Before I came to these boards, I had never heard of such a thing as an exclusively indoor cat, except owned by old ladies living in small apartments in the middle of big cities. Here, I found out that the outdoor/indoor cat thing is apparently an ongoing holy war of sorts, with high tempers on both sides.
Likewise, I had no idea there was a conflict between two groups of pool players, one playing by something known as bar rules. I don’t pretend to understand the exact nature of the conflict, but I’ve seen invectives and insults thrown by both sides.
It wasn’t a debate on this board but I’ve seen some doozies on Attachment Parenting on other boards. Never even knew ‘attachment parenting’ existed until I stumbled across a very acrimonious debate about it.
As in, hair grown by African-American citizens of the US. Especially women, I think, though I am not sure. (I’m a chick, I pay more attention to women’s hair.)
From my contacts with people who have that kind of hair, and from browsing in the market, I knew that there were different textures and different marketing strategies.
I did not understand some of the politics behind it, or the different variations and their names. I still can’t claim to understand, but the door is opened.
And I thank the SDMB for giving me some insight into it. And also, my coworkers who have been willing to answer my stupid questions. I was seriously 27 years old before I understood the “relaxer” thing. Sorry.
Declawing. I’d never owned a cat and thought it was just something some people did with their animals.
Circumcision. I mean, i knew it was more common sometimes and less common sometimes, but foreskin restoration was completely uncharted territory for me before the SDMB. Uh, thanks, guys. Without you I’d have never known of the Tug Ahoy and how much time some people spend thinking about their foreskins.
Though I remember that debate fondly in that once we started looking at it as a regional thing, it made sense and people simmered down. The reason it was so acrimonious is everyone started wondering if THEY were the crazy one that had been offending people. Once it became clear that there were different normals for different regions, it relaxed considerably.
Bolding mine. Try playing Monopoly with a group of divided players, and bringing up the “Free Parking” rule. The game will be over before it even starts.
The other hot topic which I never knew existed:
The ‘shoes off or on indoors,’ which I’d never heard of before I read it here recently. To call it acrimonious is an understatement.
Oriental becoming a nasty bigoted word to refer to people.
As a Chinese major living in the Orient for 20 years, married to a born and raised in China Chinese citizen, have kids that speak Mandarin as their first language, etc, I was floored exposed to this on the Dope. Man did I miss the memo that went out on this subject.
What really surprised me was the vitrol of non Asians that decided this was their mission in life to amend, and yet basically knew nothing beyond “duh, Oriental is a rug.” [Note, I get it that some Asians in America now really dislike the word, so that alone makes using Asian one of those don’t be a jerk rules. But it does rub *me * the long way to get lectured on the subject by some santimonius that has only a surface understanding of the issue, but I digress.]
Cycling is always good for a major meltdown - there seem to be plenty of two-wheel and four-wheel advocates for the viewpoint that the other lot ought not to be allowed near the roads.
Toilet paper - over the top, or hanging down the back.
I mean, I knew it was a subject of debate in OUR house, 'cause I was a down the backer and married an over the top guy, but I had no idea it was a worldwide debate. With cites and logic and everything.
I went to Kent State University for 5 years, and until this year when my boyfriend enrolled in the University of Akron (those two schools are geographically close) I never knew there was a “huge” Kent-Akron rivalry.
Actually, the rivalry is just on the side of Akron and the people at Kent aren’t really all that concerned. When the Akron Zips played the Kent Flashes this year in football, the Akron paper was 90% about this “big game” while the Kent paper had just a regular notice of an upcoming game. The Akron Web site and message boards were all about the game. Kent…nothing. Akron even had a huge billboard on campus about how they were going to kick Kent’s ass.
I honestly had never heard of such a rivalry until I saw it from the “Akron side.” At Kent, Akron is just the other school that people go to who don’t go to Kent. Apparently at Akron, Kent is that inferior hippie school we go to when we’re not good enough to make it at Akron, SUCKAS!
Does anyone have a link to this one? I can’t imagine who would want to wear shoes indoors- shoes are uncomfortable, why would you want to be uncomfortable at home?
Well if this is wrong, how does one designate between Japanese, Chinese, Korean and such Asians and those from India, Pakistan and the like? Is there a new word that supplants Oriental?
AMEN, sister. It has caused some “issues” in the 2U household - I’ve never met a man who gets so seriously pissed off about something so freaking stupid as my husband does over this issue.
Not your home, other people’s homes. It turns out that in Canada, I think? it’s rude to wear your shoes inside to other people’s dinner parties. I’m one of the ones who said, huh? How was I supposed to know that one? I wouldn’t dream of taking my shoes off as a guest unless I was an intimate friend who went over to that house all the time - if I felt comfortable opening their fridge and rummaging around, then I’d take my shoes off. But a dinner party? I had no idea that there were places besides, like, Japan or maybe the Middle East or something where I’d think to ask about it. Someplace like Canada I’d assume I knew how to behave.
TV aspect ratios. Once I found out the ins and outs of widescreen television, I thought letterboxing, pillarboxing, pan & scan, and stretching was the difference between informed and uninformed, not genuine, individual viewing preferences.
