# TubaDiva, a word (or hundreds) if you please **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 29, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006 "2007-03-29T17:33:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/41 "2007-03-29T20:26:14Z")
Way I see it, it’s a question of accuracy: anyone who prays bothers God, but hardly any atheists stab hands. In seriousness, asking for an ‘injustice’ to be meted to your adversary, just because one has been meted to you, seems not to be in keeping with the principles to which you appear normally to aspire. Also, I think you do need to get some perspective about this messageboard. And that’s said by someone with an embarrassingly high post count who is posting on a PDA from a hotel restaurant… ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/42 "2007-03-29T20:27:00Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] One hijack. I grew in in Fairbanks Alaska. I’ve known plenty of Eskimos. I never once heard an Eskimo object to being called an Eskimo, and frequently heard Eskimos refer to themselves as Eskimos, although the term-of-art mostly used was “Native”, which could refer to either Indians or Eskimos or Aleuts. Admittedly, I haven’t lived in Alaska for 10 years, so perhaps things have changed in that time. But reports of the offensiveness of the word “Eskimo” are greatly exaggerated. [/QUOTE] In Canada, the term is NOT used. In fact, some of my best friends are Inuit. Inuvialuit and Inuqtitut speakers, from across the Arctic. I have asked those I know well enough about the issue have told me that it’s similar to using the word ‘nigger’. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/43 "2007-03-29T20:31:49Z")
Search for fundie: 750(+) results godbotherer: 3 results handstabber/hand-stabber: 12/17 In case that’s useful for this discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/44 "2007-03-29T20:33:56Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] Is there really an issue with using the word Fundie or is Liberal making this up? [/QUOTE] I have always had a problem with it. I don’t like it when others are insulted due to their religious beliefs. It seems I am in the minority around here. Therefore I stay out of religious threads. This is from someone who goes to church only for funerals and weddings. Reading this thread I had a real :smack: moment. When reading the other thread I was wondering why there was a problem with calling someone “godbrother”. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/45 "2007-03-29T20:38:08Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] Not quite. The term has been around for much, much longer than Terry Pratchett. [/QUOTE] Huh. I didn’t know that, I hadn’t come across the term before reading it in one of PTerry’s books. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/46 "2007-03-29T20:39:55Z")
It might be worth pointing out for those who haven’t had the dubious pleasure of reading that thread that **MrDibble** apologized after **Anaamika** ’s post. Since he admonished himself before any Mods got around to admonishing him, I don’t see the point of a warning, unless we’re toting up warning points or something. I’m sure I remember other cases where someone said something out of line, apologized fairly quickly, and got no warnings. BTW, I googled “hand-stabber” and still don’t have a clue about what it means or how it is an insult - just that it seems to be a British term. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/47 "2007-03-29T20:43:14Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] BTW, I googled “hand-stabber” and still don’t have a clue about what it means or how it is an insult - just that it seems to be a British term. [/QUOTE] The way it is told, some prominent atheist\* was told “God Bless You” after a sneeze and was so incensed he/she took a pen and stabbed the sayer in the hand. \*It’s been told about Madeline Murray O’hare. I couldn’t find anything on Snopes after a very brief look. The thing about the FCC & her wasn’t true, so I’m not sure I believe this one, either. Lots of nasty things are said about prominent atheists. Edited to Add: So the insult part is implying someone instantly reacts violently and meanly to any God comment, no matter how trivial. Many atheists go through a phase of being handstabbers…sometimes it’s almost a natural reaction, considering how far down our throats religion has been pushed. Most of us grow out of it though. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/48 "2007-03-29T21:10:11Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana] Search for fundie: 750(+) results godbotherer: 3 results handstabber/hand-stabber: 12/17 In case that’s useful for this discussion. [/QUOTE] Search for: Eskimo handstabber: 0 results Hottentot godbotherer: 0 results Quiddity glomfuster: 8 results ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/49 "2007-03-29T21:10:16Z")
[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth] In Canada, the term is NOT used. In fact, some of my best friends are Inuit. Inuvialuit and Inuqtitut speakers, from across the Arctic. I have asked those I know well enough about the issue have told me that it’s similar to using the word ‘nigger’. [/QUOTE] Usage varies in different parts of the arctic: [Alaska Native Language Center University of Alaska Fairbanks](http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/inuitoreskimo.html) > [@](#): > > Most Alaskans continue to accept the name “Eskimo,” particularly because “Inuit” refers only to the Inupiat of northern Alaska, the Inuit of Canada, and the Kalaallit of Greenland, and is not a word in the Yupik languages of Alaska and Siberia. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/50 "2007-03-29T21:18:06Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] BTW, I googled “hand-stabber” and still don’t have a clue about what it means or how it is an insult - just that it seems to be a British term. [/QUOTE] God-botherer has been doing the rounds in the UK for years and years - I suspect Mr Pratchett got it from the vernacular, not the other way round. Hand-stabber, however, I learned from **Lib** on the SDMB, so I suspect the term, and its connection to a prominent US atheist, is American. ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/51 "2007-03-29T21:19:49Z")
[QUOTE=Lynn Bodoni] For those who are a little bemused by the term “godbotherer”, it’s from one of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books. One character, a wizard, asks a priest how the godbothering business is going. The wizard is certain that there ARE gods (a declaration of atheism, on Discworld, is generally followed by a lightning bolt or other divine retribution), and it happens that he’s just teasing the priest, who’s his brother. It’s exactly the sort of term that I’d expect from someone who uses the ID of MrDibble. which is the name of a recurring minor character in the Discworld series. [/QUOTE] I’ve never read Pratchett (tried the first Discworld book, couldn’t get through it). I’d never heard the term before. I found it borderline insulting to **Liberal** , and I’m an atheist. Are you saying that everyone else should have known that **MrDibble** was using that term in a joking way because of his user name? Or in some way that it was OK that he did so? I must have missed the paragraph in the user agreement saying we had to be familiar with Pratchett’s works… Yes, I know **MrDibble** apologized, but I just am not sure I get **Lynn** ’s point here. … ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/52 "2007-03-29T21:29:06Z")
[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth] In Canada, the term is NOT used. In fact, some of my best friends are Inuit. Inuvialuit and Inuqtitut speakers, from across the Arctic. I have asked those I know well enough about the issue have told me that it’s similar to using the word ‘nigger’. [/QUOTE] Sounds like the Alaskans haven’t been notified yet that they’re supposed to be offended. Give it time—sometimes it takes outrage a while to replicate through the whole system. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/53 "2007-03-29T21:47:30Z")
Lynn Well, at this point, I’ve done everything a member is supposed to do. I reported the post, followed up by e-mail, and based upon the advice from that, I opened this thread. I mean no hostility toward TubaDiva, and if people were to begin piling on her, I would defend her. There was no deliberate act by anyone, other than MrDibble, in any of this. Tuba didn’t mean to let a rule slide. As someone reasonably proposed above, it is entirely possible that the entire turbulence from that thread just basically threw things out of joint moderatorially. That would also explain why the thread was never moved to the Pit. Closing it was probably the best option. Quid is also right. If I hadn’t expected anything, I wouldn’t have been disappointed. And those who point out (as I did) that I invest too much here, that’s all true too. And since I have no complaint against Tuba, but merely hoped to reconcile, and realizing that that probably won’t happen, at least in this venue — then this is all pretty pointless. Once again, I appreciate the opportunity to vent here. That helped. The miscommunications I had with Tuba were in all likelihood as much my fault as hers. I just don’t communicate my thoughts very well, and that’s a fact I have to live with even as I try to improve. So as far as I’m concerned, this thread can be closed. Tuba, for whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry for ticking you off and for generally being a hassle for you. Like you, I meant well. But… well, as you always say to me, “All the best, my dear.” ---
**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:** [March 29, 2007, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/54 "2007-03-29T22:13:47Z")
So,it’s to be a **Lib** fest after all? Why am I not surprised? Look, I apologised for using the term - like I said there, I should never have let **Lib** ’s threadshitting get to me. But shit in my thread he did, and I’m not sorry I called him on it, just for the way I did it. His attempted hijack got on my wick, I admit it. And I _got_ (lightly) smacked down for it, and the thread was closed. Lib’s real beef now, as far as I can see, is that I wasn’t smacked down as hard as he’d like. Sucks to be **Lib** , doesn’t it. I used the word _godbothere_r both as a Pratchett reference and because that’s what **Lib** was doing, dragging his massive _fundie_ chip into a thread where it wasn’t really relevant. Being a theistic ass in a thread that wasn’t about religion or anything like it. Sure, you can make the case that it was tangentially related, if you squint and held your head _just so_, but c’mon, anyone who knows **Lib** ’s MO knows that wasn’t the reason. The Mods didn’t agree with him that\* fundie\* was hate speech, and here he is, much later, still flogging that dead horse. Basically preaching to the Mods. In my thread. See no reason to just bend over and take that **Lib** omy without at least the lube of some counter-vitriol. And here I thought we were _such pals_ after he thanked me in his cat thread. Aah well, fair weather and all that… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/55 "2007-03-29T22:14:21Z")
[QUOTE=Vinyl Turnip] Sounds like the Alaskans haven’t been notified yet that they’re supposed to be offended. Give it time—sometimes it takes outrage a while to replicate through the whole system. [/QUOTE] Don’t count on it. Amusingly, I once mistakenly referred to an Alaskan associate of mine as ‘Inuit’ and he was profoundly insulted. I’d previously heard that ‘Eskimo’ is supposedly pejorative, and that ‘Inuit’ is the preferred term. Unfortunately, my associate is actually Inupiaq, not Inuit, so my attempt at inoffensiveness backfired spectacularly. Of course, it didn’t help matters that he hates “those Inuit bastards” with a passion. He believes that the Canadian Inuit politically undermine the legitimacy of other native groups by promoting the notion that the term ‘Eskimo’ should be replaced by ‘Inuit.’ ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/56 "2007-03-29T22:24:47Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Well, at this point, I’ve done everything a member is supposed to do. I reported the post, followed up by e-mail, and based upon the advice from that, I opened this thread. I mean no hostility toward TubaDiva, and if people were to begin piling on her, I would defend her. There was no deliberate act by anyone, other than MrDibble, in any of this. [/QUOTE] Nice troll, dude. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/57 "2007-03-29T22:44:56Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Despite your and my enmity toward each other, you should care about this too. There’s no reason the same thing won’t bite your ass one day. The only reason you shouldn’t be concerned is if the rule was unenforced specifically because the insult was directed at me as opposed to being directed against anyone else. If that is the case, then you’re fine. But surely, that is not the case. [/QUOTE] Dude, my entire point is that this DOES happen to me, all the time. As you have obviously noted. “Life’s not fair,” in other words. You have agreed, by posting here, to abide by the mods’ judgment. As you and I both know from personal experience, that judgment does NOT always go the way we wish it would. Suck it up. I have. We have no other choice. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2007, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/58 "2007-03-30T00:16:36Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] So,it’s to be a **Lib** fest after all? Why am I not surprised? [snip] I used the word _godbothere_r both as a Pratchett reference and because that’s what **Lib** was doing, dragging his massive _fundie_ chip into a thread where it wasn’t really relevant. Being a theistic ass in a thread that wasn’t about religion or anything like it. Sure, you can make the case that it was tangentially related, if you squint and held your head _just so_, but c’mon, anyone who knows **Lib** ’s MO knows that wasn’t the reason. The Mods didn’t agree with him that\* fundie\* was hate speech, and here he is, much later, still flogging that dead horse. Basically preaching to the Mods. In my thread. See no reason to just bend over and take that **Lib** omy without at least the lube of some counter-vitriol. And here I thought we were _such pals_ after he thanked me in his cat thread. Aah well, fair weather and all that… :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] Oh horseshit! I’ll grant you that **Lib** used to be one of the most obnoxious posters on these boards, but since his return, I haven’t seen anything to indicate that he is resuming his old ways. In fact, in this thread alone, he’s turned the other cheek so many times he’s practically whirling. When you say stuff like this, what you’re doing is saying to the world “Don’t bother trying to change, because people have already decided you’re an asshole and there’s no point in doing anything different now.” I think that’s a lousy message to send. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2007, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/59 "2007-03-30T00:25:11Z")
That indignant defense would work so much better if any of what you quoted wasn’t true, **Oy!**. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006/60 "2007-03-30T00:34:22Z")
[QUOTE=Sal Ammoniac] Search for: Eskimo handstabber: 0 results Hottentot godbotherer: 0 results Quiddity glomfuster: 8 results [/QUOTE] Dunno where you searched, but when I did externally, I found a bunch of no-lifers who apparently review SDMB. Just when you think you’ve seen everything. :rolleyes: I just want to say that I can’t keep up with all the verboten words. To me ‘fundie’ is shorthand for the radical ultra-right, ultra-conservative christians who are funamentalists in that they believe the literal Bible. ‘Fundie’ is shorter than typing ‘fundamentalist’. It’s not an insult, it’s a group. Sure, people might hurl it as an insult. You can misuse any word you want as an insult if you really work at it. Let’s not go overboard in finding new ways to be offended by each other. We’ve seen far too many times that as soon as you change to a new word, that becomes ‘offensive’ after a while, and so it goes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tubadiva-a-word-or-hundreds-if-you-please/398006.md?page=4)