Haha- fuck you Oafrah!

The BBQ Pit
301

[QUOTE=askeptic]
Not your opinion but how you choose to express it. You can do what you want but we can laugh at you. And believe me I am.
[/QUOTE]

May I ask, is there a topic that you, an intelligent adult, have an opinion on that differs from the masses here? Maybe you’re an ID believer, or Bush supporter, whatever. Now assuming there is, does that make you, an otherwise intelligent adult, an idiot? Now, you say, how you express it is what matters. Do tell how I should have expressed this opinion in a way that would be suitable.

302

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
Wasn’t it Nazi Germany where everyone had to be and think exactly alike?
[/QUOTE]

You said Nazi, you lose.

303

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
Wasn’t it Nazi Germany where everyone had to be and think exactly alike?
[/QUOTE]
Wee Bairn, this isn’t about your having a contrary opinion (your Joe Torre-Money Grubber" thread could have had merit), it’s about your:

a) having an idiotic opinion, unsupported by how institutions are managed and the facts in the record;

b) not providing any cites to back of the facts you assert exist, stating no other poster had any factual basis for their opinion; when you finally did provide a cite, it didn’t prove what you think it did;

c) changing the goalpost when posters provided reliable cites to you;

d) deliberately pretending to misinterpret posts critical of your position from the very beginning;

d) changing your reason for the OP several times, including at one point saying your objection to the school was because these Black kids in SA were getting luxuries, that you, as a white man in America, weren’t); and

e) not knowing what references to the Algonquin Roundtable meant. This, by itself, is grounds for death by beheading.

Listen, win-a-bree, I don’t think you’re a racist. You do “pretend, quirky, bemused, missing-the-point, faux outrage” quite well; leave the attention whore/trolling schtick to the big boys.

304

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
Do tell how I should have expressed this opinion in a way that would be suitable.
[/QUOTE]
And yet when Diogenes is held up as an example of how to express a contrary opinion without getting flamed (which is, like, a first for him), you dismiss it as, what, clique status?

305

[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting]
Wee Bairn, this isn’t about your having a contrary opinion (your Joe Torre-Money Grubber thread could have had merit), it’s about your:

a) having an idiotic opinion, unsupported by how institutions are managed and the facts in the record;

b) not providing any cites to back of the facts you assert exist, stating no OP had any factual basis for their opinion; when you finally did provide a cite, it didn’t prove what you think it did;

c) changing the goalpost when posters provided reliable cites to you;

d) deliberately pretending to misinterpret posts critical of your position from the very beginning;

d) changing your reason for the OP several times, including at one point saying your objection to the school was because of these Black kids in SA were getting, that you, as a white man in America, wasn’t); and

e) not knowing what references to the Algonquin Roundtable meant. This is grounds for death by beheading.

Listen, win-a-bree: you do “pretend, quirky, bemused, missing-the-point, faux outrage” quite well; leave the attention whore/trolling schtick to the big boys.
[/QUOTE]

Ok- that’s a post I can respond to:

a) none of us, me included, know anything at all whatsoever about the inner workings or anything to do with this institution. My OP is not a fact based one based on the school set up, its on her comments on her talk show, I’ve covered that.

b) my cite is “i watch the show. I hear her prattle on.” It’s hard to find transcirpts or video of shows online. But no one here has come back and said “I watch the show every day, and she does not do that”.

c) changed nothing, original OP stands. May have added to it, got off on a tangent, but no change to OP.

d) you’re joking right? find that post, see the rhetorical question mark at the end, followed by a big fat NO, meaning no, I don’t feel that way. Also note my gripe is that the school does not include ENOUGH poor black kids.

e) busted

and I claimed no outrage. I just was expressing an opinion, no anger at all.

306

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
May I ask, is there a topic that you, an intelligent adult, have an opinion on that differs from the masses here? Maybe you’re an ID believer, or Bush supporter, whatever. Now assuming there is, does that make you, an otherwise intelligent adult, an idiot? Now, you say, how you express it is what matters. Do tell how I should have expressed this opinion in a way that would be suitable.
[/QUOTE]
I have posted, several times, on this board and others, my opinion that the much-reviled Paul Verhoeven film Showgirls, far from being the incompetent turd which most people consider it, is in fact a fascinating film worthy of detailed study and respect. I express this opinion by providing a detailed explanation of why I feel the way I do, with careful distinction between what I feel to be factual observations (how films are made, objective analysis of story structure, filmmaker history, etc) versus my opinion (speculation, interpretation, etc).

Then, when people disagree with me, I stomp my feet, gather my skirts, and execute a high-speed tight-circle hissy fit, labeling my detractors with juvenile epithets, and basically making an embarrassing spectacle of myself.

Oh, wait. Sorry. That’s what you do.

What I do is to shrug, correct any bald-faced misrepresentations, and then let it go. Because I recognize that none of this is personal; and if somebody tries to make it personal, I ignore them. I engage the debate only to the extent that I feel my points have been made, and then I’m done. Further attention to somebody who doesn’t seem to be connecting with me will serve only to prolong the argument, for no purpose at all.

Because I, unlike you, apparently, do not wish to be perceived as an attention whore. I say my piece, make sure it accurately represents my point of view, and that’s it, over and out.

You are taking notes, right?

307

[QUOTE=Cervaise]
. . . . You are taking notes, right?
[/QUOTE]
Why does he need to take notes when you’re giving him a compliment?

308

You know what- that makes perfect sense. I thought ignoring direct insults was viewed as chickenshit, but seriously, that makes sense. A bit odd though, that someone should insult you personally here becasue of a weird take on a topic, and then you should not respond in kind, but I honestly agree with this as a path I should have followed. And note, I asked the thread to be closed when it got out of hand.

If continuing the debate on and on as I did is seen as bad form here, then I do apologize. My goal here is to discuss topics of interest, not to annoy anyone.

But do note, no hissy fit, and any insults came my way first.

309

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
My level of vitriol on the topic was about a 0.1 out of 10.
[/QUOTE]

Bullshit. Your OP was as about a vitriolic Pit rant as I’ve ever seen.

And the reason for the subsequent pile-on is not merely because, as you are attempting to portray it, you were “going against the opinion of the majority”, and not merely because it was a dumbass Pitting, but because after pages and pages of people telling you, “This is a dumbass Pitting”, you refused to man up and post an Emily Latella “never mind, you’re right, this was a dumbass Pitting”. That, O Bairn, is why you’re getting the pileon. And no equally lame disclaimers you attempt to post now, no “gee, guys, I dint really mean it”, can save you. Get it through your head that you’re not being flamed because anybody here gives a rat’s ass about Oprah Winfrey–you’re being flamed because you have behaved stupidly in the Pit, and in the Pit, the punishment for behaving stupidly is eternal flames and the fire that quencheth not.

Yes, indeed, you certainly did. On Page 4, you said:

Which means that this…

…and this…

…make you look, oh, what’s the word I want? Oh, yeah–stupid.
And whiny.

On Page 5, you said:

So, you gotcher flameout. Enjoy.

310

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
You know what- that makes perfect sense. I thought ignoring direct insults was viewed as chickenshit, but seriously, that makes sense. A bit odd though, that someone should insult you personally here becasue of a weird take on a topic, and then you should not respond in kind, but I honestly agree with this as a path I should have followed.
[/QUOTE]

I know you don’t care what I think but those two simple sentences completely changed my opinion of you. I still think this thread was silly but I no longer hold the opinion that you are a blithering idiot.

I do wish you would grasp that it is not your “weird take on a topic” that generated the insults.

311

[QUOTE=askeptic]
I know you don’t care what I think but those two simple sentences completely changed my opinion of you. I still think this thread was silly but I no longer hold the opinion that you are a blithering idiot.

I do wish you would grasp that it is not your “weird take on a topic” that generated the insults.
[/QUOTE]

Well I don’t know you personally, but no, in general I don’t want anybody thinking I’m an idiot. What about it exactly caused your particular strong reaction?

312

This thread has yet to get out of hand. Threads are “out of hand” when they degenerate to nothing more than simple name-calling, a trainwreck of offtopic pointlessness. This thread remains squarely on topic, and any namecalling is peripheral to the discussion.

No, your thread didn’t get “out of hand” and you, the OP, nobly asked the mods to shut down a train wreck. You asked for the thread to be closed as soon as Frank wondered aloud if you were simply trolling. IOW, as soon as it suddenly looked like your amusing little 7-page tap dance might not come across as so amusing to TPTB. Props to you for at least having the brains to realize that, although you lose 5 points for needing to be whacked with Frank’s titanium clue-by-four in order for it to happen.

Good. Now, file for future reference: the next time you post a rant, and the first 20 people in a row all tell you the same thing, that your OP is lame and non-merited, the only correct response is, “Yeah, you’re right, I withdraw the OP.”

313

[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose]
This thread has yet to get out of hand. Threads are “out of hand” when they degenerate to nothing more than simple name-calling, a trainwreck of offtopic pointlessness. This thread remains squarely on topic, and any namecalling is peripheral to the discussion.

No, your thread didn’t get “out of hand” and you, the OP, nobly asked the mods to shut down a train wreck. You asked for the thread to be closed as soon as Frank wondered aloud if you were simply trolling. IOW, as soon as it suddenly looked like your amusing little 7-page tap dance might not come across as so amusing to TPTB. Props to you for at least having the brains to realize that, although you lose 5 points for needing to be whacked with Frank’s titanium clue-by-four in order for it to happen.
Good. Now, file for future reference: the next time you post a rant, and the first 20 people in a row all tell you the same thing, that your OP is lame and non-merited, the only correct response is, “Yeah, you’re right, I withdraw the OP.”
[/QUOTE]

Franks post meant to me that someone is accusing me of something I am not doing. I stated for certain I was not doing as he thought, and that he could close the thread to avoid any confusion. I asked that it be closed way before that as well.

And you are correct, if 199 out of 200 tell you your opinion is wrong, then maybe it is. But I can’t say its not my opinion though. I can say I presented it incorrectly. I beleive in Martians, many people don’t. I can’t prove they exist, but that doesn’t change my feeling on the subject.

314

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
Well I don’t know you personally, but no, in general I don’t want anybody thinking I’m an idiot. What about it exactly caused your particular strong reaction?
[/QUOTE]

I did not have a strong reaction. The problems with your OP have been pointed out. Most of them were valid points. If you had expressed you distaste for Oprah, even vitriolic distaste and that you dislike her attention whoring and claiming to be more involved than she probably is, I doubt you would have been the subject of this much ridicule. However your attempts to blame her and hold her responsible for the admittedly heinous acts of others is what created this mess. The analogy to the bench earlier in the thread, which you summarily and flippantly dismissed, was a valid analogy.

315

We can’t say what isn’t your opinion? That Oprah Winfrey is responsible somehow for the fact that a couple girls at one of her schools were abused? We’ve asked you this before; I’ll ask you again. What is it you want from her? What, in your opinion, should she have done, or do now? Your position, as far as I can tell, is that Oprah claims to be on top of her school’s daily doings 24/7, and that thus she should have known about the abuse as soon as it happened. However, you have provided nothing that shows that she claims this, except for your unsupported statement that she says it “all the time” on her show.

316

I will allow that my general view of her being a brainless attention whore may be coloring my take on the subject.

317

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
I beleive in Martians,…
[/QUOTE]

Wait a minute. Are you talking real live sentient beings living on Mars today?

318

[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose]
We can’t say what isn’t your opinion? That Oprah Winfrey is responsible somehow for the fact that a couple girls at one of her schools were abused? We’ve asked you this before; I’ll ask you again. What is it you want from her? What, in your opinion, should she have done, or do now? Your position, as far as I can tell, is that Oprah claims to be on top of her school’s daily doings 24/7, and that thus she should have known about the abuse as soon as it happened. However, you have provided nothing that shows that she claims this, except for your unsupported statement that she says it “all the time” on her show.
[/QUOTE]

I have allowed that since 100 other people think I’m wrong, that my dislike of her may be affecting my take on the subject. What more do you want?

319

[QUOTE=askeptic]
Wait a minute. Are you talking real live sentient beings living on Mars today?
[/QUOTE]

I mean that there may be life outside of Earth.

320

[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
I mean that there may be life outside of Earth.
[/QUOTE]
Then wouldn’t that make them “extraterrestrials” and not necessarily “Martians”? :smiley:

Precision is everything on the Dope, you know.

Now, this thread is officially a trainwreck.