer ardy]

call it what you want..but this IS human interaction....
nic had/has every right to bring her opinion to the forefront...opening the door wide open for me and my right to express my opinion in a "motherly" fashion...i was invited by the "join me!" subject line...i had to see what this was all about...
my point was, and maybe i'm tainted by a "mod" kind of thinking, that to encourage a bash-fest AMONG FELLOW PEARL JAM FANS here..on SMIRKS BOARD...isn't appropriate. i'll stand by my post about that. i wasn't scolding nic, i merely felt that this just wasn't the place for PEARL JAM FANS to gang up on OTHER PEARL JAM FANS for their choice in the use of a word, regardless of who it was and what was said. bashing of ANY kind is not acceptable, even the kind in which one points out the ignorance of another.

tolerance, acceptance and the basic knowledge that you just can't change some people's reasoning for thinking is what wins out here...i'm not saying to shove this under the carpet, out of sight out of mind...let's not talk about it...we've got one person's displeasure with another's behaviour. this kind of thing happens in some form all the time. and as soon as someone comes up with a perfect way to work things out, i'll be first in line for lessons.

i apologize for my 'motherly' thinking...can't help it.
i just want to "kiss it and make everything awbedder"....


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if i had one dollar for every brain you don't have, i would have one dollar

[northwoodsamyII]

I'm just going off what I read at 13's..sorry, I now bow out as I do not know cause I wasn't there..... /images/smile.gif


but can't we all just get along!? /images/wink.gif

TO MY FRIENDS, I'M NOT A DRUNK DRIVER...I'M PRESIDENT ELECT.

[ProfessorFrink]

I think Meaningless' subject line was a bit misleading. It probably should have been written differently. I interpreted it more as a knock on Ignorance overall. And how do you suggest we come up with a solution for the problem if we don't talk about it? Nothing gets solved that way.

As far as human interaction goes, I need to see facial expressions, body language and a person's eyes to truly feel as if I'm interacting with "them". For all you know, I could be sitting here naked,laughing hysterically at every word I write, while sniffing white-out and playing with my genitals. I would come off a little differently then, hopefully.

[yer ardy]

sure ...talking about it is productive, i'm all for that.
bashing someone (for their ignorance or otherwise) doesn't do anything to help any situation...

the mind...what is most portrayed in this forum...is interaction
at it's most precious form. it's all ass-backwards, actually.
there is no prejudice in the way a person looks physically, how
they use their face for expression, their eyes or hands...what
you get here is the uninhibited mind talking..the truest form
of interaction, the clearest form, without a prejudging of a person
based on the physical. i know this problee won't make sense but
it's how i see it.

hey...you sniff white out TOO????
and here i thought i was the only one.../images/smile.gif
{{{{frinks}}}}

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if i had one dollar for every brain you don't have, i would have one dollar

[oblio]

geez,frink!!

That's a little more info that I needed.

Playing with your gerbils???

ohh,genitals..sorry!!

but no,you wouldn't come off any differently,
I would still think you're a madman!!/images/wink.gif

"a point in every direction is the same
as having no point at all"

[ProfessorFrink]

I actually never really looked at it that way before. It does make sense as well. I just feel that I need to be in the same room as a person to actually get to know them. But it might be different for other people. And thats cool too. My definition of human interaction is obviously different than most people's, but I still stand by it. I do, however, understand where you are coming from Ardy. But I think people take liberties sometimes with the mask that the computer provides, and they feel there are no consequences to their statements.
And really, there aren't consequences. Unless you include people not liking you. Which really shouldn't be too big of a letdown since your true friends live in the "real world".

As far as white-out and self-gratification go. I do neither while typing on the computer. The laughing thing is true though.