Pretty much what you’d think it does.
I grew up in the Midwest (eleanor’s location) and never heard it. However, within days of moving down South…
-Joe, mighty purple
I don’t think you meant anything racist by it, but you ought to understand that a large number of your audience will read the phrase as irredeemably racist. If you aren’t trying to open up that kettle of rotten fish, you might want to see if there’s another phrase that can convey your meaning to the audience without having those connotations.
I say that not to suggest that you’re racist, but to suggest that another phrase will communicate more accurately.
Daniel
I’m with askeptic. I’m confident that neither I nor anyone else believes you meant it in a racist manner, but that’s the first thing that popped in my head when you made the comment.
hell those are my good qualities.
Well, speaking as one who, like Martin Hyde, is frequently in the…uh…minority here but who spends a lot of time here nonetheless, I would suggest that he sticks around here because that’s where the action is.
It’s not that interesting or challenging to be on a board where everybody is just preaching to a long-established choir. Better to come here where you can find out exactly what the lefties are up to and confront them accordingly, rather than just sitting around a conservative board going “Hell, yeah!” to every criticism or insult someone offers regarding the left…and besides, you guys are just such fun!
Seriously!
It’s a smart, well-informed and witty bunch around here – and though much of its intelligence and information absorption gets misrouted due primarily to too many years of liberal media exposure and university brain-washing 
– the populace around here is really quite a good bunch of people. Most of my friends IRL are liberals, and I’d much prefer to be in the company of those of you here than a roomful of Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys.
It’s just an unfortunate fact of life that conservatives (some of us excepted, of course 
) are just not as much fun, interesting, or talented as members of the liberal contingent.
In an ideal world, I’d prefer the country to be run by conservatives but to spend most of my time with liberals.
And while I can’t speak to Martin’s possible feelings of contamination, I don’t really feel that too much of you rubs off on me.
I didn’t realize his shtick was a left vs. right thing. I’m a righty myself, but I still don’t like him.
I’ve really been trying hard to be villainous scum lately, too, as I’m sure others have. When I’m not sitting around thinking evil thoughts, I practice crawling along the floor on my stomach and breathing through my mouth. Sometimes if I’m feeling especially scummy I’ll suck up the slime and crud that gets in the hinges of the toilet seat. Occasionally I let out an evil laugh and then slap myself in the face for laughing, because I am villainous and should not laugh.
Excuse me, I have to go make some diabolical plans now.
Well, yeah, that’s understandable. But there’s a couple miles of difference between, “You’re all wrong, but you’re neat and interesting people who I enjoy talking to,” and “You’re a pack of moral degenerates and a cancer on American society.” I enjoy a good, disputatious debate as much as the next guy, but I’m not hanging out on the Aryan Front message board to get my fix. Apparently, Martin feels about the same way about this board as I do about white nationalists. So, why is he here, exactly?
Like Starving Artist, I think ** Martin Hyde ** serves a useful purpose on this board.
He is a constant reminder of the complete disdain that some upper middle class conservatives have for working Americans.
Although we supply him with the goods and services that allow him to exist in comfort, he constantly categorizes us as semi-literate buffoons.
It never seems to cross his mind that intelligent and well-informed people can choose anything other than the corporate fast track as a meaningful way of life.
It’s nice to know who your friends really are after all.
I’m not pitting him because he’s a righty but because he’s a shit-flinging monkey. Or, on preview, what Miller said.
I’ve been wondering - and I am not calling him a troll! But there is another guy on a different message board I go to, named Martin _____ (something else, very similar) who has essentially the same attitude toward *that * board. Regularly starts threads telling us how much he hates us and what a bunch of assholes we are, etc. The keywords there being “regular starts threads” of course! Anyway, I’ve been wondering if they are the same people. If he is just one unhappy person and wants to share with all.
Anyway, I think this pitting is long overdue and don’t remember another of him. After that lovely comment the OP mentions though, the one about what we all are, I think he should have expected to be dragged in here.
You missed a good six pager: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=358398
Jim
Not plans, PLOTS, you fool! And don’t forget to coat your hands with the blood of innocents before you rub them in evil glee. Your cackling needs some work, too, it’s not maniacal enough.
Damn, where does HR get these new hires, anyway?
Add me to the list of people who are offended and a little shocked by this. I understand your explanation but perhaps we could firmly resolve not to use this expression again? I don’t think there’s any way for it to be used innocently
It’s a shame that race relations are in such a poor state that this is so. The connotation is certainly there, but the strict denotation has nothing to do with race.
Chaucer wasn’t being bigoted when he wrote “Com forth, my white spouse!” and Dryden didn’t have race on his mind when he wrote “White as thy fame, and as thy honor clear.”
“White” has been synonymous with purity for longer than anyone can remember, and it has nothing to do with messed-up ideas about racial supremacy.
It would be nice if we could stop classing actual people as “white” and “black” (since it’s awfully rare to meet anyone who’s either.)
Of course, it’s probably easier just to avoid idiom that can be easily misinterpreted. (And is sometimes used with racist intent, anyway.)
But Martin Hyde is still a blackguard. 
Well, if you’re serious about this, me and a couple of the other guys are going to build a Giant laser and threaten the UN for several billion dollars from an orbiting space station.
We intend to call ourselves the Society for Making Diabolical Plans and Building Overengineered Superweapons or SMDPBOS.
It will be a much more dengerate, criminal and unwashed organization then the SDMB(with 10% more mental illness!).
Is this the weekly Martin Hyde pitting? Not too late am I?
Martin does have some sensible things to say, not that I always agree with him. But he can be rational and shows some signs of inteligence. Unfortunately he then goes completely off the deep end by posting somehing outrageously stupid.
For this he deserves to be call a total fuckwit.
Thank you.
Maybe if we lock Martin and drmark in a room, their egos would reach critical mass and we’d be rid of both.
Come on, now. It’s disingenous to pretend that “white” in the sense that it was used was meant to convey purity and righteousness. It was meant in the racial sense, even if sarcastically.
Literally?
Wow! When did we accomplish that? Who figured out how to do it? Whoever it was, a respectful evil twist of my mustache in your direction.