Update y’all
As Brad said before, this isn’t Crooked Timber or the Becker-Posner blog, or another of those wild, outlaw sites where simply anything goes. We have some standards here — and I’m perfectly aware that I sound like an ass, and who threw that spitball? Cripes.
Aright, I don’t know exactly what happened that set Brad off, but we picked up a bunch of traffic and new visitors lately, and there’s suddenly some honest-to-God brawling starting up in the comment sections. We’ll probably be back to the usual thirty-eight visits a day soon, by the usual beloved thirty-eight people who like us for ourselves, and Retardo will probably stop by as well. But until then, I have a little exegesis prepared, and let me just post it on the fridge.
Announcement reads: As half of the custodial staff at SadNo GmbH, I personally enjoy and support off-the-wall name-calling and invective when directed against wingnuts — who are by definition people who walk the earth with meanness in their hearts for others. Not conservatives, but wingnuts.
Brad seems to have a lower threshold for this than I do. He’s also handsomer and superior in other ways. But Brad and I agree in perfect unison about basic civility: The problem that requires a note on the fridge is that comments are showing up like, “I’m going to kick your ass, you asshole — where do you live?”
As it happens, that particular dive into the wastebasket was by a wingnut troll. But I have to delete comments like that without reference to whose they are, or what context they’re in. There’s a fairly obvious line that gets crossed there.
There was a funny comment at Sondra K.’s site about what lily-livered wimps liberals are — and that might be the case some places — but the fact here is that we can be an astounding bunch of thugs when we get stirred up, hitting wingnuts with chairs and furniture until they run screaming from the building.
One thing I think Brad was getting at before is that we also have the unfair advantage of being a lot smarter and funnier than they are (you guys do, in any case — we merely get the lucky shot in now and then), and can burninate right-wing loons without reaching for the blunt weapons. There’s no need to go all ‘bitch’ and ‘white trash’ when there are infinite opportunities for a clever burn. Brad minds this more than I do, but I have an aesthetic dislike for fuck-you talk. It’s just uninspired craftsmanship.
There’ve been a lot of housekeeping-type and self-referential posts in the past couple days (a couple of which I put up and later took down) partly because we’ve been getting traffic from places that wouldn’t ordinarily link to a lefty blog. Mostly, the new visitors just come and go invisibly, but they’re here, and there are sometimes a lot of them — and if some of them are showing up posting weird stuff in comments, chances are that they’ll move on to somewhere else before long. For those that want to stick around, this note on the fridge can be an introductory message.
Which leads to the last detail: I also have to delete things like the Corrie Foundation press release that was posted in several places yesterday. This isn’t a public announcement board, but more of a Fat Albert Junkyard for left-wingers, and thousand-word press releases won’t get read here, but will only fill up comments sections so that nobody can use them. And people will make fun of you. That’s what we do here; we make fun of people.
If anyone has any questions or comments, keep in mind that I’m not Fat Albert around here, but some character like Bucky or Dumb Donald — or, literally, a longtime reader and comment-poster deputized to help keep the place in order until Seb returns, following his latest double-penis operation. If anything goes right, it’s Seb and Brad’s doing. If anything goes wrong, it’s me or possibly Retardo.
I started it. Nyah nyah!
Seriously unfunny.
we can be an astounding bunch of thugs when we get stirred up, hitting wingnuts with chairs and furniture until they run screaming from the buildingYou say that like it’s a bad thing.
Can we still be mean to Seb?
you make a lot of valid points, dumb donald, but you and brad both missed one: just like annoying little pests on the playground, acknowledging their existence just encourages them. ignore them and they’ll go away? didn’t anyone else’s mothers teach them that?
One thing I think Brad was getting at before is that we also have the unfair advantage of being a lot smarter and funnier than they are
Certainly true. Which is also why it doesn’t behoove us to lash out with name-calling: it’s too easy.
This too shall pass. Great thing about intemperate people is that their short fuses burn out very quickly and they soon lose interest. Get back to posting the latest findings from the Ann Coulter Gynecological Survey (you know, I heard they were able to remotely pilot the rover over Mons Veneris, an obstacle long thought to be insurmountable…!!), and the rowdies will wander away, looking for discussions about Hollyweird fiberals, Clinton’s penis, and space-saving ideas for the double-wide.
Mal-
That’s fine, but no way am I linking to She Who Must Not Be Named ever again. The initial amusement is greatly offset by the headaches of being deluged with long, angry e-mails that say, “U DON’T EVEN KNOW ME!!!11!” for five paragraphs.
what lily-livered wimps liberals are
Unlike any conservatives who might complain about being linked to and made fun of.
Let’s see them go through a few years of being told they’re America-hating traitors etc. etc.
I have to say, though, I’m not a fan of calling people “whores” or “skanks” or “sluts.” Let’s leave that to the nasty woman-haters.
Just, let’s not get TOO nice here. One of the great things about S,N! is that we never say crap like “I highly value your opinion, but I must respectfully disagree.”
After all, isn’t this the site that invented the qord “fucktard”?
“I highly value your opinion, but I must respectfully disagree.”
After all, isn’t this the site that invented the qord “fucktard”?
No, I agree. I don’t want to be nice, I just don’t want our threads to be long, pointless discussions about someone’s personal life.
Thats cool.
Okay, I’m having trouble following here. And was there a post that was deleted from last night? Or am I getting confused again?
After all, isn’t this the site that invented the qord “fucktard”?
No, this term was in common usage on the FuckedCompany message boards as early as 2001.
However, I do think that S,N! popularized the term amongst us lefties.
I don’t know what the hell is going on either, I dropped the ‘WT’ bomb, like, two days ago (how many internet-years is that?), then promptly apologized, but it seems to have blown the roof right off the house anyway.
I didn’t get all crazy with all that other stuff, that was someone else.
Still, if CraigC and all the other little kool-aiders are going to be such dicks about it, then I’ll retract my apology and nyah! nyah!, etc. etc.
This little episode also reminds me of why as a general rule its better to tell wingnuts to go take a leap, rather than apologize:
1)They’re not really outraged or hurt at what you say, they just want the victim status; and,
2)They’re just going to try to use your apology against you.
wha? makes good points.
It’s funny that CraigC was bitching about “Oh, so this is the loving, tolerant left” (that old saw) while cursing and being as vitriolic as possible.
wha? makes good points.
It’s funny that CraigC was bitching about “Oh, so this is the loving, tolerant left” (that old saw) while cursing and being as vitriolic as possible.
…and boom goes the dynamite
Wha?-
You make good points, but again, having a conversation that’s just a bunch of nasty name-calling is pointless. I just wanted to put a stop to it, because it was giving me a headache, and the people who post here are normally too funny to waste their time with silly taunts.
Yes, Brad, and you’re right, last night’s thread was pretty ridiculous, and I’m glad I didn’t take part.
I’m starting to wonder if any of this would have happened, though, if my (admittedly wrong) comment had just been ignored. Still, I can definitely understand trying to protect the snark-factor that made the site great in the first place, rather than the ‘fuck-you-no-fuck-you’ venting.
Look at it this way: maybe it’s blog growing-pains. Maybe y’all are the next Atrios. Maybe you owe me a cut of the pie for stirring up all this wonderful traffic-grabbing malevolence!
Yeah, I love their “tolerant loving left” crap, too. It’s like the people who poke a “gentle” dog with a stick several times until it snaps.
Don’t call the dog a hypocrite because it got pissed at your childish baiting . . .
VV- until the stick snaps?
I’m pretty sure she meant the dog, but the analogy works pretty well with the stick snapping, too.
Hey how come Seb gets to have a double-penis operation? I am jealous.
And did they put the smaller one on his arm to make it grow?
The poking-a-dog-with-a-stick analogy is a good one.
Even more dangerous — poking a stick with a dog. Because that dog ain’t gonna stay still.
As for the rest of you, WHERE DO YOU LIVE??!! I’LL KICK YER LIBRUL ASS!!! I HAVE SEX!!! BOW DOWN AND
“Oh, Hi Mom, yeah, just doing my book report. Could you please cut the crust off my sandwich?”
(whines)
But it’s fun to pick on Sondrak the oozing right-wing whackjob.
OK, look people, I’m perfectly comfortable with argument/discussion that doesn’t devolve into name-calling, but when your argument is “You’re a white-trash whore,” you get what you get. That, and that alone was what set me off last night. If you guys want to talk respectfully, with reasoned arguments, I’m all for that.
If you guys want to talk respectfully, with reasoned arguments, I’m all for that.
Hey Craig, you’re like a teacher on Saturday.
[Huh? Why am I like a teacher on Saturday?]
No class!
[cue music and animation: wah-wah-wahhh…]
That, and that alone was what set me off last night.
I thought we were supposed to practice personal responsibility and not blame others for our actions?
This post was seriously unfunny. Hugh Hewitt is right! Conservatives have a “sense” of “humor” and liberals…”don’t”!
Hugs,
K. Grogan
He was so upset last night he broke into Kaye’s rubber cement stash.
OK, then. Bye, y’all. I’ll never darken your door again, if you’ll stay here in your little fever swamp. Deal? Deal.
Oh no! Quick, someone get a boombox, go to CraigC’s house, and start blasting “In Your Eyes.”
Don’t darken the door in the swamp?
So the whole time that was Tom Friedman, incognito.
I’m pretty sure she meant the dog, but the analogy works pretty well with the stick snapping, too.
Posted by wha? at June 10, 2005 05:33 PM
Sorry, yeah, the dog . . . bad English major!
Here in our “Fever swamp”?! As in America’s Worst Mother’s Fever Swamp? Brad, Gavin, Seb, is there something we should know?
Um, Seb is becoming a father just as Meghan Gurdon is expecting a baby. And Amber Pawlik stopped writing in a fit of pique right about when the dual announcements came out.
Beyond that, we are as Sgt. Shultz, and know nussing.
OK, look people, I’m perfectly comfortable with argument/discussion that doesn’t devolve into name-calling, but when your argument is “You’re a white-trash whore,” you get what you get.
This comment lends itself to an interesting regular column for the S,N! folks. Check Sondra’s blog for the “reasoned arguments.” Or, better yet, check for Sondra following her own steadfast rule of not making personal attacks without personally knowing someone.
Having never even seen her blog, I’m willing to bet that a site search of the terms, oh, let’s say “Hillary” or “Clinton” are going to find nothing but reasoned, impersonal, intellectual disagreements.
This comment lends itself to an interesting regular column for the S,N! folks. Check Sondra’s blog for the “reasoned arguments.” Or, better yet, check for Sondra following her own steadfast rule of not making personal attacks without personally knowing someone.
Dobby- I agree. But stooping to that level doesn’t do us much good (and isn’t really all that funny, for that matter).
Like SondraK, I blame Hillary Clinton for any ill-feelings expressed in the comments of this blog. Because, you know, she is a Senator and from New York, so therefore has a lot of pull here…
Wow! This has been the gift that just keeps on giving.
Brad – Since it was the class-mocking thing that stuck in your caw originally, I was going to pen you a note on the very premise of a ‘cotillion’ and its relation to class in the deep south, but as you posted above, there’s really no sense in stooping to thier level, blaming them, etc. (beyond the entertainment value).
This whole thing seems to have run its course, and we’re left now with the final analysis:
Although it’s been more fun than a cotillion of monkeys, did anybody really learn anything new from this?
C’mon – I know you want to say it.
Although it’s been more fun than a cotillion of monkeys, did anybody really learn anything new from this?
I learned that some people are simply ridiculous and should probably be left alone for the good of my own sanity 😉
I learned that Sondra K. can be summoned at any time in all her shrieking all-caps glory, if things get too quiet around here.
But ignoring Amber for Sondra is a grave injustice to Amber. And that’s saying something.
But ignoring Amber for Sondra is a grave injustice to Amber. And that’s saying something.
Have you seen Amber’s latest? She’ll still pissed that you trashed her miracle whip pizza.
Is she still mad about that? She just won’t stop ‘stalking our blog,’ huh?
“I learned that some people are simply ridiculous and should probably be left alone for the good of my own sanity”
BOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Have you seen Amber’s latest? She’ll still pissed that you trashed her miracle whip pizza.
Oh, don’t be so lazy…link! Don’t make me enter the terms “Amber Pawlik” in my search engine. I’ll have to disable the parental control functions for the search to be effective and right now in Ottawa, it’s too frickin’ hot to bother.
Yosef-
Hey, if you wanna deal with Sondra, I’ll send her your e-mail address. I guarantee, by the fifth e-mail you’ll be pulling your hair out 😉
I have to say, though, I’m not a fan of calling people “whores” or “skanks” or “sluts.” Let’s leave that to the nasty woman-haters.
I am a man and that is the most sexist thing I have ever read. the hypocrisy of you liberals is astounding.
Mal-
http://www.amberpawlik.com/Rants.html
OK, look people, I’m perfectly comfortable with argument/discussion that doesn’t devolve into name-calling, but when your argument is “You’re a white-trash whore,” you get what you get.
Except nobody called anyone a “white-trash whore.”
There was plenty of name-calling, but let’s not distort.
I take that back. I hadn’t read the thread below this before responding; I was thinking about the crappy tattoo thing.
I must say, though, it’s a bit creepy how Craig is defending Sondra as one would defend an object or possession.
“We’ll probably be back to the usual thirty-eight visits a day soon, by the usual beloved thirty-eight people who like us for ourselves, and Retardo will probably stop by as well.”
Hey, those throwaway lines are supposed to be aimed in Yosef’s direction!
***
I know everyone’s been chatised, and I’ll happily spend my time in the corner too (well, not *that* corner, Jonah made it sticky), but do I still have Brad’s permission to publicly mention that we dated? Can I still wildly accuse trolls here that they are scat fetishists? That’s really my ace in the uh, hole, and I’d hate to have it taken from me.
I know everyone’s been chatised, and I’ll happily spend my time in the corner too (well, not *that* corner, Jonah made it sticky), but do I still have Brad’s permission to publicly mention that we dated?
RETARDO- I already told people you were the best lay ever, so sure.
“Yosef-
Hey, if you wanna deal with Sondra, I’ll send her your e-mail address. I guarantee, by the fifth e-mail you’ll be pulling your hair out ;-)”
I certainly don’t want that, but y’all were just getting on a roll with pissing off the entire blogosphere, and I’d hate to see that end.
BTW, did y’all get my email earlier?
"I learned that Sondra K. can be summoned at any time in all her shrieking
all-caps glory, if things get too quiet around here. "
So…she’s kinda like Bloody Mary? If we say her name 3 times while looking
into our monitors, she’ll appear?
Hmmm. SondraK, SondraK….Son—er…mm,
I don’t think so. It’s giving me the heebiejeebies
Brad: “I learned that some people are simply ridiculous and should probably be left alone for the good of my own sanity ;-)”
Gavin: “I learned that Sondra K. can be summoned at any time in all her shrieking all-caps glory, if things get too quiet around here.”
Geez, guys, all I was looking for was a big SADLY,………oh nevermind. When is Seb getting back?
The above posted by me, of course.
Oh, and CraigC, if you’re lurking, try my email again. It’ll work this time. I promise (teeheehee, snigger, snigger).
How dare you mention the fact that Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter is a lesbian-loving lesbian?!
The nerve!
I certainly don’t want that…
But Yosef, you could totally, totally, totally impress her with your hottest young conservative writer on the internets stylings!
Remember, they’ve got all the hot babes!
Don’t darken the door in the swamp?
So the whole time that was Tom Friedman, incognito.
Nice. It’s shots like this that bring me back here.
Damn. It’s like a light goes on in the window of your gold mine.
“bad English major”
I didn’t realize there was such a major as Bad English… Is it a study of the band, or is it something like what you would find in Alabama, i.e. “Why can’t you speak Amurcan, like everyone else in this here country?!?!??)
I started out a Bad English major, but then my sense of self changed and I switched to Bad Religion.
This could be a sequel to Bad Lieutenant, starring SondraK as the hot biker chick/Southern lady/Jewish-American Princess(all due to MPD brought on by a bad acid trip), Amber Pawlik as the eviiiiiiiiil caterer, and Pastor Swank as the High Priest of Cthulhu.
A QUINN MARTIN PRODUCTION!
Late to the game, I know, but “fucktard” was in common usage on alt.tasteless as far back as 1994.