I should have expanded on this point. I have never noticed Ramira being particularly belligerent or condescending, and certainly never an “asshole.” In fact, in the linked thread it was her detractor(s) who annoyed with their nitpicks about a single word; and Ramira quickly apologized.
One of this message board’s strengths is that dropouts can “debate” with professors. The professors are usually happy to teach or even learn. But some of the debates can be a test of one’s patience. It is easy to
when one’s opinions are, in fact, superior … but Ramira does a fair job of remaining calm and polite.
To be fair, she does have a bit of a short fuse. That, along with her borderline incomprehensibility, makes her come across as more aggressive than she intends, IMHO.
That said, I like Ramira. I don’t always understand what she’s saying, and what I do understand I often don’t agree with, but her heart is in the right place and she has some actual knowledge. Besides, there are few enough Muslims on this board as it is. We can’t afford to lose her.
As far as Ramira having a short fuse. Well, Ramira has a “short” fuse is in the same way women on this board have a “short” fuse when it comes to idiot men making boob jokes in “Bra” threads or women’s bodies threads.
I.E. Her so called short fuse is completely justified.
I want to say, for the record, that my pitting of Ramira is not in any way related to her ESL, or her being Muslim. She’s erudite and often insightful. I’m not suggesting she needs drubbing off the board. FWIW, I frequently find myself in agreement with her various views. That said, she could benefit from an attitude adjustment with respect to her arrogance and inability to retract an erroneous statement or insensitive remark. Sure, we could all be better at being more humble, or whatever. But this bud’s for Ramira.
For whomever asked what the OP title is in reference to, it’s Fawlty Towers; Basil calls Sybil, “my little nest of vipers”, for her haranguing and acerbic character.
But it’s expected after your performance in the Omnibus Trolls R Us thread.
Maybe you need to wipe the red off your eyes and actually read what people write?
My bold: She’s the opposite… She stands for what she writes. Why do you think she sometimes comes across as she does? And, you know, she actually posses knowledge of what she writes about, something you, among others, have proved time and again you don’t.
I’ll gladly endure a little sharp language for her continued participation.
In an extremely unfortunate coincidence, that phrase recalls an incident from a few years ago wherein a far right wing Israeli politician (Ayelet Shaked) posted the text of a racist essay which celebrated the deaths of Palestinian children, calling them “little snakes.”
I had thought the very phrase “nest of vipers” was used but it was actually “brood” and “snake”.
Still, an unfortunate coincidence in the context! Thank you for the clarification!
I mildly dislike the poster because she apparently posts a mild form of “Americans all have these wrong stereotypes about the ME!” without seeing the irony of this. I grant that she might be occasionally informative, but that’s where the English skills come in, because I’m not willing to wade through the invective and bad grammar to glean the occasional nugget of wisdom (and even then, given the hyperbole that I know she already uses, how am I to know that that too is not hyperbole?)
The pitting of the Ramira is the overdue, but the posts cited are not much of the bad.
I’m always amused at the slurs she uses against the viewpoint, especially “the american ideology” and “the ideology”. She selfishly hordes the trove of the economic data, but she is generous in telling me the she is the economist, and of that, I have the appreciation. I cut her the slack being from a once mighty the mercantilist power, now the economic backwater.
I generally like Ramira, and I think her perspective is very valuable to this board, even if she’s caustic and obnoxious some of the time, and though I often disagree with at least a part of her arguments.
I keep getting you confused with BigT, you wag your finger just like he does. Only BigT doesn’t make unbelievable shit up, like reebeW and color blind piloting.
I’m a US expat living a abroad and have learned the native language where I live, experienced the frustrations, the memorization, and most of all listened to the feedback native speakers gave me when they corrected my errors.
In English we put “the” in front of a proper noun when it is plural (The Bahamas) but not if it includes a posessive noun that ends in ‘s’ (St. Paul’s Cathedral.) We use the before any institution or establishment where part of the name is a noun that describes what kind of institution or establishment it is (The French Republic, The British Broadcasting Corporation), before the names of rivers, canals, oceans and seas, but not lakes. Before the names of newspapers but not magazines. Etc.
When learning an aspect of a new language you usually learn some rules about it like those. They describe the huge majority of cases, and then you have to simply memorize the annoying and inevitable exceptions. This comes with daily use of the language.
This aspect of English, for a French-thinking brain learning English, is among the most trivial to master. The Ramira has been posting here for 15 years and received a whole lot of feedback on this particular point. And this is presumably not her primary English school.
As I posted in my first post to this thread I find the Ramira to be ascerbic and at times annoyingly arrogant but in many cases it is justified or at least understandable in the context of many of the discussions that interest her. I give the pitting only 1 star at best. But on the point of her “the” affectation, it is either an affectation or willful ignorance, or trolling. Take your pick. Mine is affectation.
Anyway, how annoying is the “the” really? She’s usually at least somewhat understandable, right? What some people chose to have a hang up about…:smack:
… but Ramira does a fair job of remaining calm and polite.
And, you know, she actually posses knowledge of what she writes about, something you, among others, have proved time and again you don’t.