# The handicapped need a space for their Dodge Vipers too, you know? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 3, 2002, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853 "2002-09-03T19:27:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Sylkyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sylkyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylkyn)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/81 "2002-09-04T02:27:10Z")
Whether you (meaning **Scylla** ) are envious, jumping to conclusions (regarding the Viper owner) or not, all I can see after reading these later posts is you’re just not yourself today. I don’t think we’re getting everything here, but that’s beside the point. If there ever was one. I think **Scylla** is having a bad day and this seemed the best excuse he could find, at the moment. Not jumping on you at all, hon. Sometimes shit just sticks in your craw. Whether it’s making any sense or not. Be pissed all you want. Last I checked, we’re all human. ---
**Author:** ![snermy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@snermy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snermy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/82 "2002-09-04T02:49:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*[snip] > Now several hours later, I have it figured out. > > By definition, if you are driving a Dodge Viper you are not handicapped. > > I state that as a categorical truth. > > I don’t care how messed up you are, if you are driving a Dodge Viper then you’re not entitled to anything else. > > Isn’t it enough that you have a Viper? Now you want the good parking spaces, too? > > The audacity! The thing that really pisses me off is that I’m just sure in my gut, that the guy with the Viper is some jerk who pretended to get whiplash and won a big lawsuit. He used the money to buy a Viper, and though there’s nothing wrong with him he collects disability, and even gets the handicapped space. > > Really pisses me off. You have a Viper. You’re fine. Park like everybody else. > > Or am I losing it? [/snip] \*\* Jeez **Scylla** , that is the second half of your OP. Nothing added or changed. we’re responding to your final question. Your response it that we’re “reading you wrong”, that you have such respect for the Viper driver that you cannot understand why he would need the handicapped space. Am I understanding you correctly? Because you seem to post an _awful lot of misleading OP’s_. That isn’t particularly entertaining, it’s annoying. If you’re consistently failing to communicate what you’re intending to communicate, you can either reconsider how you choose to express yourself or you can wait a while then jump back in with an “explanation” and the implication that everyone else here is just extremely touchy. You seem to chose the second option a lot. I quoted you above because I really don’t see any other way to read that, except that you feel someone driving a hot car cannot be disabled enough to be assisted by the handicapped parking space (which is, by definition, FOR THEM, and not for you no matter what you or they drive, so quit coveting it). In my previous post I attempted to point out how someone disabled has to _make choices_ about what they’ll expend their energy on. And if this guy’s choice is the viper, and not strolling an extra 200 feet across the parking lot, a) it’s none of your business, and b) shows you have no freaking idea what life is like when you make those choices every day if you’re going to get through your day. I think you’ve been watching too many movies where the badass hero takes 50 shots, is unfazed, and staggers on the save the day. In real life, you take a couple shots, and you’re usually dead, no matter how much you care, or how bad-ass you are. Or what car you drive. Doesn’t make the trip across the parking lot any easier. Maybe he has to ration out his energy so he can play with his little daughter when he gets home. That’s more likely than your stupid assumption that owning a Viper means he’s just trying to beat the shit out of himself every day (yeah, I’m assuming it’s a guy. ) It’s _your_ fantasy about “Super Viper Hero Man” and the fact that I read your little scenario above and don’t go to the same weird headspace you’re in about it says at least as much about your assumptions as it does about my reading comprehension. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/83 "2002-09-04T02:51:01Z")
So, a Viper automatically announces to the world that one is the King of the World, etc. and it is perfectly fine to assume that that was the owner’s purpose in choosing that car? Meanwhile, it is entirely inappropriate to make similar judgements about what SUVs signify and why people buy them? I dunno, seems a bit inconsistent. I’d suggest applying the several valid points you made about SUV-bashers and their assumptions (leaving aside the whole debate on the actual safety and environmental impact of SUVs) to the way you think about Vipers. And it might be useful for some others to ponder the reverse question of why **Scylla** is so bad to stereotype Viper drivers while they feel justified in stereotyping SUV drivers (though I don’t recall who, if anyone in this thread may fall into that category). ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/84 "2002-09-04T02:57:06Z")
OK Scylla, you’re just the soul of humanity celebrating that somebody with a disability has a Viper. Try and claim that you are a poor misunderstood person all you like but as Silky Threat said, sometimes shit sticks in your craw. This would be one of those times for me. ---
**Author:** ![Tiburon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e36b37/32.png) [@Tiburon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiburon)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/85 "2002-09-04T02:59:30Z")
Scylla, I was really, really tempted to say some nasty shit to you but I just don’t think that’s the right thing to do. Plus, you seem to be getting enough of it from all other directions. Instead, I left it short and sweet. You think all these people are wrong? That somehow your post made perfect sense and the intent behind it was clear? Well, it wasn’t clear enough for the majority of these people. Look, I think your OP was stupid. I mean, it’s just stupid and ignorant. Do I think YOU are necessarily those things? No - we all do some stupid shit and that doesn’t define us for life. So I took care to comment on your post, not you. I took into account the other times that I have enjoyed your storytelling and insight. Your sarcastic reply disregards what I think many people have expressed - disappointment and horror at your post. There’s really no need to be sarcastic, okay? And there’s no reason for the contempt. Tibs. “Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one’s own despised and unwanted feelings.” ---
**Author:** ![l1I235](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@l1I235](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/l1I235)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/86 "2002-09-04T03:01:10Z")
Ug, I hate it when I come in late! **Scylla** , bleedin’ get over yourself. My mother has an auto-immune disease and is on oxygen, therfore cannot walk very far. She _needs_ the handicap space. back in '92, she bought a brand new red camaro convertible. The parking spot police such as yourself gave her a hard time for it. (back then she wasn’t on oxygen.) You have to go through a doctor to get one of those things. Some “rich jerk” doesn’t just get one for a fender bender. Park valet my freind, if it bothers you that much. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/87 "2002-09-04T03:01:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Muffin \* > \*\*Ok, who grabbed Scylla’s userid and password? Come on, 'fess up, who is posting using his name? \*\* I had the same thought. I’m starting to be concerned that somebody has kidnapped the original **Scylla** – the wise, funny one who regularly offered perceptive missives about his wife and child, despite some problems perceiving overweight people as human beings – and replaced him with an evil doppleganger who thinks it’s funny to prop up a quadriplegic, put a sign on him describing him as something other than what he is, and piss on him. Har de har. **Scylla** , you’ve had your good moments and your bad moments, but the longer you go without a flat, unadorned apology, the more likely it becomes that this will be your worst ever. ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/88 "2002-09-04T03:10:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > **But again, my misstep now seems to be a license to take potshots at me without any responsibility. I’ve fucked up and been offensive and now anybody can just forget about anything else that I am, and just focus on this, and use it as an excuse to say or do whatever they want towards me like I was anybody’s bitch (which I guess I am.)** Oh, for **God’s sake**. People disagree vociferously with your OP and subsequent posts in which you either fail to express yourself clearly (I doubt it) or you express an opinion that they (we) find disdainful. Don’t act like you’ve never seen the Pit in action before, and don’t make me bust out that tired cliché about needin’ the wood. You still have the hearts of the people, you’ll post something next week that will be astoundingly funny or profound or sad or all three, and this will be forgotten by almost everyone. So chill. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > **The second, is of course, a proud badass. Putting myself in the proud badasses shoes for a moment, I figure that if he can drive a Viper, and get from the handicap spot to the front door, he’ll be damned if he can’t make it from any other spot as well. I imagine that he’s proving something by driving that Viper, and that same thing he’s trying to prove doesn’t let him use the spot no matter what. So, that leaves me with the faker.** This has got to be one of the most presumptuous, out-of-touch-with-reality-full-on-INSANE things I have ever read here. You stand there in the bloom of health and think that you can divine the feelings and motivations of a disabled person, and if they fail to adhere to your little scenario you assume they must be faking. Other people are not characterizations out of your own head, you moron! You must realize at some level how stupid a leap that is, and I doubt you would let anyone else get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/89 "2002-09-04T03:16:30Z")
Silky Threat: Nope not a bad day, and I still feel like me. I just envied the sonofabitch his parking space, and car, and figured since it was a Viper he could take it. Snermy: Well not to hyperanalyze my own posts or anything since I must have written poorly to be so misconstrued, but I put that “or am I losing it” in there to show that I was aware of the falseness of my assumptions. Nevertheless, I still felt them. I felt certain that the owner must have had an inkling of what effect his choice would have on some people and found it an odd choice. Tiburon: Yeah, well, maybe your right about the attitude of my reply to you, but I read it as condescending. My lack of humanity? Gimme a break with the hyperbole, please and I won’t be so flip in return. Deal? Primaflora: I see. I of course am all terrible things. I just want to be clear about you. Do you admit that you falsely attributed that stance to me? Cervaise: No. I’m not giving an insincere apology to get the heat off, so we can just forget about that. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/90 "2002-09-04T03:23:02Z")
I don’t want to join in on the dogpile. I will say that words were put in Scylla’s mouth, as it were. In the beginning, I really thought Scylla’s dry sense of humor just struck a nerver and some people took it the wrong way. Hey, shit happens. I can dig. That being said, Scylla, your whole proud badass/inconsiderate faker post came across as, well, as the writings of a raving lunatic. What the fuck are you on today, man? Regarding the hole you’re in? In the words of Chief Wiggum, "…dig _up_, stupid\*. Juanita ‘It’s a Simpsons reference, not meant to be an insult’ Tech ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/91 "2002-09-04T03:28:14Z")
(My original post was hampster food, so the following is the gist of it…) I’m not going to condemn **Scylla** for this. I think of it kinda like a home-run hitter that stepped into the box, called his shot, let two strikes go by, and then looked at the third strike…and then turned and bawled out the umpire. I think the batter will be fine after a shower. ---
**Author:** ![Tiburon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e36b37/32.png) [@Tiburon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiburon)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/92 "2002-09-04T03:29:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Tiburon: > > Yeah, well, maybe your right about the attitude of my reply to you, but I read it as condescending. My lack of humanity? Gimme a break with the hyperbole, please and I won’t be so flip in return. Deal? I can live with this. You got a deal, Scylla. Tibs. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/93 "2002-09-04T03:30:12Z")
Me, Scylla? I’m someone who deals with disability on a daily basis in the three people I share my life with. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone and anyone petty enough to rant about a person with a handicap who also has a cool car is by my definition a wanker. Go back and read your OP. Go and read it where Snermy has quoted the whole ugly thing and then tell me you are not operating from a position of envy, jealousy and judgement. It’s not funny, not even remotely amusing ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/94 "2002-09-04T03:36:52Z")
Myrnalene: > [@](#): > > This has got to be one of the most presumptuous, out-of-touch-with-reality-full-on-INSANE things I have ever read here. You stand there in the bloom of health and think that you can divine the feelings and motivations of a disabled person, and if they fail to adhere to your little scenario you assume they must be faking. Other people are not characterizations out of your own head, you moron! ::sigh:: I’m getting tired of defending myself. What I wrote may have sucked, but I wrote it. But, what you’ve said is taking my quote out of context. I said that’s what I imagined, I didn’t say that’s what it was. The whole issue here was seeing a Viper in a handicapped spot with handicapped tags, and being somewhat aware that what I felt wasn’t necessarily correct, but feeling it nonethelesss. It happens a lot. You see this thing and that thing together, and you concoct or assume they mean this other thing. Often times you do this even when you know it’s absurd to do so (or I do anyway, I shouldn’t really speak for anyone else.) I am not such a fine person that I look at a Viper in a handicapped spot in a pure “good for you” sort of way. I feel more like the “Rotten lucky sonuvabitch” feeling. Come to think of it, I feel the same way about a Viper in any parking spot. So, if I covet the Viper generally and begrudge it to all (since I don’t and won’t ever have one,) wouldn’t it be worse if I didn’t begrudge the handicapped guy his Viper? And isn’t the Viper with a license to park anywhere cooler than one without regular parking abilities? The only thing that would beat that would be diplomatic plates. I do envy it. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it, but I did and it’s true. * * * Anyway how does one become qualified or unqualified to put themselves in a handicapped persons shoes and imagine it? ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/95 "2002-09-04T03:37:37Z")
Hrm. Good trainwreck. High steam, giving no quarter, steely-eyed casey-jonesing. I think my immediate disconnect is, if I see a driverless Viper, I don’t think “badass,” I think, “well-funded mid-life crisis.” Coupling that image with disability doesn’t arouse envy, it arouses compassion dangerously close to pity. (The prejudices people attach to objects are interesting critters.) Disconnect the second for me is, I don’t much see how envy of a disabled person is any more deserving of raging contempt than envy of a…not disabled (is-abled?) person. They’re both people, after all–and when they’re both totally unknown people, they have equal probability distributions ranging the human gamut from monster to saint–and envy’s just envy. Not an ugly emotion in and of itself, but more sort of silly. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/96 "2002-09-04T03:49:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Primaflora \* > \*\*Me, Scylla? I’m someone who deals with disability on a daily basis in the three people I share my life with. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone and anyone petty enough to rant about a person with a handicap who also has a cool car is by my definition a wanker. > > Go back and read your OP. Go and read it where Snermy has quoted the whole ugly thing and then tell me you are not operating from a position of envy, jealousy and judgement. > > It’s not funny, not even remotely amusing \*\* Yeah yeah yeah. I get that. I’m really bad. I suck and all that, How dare I be jealous… all that stuff. Got it. Comprendo. Got it the first time you said it. I’ll even concede it. I’m a bad person. In fact I’m often a bad person doing vile and base things. That’s me. Only sometimes on rare occasions am I good. My nature is inherently bad. Conceded. My question though was whether you falsely attributed an argument and a stance to me that I in no way made. I am saying that you did. You keep dodging, and pretending that you didn’t and refuse to address the issue. Welcome to the cesspool, babes! ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/97 "2002-09-04T03:51:23Z")
You don’t need have to have a wheelchair to be disabled or get one of those special plates. A friend of mine has AIDS, and “gets” to have handicap plates for his car. ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/98 "2002-09-04T03:53:25Z")
> [@](#): > > You don’t need have to have a wheelchair to be disabled or get one of those special plates. A friend of mine has AIDS, and “gets” to have handicap plates for his car. Wow, what a lucky son-of-a-bitch. Sign me up for THAT deal! Woo! Some people get ALL the breaks. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/99 "2002-09-04T03:54:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*Anyway how does one become qualified or unqualified to put themselves in a handicapped persons shoes and imagine it? \*\* Exactly. If only you could have realized it at 2:26 PM CST. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853/100 "2002-09-04T03:58:52Z")
So answer the question. How does one? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-handicapped-need-a-space-for-their-dodge-vipers-too-you-know/126853.md?page=6)