I most certainly don’t. I don’t see that he’s beginning to question his position, that’s what I said. When someone is doing this defensive martyr act, it’s best to call it what it is, not to coddle them.
You keep using violent imagery, like lynching and stomping. That’s an inappropriate description of verbal criticism, to say the least.
Honestly? I’m not buying it. If you’re rationally examining an issue, trying to decide what the right way to treat a minority group, and someone walks by and calls you an “asshole” and that’s enough to make you reconsider, you probably weren’t actually having a rational examination of your own biases in the first place.
If you’ve got a store, and you’re deciding whether you will or won’t serve black people at your store, and as you’re thinking about it a black guy walks by and calls you an asshole - if that’s enough to make you say “you know what? Maybe I WILL be a racist”, that doesn’t say very good things about you.
Oh for fuck’s sake. If you jump on someone with both feet, you’re stomping on them. Don’t be absurd. Your friendship to Martini is commendable, but it’s clouding your judgment here. Step back maybe.
OK. Let it be known, though, that you’ve been shown that you had a teachable moment here, maybe, and instead of taking it you counseled me to walk away and shut my mouth,
For fuck’s sake, nobody told you to shut your mouth. He told you to “step back” because of your friendship with the person we are discussing, as in look at the situation as if it didn’t involve your friend. You know, look at it from another perspective.
I am curious how you guys are holding up, all nailed to the cross up there. There are a whole lot of you there now, is there enough room? We could have put up multiple crosses you know.
I could maybe teach you not to put on the martyr costume, but you’ve failed to convince me you’re teachable in this context. You’re not even willing to admit that your judgment is clouded, how’m I supposed to teach you anything?
Honestly, if someone were attacking my friend, and I was absolutely sure my friend was in the wrong, I’d just walk away from the whole conversation. Given the choice between arguing against my own beliefs, or ganging up on a buddy, I’d choose neither.
Aah, the “nice guy” defence, haven’t seen that for … ooh, hours now.
You’re saying “Sure, the guy thinks Blacks can’t govern themselves - is unabashedly proud of holding that view, in fact - but that doesn’t affect me, so he’s just great by me”
Oh no. No, no. It’s one thing to be weird if you tap dance during staff meetings. It’s something else entirely to be considered weird due to your gender. It’s a de-humanizing descriptor. Please don’t use it or encourage it.
I’m always interested in calm, civil conversation. What I’m not interested in is people telling me “I make the boards worse by my presence” or just using me personally as a verbal punching bag/flex exercise.
Seriously, elsewhere on the boards there have been many threads about “How much longer has the SDMB got?” and “Why aren’t we attracting new members?” and “What happened to all the people with different viewpoints?” - and then you’ve got this thread, where people appear to be revelling in telling me, personally that they hate me, that I’m an awful person/asshole/likes pineapple on his pizza.
There’s “You’re wrong and I disagree with you on this”, and there’s “I hate you, personally and specifically for not thinking the same way I do”. A number of the comments in this thread directed at me are very much the latter.
Nothing ‘disagreeable’ I have said is aimed at a specific member of this board. I haven’t said “Fuck you, FictitiousPoster#4, you personally are awful and I hate you because of who you are”
I said I don’t think cisgender people should proactively include pronouns in their e-mail signatures or social media profiles, and somehow that turned into me being “An abuser”.
Not at all. As I’ve said before (not that anyone’s listening), my issue isn’t with transgender people or their existence, it’s with the social changes that are being pushed by a small group of people to benefit and even smaller group of people, and the
I don’t hate transgender people. I don’t intentionally misgender transgender people. They, like you and me, are people going about their lives. They get the same treatment and basic courtesy I extend to everyone else.
My issue is people wanting me to do ‘extra’ stuff. Samuel deciding to become Samantha doesn’t affect or cause any issues me - if she is happy now, that’s great and I’m happy for them. Several people I work with saying “You have to list your pronouns now to make Samantha feel even more included than she already is” and then getting shitty at me when I say “No thanks” does affect me, especially when the eventual outcome is, well, the sort of stuff that’s being directed at me in this thread.
What I have a problem with is the tiresomely woke progressive types who are all “Let’s think up newer and more dogmatic ways to change fundamental stuff about society and then punish anyone who isn’t immediately and 100% on board with it.”
And despite what people looking to be offended on other’s behalf might think, I was (and am) using “weird” purely in a descriptive sense. I’m weird. I haven’t even had breakfast yet and one of my friends has said I’m weird. It’s not an insult (and wasn’t intended to be when I used it before), it’s a descriptor.
Literally no one said this. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but when Miller called you an “asshole”, I didn’t interpret that as some deep-seated hatred of your very being. “Asshole” just isn’t that kind of insult, not to me at least. It’s basically a slightly harsher way of calling you “inconsiderate”.
I really don’t think anyone feels this way, and I’m baffled that that’s the takeaway you’d have from what any of us said.
For what it’s worth, if the message you got from any of my posts was “I hate you personally”, I apologize, because that wasn’t my intent.
I do think you’re very wrong about transgender people and how our society deals with them, but that doesn’t mean I hate you.