Not necessarily; I, for example have no idea what he’s said. I was just commenting on the name.
Then I guess you avoided the Pit at the time. The 88s were a popular topic.
I’ll consider myself lucky and move on. 
Bricker - your handle makes me think you’re the most inept basketball player ever.
Has anyone told Huerta88 about this thread?
Well, count me as one who thinks of the Nazi connotation when I see 88 in a username. I’d recommend changing the name, unless that’s what you’re going for.
Bricker, seriously, this has to be the dumbest Pit thread by the smartest poster I have seen in a long long while.
While 88 may have a certain connotation in a certain subculture, it is hardly that obvious. While I am pretty widely read, I personally was entirely unfamiliar with it. As others have mentioned, there are many entirely innocent alternative explanations, from birthdate to football jersey. And while there certainly are latino fascists, to me at least the name Huerta88 conveys an entirely different impression than a name like Adolf88 would.
If you actually do have reason to suspect the guy has white supremacist sympathies, and that his name indicates that, by all means pit him. But to suggest that he change his name due to a somewhat obscure connection to white supremacists, and absolutely nothing else, to me smacks of political correctness run amok.
By the way, I wasn’t kidding about the connotation of “brick,” either. It does have a certain association with stupidity (among positive connotations as well, admittedly). Seriously, now that this has been pointed out to you, why shouldn’t you consider changing your name as well?
Huh. It’s funny. I think Huerta88’s being a racist, obsessive misogynist fuckhead has nothing to do with his screenname.
Continually calling the victim of the alleged Duke rape “Tawana,” strongly implying that black women are not just lying about slavemaster-style rapes, but want to be “slavemaster-style raped” … Yeah, to me the guy’s a shitheel who has a disturbing obsession with proving that most rape victims lie about having been raped.
Just as much as he loves speculating about whether black women really want to be raped by slavemasters, I can’t help but wonder just what apparently personal beef Huerta88 has with rape victims. How many times has he posted in that thread, for God’s sake?
His “88” reference? Maybe his birthyear, maybe his class year, maybe his IQ, maybe the months he’s spent in jail. And maybe it’s a Hitler thing. By depositing turds around like that above quote, Huerta manages to make the “88” the least offensive part of his presence.
Hmm, I had no idea as to this connotation before I read this thread. Is this really a problem? As others have pointed out, your username has several unintended connotations, as does mine, and, for that matter, most of those on the SDMB, I’m sure.
Oops – to clarify, the bolding above in Huerta88’s quote is mine. And when I say “victim of the alleged Duke rape case” I should have said “accuser” or “alleged victim.”
One more thing…
Colibri, you don’t really think Bricker suspects anything about Huerta88, do you? This pitting is an attempt at sarcasm – he’s not pitting Huerta88 at all, he’s trying to snark at those who mention the “88” part of his name.
Sorry, i think that’s bullshit.
If the poster in question had ever done anything to suggest the connotation, then maybe there would be some excuse for this thread.
But the fact that everyone here—including the OP—readily acknowledges that there is no evidence of any Nazi sympathies in Huerta88’s posts suggests that maybe this wouldn’t be an issue at all if people didn’t keep bringing it up.
Personally, i think that non-Nazis should do everything we can to reclaim the number, and normalizing its use would be a good start.
I’m not really sure of his beliefs, except that he has posted some misogynistic junk in dating threads from time to time. Then again, that is true of half of the dudes on the SDMB. Just thought I’d weigh in and say what my first impression of 88 is, since other people were.
I’m with you. It’s an odd and probably profoundly stupid thread.
So some other people think they see a connection between the number 88 and Nazis? Well shit, lots of people see Bigfoot every year too, and have just as much proof he exists*. I just worked with a coal mine with “88” in its name; maybe it’s run by the decendants of Nazis who fled Germany in 1945!
It seems to me that if a poster truly has a name that could be a reference that may potentially be inflammatory, offensive, or otherwise possibly disruptive to the Board or indicative of Nazism, then someone should notify a Moderator or Administrator. Or send a private and polite e-mail to the person in question instead. Posting a thread to call them out over this is smacks of grandstanding for no good reason.
[sub]* But mark my words, if Bigfoot did exist, he would most likely be a Nazi.[/sub]
I know the 88 thing. But with Huerta added to the front, I always think of Victoriano Huerta.
OTOH I always think of a brick layer with the Bricker title.
Oddly enough, Bricker was a high-school nickname, in part for PRECISELY that reason. Man, did I suck.
Nor has age improved me. I am not physically uncoordinated, and not a terrible athlete in general, but for some reason, I can’t do anything with a basketball but toss up bricks. The K of C does a free-throw contest for kids every year, and there are ten-year-olds that can sink more free-throws than I. So if that’s the connotation you get from ‘Bricker’ …you’re right on the money.
Saying that you with the face wants to be “slave-master raped” is pretty damned offensive, though I wouldn’t say it approaches Nazism.
I don’t call for him to change his username. I will say that I would change my username if it made people think of racists, but that’s me.
Why is 88 better than 69?
Because you get 8 twice.
That’s what it makes me think of.
Let me try to explain some more, then.
This thread arose because of the Duke rape thread, and [url="http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7431318&postcount=827"this post in particular. Not that the post was the first I’d heard of the ‘88’ business directed at Huerta, but it’s what inspired this thread today. And the Sam Kinison thing was exactly what was on my mind – the idea that this ‘88’ business was derailing the cogent points Huerta was making; that some people were writing him into the neo-Nazi corner right away.
If there was a better way to air that concern and get a dialog going about it, I’m certainly open to hearing what I should have done.
But in view of the number of people who have posted some variety of, “Yes, I’ve thought that,” I can’t accept the claim that this is akin to Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster.
It pleases me to no end to say I had no idea about the obscure meaning of 88 prior to this thread.
Now, that link to the “White Nationalist” was interesting and I couldn’t help but notice how many of the posters in that old thread had BANNED under their username.
I’ve never heard of the 88 = nazi thing before this thread. I would also add that I don’t form opinions about people from their user name, except in the case of something really clever…I’ll just thing, ‘That’s cool’ and move on.
So I guess I’m in the ‘this is a stupid thread’ group.
Was this called for? It seems to me that Bricker is explaining his opinion in an extremely reasonable manner.