Yeah, but, isn’t it worth it to have these types around? You know, to let the rest of us feel lucky…
Sure, he’s a fundie. Sure, he’s got a stick up his ass sideways about lawyers. Sure, some of his beliefs would be moronic coming from a mushroom.
But damn, he’s funny. Even more amazingly, he often intends to be funny. I’ve enjoyed most every toe-to-toe I’ve had with him
Sua
Weirdly enough, a few days ago I started wondering if WB and Billy the Witness were the same person, because some of the personal info they gave jibed. When I saw this thread, I thought it was a cool coincidence.
Billythewitness’s spelling, grammar, and general ability to put a coherent thought on paper were so bad that it was very, very hard to figure out what he was saying- oftentimes I had to ask him to rephrase things, and even then couldn’t figure out what he was saying. I honestly assumed he was maybe 12 or 13, based on his writing ability and the general tone of his religious arguments. I was very shocked to learn that he actually has a stock portfolio and owns a business, since, again in all honesty, I would not be surprised if someone told me that, according to standard criteria, Billythewitness was a borderline illiterate. Bear in mind that not only could he not make himself understood except with difficulty, he seems to have very little knowledge of anything that appears in books, including the Bible. He didn’t even know who Thor was, and Thor appeared in comic books! Interestingly, he hasn’t heard of “Inherit the Wind,” either, despite it being such a famous movie, even recently remade and put on the “new shelf” at the video stores. So I have a hard time figuring out how he can have a stock portfolio if we assume he isn’t reading WSJ.
What’s interesting is that when he appeared here as WB, and I had not figured out who he was, I assumed he was maybe 15-18 because he voiced every opinion which passes through the head of an average 15 year old boy. To wit:
- Loser should pay in lawsuits
- “Red Dawn” is the best movie ever made
- Hey gay guys- would you “convert” if the woman were really hot?
- Why did they fight so dumb in the American Revolution?
I don’t necessarily attach anything perjorative to my assumption that he was 15- unlike my earlier assumption that he was 12- but it’s interesting that Esprix also assumed he was a teenager.
-Ben
I assumed he was like 30 or 40 years old:) Of course that might be because of the fact that I am actually 16.
My position on
-
Loser should pay in lawsuits
I don’t care im 16. -
“Red Dawn” is the best movie ever made
Never heard of it. Really, Im guessing people my age werent even born when this movie came out. -
Hey gay guys- would you “convert” if the woman were really hot?
Is this really a opinion of 15 year olds? -
Why did they fight so dumb in the American Revolution?
I guess I am not your average 15 year older being a strategy nut but I figured that at least the south fought dumb in the civil war relying on simple manpower to win.
{Esprix files away a nugget of information}
Many thanks.
Esprix
Just a few words about why I am not amused by WB. I’m a survivor of growing up surrounded by people just like him.
I was raised in a very fundie, bible-literal family. Church at least 3 times a week, and no questions allowed. Everything was sinful, especially doubting the party line. This was a church that seriously used Chick tracts as teaching and witnessing aids (yes, hard to believe, isn’t it, but there is a market for them). This church was filled with people just like WB. It’s all in the way you are taught, starting with Sunday School.
Before you are even out of nursery classes, the indoctrination begins. You are told that you must witness, and that the vile, sinful world and it’s minions will persecute you for witnessing. You will be a martyr of sorts for your faith, but that’s all to the good. You see, you aren’t really expected to win converts by your witnessing and arguments, but by your serenity and steadfastness. The idea is that this will plant a seed in the heads of those poor benighted sinners who called your “faith” into question, and they will eventually come to an understanding that you were right all along. This in turn will score you points (or “crowns”) in heaven.
WB has the ideal witnessing situation here. He is preaching to heathens without ever needing to confront them in person. He is being (in his own mind) persecuted by the unwitting followers of Satan, which is exactly what he has been told to expect (gosh! they were right about that, they must be right about everything else too!}. Every once in a while his persecution complex comes out in a post.
Unfortunately, someone past the age of 5 has to want to be educated, and that is simply not on his agenda. I’d be willing to bet that the stories of his travails preaching to the SDMB have been brought up in church (or bible study, or the young marrieds’ meetings or Promis Keepers, or whatever), where he can be lauded for his efforts at attmpting to enlighten us and reassured that his faith will be rewarded in heaven (probably by the sight of the rest of us burning in a lake of fire).
The reason I don’t respond to his absurdities is not because of the obvious uselessness of doing so, but becasue I know it is giving him more satisfaction, and it settling him ever more firmly into his own tiny, narrow excuse for a mind. I do not find him amusing, although I will admit to finding him slightly pitiful (if I wanted to waste any pity on him). I started questioning the correctness of the fundie “don’t-ask-because-it’s-ineffable” way of thinking long before I ever left my parent’s house (at 16), and if he can’t do it at 30+, it’s because he has chosen not to do so.
Hmm, I guess that’s more that just a few words, but I wanted to make certain that it was understood that I am not speaking from a position of ignorance of the sort of person WB so clearly is. Heck, for a while I seriously was worried he might be my brother, but the ages of his daughters are wrong.