I got flamed in this thread by what I consider hyper-reactive overtly-defensive posting. Oh, wait - is it ok to use the word “flamed”??? :rolleyes:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=137354
What do you all think?
I was going to post on the irony of you pitting someone else because they got too offensive.
But I read the OT and elf6c did invite you to the pit, so it’s fair game as far as I’m concerned.
Yes, elf6c, majorly overreacted. Queer is queer. Queer doesn’t mean dyke or faggot or…or…gay homosexual. It means unusual. It means out of the ordinary. It means strange.
Maybe if some people weren’t so niggardly with their word usage, we wouldn’t have this problem.
Hehehe…Enderw24, that was great!
I’m with you two, elf6c is definitely overreacting…but hey, that’s part of what makes these boards so fun (or makes threads get off track and explode into a bunch of gradeschool namecalling spawned by people who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about, I can’t remember which…)
Hehehe…Enderw24, that was great!
I’m with you two, elf6c is definitely overreacting…but hey, that’s part of what makes these boards so fun (or makes threads get off track and explode into a bunch of gradeschool namecalling spawned by people who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about, I can’t remember which…)
I’m still trying to figure out why elf6c referred to unwashed’s retort as a “right wing driveby.”
Bizarre.
Just remember … if nobody knows you here, all they have to go by is the words you use.
Shame shame shame on elf6c’s comment about how you should go back to lurking. That is a blantant disregard for what makes us a community. You can de-lurk any time you want here!
I think in the context, it seems he meant strange, or out of the ordinary.
When I was little, I used to say things were queer in that way-meaning strange, or unusual. And my mother always told me, “I don’t like that word, don’t say it.” She never told me WHY, and I thought it was probably just some stupid slang word that wasn’t proper, like ain’t or whatever.
Then when I was older, it was like, “Ah, so THAT’S why she got upset!”
I still like using it for strange or weird. Not BAD strange or weird. Just, unusual, unique.
I can see, however, the confusion involved in decrying a home decorating show as “queer”, just as I would if it were a thread about a Barbara Streisand album. Some discretion could have defused this situation.
But…Barbara Streisand IS queer.
BTW, has anyone actually linked the OT to this thread? unwashed brain, I’m looking in your direction. I know if I was being pitted it would be kinda nice to have someone mention that fact to me.
Yes, I followed the High Road of Pit Etiquette and linked this thread in the original thread.
Thanks for your support, Dopers!
FWIW, the OP posted a clarification, which left me more confused than before.
Finally my very own Pitting! 
A lame one, but hey it’s a start. :rolleyes:
Ok here is the original post: (“King Friday”)
As King Friday is a new poster, the meaning of his use of queer is unclear- does he mean “unusual” or does he mean the more homophobic use?
As you can see by the thread, I was not the only one interested in this point. So I post:
In retrospect- a bit spicy, but given “King Friday”'s follow-up, accurate.
While we were waiting for an answer- “unwashed brain” desides a driveby is in order.
Excuse me? If I wanted thoughts on political correctness and the “word usage police” I would go to Fox News and post in Great Debates. I just wanted clarification before ripping into this guy. Annoyed at the driveby- I respond.
Probably too spicy in retrospect. But rather then hijack the thread or continue the driveby I issued the invitation for the proper place for the beef.
The clarification from “King Friday”
Oy.
Unwashed Brain- I am hardly crackling over a fire. The derogotory use of that term in that manner in a Cafe Society thread was worth asking about. I hardly appriciate your useless little dig. You added nothing there and nothing here. If you think people can just say anything they want without getting called on it- you haven’t been paying much attention at all.
Hardly- you do an insulting drive-by and get a response- then try to act surprised? Spare me :rolleyes: .
To the comments here-
friedo ask yourself this-- who bothers to rant about “political correctness” and uses insults like “word usage police”. Here is a hint- it ain’t Ralph Nader or the Utne Reader.
** iampunha **- I agree. At least I asked first- many wouldn’t have even done that.
After the clarification- it seems the intent is clearly not “strange” rather then derogitory. I am curious Guinastasia- do you read it the same way?
That is the whole thing. I have to step out and pick up my official Word Usage Police uniform and badge for this afternoon’s patrol. The main office has put out an APB on “irregardless” and double negatives.
sigh
so here we are having a gay old time hanging out by the old dyke, when the old word usage/offence taking out of context thing happens again!
let’s get things straight people, and look at the context of things before coming out swinging wildly at people…
ok?
sigh
so here we are having a gay old time hanging out by the old dyke, when the old word usage/offence taking out of context thing happens again!
let’s get things straight people, and look at the context of things before coming out swinging wildly at people…
ok?
yeah I know, the ‘old dyke’ bit was particularly tenuous!
On the SDMB, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt as far as political correctness goes. Now, if he would have gone on about fags and homos and such, he would have clarified the “queer” usage. But I don’t think it was suspicious in and of itself. My $.02.
My point was that you should have given King Friday the benefit of the doubt. You pretty much assumed the worst of him. Trading Spaces is an odd little show with some odd cast members, some of whom are probably homosexual. I don’t see anything wrong with using the word “queer” in its traditional sense within earshot of homosexuals. It may not be the best choice of words, but that’s only because there’s a hypersensitivity surrounding the word’s secondary implications. Learn to think more objectively.
As KF said in his clarification…relax.
It seems utterly clear to me that he meant “queer=odd”, not “queer=homosexual.” The thought process that leads you to infer that “phony enthusiasm” equals “gay behavior” is, again, what I call hyper-reactive and overtly defensive.
Also, being fed up with political correctness, euphemisms, and the idea that everyone’s self-esteem is a fragile little dishsoap bubble that will pop at the slightest inference of an insult is hardly a trait tied to one’s political slant.
Relax, elf6c, nobody’s attacking homosexuals here or in the original thread.
Maybe if people weren’t so stingy with their word usage? Miserly with their word usage? Mahatma Gandhi on a bicycle, Ender. That doesn’t make any sense at all.
Maybe if people didn’t make smirking, snorting little jabs at people with words (“hee hee! I said niggardly!”), instead focusing on using language to communicate, we wouldn’t have this problem.
Daniel
Oh – and I agree that KF’s usage of “queer” looked totally innocuous to me; even if Elf wanted clarification, he shoulda sought it in a much less confrontational tone.
Daniel
Umm… DanielWithrow, it makes perfect sense. If people used more words to explain themselves (ie, explaining more fully) we wouldn’t have had this thread.
Or was I just whooshed entirely?