I agree with this. I thought the “how dare you” was pretty jerkish until I read the 300+ post thread in her profile, at which point I realized that she is, in fact, fucking hilarious and it had to have been a joke.
The post to which Jenny was responding, by SolGrundy, specifically said:
Solgrundy ‘wondered’ if paulberserker was offended by the existence of transexual lesbians, and then decided to say that he is gay in the presumption that paul would dislike him because he’s gay. **Jenny ** responded to Sol’s ‘wondering’ by confirming that paul is not homophobic.
Several times on this thread paul’s been accused of being homophobic and secretly gay. The former is a fairly serious allegation, and the latter is also serious if the allegation is that he’s lying (to himself) about his sexuality.
They are attempts to use his online behaviour to draw conclusions about his personality off the boards. This makes observations about said Doper’s real-life personality very relevent.
I’m a lesbian*, so is my GF, so are many of my friends, several of whom paul has met and got on very well with. I can honestly say that in his dealings with us, paul has never shown the slightest bit of homophobia. He certainly respects my relationship with my GF a lot more than many straight men I know**. Hell, paul has even met and been friendly with a transexual friend of mine. If anyone wants to say paul posts are homophobic, that’s one thing; it’s quite another to say that he must therefore be a homohobe.
FWIW, I don’t really agree with this pitting, but don’t know any backstory to it either. I also want to slap paul upside the head for the ‘she’ thing. But he is not a homophobe, transphobe, or any kind of phobe (other than perhaps a Libertinesphobe ;)).
*And another good example of a misleading screen-name. I’m an old-time Doper btw come back on a guest membership - first and only guest membership.
**Not Dopers!
You’d better email Dex or another Admin about your two names pronto, if you haven’t already.
And my point still stands. I don’t know him in real life. I only encounter him here, so I’m going to judge him by his behavior AS I SEE IT HERE.
And here he acts like a brain-damaged fucking spaz. Keep on flailing, paulbeserker. Go on with your bad self, hon! Tell us how it is!
You’re extrapolating from online behaviour to real-life behaviour. As you said, you don’t know him IRL. Don’t you think it’s therefore just the teensiest bit relevent for someone who does know him in real life to supply you with information which you’re lacking? Or is that not necessary before slinging serious insults at someone? Also, while you might not care to know that real-life paul is not homophobic, that doesn’t mean no-one else wants to know.
Lute - yes, I know, although I didn’t know that when I signed up. For some reason I couldn’t access my old name even though I never used it after the boards went payable (no credit card).
If I may, it doesn’t matter if paul is homophobic or not; homophobia is a red herring. paul and everyone else here is judged by the content of their posts - take that content too far and get banned.
lissener also had a Doper friend off the board but that didn’t make him any less of an egotistical paranoid jackass on the board.
That raises an interesting question: if someone’s online behavior is markedly different than their real-life behavior, how do you know which is the “real” behavior? If you know someone who is polite and friendly to you and your girlfriend in person, who then goes online and rants about “queers and fags” (and no, I’m not saying paul has done anything like that), would you dismiss that as “extrapolating from online behavior to real-life behavior”? Why should we place more value on how someone treats other people to their face, than on how they treat people when they are insulated from any sort of physical reprisal? Do you know the “real” paul because you’ve interacted with him in an enviroment where there can be serious repurcussions for acting like an ass, or do we know the “real” paul because we’ve seen what he’s like when he’s safe on the far end of a fiber-optic cable in another country?
On top of that, why should we take your word for what a great guy he is in person? You may be entirely truthful about your perceptions of him having met him, but is there any particular reason we should value your perceptions over our own?
No, not really. The odds are, Guin is never going to meet paul in real life. He might be the sweetest, friendliest, most likable guy in the whole of the UK in person. Online, he’s a dick. If the only context in which Guin is ever going to interact with him is online, than how he acts online is all that really matters.
FWIW, I have met paul in person. Seemed a nice enough guy face-to-face. It’d be great if he’d bring some of that with him to the boards, sometime.
Thanks for sharing.
Kaitlyn is a fraud. There are MAJOR discrepencies with her story. Back when she was “Number Six” she claimed to be a “geeky white dude” who was “approaching 40” back in 2001. “Number Six” claimed to have been entering his “18th year of teaching” in 2003. “Number Six” said that “Mrs. Six” (fiancee, then wife) was Filipino, said that she was “nearly 20 years younger” than himself, and in June 2004 said that “Mrs. Six” was a 21-year-old assistant manager at McDonald’s. “Number Six” also said at various times he was a “Christian”, an “agnostic Jew,” and an “agnostic.”
Now Kaitlyn is claiming that (1) she is Korean (smuggled in from North Korea, no less!), (2) that she recently started “becoming a woman” at “age 30” (and now claims to be 32…guess that makes “Mrs. Six” 12 years old), (3) that “Mrs. Six” is in her mid-20’s, and that the pair of them are “hot Korean chicks”, (4) that she is an “atheist” with a gay brother and a fundie sister, and (5) has only been teaching for ten years.
A few links to back up the above:
“I’m a geeky white guy with a hot Asian girlfriend”:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2919230&highlight=wife#post2919230
“When I was 30…as I approach 40…” in 2001:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=1309870
“In my 18th year of teaching”
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2830410&postcount=1
November 2004: “I am an agnostic Jew”
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5507791&highlight=teach*#post5507791
April 2001: “I am a Christian”
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=1258084#post1258084
“My Filipino wife needed a visa to enter the country”
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=1340824#post1340824
There’s a lot more where that came from. I don’t think Kaitlyn realized that when you change your SDMB handle, the handle on all your previous posts also changes.
Gender reassignment surgery is amazing. Not only can it change you from a man to a woman, it can also change your age and race too. And your wife’s age and race too.
I had to get this off my chest, let the floodgates open.
Miller, if the comments made by people on this thread were only about paul’s behaviour on the boards, then his real-life behaviour wouldn’t be relevant. But if someone is trying to claim knowledge of what a Doper is like off the boards, as SolGrundy and others did here (and others do all over the boards all the time), then they either have to listen to the opinions of people who do know that person in real life, or stop claiming they know what someone is like off the boards.
As to the rest … Paul’s real-life behaviour and online behaviour are no different at all. As Twisty said, he’s an ‘angry young man.’ But that is easier to misinterpret online, and it seems to overshadow his other laudable characteristics - in some people’s opinions. If someone’s RL and online behaviour were different in the way you describe, then it would be worrying, but that’s not what’s happening here.
FWIW, paul knows too many Dopers IRL to ever think this is a place where he is ‘insulated from any sort of physical reprisal.’ I am quite capable of smacking him upside the head for his online behaviour as well as his real life behaviour. Even if he didn’t know Dopers IRL he wouldn’t act differently online - he’s not a coward.
Actually, do many people really hold back in real life because they think they might get beaten up? Perhaps I have particularly peaceful friends (hah!), but if I said something offensive to them I’m pretty certain that they would start hitting me with baseball bats. Social ostracism is the biggest fear, I’d guess, and that holds true online as well as in real life.
Nah, but you could possibly take mine (and others’) comments on board as extra evidence/info, rather than saying that they don’t count.
Yes. Then guin - and others - should stop with the extrapolations already.
Actually, you met me too!
How in the world did you manage to dig up all this info without the ability* to search?
*Assuming that “guests” don’t have access to the search engine…has this changed?
“Mrs. Six is 20 years younger”:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=1340824#post1340824
“Mrs. Six works at fast-food place:”
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=2682756&#post2682756
“I’ve been teaching for 10 years,” written in 2005. Compare this statement with the one above that claimed 18 years of teaching experience. Time warp!
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5683624&postcount=1
One of my cowardly friends, who wishes to remain anonymous, e-mailed them to me. Since he is such an upstanding member of the community, respected by all, and I’m a Big Nobody, I thought I’d say what he was afraid to!
Fair enough. And some strange shit going on there with Kaitlyn. Wonder what that’s all about.
No. I have to wonder why you chose that bit of mine to quote and not the bit where I specifically said that I don’t give a rat’s ass whether paulberserker is gay or homophobic or what, because my beef with his posts doesn’t have anything to do with homosexuality. It has to do with his total hypocrisy and assholishness.
Read my sentence again, the one about “one trick ponies.” I pointed out that I’m a homosexual because I always point out that I’m a homosexual, in just about every other thread I respond to, no matter what the topic. The whole point of this thread, ostensibly, was that paulberserker was annoyed that Kaitlyn is always going on about her being transgendered like she was looking for special attention, when it’s not a big deal to anyone. He accused Ilsa Lund of also being a “one trick pony.”
I could totally see someone coming in and accusing me of the same thing, always going on about being gay – in fact, I’m being accused of that in a separate Pit thread. So I brought it up to make it clear that that isn’t what’s bugging me about the thread.
What’s bugging me is the aggressive stupidity and hypocrisy of chastising someone for making a big deal about an aspect of her personal life, while simultaneously making fun of her for it. It’s not “political correctness,” it’s not “GLBT pride,” it’s not oversensitivity – it’s just an aversion to somebody’s being a total dick.
His OP is the equivalent of saying, “I don’t see why you niggers think anyone cares what race you are.” Or “I don’t see why you faggots are always making a big deal about being gay like you queers are different from anyone else.”
It’s really simple. You’ve got to take your pick: you either make cheap shots and call someone’s gender into question by describing them as “she” and “her,” OR you claim that their being a transsexual doesn’t matter and the problem is that they’re being an attention whore. If it’s really a non-issue, then don’t make fun of it. You can’t have it both ways, and then whine and scream that the PC police are getting all up in your grill defending the trannies.
paulberserker may be a great person in real life, he may tithe and be a friend to gays everywhere and give saucers of milk to kittens and put his jacket over puddles so MTF transsexuals don’t get their pumps wet. It doesn’t change the fact that he’s being a total dick in this thread.
Translation: I read it on livejournal, where you can make jokes about trannies all you want without getting called on it, and decided to spread it onto here, where everybody’s all “PC.”
How is a comment made about how someone acts on the boards any different from an extrapolation about how they are in real life? If I read paul’s OP and say, “He’s an asshole,” am I commenting on his behavior on the boards, or am I commenting on his behavior in real life? Is there, in fact, a significant difference between commenting on one and commenting on the other? I don’t think that there is.
In my experience, there’s not much difference between that an a garden-variety asshole.
Fair enough. Although I don’t see much of that happening in this thread. Lots of his friends are showing up to say, “He’s not like that in real life.” Precious few of you are calling him on being a dick in his OP. Of course, that could be because you don’t think he is being a dick in his OP, but at this point, that’s a seperate issue.
Sure, take it into account. How much weight to assign your opinion is up to me, though. You say he’s an okay guy, but I’ve never even heard of you until this thread (although I think I know who you used to be.) TwistofFate says he’s okay, but maybe I think Twisty is an asshole, too. (I don’t. I think he’s totally cool. I’m just illustrating a point.) Ultimatly, the most important factor in deciding what I think about another poster is his posts. He may be a great guy in real life. That means fuck-all if every time I encounter him, he’s acting like a raging dill-hole. And it’s not unreasonable to assume that, if he’s always a dick online, then he’s probably a dick in real life, too. The fact that he’s got friends to say nice things about him doesn’t mean anything. In high school, I was friends with the class bully. The fact that he was nice to me didn’t cut much ice with the other kids he used to wail on during break.
I think that’ll happen once paul himself shows otherwise. Second hand testimony only goes so far. If he doesn’t like the labels that are being applied to him, maybe he should ask himself what he’s doing that’s making other judge him like that.
I also don’t think Guin has called him homophobic, and Sol specifically questioned if he had problems with transexuals, not homosexuals. I don’t find “He has a friend who has a friend who’s transsexual” to be a terribly convincing rebuttal to the evidence available in the OP and his other posts in this thread.
You used to be SciFiSam, right? Good to see you back on the boards!
No offense, but even if that were the case (I’m not familiar with where you are claiming Can of Pineapples got his information) the links he posted are still valid. Regardless of who dug the links up, they do bring to light some interesting discrepancies.
That’s what I’m thinking, too. I don’t care who found the info, I’d like to see an explaination.
Well that’s a tactful understatement if I ever heard one.
Hey, knock yourselves out! Even if your spy search does dig up the fact that all the Dopers in question are really 45-year-old WASP guys all sharing a basement internet connection somewhere in Iowa, it doesn’t change a single thing I’ve said in this thread.