This thread has been inspired by DDG’s comments in Harry Potter-A Satanic Series thread. I was struck by DDG’s negative reference to her fundie friends, and herself as an enlightened fundie in their midst. I am left with the impression of a traitor who denigrates her friends in secret by reporting on their shortcomings to an alien society, namely the SDMB.
By inference, we can assume that DDG is an intimate expert on the fundie mindset.
An assertion from intimate knowledge?
Now we know why DDG became an enlightened fundie! So for a few good fundies like DDG we shouldn’t bash them. But as follows it is okay for a fundie to bash a fundie.
And it is okay for a fundie to bash her fundie friends
Gee** DDG**, aren’t you too intellectually superior for your real life friends who prefer cartoons to reading books? Why do you continue to fraternize with people that you have such scorn for? I have noticed that you have used vulgar language in the past. Do your fundie friends know who you virtually are?
Wait, can you explain something to me, because I’m genuinely confused.
Because DDG grew up around Fundies and knows Fundies and tells us how they feel from an insider perspective, she’s a traitor?
Her faith in Christianity has developed differently from her family and friends, but she’s able to recognize the difference.
I grew up in a church that taught me homosexuality was wrong. I know they did…I GREW UP THERE, so I can tell you all about it. I think that’s a crazy stance, and while I’m still a Christian, I don’t believe it.
Does that make me a traitor?
(I don’t want to bash anyone, I just want the OP clarified)
After the Mad Hatter fanatical (er, sabbatical, er, forget it [sub]just came from the grammar thread in MPSIMS[/sub]) I have a (as of this moment not-so-) secret SDMB crush on DDG. I think she owns Google.
Oh, wait, we’re talking about Fundies? And fundies that are her friends!??!? Wow, grienspace, you have perfect friends? I criticize mine all the time, along with people I grew up with. And I know I’m not perfect, and I do it anyway! I also try to subtly slip sarcasm in phrases in such a manner that if you agree with me you hear it but if you disagree with me you don’t. Very tricky, that.
Oh, wait, we’re talking about DDG, not me. Must keep focused! Yeah, uh, fuck her! She’s an R-A-T-T-F-I-N-K, and I bet she doesn’t even know that that comes from a Misfits tune. Maybe if she wasn’t so quick to turn on her friends she’d know that.
Yeah!
I would like to note that 50% of the quotes you posted here show that DDG prefaced her anecdotal evidence with phrases like, “People I know” and “those I grew up with.” Context can be confusing, I agree.
I don’t normally rate rants, I’ll just agree or disagree when I’m moved to comment and state my reasons. This rant, however, I’m giving a 2.1; most of that for satisfactory use of the English language and no coding errors.
Your own examples show someone thoughtfully and civilly questioning a handful of fundamentalist attitudes. If you couldn’t find something more damning, I’d suggest just biting your tongue real hard and closing the window prior to hitting the submit button.
Huh. I didn’t see the denigrating or the bashing. Nor do I consider the SDMB to be an “alien society;” there are many Christians here, some more fundamentalist than others.
But allow me to congratulate you on your perfect, faultless friends, or, in the alternative, to offer you my condolences that you are not allowed to criticize them in any manner, no matter how mild or how deserved, without being deemed a traitor to them.
Well I suppose if your friends described you as only comfortable at reading “easy” non fiction and not very good at reading you wouldn’t feel slighted.
Of course myself or my friends aren’t perfect, But you won’t find me criticising them to outsiders. If there is one thing that pisses me of it is talking negatively about intimates behind their backs.
Ah, but these are mere nitpicks. Any flimsy excuse to start a Pit thread, eh, Grienspace? To see your name in lights up there at the top of the forum? Well, hey, then, go for it! Happy to be of service! If my small efforts here at the SDMB have managed to make you feel useful, wanted, needed in any way, Grienspace, why, then, I’m just absolutely 100% delighted. Truly.
Hey, everybody, gather round! Let’s all help Grienspace find out more marginally flameable stuff about me so’s he can start some more Pit threads. Fire up those Straight Dope search engines, folks, one at a time, now, we don’t want to crash the server…
[DDG exits thread humming a tune, pleased that she’s managed to make at least one little Doper happy today]
Hey, grienspace, if I were your friend, and I described you as only comfortable at playing foosball in a noncompetitive, low-key setting, and not particularly good at it, would that offend you?
Any fundy friends of her’s wouldn’t care, because it’s true, they know it’s true, and they’re PROUD of it. Get it? There are people who are PROUD of the fact that they don’t like to read. They are the people she is talking about, and they wouldn’t be offended by what she said.
This is one of the weirdest rants I’ve seen in a while. I mean you are actually serious about dissing DDG because she makes observations about her friends in the quasi-anonymous format of a message board and how she finds some aspects of their shared beliefs out of sync with her own.
IMO one of the more useful and engaging aspects of interacting via a message board is that you can discuss and analyze issues like these with some degree of arms length detachment without being accused of peeing in your own pool.
A lot of thread space in SDMB is dedicated to the silly, annoying or incomprehensible things people close to us and not so close to us believe and do. Sometimes we learn to be more tolerant or correct our own mis-perceptions. Sometimes we learn to stand up for ourselves and not tolerate egregious behavior. Sometimes discussing these things and getting different points of view gives us a better handle on life in general. Is everyone commenting on their friends and associates perceived foibles being disloyal or simply airing out a perspective for public comment?
If you’re upset with her tone that’s your perfect right but to accuse her of being a false friend because her opinions differ from her friends and she voices this in a not so respectful way on a message board is absurd. Her choices are apparently either to have a lobotomy or keep her mouth shut neither of I would imagine she is inclined to do to ameliorate your annoyance.
You know, I almost didn’t open this cause I figured it was another psych you out by starting a pit rant about how good you are feel-good thingy. In fact, this is what I expected to read:
Ok, I feel better now. This thread is now living up to my expectations.
It has, however, reminded me of a theory of mine: I think that much of the hostility that gets displayed in message boards (and in the world in general, really) would be greatly lessened by people just taking a nap before expressing themselves.
Anyone who espouses the above bullshit should be condemned. Stereotyping any group especially by someone who claims intimate knowledge of a group should not be tolerated. Her characterization of her fundie “friends” in this manner is no less reprehensible in my opinion.
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but aren’t all of the quotes from DDG refering, not to all fundamentalists, but that particular subset of fundamentalism that routinely attempts to have books, movies, and music they deem to be “occult” banned. In that first post, she points out that she was raised by fundamentalists who didn’t care if she read horror or science fiction. In other words, grienspace, what the fuck is your damage?
[sub]just came from the grammar thread in MPSIMS[/sub]) I have a (as of this moment not-so-) secret SDMB crush on DDG. I think she owns Google.
Happy to be of service! If my small efforts here at the SDMB have managed to make you feel useful, wanted, needed in any way, Grienspace, why, then, I’m just absolutely 100% delighted. Truly.