People here have less to fear from bigots than they do from being intolerably irritating.

That's way harsh, Ortho. I dont like the way this whole thing panned out and I really didn't want this to turn into an anti Merc thread, but Ibs has good reason to feel anger towards him. And to hold up Ibs' life and say she doesn;t know the meaning of suffering, which is in effect what you are saying, and doesn't know the meaning of struggle dismisses life experiences that neither of us have or understand.

I disagree, Dana. If I don't know every detail of Ibby's life, neither does Ibby know the details of the lives she judges, condemns, and dismisses from the safety of her paid-for college situation. Ibby craps on the life experiences of those who have fought, suffered, and continued to struggle for everything she holds dear. Ibby wants to tell everyone how to live, but Ibby hasn't lived yet. Some irony? Ibby is a misandrist heterophobe by her own declaration, yet bigot she is not, by her own assertion. I call bullshit. Ibby is a child who has dutifully absorbed every scrap of information, regardless of bias, that feeds her resentments and rages and desire for vicarious violence, and spews it all back at others as gospel.

I avoid Ibby whenever possible. It's usually easy, because Ibby, by her own admission, doesn't frequent threads where people actually communicate concern for each other. But - I am tired of being called names when Ibby doesn't even know me; I'm tired of Ibby ordering people around and calling people vile names when she doesn't know the first thing about those people. And she certainly only knows that shades exist, that multiple aspects are relevant, in her own case. She doesn't extend that courtesy to anyone else.

I have lived and suffered things Ibby knows absolutely nothing about, including being truly hungry on an ongoing basis. I've lived in places Ibby knows nothing about, but oh no, Ibby knows all. Ibby will instruct us all. I think Ibby would benefit most by shutting up for a long time and going out into the world and just surviving, and learning, and seeing that people have many sides, good and bad. The world just isn't all about Ibby.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxcnn6clKe1r23vax.jpg

I love it when people go out of their way to prove to me that they're awful people.
ANYONE who is more butthurt about people calling out oppression than people perpetrating oppression instantly lets me write them off. Handy, ain't it?

Ibby, that last post just lost you my respect. Childish, racist, and the message is self-centred and false.

i think I explained somewhere in this thread that, you might not agree, but I absolutely believe that upholding oppression, ignoring oppression, promoting oppression, and most of all telling oppressed people how the oppressors think they should fix their oppression are all equally oppressive.

It is indeed a tragedy that Ibby has migrated towards sociopathic tendencies like pensive pam; but, that's what fear does to people especially when exacerbated by alcohol and left untreated to manifest as paranoia.

:rolleyes: I'm sober as a stone, working on an essay for my Global Social Problems class about cissexism and transmisogyny.

Attachment 42031

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Oh, hey, do my first two paragraphs sound a lot like what I'm saying in this thread?
holy shit! they do!
maybe because... anyone who's studied institutional oppression in a serious way knows that I'm not talking out of my ass, but rather, I'm advocating the academic consensus?
What? you mean there's more to oppression than your widdle hurt fee-fees? Damn right there is!
Does Ibby maybe have the slightest idea what she's talking about, having taken at least five college-level classes on various aspects of oppression/human rights, and more importantly, talked extensively with activists and actual oppressed people about their experiences and the realities of oppression? Damn right she has!

So, whatever, call me juvenile, call me reverse-racist. I'll call you oppressor.
I'll be right, and history will prove you wrong when things get slowly better without you.

edit to add:
If I am afraid, it is because I fear my oppressors. If I am afraid, it is because clearly the Cellar is not the safe space that I once thought of it as. If I am afraid, it is people like you I fear. If I am afraid, it proves you are in the wrong. If I am afraid, it is only right that I strike back at those who would oppress me.

Maybe you should go to a trade school, learn welding or HVAC... I'm only half-kidding.

The Cellar: Where calling somebody a bigot is worse than being one!
(i kid, I kid.)
(...mostly.)

You are afraid and disproportionately so. Your sober moments are tainted by your chronic alcoholism and transcendent paranoia. You lack the raw intelligence to do anything other than strike back like a wounded animal and you wear your identity like a handicapped placard on your sleeve. You're a disgrace to any cause you advocate for as long as you're a self made nobody hiding behind a virtual wall crying wolf. Being afraid proves nothing about anyone else as your judgment is that of a coward who like other impotent cowards has become addicted to attention whoring as a substitute for meaningful relationships. Try sociopaths anonymous.

Whoa. What? I can't tell if you're projecting or just making shit up whole cloth?Like, okay, i drink beer. yeah? What's your point? I'm not, like, a drunk. I have like two or three beers like two out of three nights? On weekends I sometimes go out with friends or make myself a couple cocktails? that doesn't sound like the kind of problem youre talking about, that sounds like... college.

I'm not even gonna touch that bit about my intelligence.

I wear my identity like someone like Sarge wears the Flag. Proudly, without shame or apology. I don't hold anything about it back, including my absolute belief in social justice and shining a light on oppression, calling it out, whenever i see it. If that's like a handicapped placard to you, we must have a different idea of what the placard represents.

I don't hide behind a virtual wall. I call people out in public. I risk my actual physical safety doing this kind of thing in real life. People get just as frothingly upset as you are, now, at having their shit pointed out, in real life, too. I stand my ground as long as it's safe to.

I'm a nobody, sure. cause i'm a 21 year old student. I don't think I know more than a handful of 21-year-old college students who arent nobodies?

I don't understand what there is about telling oppressors that they're being oppressive that is cowardly. People get killed every day in this country for standing up to oppressors, by pissing off patriarchal men, by being too black too late at night, for refusing to conform to gender roles, for loving the wrong person, or the wrong gender, in the wrong neighboorhood. There are people here on this site who know my full name, and the city I live in, and in fact could find where in the city i live pretty easily. If this were a site like 4chan or reddit i would be getting death threats right about now. I personally know quite a few people who HAVE gotten death threats. In the cellar, I only get ad hominem vitriol from many, ambivalence from most. On a site where people actually care about not being oppressive, i would get apologies and "gosh, I didn't realize that saying things like that is offensive/wrong/harmful! What could I say instead that would be less oppressive?".
I'm sorry i hurt your feefees but you're being ridiculous. if you cared half as much about shutting down oppressors as you do about defending them you'd be a powerful ally for justice.

I just wanted to let you know how your virtual communication style makes others feel. Did you enjoy it?

I'm sorry if I hurt your feefees but you've been obnoxious. If you cared half as much about gaining allies as you do about shutting down oppressors you'd be a powerful advocate for justice.

Aww, does the ally want a cookie?

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc...k3tso1_500.png
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc...k3tso2_500.png
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc...k3tso4_500.png

Yeah, no, we make fun of allies. Allies are part of the problem, people patting themselves on the back while refusing to confront their own actions. Just being an ally doesn't excuse you from being oppressive.

EDIT oh sorry almost forgot my favorite cookie

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc9qug4I8X1qhisau.png

see also http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc9qpmCFPT1qhisau.png, http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc...k3tso1_500.png, http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb...k3tso1_400.png,
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9...ao2_r1_400.jpg ("things allies say"), http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9...o10_r1_400.jpg (more "things allies say"), http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9iwdqF82h1qar70f.jpg (that thing you're all saying)...

That's precisely what you're doing and it's making you persona non grata.
Just being oppressed doesn't excuse you from making allies for the cause.

You've obviously placed yourself above your cause. The last refuge of a scoundrel is her cause.

Notice I don't need pictures to communicate as do the disgruntled peasants.