# Magiver, are you okay?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [September 6, 2019, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777 "2019-09-06T08:29:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/41 "2019-09-06T20:42:37Z")
nm
---
### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/42 "2019-09-06T20:51:35Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#):
>
> You know what? You’re right, this is unfair to the mentally ill and probably below the belt. **Magiver** isn’t crazy. He’s just an asshole. I’m sorry I went there when far more fitting insults almost certainly existed that wouldn’t throw people with dementia under the bus.
You really are kind of a dick and the only thing that makes you better than Magiver is that you accidentally chose the right side to be a braying ass for. But I could easily see you going Incel in five years or so. Chill the fuck out on the anger.
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### Author:  [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/43 "2019-09-06T21:01:50Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> I’d let those go as colloquialisms.
>
> Asking “did you forget to take your meds?” or “Hey everybody I think we need to worry about **Poster X** , I think she’s decompensating” or “please make an appointment with your therapist” — anything invoking medical conditions of a psychiatric or neurological variety — are not colloquialisms.
Dude, take a chill pill.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/44 "2019-09-06T21:40:13Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#):
>
> You know what? You’re right, this is unfair to the mentally ill and probably below the belt. **Magiver** isn’t crazy. He’s just an asshole. I’m sorry I went there when far more fitting insults almost certainly existed that wouldn’t throw people with dementia under the bus.
That’s a fair point but that’s not what **AHunter3** was complaining about [in post #11](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21844532&postcount=11). He was essentially complaining that you were being mean to **Magiver**. **Magiver** is a ridiculously partisan asshole who obviously voted for the Orange Peril and has about the same level of simian-like intelligence, and deserves everything he’s getting.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/45 "2019-09-06T21:46:00Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> That’s a fair point but that’s not what **AHunter3** was complaining about [in post #11](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21844532&postcount=11). He was essentially complaining that you were being mean to **Magiver**. **Magiver** is a ridiculously partisan asshole who obviously voted for the Orange Peril and has about the same level of simian-like intelligence, and deserves everything he’s getting.
Nowhere in that post do I see an attempt to defend Magiver. It was a complaint in the way that Magiver was being insulted. My reading is that if BPC just called Magiver “a ridiculously partisan asshole who obviously voted for the Orange Peril and has about the same level of simian-like intelligence” without the fake concern and reference to actual mental illness that there would be no objection.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/46 "2019-09-06T22:05:58Z")
I don’t want to get into a massive microanalysis of all this, but the point is that there are two completely different issues with these kinds of insults. One is that by trying to ridicule your opponent by equating him with some blameless minority such as those with a mental illness, you’re casting aspersions on that minority and that’s usually\* pretty bad form, to say the least. The other – entirely different – issue is that it’s being mean to your opponent. It was the latter that **AHunter3** was whining about in post #11. And that’s bullshit. {Comical French accent}: Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
* * *
- Unless said minority is represented by diagnoses of psychopathology or narcissistic personality disorder. Then it’s OK. Those fuckers deserve it.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/47 "2019-09-06T22:13:37Z")
It’s like saying, I’m not objecting to you calling a person a bitch because it’s sexist (and insulting of all women) but because it’s too cruel. I think I get what you mean and re-reading it, I’ve changed my mind.
AHunter3 was saying don’t dehumanize Magiver, and you’re saying screw it, dehumanize away. And BPC apologized making the same assumption I had made, but I think both BPC and I assumed wrong.
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### Author:  [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/48 "2019-09-06T23:07:05Z")
Isn’t Magiver the same guy who was losing his shit defending Trump over the Notre Dame fire?
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/49 "2019-09-06T23:17:57Z")
> [@Chingon](#):
>
> Isn’t Magiver the same guy who was losing his shit defending Trump over the Notre Dame fire?
Did he say Trump DIDN’T set the Notre Dame fire?
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/50 "2019-09-06T23:23:57Z")
> [@Atamasama](#):
>
> Nowhere in that post do I see an attempt to defend Magiver. It was a complaint in the way that Magiver was being insulted. My reading is that if BPC just called Magiver “a ridiculously partisan asshole who obviously voted for the Orange Peril and has about the same level of simian-like intelligence” without the fake concern and reference to actual mental illness that there would be no objection.
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> I don’t want to get into a massive microanalysis of all this, but the point is that there are two completely different issues with these kinds of insults. One is that by trying to ridicule your opponent by equating him with some blameless minority such as those with a mental illness, you’re casting aspersions on that minority and that’s usually\* pretty bad form, to say the least. The other – entirely different – issue is that it’s being mean to your opponent. It was the latter that **AHunter3** was whining about in post #11. And that’s bullshit. {Comical French accent}: Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
**Atamasama** has correctly parsed my post.
I have no problem with being mean to one’s opponent in broad general terms. I have a major issue with attempting to discredit anyone’s position by stating or implying that they are neurologically or psychiatrically impaired. You want to say that **Magiver** is a subhuman knuckle-dragging troglodyte who just comes here to ratfuck the message board on behalf of the orange-furred babboon who has occupied our government, and cast aspersions on his appearance, intelligence, ancestry, and taste, go right ahead. Do not, however, appeal to us, the audience, with exhortations to care about poor **Magiver** whose untreated mental condition is causing his brain to spew out stuff that he doesn’t really mean or understand, and which we should ignore as symptoms of his mental illness. That latter is fucking creepy. It’s not insulting. It’s literally depersonalizing, and it’s a politically dangerous rhetorical weapon that should be banned from discussion everywhere.
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/51 "2019-09-06T23:30:50Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> Wait, so both of you think that offending or demeaning someone _ **in the Pit** _ is bad form? Even when they so clearly deserve it?
Deliberate mis-framing of the question, and you didn’t read the words you quoted from me. I said “demeaning to the OP” i.e. to BPC himself, not to the target.
eta: on further reading, I see you are also, possibly deliberately, misinterpreting AHunter3. I see he has made that point himself, and I again second his position.
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### Author:  [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/52 "2019-09-06T23:33:15Z")
I can still say he’s stupid, though, right?
I mean, stupidity _is_ a neurological impariment.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/53 "2019-09-06T23:44:37Z")
I don’t even mind if you say **Magiver** is “fucking batshit insane”.
There’s a fundamental difference between that and “Please excuse my friend **joeblow** here, pay no attention to him, he can’t help it, there’s something wrong with his brain that makes him say provocative and offensive things and you should neither hold that against him nor take anything he says seriously”.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2019, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/54 "2019-09-07T05:18:49Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> I don’t even mind if you say **Magiver** is “fucking batshit insane”.
>
> There’s a fundamental difference between that and “Please excuse my friend **joeblow** here, pay no attention to him, he can’t help it, there’s something wrong with his brain that makes him say provocative and offensive things and you should neither hold that against him nor take anything he says seriously”.
We do have people who contribute to the SDMB who do have sincere behavioral, social, and/or cognitive impairments that have been open about it. Pretending that you think a poster is one such person to insult them is poor form in more ways than one.
I know wolfpup says to hell with it, someone who’s a true asshole doesn’t deserve it if you hold back, but there are lines I don’t like to cross. I have a brother with mental illness (on top of being a junky but that’s another subject) and I’ve had close friends with cognitive impairments (including a best friend in elementary school who passed away) so I don’t like seeing those kinds of things used as insults. You might as well toss around the n-word.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2019, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/55 "2019-09-07T12:41:13Z")
> [@Slash1972](#):
>
> You want a moderator to jump into a Pit thread if someone says “You must be crazy!” to another poster? Or “There’s clearly something wrong with your head if you think that”?
It’s not so much that as the fact that the OP was really in the nature of _counseling_. Counseling is really something better done in private.
As such, the text should have been communicated by PM. Since it was made in public instead I have doubts about the sincerity of the inquiry.
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/56 "2019-09-07T18:11:05Z")
I think every single person in this thread needs to relax, breath deeply, take your meds, book another session next week, and just…just…I dunno - stop freakin!
AAAACK!!!
{{{ Don’t worry - _it will be ok_ }}}
::runs, like, really quickly away::
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2019, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/57 "2019-09-07T20:05:03Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#):
>
> I think every single person in this thread needs to relax, breath deeply, take your meds, book another session next week, and just…just…I dunno - stop freakin!
> AAAACK!!!
> {{{ Don’t worry - _it will be ok_ }}}
>
> ::runs, like, really quickly away::
Great username / post combo 🙂
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/58 "2019-09-07T20:31:12Z")
Amen,\*\* Id!\*\* I live at Bethlem Royal Hospital’s suburban Chicago branch and have developed some small familiarity with those cursed with not quite end stage dementia. Take comfort in that Magiver’s behavior has not deteriorated significantly since he joined. He’s not a sick person needing our understanding; he’s just a horse’s ass. Make fun of him to your heart’s content.
---
### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/59 "2019-09-07T21:02:41Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> I have no problem with being mean to one’s opponent in broad general terms. I have a major issue with attempting to discredit anyone’s position by stating or implying that they are neurologically or psychiatrically impaired. You want to say that **Magiver** is a subhuman knuckle-dragging troglodyte who just comes here to ratfuck the message board on behalf of the orange-furred babboon who has occupied our government, and cast aspersions on his appearance, intelligence, ancestry, and taste, go right ahead. Do not, however, appeal to us, the audience, with exhortations to care about poor **Magiver** whose untreated mental condition is causing his brain to spew out stuff that he doesn’t really mean or understand, and which we should ignore as symptoms of his mental illness. That latter is fucking creepy. It’s not insulting. It’s literally depersonalizing, and it’s a politically dangerous rhetorical weapon that should be banned from discussion everywhere.
I agree with this reasoning, and I’m sympathetic to **Atamasama** ’s personal encounters with mental illness. But my distinct impression from your post #11 was that you were simply accusing **BPC** of being overly harsh in his attack on **Magiver**. This seemed to me to be conveyed by phrases like “offensive as all fuck … medicalizing a discussion participant, relegating their opinions and passions and viewpoints and understandings to a bunch of misfiring neurons, is an incredibly dehumanizing way of discrediting what they’re saying … it’s the lowest form of _argument ad hominem_ …”. So if I misinterpreted your meaning, I hope you can see it was not an unreasonable interpretation of your words as written.
Oh, well, **BPC** can be a bit over the top sometimes, but at least we can all agree that **Magiver** is an unmitigated asshole whose appalling ignorance and sycophantic ass-kissing of the worst bottom-dwellers in modern political history should disqualify him from ever casting a ballot for anyone or anything.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2019, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magiver-are-you-okay/839777/60 "2019-09-07T21:07:30Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> but at least we can all agree that **Magiver** is an unmitigated asshole whose appalling ignorance and sycophantic ass-kissing of the worst bottom-dwellers in modern political history should disqualify him from ever casting a ballot for anyone or anything.
You do have a way with words 🙂
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