# Starving Artist - we remember you **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 3, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204 "2014-12-03T04:53:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/161 "2014-12-04T17:13:58Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Incidentally, earlier you mentioned that you expected that sometimes I thought you were a jerk. You were mistaken. > > Regards, > Shodan Do you mean he was mistaken that you thought he was a jerk, or that “sometimes” isn’t the right degree of occurrence? Should the word be replaced by “never” or “always”? As for **Starving Artist** , he fills the [Smug Snake](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SmugSnake) role well for this board. He enjoys provoking **mhendo** , but doesn’t like to stick around, so he slithers off. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/162 "2014-12-04T17:16:09Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Address me in a reasonable and considerate tone and the odds are overwhelming that I’ll respond to you in the very same way. But come on to me like an aggressive, belligerent asshole and you’ll get that in return too. I can vouch for this part, at least. **SA** is a basically nice person. I’ve disagreed with him vociferously in the past and not been attacked because I did not frame my disagreement in the form of a personal attack. The problem is that when he goes into ‘‘aggressive, belligerent asshole’’ mode he reveals some rather distressing underlying assumptions and ideologies that many (including me) find morally problematic. So then he gets more hate. And retaliates with more controversial ideas, etc. It’s a vicious cycle that is more entertaining than genuinely upsetting. There are some people on this board who hold similarly morally problematic views that are filled with hate, and they scare me. **SA** is not a hateful person. Nor do I think he has ever said anything that suggests he is a rapist or a pedophile. Only one person in our healthy collection of rape threads said anything that would warrant such a charge, and that is **crucible** , because he described a hypothetical scenario that was obviously and unambiguously rape, and then defended it. **SA** has demonstrated a lack of empathy and/or understanding about sex crimes but he has never demonstrated, as far as I’ve read, a failure to identify what a sex crime is. I think he does hold attitudes that will make it more likely for those crimes to go unpunished, and that is unfortunate, but not anywhere in the same ballpark as being willing to commit said crimes. As an archetype, **SA** is actually a pretty good representation of a certain kind of conservative thinking. If he didn’t exist, there would be nobody to debate. The paper towel tube thing is hilarious, though. I was trying to explain the reference to my husband last night and I couldn’t even get through it because I was laughing so hard. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/163 "2014-12-04T18:28:29Z")
You’re a comically generous person, Spice Weasel. Bam. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/164 "2014-12-04T18:33:41Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > **SA** is a basically nice person. No racist is a “basically nice person”. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/165 "2014-12-04T18:44:51Z")
I’m over six feet tall, and once I was going to have sex with a girl that was a hair under five feet tall. She took off her clothes and turned around putting her hands on the wall, and I just left, because I knew from SA’s groundbreaking research that it would be impossible. Thanks SA for saving me the frustration and fumbling. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/166 "2014-12-04T18:49:01Z")
Originally Posted by **iiandyiiii** : One of my favorite (as in, not sure whether to laugh or feel immense pity) posts from SA is this one, in which he expounds on naked hugs in the shower between men and boys, and how they happen all over the world and are probably mostly innocent. **Ivorytower Denizen:** [Newt]mostly[/Newt] **Denizen** , that made not just my day, but my week. We’ll have to see about longer…I love you for that. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/167 "2014-12-04T18:54:20Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > Originally Posted by **iiandyiiii** : > One of my favorite (as in, not sure whether to laugh or feel immense pity) posts from SA is this one, in which he expounds on naked hugs in the shower between men and boys, and how they happen all over the world and are probably mostly innocent. > **Ivorytower Denizen:** > > [Newt]mostly[/Newt] > **Denizen** , that made not just my day, but my week. We’ll have to see about longer…I love you for that. And I thought no one noticed. I feel so wonderfully appreciated right now. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/168 "2014-12-04T19:05:42Z")
I’m chuckling unexpectedly under my breath, here at work. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/169 "2014-12-04T19:06:50Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > I’m chuckling unexpectedly under my breath, here at work. Me, too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/170 "2014-12-04T19:13:14Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > It really isn’t a difficult or complex notion to understand and I’m admittedly at a loss to understand what’s so delusional about it. The delusion is thinking that everybody else is in the wrong. Yes, there are rare individuals that are right in going against the grain, just as there are rare geniuses like Einstein; but the chance of being one of them is worse than the chance of winning the lottery. Nevertheless, you’re so certain of your win that you’re already buying a new house, having barely filled out the ticket. In short, a reasonable person, met with dissent this unanimous, would sooner or later conclude that maybe it’s not everyone else, it’s them; and typically, they’d be right about it. But that’s not a thought you seem capable of entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/171 "2014-12-04T19:27:19Z")
Can somebody link/explain the paper towel tube thing plz? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/172 "2014-12-04T19:41:24Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Can somebody link/explain the paper towel tube thing plz? You need at least three years of university-level engineering classes to tackle THAT enigma. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/173 "2014-12-04T19:50:20Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Can somebody link/explain the paper towel tube thing plz? IIRC it was predicated on the idea that when Paterno or whoever espied Sandusky in the showers with boys, he was standing straight up. So SA, has this great DIY experiment where you use the tube from a paper towel tube as a simulated child’s rectum, hold it at an angle and height that simulates where it would be on an actual child and then try to fuck it while standing straight up. Very Sherlock Holmes meets rape apologia. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/174 "2014-12-04T19:52:10Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > The delusion is thinking that everybody else is in the wrong. Yes, there are rare individuals that are right in going against the grain, just as there are rare geniuses like Einstein; but the chance of being one of them is worse than the chance of winning the lottery. Nevertheless, you’re so certain of your win that you’re already buying a new house, having barely filled out the ticket. > > In short, a reasonable person, met with dissent this unanimous, would sooner or later conclude that maybe it’s not everyone else, it’s them; and typically, they’d be right about it. But that’s not a thought you seem capable of entertaining. Leaving aside the issue of whether SA is right or wrong in this specific instance, your logic is flawed here. You might have a point if this MB represented the entire universe - or even was a representative sample of it. But it doesn’t and is not, so you’re don’t. [During my brief sojourn on the Stormfront message board (I was banned my first afternoon :)) everyone there was united in thinking I was wrong. Wasn’t fazed.] ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/175 "2014-12-04T20:08:18Z")
**Starving Artist** is his own worst enemy. It’s not like there isn’t sometimes a grain of truth to some of what he writes. There is. But what truth there may be is couched in such a deliriously and hilariously deluded view of history and the world that it comes out in the context of statements that, if not completely outrageous, are at least seriously eyebrow raising, even among like-minded thinkers. (Caveat: I’m not a SA like-minded thinker, but, more often than I’d like, I know where he’s coming from.) I will also say this: SA is not a troll. Unlike one or two other conservative posters on the SDMB I could name, it seems clear to me that he’s not merely trying to post outrageous stuff to stir up the liberals, like a snot-nosed ten-year old heaving rocks at a hornet’s nest, but rather his lunatic statements are really coming from a place of sincere belief. Belief in the midst of blind partisanship, delusions about the past, and sundry personality problems, of course. But belief nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/176 "2014-12-04T20:11:35Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > You’re a comically generous person, Spice Weasel. I get that a lot. I’m not sure it’s a good thing. [QUOTE=Fotheringay-Phipps] [During my brief sojourn on the Stormfront message board (I was banned my first afternoon ) everyone there was united in thinking I was wrong. Wasn’t fazed.] [/QUOTE] Oh, man. I’d love to hear about that sometime. [QUOTE=Mr. Dibble] No racist is a “basically nice person”. [/QUOTE] Hmm. I think **SA** is more racist against liberals than black people, but I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/177 "2014-12-04T20:12:27Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > So SA, has this great DIY experiment where you use the tube from a paper towel tube as a simulated child’s rectum, Part of my problem with **Starkers** lies in my belief that he didn’t just happen to think up his little 'speriment. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/178 "2014-12-04T20:14:22Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Hmm. I think **SA** is more racist against liberals than black people, but I could be wrong. The word you want here is “prejudiced,” not “racist.” ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/179 "2014-12-04T20:22:25Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > The word you want here is “prejudiced,” not “racist.” Yes, it was kind of a joke, because his hatred of liberals rises beyond prejudice against individuals into complex theoretical ramblings and revisionist history. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204/180 "2014-12-04T20:23:38Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Yes, it was kind of a joke, because his hatred of liberals rises beyond prejudice against individuals into complex theoretical ramblings and revisionist history. It sure does. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starving-artist-we-remember-you/706204.md?page=10)