# What were you THINKING? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532 "2023-10-13T19:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 175
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2024, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3777 "2024-12-11T00:37:42Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I’m not prepared to sugar-coat that as ignorance, that’s just giving Whiteness a pass. > > “Just accept” the story Whiteness tells through you and LSL about the Angry Brown Man? Fuck that noise! I ask this not as a gotcha or any other tactic. I have tried figuring out exactly what you are saying here. I can’t. Just what exactly are you saying here? ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2024, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3778 "2024-12-11T00:43:08Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Just what exactly are you saying here? …it’s in reference to the alleged “certain reputation here”, which I’m imagining can only be the “angry black man” trope. Because in context, nothing else fits. ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2024, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3779 "2024-12-11T00:47:15Z")
Im sure glad you closed it. I found even reading the title distasteful and embarrassing. If it is possible to cornfield it I think that would be even better. It was a shameful topic and title. I understand the op’s anger and frustration, and even perhaps the blindness to how racist the framing of the rant was. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2024, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3780 "2024-12-11T00:49:01Z")
No, I understand that some people see **MrDibble** as an ‘angry black man’ and he is objecting to that. I don’t understand what he means by “Whiteness” or what he is saying about it. ---
**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 11, 2024, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3781 "2024-12-11T00:54:07Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > A “me too” post adds little. No. Wrong. The fight against Whiteness needs every “me too” it can get, and loudly. And I ‘attacked’ you because you put my fucking name in your mouth first, motherfucker. My first reply to you was just info, and you started with the shit. Don’t want none, don’t start none. ---
**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 11, 2024, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3782 "2024-12-11T00:54:53Z")
Here you go… > **[Whiteness studies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteness_studies)** > > Whiteness studies is the study of the structures that produce white privilege, the examination of what whiteness is when analyzed as a race, a culture, and a source of systemic racism, and the exploration of other social phenomena generated by the societal compositions, perceptions and group behaviors of white people. It is an interdisciplinary arena of inquiry that has developed beginning in the United States from white trash studies and critical race studies, particularly since the lat Pioneers... Think of it as a catch-all term for the combo of White privilege, White Power, White normalization, systemic racism, etc. that is the daily experience of PoCs. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2024, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3783 "2024-12-11T01:08:46Z")
Huh. I had honestly never heard of Whiteness or white studies before. It is fascnating stuff. Also, with that information your I understand your previous post. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3784 "2024-12-16T19:36:46Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > GailForce’s own fucking racist words I don’t suppose the quotation marks around “my” fucking racist words mean very much to you. As in, I was suggesting that the person I was addressing might have expressed his/her thoughts about Black people by using cliched racist dialect? Too much to expect sophisticated thought such as that snaking its way through your brainstem, I suppose. You are a certified idiot. ---
**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 17, 2024, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3785 "2024-12-17T05:31:19Z")
Took you a whole week to come up with that pathetic cover? You’re the one putting the dialect in the mouth of your interlocutor, you’re the one who owns it. Ask that other racist @Damuri_Ajashi how it worked for him putting the word ‘cracker’ in the mouth of iiandyiiii. Oh wait, you can’t, he was banned. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3786 "2024-12-17T05:40:32Z")
> [@GailForce](#): > > You are a certified idiot. And yet it’s you who is coming off as a total dumbass. And a racist. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3787 "2024-12-18T02:09:59Z")
In Madison, we’re still trying to find our footing since we know a teacher at the school (and a friend is best friends with one of the students who was shot\*). And then I open the thread on the shooting to find: > [@A school shooting just happened in Madison, Wisconsin \[Dec 16, 2024\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-school-shooting-just-happened-in-madison-wisconsin-dec-16-2024/1011721/23): > > Actually the student was trans… I’m glad a couple of posters immediately refuted that with (easily-found) facts. But it still bothers me that there was no apology. Or any response. For all I know **PastTense** is still telling that to anyone who’ll listen. . \*eta: Last night, the best friend was not expected to pull through. Today he’s out of surgery and in critical condition. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3788 "2024-12-18T03:26:02Z")
And in the _Is Trans fear driven by a fear of being deceived?_ thread where it was even less on topic. ---
**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 18, 2024, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3789 "2024-12-18T05:12:30Z")
Posting the same transphobic lie in multiple threads _sans_ apology means they should be in the troll thread, IMO, not this one. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3790 "2024-12-18T05:28:54Z")
digs, I hope you can in some way feel my reaching out to you, about your spoken trauma with the Abundant Life shootings. Your experience is heart wrenching for sure. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3791 "2024-12-18T06:31:38Z")
Thanks, Eric. And everyone here, I assume. I didn’t realize that I had a gut feeling of “Well, we’re safer in a smaller town here in Baja Canada…” Being optimistic and oblivious is hard when it lets you down. (Meanwhile, our Spanish-speaking church is planning what to do in the face of deportations… see, it’s been tough to face the fact that danger is everywhere now). ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3792 "2024-12-29T16:41:45Z")
28 posts were merged into an existing topic: [Smapti is Pitted](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1860) With with permission of **TroutMan** who brought it to this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3793 "2025-01-18T22:31:54Z")
Wendell Wagner’s super-powered intellect is one of the top 10 brightest bulbs of the Dope. His contributions are, as a rule, well-informed and well-thought-out deep analyses. His careful use of language is unsurpassed. He’s practically the last person I’d expect to see in here. Anyway, in the current Neil Gaiman thread, he goes > [@Neil Gaiman accused of being serial sexual abuser](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neil-gaiman-accused-of-being-serial-sexual-abuser/1003781/372): > > Do you truly want to decrease these sorts of crimes? Then insist that law enforcement does a much better job of investigating and prosecuting crimes on an equal basis for both rich and poor people. If you “insist that law enforcement does a better job” you’re forcefully saying that it really _does_ do its job better and everything is peachy keen. If you mean that it needs improvement, say “insist that law enforcement **do** a better job.” The subjunctive mood. It means that what you’re talking about isn’t really happening. Very useful to avoid ambiguity and misreading. Some want to get rid of the English subjunctive. I say that would be a very bad mistake. Edited to add that Wendell’s argument about how crooks should be prosecuted instead of fined is all well and good, except that in the context of that thread it’s completely misdirected, and everybody else is puzzled that Wendell is taking that strange tack. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3794 "2025-01-18T23:44:57Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > If you mean that it needs improvement, say “insist that law enforcement **do** a better job.” The subjunctive mood. It means that what you’re talking about isn’t really happening. Very useful to avoid ambiguity and misreading. This is what I meant. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3795 "2025-01-19T01:23:59Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > This is what I meant. Yes, your intent was clear to me. I understood precisely what you meant immediately. And saw no ambiguity in your phrasing. Though the ‘does’ was slightly awkward. I just thought it was a variant though. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2025, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/3796 "2025-01-19T07:09:01Z")
It reads as a group noun variant to me. “The team does” vs “the team do”. > **[English plurals](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_plurals#Singulars_with_collective_meaning_treated_as_plural)** > > English plurals include the plural forms of English nouns and English determiners. This article discusses the variety of ways in which English plurals are formed from the corresponding singular forms, as well as various issues concerning the usage of singulars and plurals in English. For plurals of pronouns, see English personal pronouns. > Phonological transcriptions provided in this article are for Received Pronunciation and General American. For more information, see English phonology. > Althoug... I find the subjunctive tense in English unuseful, mostly because our tense forms are barely functional even to distinguish singular vs plural and present vs past. We really need another helper like “will” or “have”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=174) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=176)