# I've seen the future, and this is it: **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 26, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486 "2009-02-26T05:57:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/101 "2009-02-27T02:24:31Z")
Thanks for the laughs this evening–all the contributors to this thread ( **Cervaise** and whoever posted re **SA’s** sister get the prize). Where is my waitress? I want to tip her. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/102 "2009-02-27T02:44:17Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Glad to see your last post. That’s exactly the kind of statement that I think you should’ve made originally. (Well, a “sorry, guys” would be appropriate, especially given the sneering contempt you’ve shown those who took umbrage at your failure). Had you made it, I would’ve had no problem with you. As it is, excepting only the lack of an apology, I think you’ve made right. “Go and sin no more.”–some hippie peacenik dude Thank you. 🙂 But seriously, you think an apology is in order? For what? I got an email, I copied it and posted it. For all I knew it was composed by some clever conservative wit for the express purpose of making email rounds among conservative circles. There was no attempt at dishonesty, plagiarism or anything else I can think of that would warrant an apology. Still, I’m willing to listen. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/103 "2009-02-27T02:54:03Z")
Apologies aren’t only for deliberate malfeasance; they’re also for unintentional fuckups. That’s what I teach my students, anyway :). An initial apology would’ve been for the unintentional fuckup. At this point, you could do worse than apologizing for sneering at people for chastising you for an action you now admit was chastisable. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/104 "2009-02-27T03:02:51Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > But seriously, you think an apology is in order? For what? I got an email, I copied it and posted it. For all I knew it was composed by some clever conservative wit for the express purpose of making email rounds among conservative circles. In which case you would write: “Some conservative wit, who isn’t me, appears to have written this for circulation by e-mail. Enjoy the express purpose of its cleverness.” I’ve just been watching some old Hugh Laurie clips on youtube. It’s going to take a while for the faux earnestness to wear off. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/105 "2009-02-27T03:03:01Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > At any rate, before we examine your thesis further, could you point out for us where “laziness” is the primary theme here? Not seeing it. Shirley Ujest. Allusions to laziness, physical and mental, appear in virtually every paragraph. > [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Apologies aren’t only for deliberate malfeasance; they’re also for unintentional fuckups. That’s what I teach my students, anyway. That’s a good point. I apologized just this evening when I inadvertently got in someone’s way at the grocery store. 🙂 > [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > At this point, you could do worse than apologizing for sneering at people for chastising you for an action you now admit was chastisable. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind pointing out just which posters deserve an apology. Most of the ones I can think of were assholes right out of the gate, and motivated mostly by ire over things I’ve said in the past. (And **Don’t Call Me Shirley** can shove a rusty dipstick up her crankcase for all I care.) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/106 "2009-02-27T03:07:45Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > In which case you would write: > > “Some conservative wit, who isn’t me, appears to have written this for circulation by e-mail. Enjoy the express purpose of its cleverness.” > > I’ve just been watching some old Hugh Laurie clips on youtube. It’s going to take a while for the faux earnestness to wear off. Thanks for your input, and for your support earlier in the thread. But again, this is what’s called 20/20 hindsight. I had no way of knowing, nor even a suspicion, at the time I posted it that the issue would arise. And you don’t sound overly earnest at all. 🙂 ETA: And now I’m off for a honkin’ big Frito Chili Pie, thanks to being reminded of them in the “Chili” thread in Cafe Society. I’ll see what you have to say when I return later, **LHoD**. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/107 "2009-02-27T03:09:17Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Perhaps you wouldn’t mind pointing out just which posters deserve an apology. Most of the ones I can think of were assholes right out of the gate, and motivated mostly by ire over things I’ve said in the past. (And **Don’t Call Me Shirley** can shove a rusty dipstick up her crankcase for all I care.) 😉 Another thing I teach my students: you’re not responsible for their choices, only for your own. If they acted like dicks, that’s on them. It’s your behavior, not theirs, that’s relevant when choosing what you’ll do. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/108 "2009-02-27T03:10:29Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Thanks for your input, and for your support earlier in the thread. But again, this is what’s called 20/20 hindsight. I had no way of knowing, nor even a suspicion, at the time I posted it that the issue would arise. Bullshit; you’ve been posting your inane half-baked nonsense on the SDMB for years. You’re not actually stupid, even though you frequently say stupid things. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/109 "2009-02-27T03:14:36Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > Bullshit; you’ve been posting your inane half-baked nonsense on the SDMB for years. You don’t know what you’re talking about. But that’s nothing new. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/110 "2009-02-27T03:27:06Z")
I vehemently protest the current movement to get **Starving Artist** to apologize for his carelessness in beginning this trainwreck of a Pitting. If he apologizes, then we will be ethically obligated to accept his apology and stop mocking him about it. Where’s the fun in that? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/111 "2009-02-27T03:37:39Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > The trouble is that that high-mindedness and desire to help the truly disadvantaged, when taken over by government, gets transmogrified into wildly wasteful and counterproductive programs that do little to help the truly disadvantaged (indeed, the people who truly need it almost invariably find that there’s nowhere near enough provided for them so as to provide needlessly for others who don’t really need it…such is the way government works in this country) and serve mainly to waste taxpayer dollars and encourage more people to be lazy and nonproductive and to expect the government to provide for them. **Starving Artist** , you are really a reverse Upton Sinclair or John Steinbeck, you write socially irresponsible fiction. You may have a point on the CETA, however the critics never could calculate the priceless help many minorities got in discriminating areas to enter the job market, and I’m talking about the ones that did their jobs properly. In any case, this is a moot point because the government (that for some reason you assume never would make corrections) ended the program in the 80’s. Just the simple example how black and other minority soldiers benefited from the GI bill is enough to show how your sources are just shallow and idiotic\*. \*In the Greek sense. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/112 "2009-02-27T03:41:26Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Shirley Ujest. Allusions to laziness, physical and mental, appear in virtually every paragraph… How very handy for you! Then you won’t have the slightest difficulty citing multiple examples! (Which, in your haste, you neglected.) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/113 "2009-02-27T04:05:21Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > How very handy for you! Then you won’t have the slightest difficulty citing multiple examples! (Which, in your haste, you neglected.) A little difficult now, since the mods sliced the piece down because of plagiarism. SA would hove to repeat the, er… plagiar? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/114 "2009-02-27T04:15:37Z")
The original \*Onion \*piece is linked by one of the Luminous Ones ( **gfactor,** I believe…) and is thus available. One assumes that the original posting still is available to the esteemed OP. Can’t see any problem. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/115 "2009-02-27T05:16:34Z")
> [@](#): > > I vehemently protest the current movement to get Starving Artist to apologize for his carelessness in beginning this trainwreck of a Pitting. If he apologizes, then we will be ethically obligated to accept his apology and stop mocking him about it. Where’s the fun in that? It wasn’t much of an apology if any. Sort of a “I’m sorry if you misunderstood me” effort - no culpability was acknowledged for writing the post and he left open the possibility that the problem might be everyone else’s fault for reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/116 "2009-02-27T05:48:01Z")
I noted a kind of odd style of …presentation?..in the OP. I kind of got the idea that it was another’s writing. I don’t think the OP was trying to pass it off as his own. That said, Don’t Call Me Shirly calling his sister a cunt was funny as hell. ---
**Author:** ![Tarwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/117 "2009-02-27T11:23:35Z")
It was clear from the beginning that SA was only forwarding a piece of junk-mail. Everybody leveling accusations of plagiarism are only embarrassing themselves. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/118 "2009-02-27T11:39:19Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > It was clear from the beginning that SA was only forwarding a piece of junk-mail. Everybody leveling accusations of plagiarism are only embarrassing themselves. At the risk of further embarrassment, where did you find clarity? When someone writes “I have seen…” something in the title, it’s pretty clear that his OP, unless he specifies otherwise explicitly, is going to contain the observations he has made himself. Where did **SA** put any distance between the title’s “I” and the OP which followed? I’d like some specific quotes, please. ---
**Author:** ![Tarwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/119 "2009-02-27T12:14:49Z")
A cursory glance at his post reveals all the hallmarks of bad glurge: it’s written in the format of an article, contains a strong right-wing message, calls attention to the supposed idiocy of congress, and takes a stance against welfare. It’s obvious where it came from, and it’s obvious that “I’ve seen…” was referencing his reading of the article. Although, even the title reads like something from a forwarded email, and I wouldn’t be surprised if SA copied that, too. If I had to fault SA for anything, it would be overestimating the intelligence of the SDMB by not including a proper citation of the article’s origin. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486/120 "2009-02-27T12:30:32Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > all the hallmarks of bad glurge: it’s written in the format of an article, contains a strong right-wing message, calls attention to the supposed idiocy of congress, and takes a stance against welfare… And how is this any different from \*\*Starving Artist’s \*\*typical posts? > [@](#): > > It’s obvious where it came from THIS is your response to a request for a specific textual citation showing the clarity of the OP’s origin? That “it’s obvious”??? Thanks for playing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-seen-the-future-and-this-is-it/487486.md?page=7)