The Good Post Gallery

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Nothing makes me prouder, this election cycle, than the fact that when it comes to making voting decisions a decent chunk of whites here in Ohio are thinking more about their class than their "culture" or race. If only that would happen more often. Thinking with their heads.

See, I think this is total junk. Why would we want people to vote based on "class" or "culture?" Wouldn't it be nice if people voted based on, you know, policies?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Mr Lief, there is an inksing huge difference between "contrary opinions" and this kind of bullinks:

It's a good thing this country prioritizes low taxes and the rights of paranoid rednecks over mental healthcare and gun control.

Is there? Most opinions on this site that are contrary to my own seem like bullinks to me, but you don't see me making a whiny thread about, complaining that I'm a persecuted victim, and then running away like a baby.

I'll admit, you're right on this one. Instead, we get to see you deride and call for the figurative crucifixion of anyone who disagrees with you. It's much better, see.

I think Lief's a good guy, but I do get the impression that election season kinda threw him out of whack.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Excuse me... I said ATTEMPTED.

What has that to do with the price of rice?

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Somewhat inevitably it appears that you don't know the first thing about the target of your juvenile ravings. Religion is far too complex a thing (if it is even really a single thing) to be dismissed as merely a form of 'social control'. The same rites and institutions that may be profoundly oppressive to one person may well be profoundly liberating to another. And that's just scratching the surface.

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I don't think that's true, but it is certainly true that I found your particular post to be quite offensive. I believe that I have a right to find offensive what offends me; I think we all do, actually. No one has a right to have their opinions accepted without question, without criticism.

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Leaving aside first the irony and second the idea that 'religion' can be thought of as a single 'institution', it strikes me as a little strange to view (say) a rosary as more evil than (say) Treblinka.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I guess I just like living life dangerously. How many threads are put up per week by someone making sweeping grand unified theory statements as to just how horrible the Pubs are? And curiously, I don't see the obverse much, which obverse of course (with the blue avatar on top and all over the red one), would immediately be labeled (particularly by those red avatars who enjoy as indulging in this sort of thing) as well, you guessed it, trolling!

Carry on. The blue team is used to the insults, and perhaps in a rather masochistic way, rather enjoy the brickbats. But if I have anything to say about it, a blue avatar will never get punished via death points or whatever, for "trolling" in this way. If one does, a lot of other avatars should go down with him would be my case in the cave. Thank you.

Just a beautiful post.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I actually heard the opposite theory, that it accelerated the gay rights movement.  This is based on the idea that the most important weapon in the advance of gay rights has been the increasing visibility of glbt people in every arena of life.

In the 1970's, according to the theory, openly gay people were a phenomenon mainly of a few large cities.  Most Americans knew a "confirmed bachelor" or two women who were "roommates" for 30 years, but they didn't know any "gay" people.  And closeted gay people enjoyed the freedom of not having to deal with any backlash.  Don't ask, don't tell.

AIDS changed everything.  Gay men started getting visible lesions, starting dying, all over the country.  In tons of families.  In tons of workplaces.  And their friends and relatives were forced to face the harsh light of reality for the first time.

For those gay men not infected, they spent their time going to more funerals than most 80-year-olds, while society at large seemed completely indifferent.  Keeping their mouths shut suddenly had less appeal.

According to the theory, it was AIDS that destroyed the "closet", both for those infected and for those who weren't.  And once gay people were everywhere, gay rights became pretty much unstoppable.

Never really thought much about this topic, but that's really a convincing argument.