Let's talk about Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, and how unbelievably fucked up this all is

do you not think that deeming ppl who fall foul of yr moral code 'subhuman' is mb dubious & unhelpful ?

No, I don't think it's especially dubious to call people 'subhuman' when they engage in hateful actions towards other people because they are different than them. What exactly is the 'helpful' way to approach people like that? For the record, I think most people are capable of redemption, but they want to want to redeem themselves. To the extent that people choose to behave like pieces of shit, though, I reserve the right to call them out for behaving like pieces of shit. I'm really not sure what point you're trying to make.

Wanna point out, again (since we're veering away from the point of this thread), that I'm not talking specifically about the Trayvon Martin case.

well lumping bronyism with the KKK does feel a bit insulting all around

I don't think it's especially dubious to call people 'subhuman' when they engage in hateful actions towards other people

more accurate to call them 'human' imho, but ok

that graffiti, christ. i have a gut feeling that before this finishes playing out, something is going to burn.

Call them reptilian. That's the part of the brain that's active.

Dear some people itt: bending over backwards to defend the essential humanity of virulent racists is maybe a little nagl.

essentially, these people are, I don't know, dogs or something

it's good to know how much you hate racists, dwc, i'm sure we're all edified by your moral indignation. i'm sorry that pointing out the fact that racists are humans upsets you but it's kind of a factual statement, if that makes you feel bad about being a human well *shrugs*

Consider, if you will, that I'm using 'subhuman' as a figure of speech. In addition, it's possible that I may not actually be asserting that they're literal pieces of shit.

(Also, I like dogs, so that doesn't work.)

i think elmo's point upthread is that "to be human" means "to have some prejudices"

how bout subdogs

xp

i think elmo's point is more that we don't get to pretend that we don't know being horrible is eminently human.

what's subdog?

could really go for a subdog right now

Cats

horseshoe has it

a subdog piled with some red hots

5nowdog5

when people call things like this "subhuman", they are not always trying to mark it out as a behavioral aberration that no normal person would do; sometimes they are trying to say that people should always strive and aspire to be better than that

but you know, it's really much more important that we all spend time bickering amongst each other about the proper way to dislike racism and to express said disapproval

The ironic thing is that virulent racists in this day and age are really in essence the ultimate, uncontested "other."

uh

Huh?

i think elmo's point is more that we don't get to pretend that we don't know being horrible is eminently human.

Wait...who's pretending this? Let me just go ahead and clarify my position, for those who are hard of reading:

I acknowledge homo sapiens as a species whose individual members are capable of doing horrible things and perpetuating horrible beliefs. I also acknowledge the existence of free will, which means that most homo sapiens have the capacity to choose whether or not to be horrible. I, myself, occasionally exercise an apparently super-rare and noteworthy aspect of free will wherein I both harshly judge other homo sapiens for behaving horribly and utilize idiomatic expressions in doing so. I also sometimes punctuate my initial instance of doing so with an "IMHO", which stands for "in my humble opinion", which means that it's not a factual statement which people who can't process metaphor should take as a cosmic absolute asserting the existence of literal subhumans.

Also, for the sake of clarification, I'm not saying that your grandmother's troublesome and old-fashioned views of other races or "the gays" makes her a horrible person, unless your grandmother is also burning crosses in people's yards or spray painting antisemitic epithets on synagogues or spouting the n-word in a totes ironic fashion on 4chan boards.

Max, I can't think of any quicker way to ostracize yourself from the mainstream than to be a virulent racist. Nobody likes a racist except other racists.

so ironic

Isn't it? Doncha think?

What's wrong with calling it ironic? Am I missing some nuance?

deric, that wasn't really directed at you; i hadn't even read the entire disagreement. i basically just disagreed with frogbs's take on what elmo had said.

it's weird in a thread about trayvon martin to suggest that racism is a completely marginalized force in this day and age

I didn't say "racism." I said "virulent racism." That is, I truly believe flat out white supremacists sorts are a tiny minority. Everyone else is some degree of racist.

i can think of some people that might feel they had some claim to being treated as an uncontested "other" due to an identity more visible than white supremacist.

It's cool, horseshoe. Nothing but the first sentence of my post was directed at you, fwiw.

just curious how saying 'racists are human' constitutes 'bending over backwards to defend' them, bc i had no idea i was engaging in rhetorical contortionism

perhaps you could overexplain it to me

I think you left out an 'over' or two.

idk, 'overhuman' sounds like a terribly racist thing to say

There is only Zuul.

wait Deric, you weren't talking about bronies?

it's really much more important that we all spend time bickering amongst each other about the proper way to dislike racism and to express said disapproval

like half the threads in ILE pretty much devolve into this (or some form of let's pull out our massive cocks and show each other how god damned outraged we are), why are you surprised

why would people be outraged for having massive cocks

Like half the threads in ILE pretty much devolve into this because a some people seem to have trouble following a discussion that stretches over more than a few posts.

a

deric would you say poor reading comprehension is a subhuman characteristic

or some form of let's pull out our massive cocks and show each other how god damned outraged we are

doesn't even happen on the gay thread :(

guys, that was a figure of speech - I don't mean you guys literally pull out your ducks and wipe them all over the monitor

*dicks

Speak for yourself.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billy_bennight/4187696503/

*dicks

it's been a while since I said this, but...new board description

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billy_bennight/4187696503/

http://images1.vat19.com/covers/large/screen-wipe-duck.jpg