That was exactly my objection. I think that Scylla Gets It that lots of people are handicapped in ways that aren’t obvious, yet the thread has devolved into the Correctness Committee trying to bash that into his head. That’s not what the OP was about, and it irks me that most of the bashers seem to be doing it simply out of dislike for one particular poster.
Well then would somebody please explain what the fuck the OP was about? Silly me, I see a whiny complaint about an expensive sports car in a handicapped parking spot in the Pit, and I just leap to the allegedly unfounded conclusion that the OP has a beef with disabled people parking expensive cars in handicap spots.
Being that my wife is very visibly handicapped and, we use a placard. No problem when the two of us are somewhere. Problem though: I was hurt rather severely during Desert Storm and therefore have a very difficult time walking any distance. Sure I can stand in one place with no problem but actually walking around kills me. Therefore, I also have a placard. The difference is that there’s nothing visibly wrong with me.
Now then, when I first read the OP, I kind of agreed with minty green as above. After re-reading it though, I see it as this:
The OP has a beef with ANYONE that drives a Viper and the fact that the person got to park in the handicapped spot just twisted his nuts that much more.
Do I agree with what he said? Nope. Does he have the right to say it any time he wants. Yep. Far as I’m concerned, Scylla isn’t the only person on this board that’s ever shown that he has a tendency to be an asshole at times. FWIW, I got my shit jumped BIG TIME when I didn’t want to keep a damn puppy that my wife brought inside one day. And that was in MPSIMS.
Forget about it. Yeah, it hurts some of us. Yeah, it doesn’t mean a damn thing to some of us. BFD. So the guy fucked up and wants to weasel away without apologizing for some crass remarks. You really think a massive pile-on is gonna make him change his mind? Now?
Some of you people live in a fucking dream world…
A good chunk of the human race finds it relaxing and therapeutic to nail people they disagree with to trees.
That’s all that’s going on here. Booooring…
**
I guess I “disagree” with that assessment of what many handicapped people are able to do comfortably. Or even at all.
In fact, I think it shows a complete lack of understanding of what it means to be handicapped.
Maybe owning a Viper doesn’t mean you are The King. Maybe it doesn’t mean you have the world by the balls. Maybe it just means you like fast, sleek cars. And are lucky enough to be able to afford one. Maybe you’d trade it in a second to be able to walk, or run. Or not feel constant pain. Or not be stared at because you are disfigured.
For somebody who has told us more than a few (well-written) tales about his near-perfect body, wife, kid and life … well, I guess I admire the fact that you aren’t afraid of a little karma.
Me? That shit scares me.
I just thought I’d come back in an attempt to lay this to rest.
xploder:
I’m not weaseling at all.
I’m saying those people who’ve chosen to go straight on the warpath don’t deserve any consideration whatsoever. Their behavior is beneath an apology. Even worse, I sense a certain joy in their attacks. The self-righteous pile-on is so fun, isn’t it?
I don’t think they’re attacking for any other reason than for the fun of it, and I don’t want to give them an inch.
Milo:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
This is the old “walk a mile in my shoes,” and I think it’s total bullshit, because I have, if you will recall, walked thatmile.
It gave me no privileged viewpoint whatsoever, no special insights, no lesson or wisdom, that couldn’t have been learned better and easier elsewhere. It just sucked.
I thought you said you were done…?
Who cares what you think?
Might rude, Scylla, might rude.
Tad bit rude, wouldn’t you say?
It occurs to me that nearly the exact same thing happened to me last week.
I saw a black guy driving a brand new Thunderbird and I couldn’t decide whether it pissed me off unreasonably or not. Yes, he was both black and driving a Thunderbird.
I mentioned this to a coworker, and he told me that I was being a bigot.
But I knew I was still right, even though I refused to explain what I was right about or why it was that I was right, so I just called him a professional complainer and returned to my obliviousness.
Then it suddenly dawned on me that if you’re driving a Thunderbird, you can’t possibly be black. It’s a goddamned fact of nature, isn’t it?
I don’t care how dark your skin is, if you’re driving a Thunderbird, you are whiter than Shania Twain. And you’re not entitled to anything else.
Isn’t it enough that you have a Thunderbird? Now you want me to acknowledge that you’re a minority too?
The audacity! The thing that pisses me off is that I’m sure in my gut, the guy with the Thunderbird was probably adopted by white parents. He used their contacts to get into Princeton, and though he’s really white he gets ahead because he has dark skin, and he obviously got a good job because of it since he drives a Thunderbird.
Really pisses me off. You have a Thunderbird. You’re fine. Quit with all the Black History Month shit.
Or am I just acting like a bigot?
But if I am acting like a bigot, don’t tell me about it, because I’ll just ignore you or call you a bunch of professional whiners.
Well, having been around this board for a few years, and also having had an above knee prosthesis for 16 or so years, I feel I can weigh in on this one.
I personally had no prob with the OP. I took it in the satirical bent that it was posted as. However, Scylla, you seem to have lately taken on a tone in posting that irritates me.
It almost seems like you are challenging the powers that be, but even more your board friends, just to see how much you can piss people off. I have been reading your posts for years, and I wonder if you are becoming an asshole.
I couldn’t care less, but it’s a curious thing.
No. It isn’t OK in either context. If you’re going to fight against the former, don’t commit the latter.
When I read the OP, I was amused. It was classic Scylla, jumping to the sort of conclusions that we all harbor in the parts of our minds that don’t concern themselves with reason. When you tried to justify it, though, it really didn’t work. I’m with you in holding exaggerated indignation at the person who can afford a Viper yet still park in the handicapped spots. If they can afford a Viper, they can afford a few good-natured barbs. When you started to show that you considered this a rational conclusion, you really lost me, though. Basically, as far as I can go down that road with you is to say that I would like to think that if I were handicapped, and owned a Viper, I’d be so grateful for the latter that I wouldn’t bother with the extra accomodations that society affords me on account of the former. But that sort of thing really shouldn’t progress beyond the bounds of speculative personal preference.
Also, I notice that you seem to have responded to your harshest critics, yet ignored my earlier post. I would think that your credibility would be enhanced (and while I disagree with you, I don’t think it should be in question, but it seems to be, so maybe you could address it) by responding to the rationally presented criticism, and ignoring the rabid anti-Scylla stuff, rather than the other way around.
I notice that everyone, including Scylla, has ignored Zenith’s earlier point. Namely, what if the person with the Viper already owned the Viper prior to becoming handicapped? Not that people who buy the Viper afterwards are somehow more deserving of your scorn for using the handicapped placard, but… If that guy (or gal) had a work-related injury, got shot in the spine by their insane stalker ex-significant other, fell down a mountain while hiking, or suffered any number of other calamaties - why should they stop driving the Viper? Because they have a Viper, they are somehow not entitled to go get handicapped plates, and must sell their car for something else if they want to use the handicapped spot?
Moreover, as has been pointed out, it’s not always the injured person’s car. Let’s say your brother is in town, and he has a Viper. He wants to take you out to see a new movie that just hit the cineplex. Should he park a mile away from the entrance on a crowded weekend and force you to hobble along in discomfort and/or agony just because he has a Viper? You being in the car with him, accompanying him to this movie is perfectly valid reason for that placard to be there.
I don’t check back with this site frequently enough to make any judgements about you as a person, because I haven’t read enough of your posts over time, so I won’t. You could be a saint, you could be an asshole; I don’t know, and I don’t care. I will say, however, that your post was in exceptionally poor taste, and so are many of your posts made in defense of it.
As a disabled man with a handicapped placard: FUCK YOU, YOU ANAL RETENTIVE, PRETENTIOUS, EGOMANIACAL ASSHOLE!
I am quite sure the woman in the Walmart parking lot asked you what you were because you are a soulless bastard who scorns all those who do not aspire to the level of pretention that you do, and she was wondering how someone like you could walk around and look themselves in the mirror each morning.
Now where’s that middle finger smiley?
The Toyota Echo does NOT come with cruise control, yet Toyota installed one on the Echo my husband and I bought because my husband is disabled and it helps him drive the car. MANY auto companies will modify ANY car they sell to adapt them to the needs of handicapped drivers. Some even have programs where the income level of said person is taken into account when reckoning costs (Mr. Viper, however, probably would have to pay full price for mods). So just because the Viper isn’t offered anyway but six-gear-manual doesn’t mean this person’s Viper isn’t modified.
There is also adaptive hardware to allow one-legged people (who are handicapped) to drive manual transmissions safely.
And, I do know of a woman who is a car racer who is parapalegic - she drives on a regular circuit with non-handicapped drivers in a Ferrari modified to be operated solely with hand controls. You might argue that a rich chick racing Ferrari’s isn’t handicapped, but she wheels instead of walks. She has also mentioned having to practice getting in and out of the car, which is much more difficult for her than for others, but still possible.
So, just because YOU can’t think of how a handicapped person could handle a Viper doesn’t mean it’s an impossible situtation.
See? Exactly! I’m assuming that it is this type of over-reaction to Scylla’s OP that is fueling his stubborn refusal to apologize for what he said. Hastur, and others who have taken this rather extreme slant on the OP, don’t you think you are going just a little overboard?
The OP, as I read it, is not about handicapped people, parking spaces, or fancy cars. It is about being human, and sometimes having unkind, uncharitable, envious, ill-considered, and myopic thoughts!
None of this is reason to call another person “a souless bastard,” etc. (too lazy to search back through the post for the other ugly names) unless you yourself can honestly say that you have harbored only pristine and God-like warm, loving thoughts in your own head ALWAYS.
Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s how I see it.
I won’t pretend to understand how it feels to have a permanant disability; I don’t, and if I am lucky I never will. But don’t you guys think you are over-reacting just a tad? (FWIW, I did spend the better part of 2 years in a cast… and yes it hurt to walk! I’d really hate to have to live with that forever.)
As for Scylla’s refusal to apologize: he has his reasons, I’m sure… I don’t know what they are, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Something that I hope I would kind enough to extend to all of you if you screwed up.
Would I apologize? Probably; but that’s me…
As for Scylla’s refusal to apologize: he has his reasons, I’m sure… I don’t know what they are, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Something that I hope I would be kind enough to extend to all of you if you screwed up.
:smack:
I know it won’t matter to anyone, since Scylla apparently thinks he’s being persecuted by a bunch of Scylla haters, but I didn’t post because I thought Scylla was an irredeemable asshole; I posted because I thought the OP was horseshit. The OP; not the person who typed it.
SINCE then, and as a result of things that Scylla has said, I have started to change my opinion. But not about the OP.
Fair enough, I suppose.