ILX Milk Carton

If embarrassing myself were a deterrent to posting, I'd have quit ilx twenty years ago.

No time like the present.

btw, I've never had the slightest concern that Muslims were taking over France, so it seems unlikely to me that I ever directly expressed such a concern. Could you clarify wtf you are referencing?

I presume you are not peeved when I make the assumption that (quoting myself) "racism, xenophobia and economic ghettoization are the real problems to address." Not having seen the Hebdo caricatures, I have to take your word that they constitute hate speech. Nor do I know how the teacher conducted the discussion about them. I have not read a description of how that lesson was taught, but have seen it asserted that the lesson being taught was within the curriculum.

My major assumption is that France needs to work much harder and more visibly on alleviating the real problems of economic stagnation within and xenophobia against muslim communities. That's pure justice. But I also consider that this act was not merely a blind lashing out, but a demonstration of intent and no society can afford to concede the legitimacy that intent, no matter how legitimate the grievance.

― the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Tuesday, 20 October 2020 01:33 (six months ago) link


It's just a matter of whose culture gets to be "neutral."

That's an essentially accurate observation of an underlying truth and defining a problem is usually a basic step toward solving it. However, no matter which way I turn that truth, I can't see a solution falling out of it that resolves the essential conflict that rises out of fundamentally clashing cultural values. The particular Islamists who encouraged this crime do not want toleration or neutrality, but enough power to create a hegemony for their own religiously-inspired or religiously-justified ideas.

If it is their culture that gets to be 'neutral', then the result would be far harsher laws suppressing other cultural norms than the French laws against the display of religious symbols in public schools. Full and free expression of secular humanism would absolutely not be allowed. I don't see that outcome as preferable, according to my culturally hegemonic 'western' beliefs.

So, when it comes to whose culture is considered 'neutral' in this power struggle (because that is what the execution of the teacher was about), I am going to side with the French Republic over the Islamists who perpetrated this crime every time. At least the Republic allows avenues for the redress of wrongs and may conceivably arrive at a compromise solution amenable to the majority of muslims in France.

― the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Monday, 19 October 2020 23:11 (six months ago) link

Aimless... the idea that there are enough pro-murder Muslims out there to enact some fanatical Islamic Republic in France is..... un peu bizarre, n'est-ce pas

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Monday, 19 October 2020 23:16 (six months ago) link

oh dear, boss won't like what I've done here at all.

I said it at the time but Islamophobia seems to be no biggie to a lot of people on ILX. Calzino swearing on the other hand.

I do miss LBI tho

Email him, I’m sure he’d love to hear from you :)

yeah email him. unrelated, but would a pool noodle or dancing lessons better incentivize you to consider reaching out to a newly absent ilxor?

LOL Aimless went to all the trouble of dredging up a thread from last year in order to make some point or other about an ILXor being driven off the board by a baying mob - driven off very slowly, mind you, like 6 months later - and couldn't even get his name right!

the penetrating eye

Honestly, when gyac said Euler last posted in March, I thought, "Well, a year is a long time, after all, let bygones be bygones..." Little realizing it was March 2021!

fyi, Euler was called an islamophobe on other unrelated threads more recently than 6 months ago

to get him to go away

I should think

well Aimless sure thought so, and then i posted some stuff about it as well. look just invite someone else to the board if you really badly want someone to leave. there's a pool noodle in it for you.

or possibly dance lessons

which one excited you more, silby? (feel free to expand on why)

The particular Islamists who encouraged this crime do not want toleration or neutrality, but enough power to create a hegemony for their own religiously-inspired or religiously-justified ideas.

You mean you genuinely cannot distinguish between my stating what a very small group of fanatics ardently desires, and my stating that they might accomplish it? You can argue that I am wrong and that no such desire exists anywhere in any tiny fraction of the Muslims resident in France. You cannot use that quote to argue that it establishes I was afraid of their fulfilling that desire. I can tell you, that was not my thought or my meaning and it wasn't contained in what I said.

I've had too many of these arguments in the past thirty years. But no one ever backtracks on their misreadings. They locate the meaning they infer as being plainly implied, even when it isn't. If you can say something other than mislabeling, misreading, mischaracterizing, or invective, I'll consider responding further.

“pick up the gun, gyac”

I'll consider responding further.

― sharpening the contraindications (Aimless)

no don't throw me into the briar patch

xxp don’t bother, you can fucking keep it.

aimless i’m pretty sure we can all read and interpret your posts just fine. have a think about what’s being said.

You lot done shitting up yet another unrelated thread with your tiresome beefs with each other? No?

tiresome? this thread's drama made about 2 hours go by much quicker for me today.

what would I do without my stories

There's nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it. And who has a better story than Evan the Grinder? The boy who ground up other people's teeth… He's our tooth grinder. The keeper of all our ground up teeth. More mess and gak when we come back, so you don't you double dare go anywhere. there's a pool noodle in it for you.

or possibly dance lessons

it's aging like milk is this thread

just to close the loop with my very successful revive: i miss LBI too.

Hadrian emailed me back, btw.

hip hop hooray-drian!

I don't know if this is the best thread to post this terribly sad news on, but a number of us early-on ILXors, whether still here or not, have all just learned today of the tragic passing of one of us from said early days, Andrew Thomas from New Zealand. He posted here under a variety of names over time, and I had a chance to meet him at an Auckland get-together back in 2002 during my trip. He was active on Facebook and we had kept in general touch there, though not as closely as some other mutual friends from here. This happened a couple of weeks ago but our circle just learned over the course of today; without dwelling on the details, his struggle for sobriety was the cause. He was a good and friendly person, and he'll be missed.

i'm very sorry to hear that.

I exchanged a few sad DMs with him last year. He remembered me well, and I'm sorry he's gone.

oh no, that is terrible

RIP Andrew :(

Seem to remember another Andrew from Down Under who had a different name, don't know if I was around at the same time as this Andrew, but it's still sad. RIP.

Yes that was someone else, Andrew in Melbourne, andrewnf IIRC, who helped keep the board going there for a while technically.

Sad news indeed about Andrew, I think he was already gone by the time I got here in 03 but I recall seeing his older posts on the old mongrels threads.

And I wonder what did happen to eneff? I keep thinking about him getting mad over the up the arse corner thread with his STOP THIS AT ONCE threadlock tantrum.

he's out there somewhere, shirtless

lol

that brow

marcos

I hope onimo is doing OK.

Likewise

just got to thinking about rabiesandgentlemen aka arby's this morning. Looks like he hasn't posted under the arby's moniker since 2016, although the last time before that was 2014. He still around in any other form, or just off to better places?

forgot about that guy -- iirc he was nice!

indeed. classic username.

echoing the thoughts about omino as well. <3

Arby’s is on Facebook, think he’s all good