In the odd posters thread, I described a thread started by ZPG Zealot way back in 2011 (and subsequently closed) as “wall-to-wall comedy gold ZPG batshittery”. Which I still think is a fair description.
However, I understand that ZPG Zealot might disagree with my assessment of said thread, and she appeared in the odd posters thread to defend herself. That is fair and understandable, since I was saying things about her behind her back, which I wish I hadn’t done. I really just wanted to share something that I found funny and entertaining. Still: Bad form on my part, and I should have known better.
Even so: It derailed the odd posters thread, causing the OP of that thread to intervene, which is another problem. I now feel bad for creating a situation where I talked about **ZPG **behind her back, but then she got slapped for defending herself. That is not fair. Therefore: Let’s take that derail here, where we can mud wrestle more freely.
I’ll state my position again: I just thought the thread I linked to was hilarious. That’s basically what I have so far on the subject.
Whether this thread is really needed, I’m not sure. But if ZPG Zealot or anyone else wants to call me a poopy-head about this, it seems fair to me that they should have somewhere to do it.
If you sincerely feel bad, you could just, ya know, apologize. ZPG has already been raked over the coals and deservedly so. I see no reason to do the same with another Pit thread.
I don’t think Martian B started this thread so that ZPG could be further humiliated, I think it’s simply that he has a thing for her (and I’ll shake her hand for the dignified way she has conducted herself since this became apparent).
OK, partly based on some observations I saw someone else make elsewhere, here’s what I think is going on:
**ZPG **is not crazy, and she’s not a troll. She’s entirely normal. She simply lives in an alternate reality. This is a world which is like ours in most respects, except that, in her universe, some aspects of modern Western society resemble a Gothic fantasy version of the medieval Balkans. Honor killings of women with loose reputations, arcane wedding customs, belief in vampires, werewolves and fortune tellers, etc… for her, these things are not marginal or restricted to a small minority. Instead, they are perfectly commonplace in her version of the modern day US. Therefore, she is as confused by our social customs as we are by hers. She must think we’re all weirdos with no sense of propriety.
Someone suggested that she just *thinks *that she lives in such a world, but I think a much more likely scenario is that she actually does, and we’re communicating with her through an interdimensional portal, which has opened up somewhere on the intertubes. Neither side knows about the portal or the existence of the other universe, hence all these misunderstandings.
If you read her posting history with this in mind, it all seems much more consistent, coherent, sensical and non-crazy.
And, in this thread, we have the fortune of witnessing the Rectus doperus and their bizarre mating rituals. See how the male mocks the female in an attempt to get her to respond, after his previous offer met with silence. Will she respond, or remain forever elusive?
How about this. She’s a traditionalist Roma, which is to say, she’s a member of a society that does have honor killings, restricts physical contact between the sexes, has wedding customs that non-Roma consider strange and arcane, has fortune telling as a traditional feminine occupation, and has werewolf and vampire mythologies.
The problem isn’t that she’s a traditionalist Roma. That’s cool - whatever rocks her boat. The problem is that she expects everyone else to act like traditionalist Roma, too, and acts shocked when they don’t. In other words, as far as she’s concerned, the way she does things isn’t just they way she does things, it’s the *right *way to do things, and any other way is wrong. She demands tolerance of other people while showing absolutely none of her own.
I’m not sure she’s even typically Rom. A long-standing poster, Kal, who is of a Roma heritage, has also expressed WTF attitudes towards her more outlandish proclamations.
ZPG is the weird old relative that pops up in many families…strange notions but harmless. The relative that pops up into your life occasionally, but is not in your face every day, otherwise you’d have them committed.
Good on you for recognizing your part in the Straight Dope bully culture and owning up to it.
:smack:
And now the bullying begins.
And continues.
Good one and well said.
Yeah, without the alternate reality different dimension shit it is entirely the same in tone and content.
Who exactly doesn’t think that the world should conform to their version of right and wrong?
“She demands tolerance of other people while showing absolutely none of her own” that’s pretty much the standard for most people and is the ruling idea on this board.
Holy fuck the hypocrisy of this board. You do realize that 'tard is short for retard which is a slur against mentally handicapped people right? You get that calling him a retard because you dislike him demeans retards right?
I guess it’s okay because it isn’t Big Fag - because slamming the mentally challenged is somehow more acceptable than slamming homosexuals (neither one of them is acceptable.)
How is it that nigger and fag are beating offenses around here but retard (and its variants) gets a pass?
There is a bully culture entrenched here that is made more reprehensible by the inherent hypocrisy. Pretty much everyone on this board would break bones leaping over each other to decry bullying - except when they have a chance to take part in it.
This is asinine. If you have a highly idiosyncratic view of right and wrong, disagreed with strongly by pretty much anyone you come into contact (outside perhaps your own circle of family and friends), it behooves you to recognize that you’re pissing against the wind. I’m not going to tell her she’s wrong for not wanting to shake my hand; I’m also not about to react with tolerance to being called a rapist for offering it.
