YOUR BIGOTRY IS SHOWING

If you are in Mainstream tonight, you are witnessing a gigantic spat between jacquie_2, 1BobbyMcgee, and LordMercifulVoo. It all began, (or at least tonight's episode began) when Bobby made the bizarre claim that the only reason he keeps getting banned is because Voo incites him to say hateful things, for which he then gets kicked off of PT. Yes, it really is the abusive husband's excuse, "Why do you make me so mad that I hit you?"

Bobby tells us that he "used to be a star, but now he's spit on." We all had some fun with that. I said, "Bobby played Rosebud in Citizen Kane," and, "Bobby is Keyser Soze." Brizter and Snow Virtual had a lot of fun mocking Bobby. And all was right with the world.

That is until jacquie made some sarcastic comment about not using the insult "bitch" in the room. Suddenly, Voo was off on one of his hobby horses: minimizing the discrimination experienced by people other than African Americans. Whether it's gays, or jews, or women, none of them have had it as bad as African-Americans, according to Voo. Or at least, none of them belong in the same category as African-Americans. While that might be technically true, for a variety of reasons, it's obvious that the only reason Voo brings it up is to mock other people's experiences. Usually the way Voo belittles the experience of other groups is some narrow, hair-splitting legalistic issue, and tonight was no different.

Apparently, Feminism is not as important because women are technically a majority in the world, and thus they don't "count," as much. I gotta tell you, I don't follow this reasoning. Even a cursory analysis will prove that women have almost always been denied rights and have been the victims of bigotry and authoritarian control. I just don't understand what Voo thinks he's proving by belittling women like this.

Anyway, it looked like jacquie was just messing with his head anyway. And fundamentally, I agree with the idea that we should not be draconian in "banning" rough speech. Racial slurs and gay bashing are one thing, but once you start banning "bitch" and "bastard", you might as well put on your Sunday best and have a tea party with your Cabbage Patch Kids.

One last thing, though. Bobby started taunting Voo, telling him to fuck off, bounce him, etc. I don't know whether it was his cold, but Voo busted out some nasty bigoted shit at Bobby. Telling him to, "go fuck your turban, suck a camel, etc." It just goes to show you, there's some rancid stuff that bubbles to the surface in us all, when we get pissed off enough.

JC