Point taken. However, (1) this info I had was a couple of years old, and (2) that really doesn’t count, does it?
Sorry to hijack - but vegetarians can order stuff from a lot of places, they just have to ask for special considerations.
for instance, my SIL would always go to McD’s and get a cheeseburger with no burger. Granted, that would be very pricey at applebees, but there are ways to make their food edible for vegetarians. Vegans, probably not.
I know people in real life who not only use ‘‘meh,’’ but also ‘‘oh noes!’’, ‘‘lollerskates’’ and ‘‘zomg!’’
One of those people may or may not be me.
My last comment on teh food, but - we invited a couple out to eat at Chili’s (where everything is meatmeatmeat) - and they turned out to be, unbeknownst to us, vegetarians. We said, let’s go someplace else, but they refused, said that Chili’s was fine. It took about 10 minutes, but they managed to order a completely vegetarian meal off the menu with the help of a very accommodating and helpful waitress. She said she had served a party of vegans recently, with no problems or complaints.
And yeah, I live in a mid-sized city in upstate NY, but there are a whole lot of different restaurants here besides the chains. Thai, Indian, Japanese, sushi, Middle Eastern, Greek…
Er, that sounds…really awful. A cheeseburger with just cheese and filling and bread? I mean, I guess it’s a cheese sandwich but it seems really unsatisfying.
I worked at McDonald’s in high school, and people would order this all the damn time. Yes, it’s just cheese on a toasted bun, with ketchup and mustard and onions and pickles. Gross.
Although, on the flip side, we also got a lady that would regularly order a cheeseburger with no bun. She just wanted the meat patties, so she could feed them to her dog. Takes all kinds.
I worked at McDonald’s (in Illinois) back in high school, too, and it was common for people (who generally appeared to be from India) to order “vegetarian Big Macs.” A veggie Big Mac consisted of: “Special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” 
She should get together with one of the vegetarian people. They could just order one burger and split the cost.
Wait. How is that much different than a grilled cheese sandwich?
It’s funny, as far as I know it’s not a gender-specific insult, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard it directed at a woman.
Hmm. I guess that’s true. But I don’t know, those little namby pamby McDonald’s buns are so…fulfilling.
I also never heard before the SDMB the view that black people are responsible for white people being racist by acting badly/committing crime/etc. I mean granted these views are out there and I’m in a pretty liberal environment out in NYC so you pretty much never hear them. And I was aware they existed–I guess I just assumed, naively, that racists knew they were racists and no one would actually say something like, “I’m not racist but didn’t the word n-word go through your head when Kanye was being an asshole at the VMAs.” Just admitting openly with no shame how bigoted they are.
Yeah, to be honest, in real life, I haven’t heard that particular insult used much at all. The ‘obsenities’ we use in the ghetto tend to be a bit different. (although cocksucker was used in a Biggie Smalls song that I love!). In the ghetto, ‘suck my dick’ is more likely to be heard. Again, I honestly never associated that with being a gay slur.
My point is, I didn’t think it had anything to do with being gay. I mean ‘motherfucker’ is also a pretty bad insult that isn’t often used on women, but that doesn’t make it a gay slur.
But enough with the hijack. My real problem in this thread is that I didn’t know what ‘slur’ really meant.
I’m reading a fascinating book right now about racism, White-Washing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society. It’s basically a Bible for anyone looking for empirical evidence that racism in this country (individual and institutional) is still alive and kicking. Seriously, like one study cited per paragraph–the writers are economists, so the book is mostly focused on institutional racism, but the authors do address individual attitudes toward blacks.
Anyway, one interesting and surprising argument is that individual racism is still a lot more common than most would believe. Following the civil rights movement, people have increasingly responded positively to statements such as ‘‘Nobody should be discriminated against based on race or gender’’ or ‘‘Black people should live wherever they want to.’’ But what may be key to these outcomes is the nature of the question being asked. Usually the polls on racist attitudes frame questions in a way that appeals to American values of equality and fairness.
But, for example, in 1992 a Detroit-area survey,
Additionally,
Also telling: In one study, a group of white college undergraduates were asked to determine how much compensation they would need in order to be transformed into a black person for the rest of their lives. The average required compensation was 50 million dollars–one million dollars for every year they would be black.
Growing up, it was in the majority of the houses I visited, either my friends or friends of the family. It’s very big in people who are employed in the health care sector - nurses, doctors, health care lab researchers, etc. It’s also big in Indian and Southeast Asian households - I think as a matter of respect, but in second and thrid Indian-American families, it’s for cleanliness. I sit on my floor sometimes, so I don’t want nastiness tramped through the house. It also keeps the carpets in better shape.
It IS a fact, even if it is heavily disputed, even refuted, by him and his family, handlers, etc. Twelve years ago when I was diagnosed with vitiligo, my Cleveland Clinic head of Dermatology department physician explained to me all the physical aspects, and delved into the emotional aspects of vitiligo as well. It is in large part an emotionally disfiguring disease for many, and I was (years later) fortunate enough to have the UV light treatments work on 90% of my face. Anyways, he explained to me that many people are ashamed that they have vitiligo, and cover it up with makeup, clothing, etc, and that a good example was MJ, that the disease often starts on your hands and moves onward. It’s unclear if it’s genetic or stress-induced. For me, it was stress induced, and for him, it undoubtedly was as well.
I was offered a few different treatment options, including the light therapy, steroid creams, doing nothing, and - wait for it - skin bleaching. It was a lot more common in the mid 90’s than today, and there no doubt that that’s what he had done, in addition to multiple rhinoplasties.
As for food, it would greatly depend who was paying. Who here is rejecting a middle of the road free meal? If I’m paying, I’m not going to consider Red Lobster or Applebees, but if someone else is? I’m there. The only place I wouldn’t go unless I was on the road with no other options and famished would be Burger King or McDonalds. I ate their a year ago after not for a few years and it made me pretty ill from all the fat and processing.
Let me clarify (at least my understanding of an argument that occurred 2-4 years ago):
“Cocksucker” or “suck my dick” are not slurs against gays, they are slurs when aimed at a homophobic straight guy. However, the argument I heard here is that using it as a slur is demeaning to male homosexuals because there’s nothing wrong with sucking dick.
The thing is you can’t just look at that and say “racism!” It’s economic as well. In general places with high percentages of black residents have high percentages of crime/poverty.
I have never, ever, ever heard anyone outside this board defend the idea of pedophilia. The closest I’ve seen is the assertion that child molesters who have served their time and are under supervision should not be lynched. To have more than one person assert that there may be circumstances where it is OK to have sex with children…damn.
I’ve certainly noticed a higher concentration of the Ultra Politically Correct crowd on the boards than offline.
Also, I’ve never had Foreigners accuse me (and other locals) of being wrong about the customs in our own country anywhere except the SDMB.
Do you mean criticizing the customs in of themselves? “Ewww! Vegemite is replusive and anyone who eats it is committing a cultural crime on the level of footbinding!”
Or, saying you yourself don’t understand the customs in your own country? “What do you mean Australians like to surf! I was in the Outback for three weeks and I never saw a single surfer, let alone a surf shop!”
The first is pretty common, the second I agree is a bit over the top. Unless it were a legitimate outsider’s viewpoint type thing, like experiencing greater casual sexism in Australia during a vacation then they typically did back home in Canada or Mozambique or whatever.
The second one. There was one thread a while back where the Australian contingent here said “There’s no tipping in Australia, it’s generally not done or expected” and several American posters started jumping around saying “These websites (aimed at Tourists) say that tipping is expected in Australia, therefore you’re ignorant of your own country’s customs and you’re tightasses who hate the waitstaff too!” No amount of explanation or “Look, we live here, we know how it works, alright?” could dissuade them from the view that Australians are expected to tip and we’d all (ie, nearly every active Antipodean poster on the boards) had missed some sort of memo about it.
The first one would be a fair comment from an outsider, especially since Vegemite is foul. 