Ooops, sorry. Forget which forum I was in.
Ahahahahahaha
Link please.
A certain person is going to be all over this, claiming that I’m some kind of obsessive, but I posted this just recently as an example of Rand Rover trolling and admitting to it. I reported him and he wasn’t even warned. Then he started bragging all over this thread this week about his trolling ways, eventually getting warned for it. But the guy should have been on his second yellow card a long time ago, and IMHO in the old days this week’s thread would have been a straight red.
Oooh can I join? Rand Rover was trolling me hard in this thread yesterday.
Then there was this thread calling for wagers on Bush’s re-election–wagers which he admittedly never intended to take–the “I need hugz” thread which he posted after mocking people who “needed affection” in the Pit, constant use of insults out of the Pit despite repeated warnings…the guy is having us on, and laughing at us behind our backs. Listen, everyone know I don’t like RR, but what do we have anti-trolling rules for if they’re not going to be used for someone who trolls as blatantly as he does? I’ve been here ten years, and AFAIK he’s the only person I’ve reported more than once.
And I mentioned people using racism and related stuff as “race-baiting” trolling. I don’t need to tell you, of course, that RR loves to engage in that too.
He’s on his third yellow card (two for trolling, one for insults), actually. If he continues to troll, he will find himself kicked out.
Arguing with you and insulting you in the Pit is not the same as trolling.
In any case, let’s not turn this into a discussion of a particular poster, and instead stick to the discussion of whether racism itself is jerkdom. If you want to complain about the treatment of Rand Rover, please take it to a different thread.
I can handle insults and arguing, but the guy was:
First loudly complaining that I never give citations. So when I dug up two posts in the thread where I have gave lengthy citations; he starts complaining that they are useless and I should expound even more on them. Troll
I absolutely can’t see how discussing differences among population clusters (or “races” or “ethnic groups”) is being a jerk.
I’m a light-skinned male of western European heritage. I can’t rule out the possibility that the average person of Jewish ancestry has an innately superior talent for taking American IQ tests than the average person of non-Jewish European ancestry.
Is there some information that rules out that possibility? Well, since I get most of my new scientific insight from this board, I really hope people aren’t forbidden from discussing the issue here.
Snark: Could we make it a rule that anyone who campaigns to preemptively ban honest discussion of certain issues is a jerk?
His posts may have been insulting and perhaps inaccurate, but that’s not trolling. Your accusations of trolling in that thread, and here, were not warranted.
In any case, as I said, let’s drop discussion of a particular poster and get back to the actual subject of the thread.
So just to clarify, if I were to say:
Western Europeans have historically been the nastiest dumbest fuckers in the world. Fucking morons responded to a rat spread plague by killing most of the rat controlling cats. Then they went almost a thousand years thinking it’s poor hygiene to bathe, while clustered in flea filled cities flowing down the street with their own shit. Brutal too. Those nasty fuckers had a habit of spreading their diseases around. Then forcing their deluded cult on the disease ravaged natives in brutal savage acts of ethnic cleansing and cultural suppression. Further Western Europeans in recent history have shown themselves to continue to be evil pieces of garbage. Most of the genocidal death camps of WWII were ran by Western Europeans. Why are their genes so defective as to produce such historically evil, stupid, and brutal pieces of shit?
That wouldn’t be being a jerk?
No - because you’re being factual (pretty much). What *could *be seen as pushing it close to jerky territory is the emotive impact: throwing in fucking, fuckers and shit. (And shit.)
As I said upstream, my ancestry is mostly western European; I don’t think I’d be much bothered by comments like the ones in your letter, You make some decent points.
That said:
–What’s your evidence that it’s genetic?
–Haven’t the Chinese, Japanese and Russians got records that are similar? Along with a lot of other populations…
–I hope you’ll judge me as an individual rather than as part of a group.
If he’d have added “And you have bad dental habits!”, that would have been jerkish, but as you say N to the S, the rest is pretty bang on in its assessment.
I’m content with seeing frequent pittings, and otherwise generally ignoring the racists. I’ve managed to not respond to them directly in the latest Africa threads, for instance. Even if it’s hard, I think it’s better than plain stamping out their line of inquiry. Not to claim to be special, but if I can stand having them around, anyone should be able to.
I guess it depends on your definition. Most of us would say, in real life, that a racist is a jerk. However, the term “jerk” on the Straight Dope Message Boards has to do with behavior towards others, not with political opinions about non-board members.
Since you are being critical about a large group (“Western Europeans”) that is not exclusively members/posters on this board, your comments would be permitted here. Similarly, you could rant about Democrats, Labour, or Norwegians. On the other hand, you could NOT rant (outside the Pit) about “people who answered YES to the poll in this thread” because that would be insulting other posters.
There is a question of whether your hypothetical post would be “hate speech,” since it is directed against an ethnic group. However, that’s different from “jerk.”
The bottom line: the term “being a jerk” is our catch-all phrase, to avoid trying to write up a six volume set of rules, defining misbehavior on our boards. “Being a jerk” is our euphemism for “misbehaving;” and expressing minority (or weird or just plain wrong) opinions is not misbehaving.
And rightly so. That is what almost all people want. However if you start a thread called “africans have the dumb”, or “asian can brain good” then you are judging those folks as a group.
I remember one jerk in GD who used to write hate filled screeds about how the poor are stupid and worthless and should be made to die in the streets. As someone who grew up poor I found those threads very offensive, and felt like they were full of vicious personal attacks, even though it was directed at group I was from, not me personally.
Thanks for your clarification. I agree that they shouldn’t be censored if of genuine belief or devils advocate. However also I understand why people might find it tiring when certain people choose to keep hijacking threads with demonstratively wrong and offensive opinions.