Popular Comments Across MetaFilter

By Optimus Chyme in "Further China-like Censorship" on MetaTalk

Optimus Chyme — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:59:47 -0800

I personally would not have cared if you said 'anime is for children.' You are entitled to your opinion, and I always wear my big girl pants online and can handle it. ;-)

damn woman please you flag me so much i look like the UN

By Metroid Baby in "Further China-like Censorship" on MetaTalk

Metroid Baby — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:37:09 -0800

Everyone needs a hug. However, each hug you give is one less hug for your life partner.

By P.o.B. in "A globe I can shake" on MeFi

P.o.B. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:28:56 -0800

My snowglobe was taken from me.

Taken.

My snowglobe was taken from me by the TSA agents at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport yesterday.

According to the Transportation Security Administration website, “We will not ask you to do anything that will separate you from your snowglobe.'

Bullshit TSA.

You took my snowglobe. MY SNOWGLOBE.

By Optimus Chyme in "Further China-like Censorship" on MetaTalk

Optimus Chyme — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:38:38 -0800

Your response did not answer the question; therefore, it was deleted. You are not the first person nor will you be the last to have answers deleted for not answering the question but rather offering up an irrelevant opinion. You need to stop posting and lurk more, as it is clear you do not understand MetaFilter's protocols.

Also, saying 'Chinalike Censorship' is dumb as fuck and you are overreacting like an enormous man-sized baby. Isn't the idea of a baby as big as a full-grown dude ridiculous? It is. It is a ridiculous idea. And yet, here we have it: a comically oversized baby.

By Pollomacho in "Babysitter just diagnosed with HIV......" on Ask MeFi

Pollomacho — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:15:00 -0800

Don't let your babysitter have sex with your baby! Transfusions are right out! Breastfeeding is questionable.

Otherwise, give your babysitter the love and support she needs. She's not a pariah, she's just got an autoimmune disorder.

By Optimus Chyme in "Watcha reading? Well, this thread for one thing" on MetaTalk

Optimus Chyme — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:03:36 -0800

Hey great another thread where a half-dozen unbalanced losers do a disservice to all men.

I'd like to say this to you, if you can understand it, which you won't, or can't: you are the problem. You know how you are whining about how 'oh boo hoo not all men are bad and it's wrong for women to assume I am dangerous it is so hard to be a dude because women are just so mean'?

You are the support system for violent rapists. You are the support system for catcallers, sexual harassers, child molesters. You are the support system for everything that is flawed in masculinity.

You are. You. Every time you decide that the conversation should be about your hurt feelings instead of the very real dangers that women face, you are on the bad guys' side. You help them get away with it. You help foster a society where it is possible. Because you are ignoring and marginalizing women's experiences. You are ignoring and undermining real things that happened to real people: our sisters and mothers, wives and girlfriends, daughters and nieces.

Why are your hurt feelings - about something so trivial as being perceived as potentinally dangerous by some people - more important than a woman's story about how she was raped, or followed home, or forced to quit a job because she rejected someone's advances? Can you understand for one fucking second that not everything is about you? Can you try?

You encourage violent men because you refuse to see them as a problem except as it affects you personally. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Real men would be.

By ColdChef in "Get well soon, mathowie!" on MetaTalk

ColdChef — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:34:51 -0800

I don't offer discounts for friends. Get well.

By Kid Charlemagne in "A certain film just lost its engineer demographic..." on MeFi

Kid Charlemagne — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:21 -0800

Buzz Aldrin addressed to moon landing conspiracy folks to my satisfaction.

By pinky in "Further China-like Censorship" on MetaTalk

pinky — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:34:02 -0800

Typical of the illiberal state of affairs in reactionary left wing contemporary circles.

oh just fuck off.

By chugg in "Watcha reading? Well, this thread for one thing" on MetaTalk

chugg — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:59:33 -0800

My God. I just read that thread and this one for the first time. I had no idea women thought like this. I feel horrible. I'm a big mean looking guy. I'm around 6'-4' 250lbs and I can't fathom what it would be like to have to think like this all the time. I can barely string words together right now to make this comment, that's how much it's resonating with me right now. It's like a lense has been ripped off and I can see things clearer now. I have friends that make rape jokes. I have friends that catcall and hit on women in public and at bars. Christ, I probably have done the same. I know I've done it. I just feel so fucking bad right now. I wont stand for it anymore. I'm going to make a concious effort to tell my guy friends that it's not okay. I'm sorry.

By Doublewhiskeycokenoice in "No Military Commission For You" on MeFi

Doublewhiskeycokenoice — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:15:08 -0800

I say lock him in a cell with Nickelback. Let him eat nothing but McDonalds, and let his only other contact be the images of all the innocent people he has taken from this world.

Why not just lock him in a cell and treat him like a goddamn human being because we're better than he is?

By Pater Aletheias in "Babysitter just diagnosed with HIV......" on Ask MeFi

Pater Aletheias — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:10:21 -0800

Hi, pamspanda:

You say,

I am a a little confused by some of the comments about overreacting

Maybe I can help.

When a post starts with 'DESPERATE!' and asks 'What next????' with four question marks then concludes with 'I need information and help before I jump out of my skin!!!!,' ending in four exclamation points, the vast majority of readers are not going to think that you are

about as level headed as they come

They are, in fact, going to conclude that you are in desperation and about to jump out of your skin. Writing something like:

'My granddaughter's babysitter has just been diagnosed with HIV. What, if any, are the potential risks in this situation? The babysitter is also a family member, so I'm trying to be sensitive to her while I process this information.'

would have done a better job of conveying your calm, level-headed sensibility.

By ArkhanJG in "Watcha reading? Well, this thread for one thing" on MetaTalk

ArkhanJG — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:02:47 -0800

that men take it as their right to comment on our bodies, to use our bodies for their gratification, and that if we object to it then we are bitches, or....sexist.

Part of me wants to change that 'some men' in there - and that's part of the problem, and I think where gjc is coming from.

But saying that it's OK to fear strange men more than they fear strange women, for no other reason than what organs they were born with, is sexist.

That's not what they're saying. As tzikeh quoted in the original thread;

'Novelist Margaret Atwood writes that when she asked a male friend why men feel threatened by women, he answered, 'They are afraid women will laugh at them.' When she asked a group of women why they feel threatened by men, they said, 'We're afraid of being killed.'

You have to understand the difference in the power dynamic. Men scare women. We're bigger stronger, and way, way WAY too many of my fellow men have scared the women around them ranging from actions that are merely crass and ignorant (creepy guy leering at the party), to outright assholishness (catcalling or bugging when you don't want to be bugged) to downright aggressive and scary behaviour such as following home, yelling on the street or groping, and of course yet more serious assaults.

This is what I didn't know before - these incidents are not rare, or isolated to a few unlucky women. They are damn near universal. Damn near every woman you ever meet has been leered at, called a bitch for not wanting to talk sexually to a man she doesn't know, followed home or made to feel scared by a man doing something that would scare *anyone* in the same dynamic - and not just once, but repeatedly. Many many women have been raped or otherwise seriously sexually assaulted. Not all, but a much, much bigger percentage than many men think or realise. And it's often the men that women thought they could trust; friends, family, that previously nice and decent guy who decides that surprise butt sex is on the menu today.

This is the thing. It might only be some men that do it, and many men are decent, honest nice guys - and I'm thankful that many of the women who've gone through horrible experiences are still prepared to give us a chance at all. But the nice guys aren't who they encounter so very often.

The assholes who think it's perfectly ok to tell women precisely what they want to do to their bodies in the street (not them; it's always about the body parts), the ones that leer at them on the subway, the ones that follow them home and bang upon the door, or trap them in a store and try to get their phone number, the ones that pull up beside them in a car and try to get a teenage girl on her own to get in with them, the ones that ask for a cigarette and then thow them to the ground and rape them.

*These* are the men that women encounter every damn day because they're the ones that constantly harrass women because they don't see anything wrong with it. And it makes me so very sad, and so very angry. And then we have men that come in and say 'but men get raped too. And men are more likely to be assaulted or mugged. And I'm not like that, so you're being sexist assuming I'm one of them.' and YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

Women put up with something so horribly, so terribly wrong that many men, myself included, just don't get it, don't understand it. That it becomes internalised, and after a lifetime of it you're become subconciously wary. It's not an ongoing thing where you think about it every moment, but it's there and colours your actions in so many different ways that you can't even count them because you're not even aware of them most of the time; my wife tells me that it's just something you do without thinking, it's just the way things are. She walks with her keys in her hand at night, just in case she needs a knuckleduster. She checks behind her when she opens the front door, she checks who's around when she gets in the car. Not because she's conciously afraid, but because that's just how she lives. Cautiously, by instinct. I had no idea. I still don't, not really. But I'm trying to.

Men might feel wary walking down a dark street in the wrong part of town. Now imagine feeling that way subconsiously all the time, because time after time after time some guy didn't just want a light, he wanted to talk to you you about sucking his cock and his friends just stand around laughing while he tries to feel you up. Or your brother, or your father abused you. Or you know several of your friends who were made to have sex when they didn't want to, because they were afraid what would happen if they said 'no'. Or that creepy guy in the building comes banging on your doorway at 2am in the morning and keeps coming back.

Not all men are the enemy, and even the women who've been seriously assaulted are telling you that. But way too many of them treat women like shit, way too many men don't call other men on it, and it happens all the time. So even nice, decent guys like me are going to be treated with wariness, with caution, even if all I'm doing is standing at a bus stop at night or telling them they dropped their phone. Because they don't know me, they don't know if I'm a good guy or an asshole - and even if they did, they don't know that I'm going to keep being a good guy. And that's ok. If I'd been through what they go through, I'd feel that way too. Frankly I'm amazed they still talk to any of us at all.

So cut them some slack. Don't be an asshole. WE don't have to put up with a fraction of the crap they live with, including other men telling them that it's not so bad really and they're just overeacting and being sexist. Go read through that thread again, and listen, really listen to what the women are telling you even if you don't want to accept it or believe it. Then do what you can to treat women with respect and decency and understanding, and callout other men who don't.

By Astro Zombie in "NO HOMO" on MeFi

Astro Zombie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:52:19 -0800

I really have come to the conclusion that most of humanity is about three beers and two shots of tequila away from having sex with the rest of humanity, regardless of gender, nationality, age, or religion, and so, when people say things like 'No homo' after saying something suggestively homoerotic, all they're saying is 'Buy me a few drinks and we can talk about it.'

By anitanita in "Watcha reading? Well, this thread for one thing" on MetaTalk

anitanita — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:33:20 -0800

I'm not sure how this adds, but here it is. I see how people sometimes view my brother as he walks down the street.

A large African American male, I sometimes see non-blacks view him warily as he walks down the street (in the US), and I think - aargh, you don't even know him! How can you judge him negatively based on your previous experience/your friend's experience/popular media/rap music/your fears? He's not going to rob you, so get over yourself. He's an individual, dammit! You should be so lucky as to have a friend like my brother! Keep your prejudice to yourself.

And then I see how some women view him, of all races....warily as well. And I think, yep, well, you're a strange guy twice their size. And it's not safe out there. So, you need to understand that they are pre-judging you until they have proof that you aren't a danger to them, because the previous data isn't always favorable, and the stakes are high if women mistake a dangerous man. Be respectful, don't make sudden moves, and try to be considerate of what their concern is, whether you agree with it or not. Some other men made it harder to trust. It sucks, but there it is.

When you consider both scenarios, my brother is on one side, and then the other, of the 'privilege' line. Both scenarios make me quite sad. I've decided I hate both sides of the privilege line.

I mention this because in reading this thread I appreciate the frustration on both sides, from gjc and oaf to DarlingBri and palomar.

I also realize it's hard to convey the appropriate amount of nuance online at times, particularly around 'shut up and listen'. There are times when it sounds like an imperious command, and others when it's a ragged plea. It's always sad when a ragged plea gets misheard as an imperious command.

By Pater Aletheias in "A globe I can shake" on MeFi

Pater Aletheias — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:00:50 -0800

I have to say, I've adjusted to no liquids thing, but I'll never forgive the failed shoe bomber guy.

We live a long way away from family, so my three year old flies about four times a year to visit grandparents and cousins. She likes flying, and she's a good traveler, but it kills me a little to see her enter the security area, put her Dora backpack on the conveyor belt for the scanner, and automatically take off her shoes. The procedures that I think of as 'new' and 'annoying' might be all she ever knows--that's just what you do when you get on a plane. I think this is how freedoms die. One generation says 'well, I hate this crap, but I understand why some people thought it was necessary' and the next generation says 'hey, this is just how we've always done it.'

And it makes me wonder what I take for granted that my great-greats would have been livid about.

By The Whelk in "The Vending Machine God and the Housing Bubble" on MeFi

The Whelk — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:19:21 -0800

I can say, without hesitation or qualification that Prosperity Gospel is one of the most vile corruptions of Christianity since 13th century kings told everyone Jesus was a wealthy prince and that's why you should toil for us endlessly.

By Flunkie in "Python + C = Go. Google's Programming Language" on MeFi

Flunkie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:04:37 -0800

+1 for static typing

+1 what?

By jessamyn in "Further China-like Censorship" on MetaTalk

jessamyn — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:47:16 -0800

Would it kill y'all to have to see an opinion you don't agree with occasionally? Sheesh.

If this is a joke, it is an annoying one.

By Pater Aletheias in "Could we post weak links to the 'back' page?" on MetaTalk

Pater Aletheias — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:52:24 -0800

Maybe we need a completely different, but affiliated, website for that stuff. Mehtafilter: kind of okay stuff on the web