And that’s fine. That’s why it went in the Pit. I am not averse to the occasional battle. I’m perfectly able to handle myself in an all-out Intarwebz war.
I am sincerely appalled at the relocation of White Lily. This is true. And I also chose my thread title purposefully to tweak the noses of those who blithely bash the South in other threads, for pages on end, and then get offended at one (1) somewhat controversial reference in the title. I mean, it’s not like I have spent the rest of the time harping on the inferiority of Everything Northern, is it?
But fuck it. Four pages of this has not convinced me that I should have gone with a different title. I doubt if four, or ten, or twenty more will turn the trick either.
You responded to a thread about a particular company in Tennessee being relocated by slamming the entire south. You’re nuts where the subject of the South is concerned- judging by this thread and by others you’re more obsessed with the south than damned near any southerner I’ve ever known.
Ah… you meant “sucking funds” in the good way. :rolleyes:
Judging by your fun with demographics and self-exoneration I am guessing you are one racist mo-fo but exonerate yourself all over the place. I could be wrong, but… well, this would seem to be the place to make overly simplistic insulting comments without the need to back them up with any argument other than “Whah?”
So you refuse to sympathize with a lot of people who claim that this is an important issue to them…even though it does not really touch you, and it would cost nothing to stop and think for a second that perhaps a little compassion for something else good that has been lost to corporate homogenization might not be out of order?
Especially since you allegedly don’t care either way?
At the point I responded to this thread, Ogre had already become defensive about the south because of comments regarding the Damn Yankees thing. I was merely piling on, and used the term sucking because of the term suxxors. Allow me to make it clearer:
poster1: wah! I hate northerners because a northern comapny is relocating a southern company.
posters2-6: yeah, that sucks.
poster7+8: snide remark about south seceding, etc.
poster1: I’m sick of teh South suxxors around here.
me: well, the south is good at sucking federal funds.
you: I can’t believe how much anti-south bias you have.
He’s claimed by both North & South Carolinians as well because it’s not clear where he was born. (The border of the two states was in contention for a century and he was born in the fought-about part [which was in fact fought about in part to claim a president].)
Some trivia: after he was orphaned Jackson lived for almost a year with a man named Joseph White, an Ulster born elderly judge in Rowan County, NC who lived to extreme old age. (When he lived there he was apprenticed to White’s son-in-law, a saddlemaker, with whom he couldn’t get along; when he left he became a lawyer, which I think was probably based on the respect the old judge garnered.) Anyway, the old judge was also uncle to James White, the founder of Knoxville, which is why Jackson wound up there for a while before moving west (Polk too, but that’s another story); James White later served as a general under Jackson in the War of 1812. No major import, but I love how such “no real logic or import-just chance intersections” influence individual and by them national history (for if Jackson had become a saddlemaker or had he gone to Kentucky instead of east Tennessee, think of how different the world would have been). (I’m descended from Joseph White’s granddaughter [who was also a granddaughter of his nephew James- it’s a bit inbred, but that was common enough] and it’s odd to me how “My family took in Jackson when he was orphaned” or that the ancestor for whom my great-grandfather was named founded Knoxville and was a general in Jackson’s army passes from family lore, yet “Your great-great-grandmother had a goiter the size of my hand and made necklaces out of dyed dried black eyed peas” or “your uncle’s wife Berniece is the granddaughter of a man who got caught having sex with a cow in 1919” remain intact.)
Okay, I guess the term “redneck,” like “yankee,” covers more ground than I had realized. How about if I substitute “dumb Southerners” instead? I mean, even Great Dave, who’s as obstinately anti-South as anyone on the boards, allows for a “good ones” exception to his regional tirades. What’s the difference between him saying, “The South sucks, except for ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’” and your “Damn Yankees only means Yankees I don’t like!” dodge?
The problem is, you also “tweaked the noses” of a few people who don’t blithely bash the South. Which kinda makes you a dick, and materially no different from the South-bashers themselves.
So … trolling, then? Okay; your frankness is commendable. Bit of a poor start with the “oh, it’s offensive that you don’t understand, maaaan” histrionics (it’s the South, dude, not 'Nam), but you’ve certainly settled in to it nicely.
The difference is that the term “Damn Yankee” is in common usage, and has specific connotations and meanings, among which are not merely “Yankees I don’t like.”
It’s a big old internet. I can live with it. Besides, I told you I have never inhabited the moral high ground in my life. Now you know of what I was speaking.
Not entirely. I am sincerely upset at the closing of the mill, and I do think it’s a travesty. And it’s not at all offensive that you don’t understand. It’s offensive that you don’t understand that you don’t understand.
In short, it’s no more trolling than any given “Southern Pride - Why?” thread.
Do those connotations matter if the people in the group being described are unaware of them? I was certainly not aware of the exclusive nature of the term “Damn Yankee.” Heck, until this thread, I wasn’t even aware that I was a Yankee. Now I’m expected to understand that despite being in the group, “Yankee,” I’m actually excluded from the “Damn Yankee” group, according to your Southern-specific slang term?
Tell you what: every where that’s not the South, it’s understood that “dumb Southerners” only refers to Klansmen, Creationists, and people who get all worked up about the 10 commandments being removed from a courthouse. Now we’re all hunky dory on our regional insults, right?
Hey, I do understand. And furthermore, it’s offensive to me that you don’t understand that I not only understand, but that I don’t not understand that I don’t understand.
What I don’t understand is why you’d choose to mix a subject that you claim to feel genuinely about with an at best tangentially-related subject that you knew full well would distract almost entirely from your original topic, and then act offended when the inevitable happens. If you’d posted a thread about big business messing with an age-old product, you would’ve got a chorus of agreement, save for the occasional free-market contrarian who would’ve been handily shouted down.
Instead, you were a dick, and are acting all bewildered that people noticed said dickery and are focusing on this more than your beloved flour. May I humbly suggest that in future you decide in advance whether you want to piss people off or gain a chorus of assent? Because here you’re claiming to have deliberately done the former, yet are complaining that you don’t have the latter. This strikes me as trying to both have your cake and eat it. But then I suppose you can hardly be blamed for this, since the Damn Yankees are apparently trying to take it away.
[quote]
Heck, until this thread, I wasn’t even aware that I was a Yankee.
[quote]
You’re really not, unless you’re one of those Californians who come here and spend all your time bitching about how much better California is. If you’re one of those, then, yes indeed, you are a Damn Yankee.
Unless you’re in the stipulated aforementioned group, then yep. Aren’t regional cultural differences fun? Look at it this way: now you know.
Unfortunately, you’re wrong here as well. While I have little doubt that you would refrain from using such a term, I have no such faith for many other people, or even many other Dopers.
I’d call it something more like “returning fire,” but hey, tomayto, tomahto. Either way, I’m quite comfortable.
Primarily because I don’t give a rat’s ass about getting a chorus of assent. There have been many responses that either chose to overlook the single insulting reference in the title, or refer to it tangentially, then express remorse about the subject of the thread. Fine by me…and I appreciate their sentiments. Then there have been a lot of people, including several whom I suspected would find this thread, who have decided that Yankee Honor demands that they make war upon the uppity South again for this deadly insult. It has been most instructive. By the way, I opened a perfectly civilized thread on this very subject in Cafe Society.
:shrug: If you like, but it’s not a binary issue. Perhaps I wanted to see what a true cross-section of the SDMB might say.
No, you misunderstand me. Whenever anyone says, “dumb Southerners,” they’re not talking about you, they’re talking about an ill-defined subset of Southerners whose specific identity as a member of the maligned group needs to be confirmed on a case-by-case basis. You know, sort of like “Damn Yankees,” as compared to “Yankees.” Don’t worry too much about it: it’s a non-Southern thing. You couldn’t really understand it unless you were born not-there.