# A pithy message for ZPG Zealot **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 16, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678 "2010-03-16T18:40:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/61 "2010-03-17T01:58:56Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > I was not murdered. Woah, woah…back up there a minute. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/62 "2010-03-17T02:10:01Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > Woah, woah…back up there a minute. Cite? I’m back! braaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnnns ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/63 "2010-03-17T03:31:18Z")
> [@ghardester](#): > > \*\*ZPG Zealot \*\*is a one trick pony, apparently so filled with self-loathing and hatred of family that she will try to dominate and derail any thread that attempts to discuss family structure related issues. > > Zero Population Growth Zealot hates children, family, parents, and will take a steaming crap in your thread if you try to talk about them. Family structure is slavery and ownership to her. > > There are several posters on the SDMB with pet hot-button issues that no one is allowed to discuss without the point of the OP being lost in the volume of noise. Whenever any discussion begins about those issues, they will swoop in and attempt to dominate the thread until the discussion ends. > > You have probably seen this for yourself. Almost like a denial of service attack. > > \*\*Der Trihs \*\*will denounce religion in threads discussing faith until there is no point in continuing to follow the thread. > > There can be no talk about global warming that will not be drowned out by a rising flood of cites and posts by **GIGObuster**. > > And again, currently **FinnAgain** is doing the same thing, once again, in a thread that has a hint of critisism of Israel. _Pffft._ Amateurs, needing _excuses_. Fucking Designated Hitter rule is ruining baseball. COMPLETELY EXCISING THE POINT OF THE GAME, I TELLS YA! 😃 😛 ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/64 "2010-03-17T04:07:08Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I had this fact brought home to me forcefully by a five-year-old. His sperm donor "C"was a handsome, personable crackhead who turned his mother’s head, leading to his conception. One of “my boys” – the neighbor kids we took in when homeless in their teens – “M”, met and fell in love with her while she was carrying the kid, and was the only nurturing father the boy ever knew – though they chose to be honest with him about his parentage from the start. When I accidentally called “C” his daddy, he looked at me with the patented “Grownups can be SO stupid” expression only little kids can pull off, and said, “No, C’s my [scornfully] father.” Pointing to “M”, he said with pride, “He’s my daddy.” > > I learned my lesson about what really matters to a kid then and there. That’s awesome and makes me want to…cry a little. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/65 "2010-03-17T04:11:09Z")
People, these are some really nice examples - and some of them should go in [**Skald the Rhymer** started that lead to this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=555983) - but the GD thread shows there is no reasoning with **ZPG Zealot** on this topic. It’s not worth your time. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/66 "2010-03-17T05:12:34Z")
Skald, ZPG Zealot has a point. The world doesn’t move to the beat of just one drum. And what might be right for you, may not be right for some. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/67 "2010-03-17T05:40:03Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Skald, ZPG Zealot has a point. The world doesn’t move to the beat of just one drum. And what might be right for you, may not be right for some. So the fuck what? It’s one thing to have an opinion, and to decide to talk about it. It’s another thing to come to a thread asking for adopted parent’s stories and tell them that they don’t deserve to be called parents. And, no, it can’t be just to have responded on topic, as she doesn’t consider herself a parent, so she had absolutely no justification for posting in that thread. I hate that we define a troll as having to not believe what they say. Because ZPGZ attempted to hijack that thread specifically to get a rise out of the people disagrees with, or rather, based on her posting style, actively hates. Outside the pit, that should be considered trolling, and at the very least be a warnable offense. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/68 "2010-03-17T05:43:11Z")
It sure takes different strokes, that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/69 "2010-03-17T05:51:53Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Skald, ZPG Zealot has a point. The world doesn’t move to the beat of just one drum. And what might be right for you, may not be right for some. > [@BigT](#): > > So the fuck what? So that whooshing sound is so far over your head, it’s like you’re Gary Coleman or something. 😉 **Enderw24** is quoting the _Different Strokes_ song. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/70 "2010-03-17T10:59:56Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Haven’t you realized yet. Adoption is the most amazing holy thing on the Drop. Why it can be used to punish all those evil sinful women that have sex by forcing them to be broodmares for infertile people thus saving thousands that would have had to be paid to a surrogate mother. It allows wealthy people to rescue all the cute little babies from their poor parents who can’t afford Nintendo thus giving them brand new pet children every year and freeing up all those poor ghetto people now that they don’t have to find childcare to take slave wage jobs. For all those who weren’t familiar with her: Do you now understand? ---
**Author:** ![BunnyTVS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BunnyTVS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyTVS)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/71 "2010-03-17T13:35:10Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > For all those who weren’t familiar with her: Do you now understand? Kinda makes you glad she’s NOT a parent 😃 ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/72 "2010-03-17T14:17:12Z")
And for anyone else unfamiliar with **ZPG’s** other trick, she’s a self described [fortune teller](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=528597), and actually makes money from it. So at best she’s deluded and ignorant, at worst (and far more likely) she’s a thief who steals from people dumb enough to believe in fortune tellers. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/73 "2010-03-17T14:17:51Z")
> [@BunnyTVS](#): > > Kinda makes you glad she’s NOT a parent 😃 Let’s just say there are some genes not worth passing on. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/74 "2010-03-17T15:13:51Z")
**ZPG Zealot’s** philosophy is a mystery to me. I understand that due to different cultures and experiences, people might have different ideas about the world than I do. That’s perfectly fair. But hers is so convoluted and contradictory that it makes no sense at all. For instance, to her, blood relations are the only important relations, and people not related by blood but rather through legal ties are not to be considered relatives at all. As an example, most of us, I think, would call the person married to our parent’s sibling “aunt” or “uncle.” That is, my dad’s sister and her husband are my “aunt and uncle,” and I call them “Aunt Sue” and “Uncle Bob.” She would consider the spouse NOT a relation of hers, and refer to that person as her “Aunt’s Husband,” always making it clear when the relation is a legal one and not a blood one. OK, that all seems a little odd to me, but whatever floats her boat. It’s her family, not mine. But the thing that doesn’t jibe with it is that she also is very adamant on her view that there exists a “cult of the child” in this country, and that people value babies more than they do grown adults. But wouldn’t it make sense, if blood was of the highest value, that it would be right to value your own baby over the life of a random adult? I wish very much that she would explain how that is supposed to be consistent in any way. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/75 "2010-03-17T15:32:12Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > _Pffft._ Amateurs, needing _excuses_. > > Fucking Designated Hitter rule is ruining baseball. COMPLETELY EXCISING THE POINT OF THE GAME, I TELLS YA! > > 😃 😛 When was that rule adopted? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/76 "2010-03-17T15:45:51Z")
A couple things I should have mentioned to our esteemed **ZPG** regarding the “evils” of adoption and “stealing” babies. 1. The birth mother had 4, count them, 4 children taken away from her and adopted by non-family members before she got pregnant with our daughter. Why were they taken? Because she and her first two children moved back in with the step-father that had sexually abused her as a kid. He turned his attentions on her children and she did nothing to stop it. Then when she had the next two kids, she abandoned them at a friend’s house and ran off with a man (not her husband). After she had our daughter she told a nurse at the clinic where she picked up her meds that she kept imagining putting bleach in the baby’s bottle. She has borderline personality disorder and is emotionally about 12 years old. She loves the attention she gets when she is pregnant and the way people treat her with a baby but doesn’t know how to parent. She was late for a parental visitation because she stopped to give a guy a blowjob for $5. As part of the psych evaluations she had to undergo for her court ordered parenting classes the psychiatrist said she wasn’t capable of caring for a houseplant (those are the exact words). Did the state “steal” the children from a caring, nurturing environment or did they rescue them from years of neglect, abuse, harm and potential injury? By the way, the birth mother has since gone on to have another child and skipped out of Illinois so the baby couldn’t be taken from her. She convinced the new state that she could take care of the baby because she now has a support structure. She is living with her 70 year old disabled mother (the abusive step-father is dead, thank god) and they are both receiving Social Security disability checks, food stamps and their church drives them to medical visits. We are still in touch with her and saw pictures of the kid. He’s always a mess, clothes are ripped and dirty, the house looks like something from _Hoarders_. Plus, in every picture, he has bruises. And there’s not a fucking thing I can do about it. 1. When I was young and stupid, I got a girl pregnant. She wanted nothing to do with me but wanted to keep the baby. After he was born, I sent money every payday until my letters started getting returned unopened. Eventually she contacted me to say that she was getting married and he wanted to adopt the boy. She asked me to sign away my parental rights. I had only seen a single picture of the boy and had no involvement in his life. I knew that she had found someone who loved her and loved this child who was not biologically his but wanted to be part of his life forever. I signed away my rights. Was it cruel and heartless for this man to want to raise a stranger’s baby? Was he doing this for some nefarious reason? Not on your life. A man that I never met loved a woman that I once loved and is raising the child that I am the father of. I am not his dad, just the father, nothing more than a sperm donor. I have never attempted to make contact with him although I did find a picture of him through Facebook. He does sort of look like me and appears to be happy and successful. **ZPG** , I truly feel bad for you that you have such a jaded and distorted view of what love is. To open your heart to someone with no genetic connection and want to graft them into your life is amazing. I hope that someday you find some non-family member who loves you for who you are and lets you in. Maybe you will do the same to them. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/77 "2010-03-17T15:50:18Z")
I saw what you did there, **Shodan**. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/78 "2010-03-17T15:56:23Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I’m confused by your nonsense. You took on a parental role for your younger brother, which is a good thing. The practice you received will no doubt help you should you ever become a parent again (hopefully under much better circumstances). Nothing you did was vile, so far as I know, in spite of the fact that you were in the parental role. Why do you assume that other people who do what you did are vile? Andy, the point is I WAS NOT HIS PARENT. I spent a lot of time first explaining; then yelling this point at various teachers and school guidance counselors who could not understand the principle that family means anything other than a mother and father. I was his older sister (actually technically half-sister, we did not have the same mother) and I became his Guardian which is a perfectly noble title for my role. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/79 "2010-03-17T16:03:35Z")
> [@Slypork](#): > > A couple things I should have mentioned to our esteemed **ZPG** regarding the “evils” of adoption and “stealing” babies. > > 1. The birth mother had 4, count them, 4 children taken away from her and adopted by non-family members before she got pregnant with our daughter. Why were they taken? Because she and her first two children moved back in with the step-father that had sexually abused her as a kid. He turned his attentions on her children and she did nothing to stop it. Then when she had the next two kids, she abandoned them at a friend’s house and ran off with a man (not her husband). After she had our daughter she told a nurse at the clinic where she picked up her meds that she kept imagining putting bleach in the baby’s bottle. > > She has borderline personality disorder and is emotionally about 12 years old. She loves the attention she gets when she is pregnant and the way people treat her with a baby but doesn’t know how to parent. She was late for a parental visitation because she stopped to give a guy a blowjob for $5. As part of the psych evaluations she had to undergo for her court ordered parenting classes the psychiatrist said she wasn’t capable of caring for a houseplant (those are the exact words). Did the state “steal” the children from a caring, nurturing environment or did they rescue them from years of neglect, abuse, harm and potential injury? > > By the way, the birth mother has since gone on to have another child and skipped out of Illinois so the baby couldn’t be taken from her. She convinced the new state that she could take care of the baby because she now has a support structure. She is living with her 70 year old disabled mother (the abusive step-father is dead, thank god) and they are both receiving Social Security disability checks, food stamps and their church drives them to medical visits. We are still in touch with her and saw pictures of the kid. He’s always a mess, clothes are ripped and dirty, the house looks like something from _Hoarders_. Plus, in every picture, he has bruises. And there’s not a fucking thing I can do about it. > > 1. When I was young and stupid, I got a girl pregnant. She wanted nothing to do with me but wanted to keep the baby. After he was born, I sent money every payday until my letters started getting returned unopened. Eventually she contacted me to say that she was getting married and he wanted to adopt the boy. She asked me to sign away my parental rights. > > I had only seen a single picture of the boy and had no involvement in his life. I knew that she had found someone who loved her and loved this child who was not biologically his but wanted to be part of his life forever. I signed away my rights. > > Was it cruel and heartless for this man to want to raise a stranger’s baby? Was he doing this for some nefarious reason? Not on your life. A man that I never met loved a woman that I once loved and is raising the child that I am the father of. I am not his dad, just the father, nothing more than a sperm donor. > > I have never attempted to make contact with him although I did find a picture of him through Facebook. He does sort of look like me and appears to be happy and successful. > > **ZPG** , I truly feel bad for you that you have such a jaded and distorted view of what love is. To open your heart to someone with no genetic connection and want to graft them into your life is amazing. I hope that someday you find some non-family member who loves you for who you are and lets you in. Maybe you will do the same to them. Actually, I think the situations you have described make a good case that some people should be sterilized. And in the first case there is also the argument that the trainwreck of the mother’s life could have been prevented by proper intervention into her family life while she was a child. Or even now. There is no reason some social agencies shouldn’t be trying harder to help her overcome her problems rather than just trying to harvst babies from her. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678/80 "2010-03-17T16:03:54Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Andy, the point is I WAS NOT HIS PARENT. I spent a lot of time first explaining; then yelling this point at various teachers and school guidance counselors who could not understand the principle that family means anything other than a mother and father. I was his older sister (actually technically half-sister, we did not have the same mother) and I became his Guardian which is a perfectly noble title for my role. People use the verb “to parent” differently from the way you use it. They don’t mean any offense by it, it’s merely a way to describe what your role was in the kids’ life. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pithy-message-for-zpg-zealot/532678.md?page=5)