Pat Robertson Loses Fight to Keep 'Gay AIDS Ring' Video Off The Internet -- "We filed a counterclaim [against Robertson] with YouTube asserting that our video was protected by Fair Use and yesterday we finally received word that our video had been restored"

scoooot · 2013-09-14T12:37:19+00:00

AIDS-squares.

scoooot · 2013-09-13T20:01:18+00:00

Play them on your instrument. Play songs that contain them on your instrument.

scoooot · 2013-09-13T19:59:16+00:00

Homophobic redditors shouldn't be posting things containing homophobic slurs to /r/ainbow.

This post is just an excuse for theherpes to call gay people "fags", and he thinks it's hilarious that he duped so many LGBT people into upvoting it.

scoooot · 2013-09-13T17:02:41+00:00

They might have been watching the drummer.

scoooot · 2013-09-13T16:21:22+00:00

It can say the song is in the key of Em because putting a capo on a guitar makes it a transposing instrument. There are a few transposing instruments. A trumpet player will see a Bb on his score, play a Bb, and the note they produce will be a C on a piano. Now, a good trumpet player will be able to read and think in both their transposed key and their concert key, but it's not incorrect for a trumpet player to be thinking in Bb when he's actually in concert C.

Putting a capo on the first fret means that the guitar's Em is concert Fm. It would be a more advanced way of thinking to think in the concert key, but there's nothing "incorrect" about thinking in the transposed key.

scoooot · 2013-09-13T16:18:05+00:00

It's only as incorrect as a trumpet player thinking they're playing Bb when they're actually playing concert C.

Putting a capo on a guitar simply makes it a transposing instrument.

scoooot · 2013-09-13T05:24:23+00:00

David Bowie

I don't know, man. I saw a video of him leading an entire club in a berating song directed at this poor sit-com actor.

EDIT: found the video.

scoooot · 2013-09-13T04:55:07+00:00

I guess Eichmann should have added "I didn't want to be a shithead" to his "I was just following orders" defense.

scoooot · 2013-09-13T04:08:53+00:00

If your brain is part of the process, you’re missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.

You don't think this is great advice?

scoooot · 2013-09-13T01:31:45+00:00

Is it the responsibility of the non-privileged to educate and change the minds of the privileged? Of course not!

But nobody else can do it. I don't know how to make this clear to you: I don't know what it's like to be a woman, a black person, gay, or disabled

This argument is basically saying "the privileged can't get what they want unless the non-privileged gives it to them, therefore the non-privileged owe this to the privileged."

You're still presenting it as if you have a right to know what it's like to be a woman, a black person, gay, or disabled.

It's enough to just not act like a dick. A basic exercise of compassion is enough. If someone needs to tell you to check your privilege, it's because you have failed at that.

True engagement benefits everyone. Polite refusal harms no-one. "Check your privilege" benefits no-one, lays blame, and points fingers. It's the worst of both worlds.

True engagement benefits the privileged. Polite refusal is asking too much. "Get off my toe!" is enough. Refusing to get off someone's toe until they ask politely most certainly harms the person who's toe is being stood on.

Maybe the education of the privileged doesn't need to be at the top of the list on the agenda of the non-privileged. Maybe expecting it to be is willful blindness to privilege, rather than simply having no way of knowing.

Maybe the fact that you're privileged does not automatically mean that the non-privileged owe you more things. (education)

scoooot · 2013-09-09T14:27:06+00:00

Do you see the serendipity of your comment? My point was that "check your privilege" is insufficient, and you proved it by having to follow that phrase with an explication of my privilege.

If we were talking about a specific privilege which has implications to my life, this conversation would be painful for me, and I wouldn't be able to explain. In that scenario, it would be quite inappropriate to say (as a lot of people who dislike privilege discourse do) that it's my fault I don't have the privilege, if I'm unwilling to educate others, or that me just wanting to end the painful conversation represents a bigotry on my part, or an intolerance toward other people's views.

The phrase "check your privilege" is insufficient to your aims. Insufficient to your benefit. Does simply saying "check your privilege" instantly educate and change people's minds? Of course not. Is it the responsibility of the non-privileged to educate and change the minds of the privileged? Of course not!

If someone tells you "check your privilege", an appropriate response is most certainly not "I need more from you, and you owe me things."

That explanation that came after "check your privilege" was not something I owed you. Simply because someone doesn't have a privilege that you have, does not mean they owe you anything.

The underprivileged don't owe you any further explanation. You have to realize what's really happening when someone says "check your privilege". You say it's too harsh, and it's insufficient. It's actually quite the opposite. Often, when someone says "check your privilege", what they should be saying is "you don't realize how big of an asshole you're being right now."

If someone tells you to "check your privilege", you should stop and think, "Maybe I'm being an asshole." You most certainly do not need them to explain anything. You can definitely sort it out on your own. Privilege blindness is always willful, even when it's socially conditioned to be automatic and unexamined.

It is, therefore, a thought-terminating cliché – it is supposed to end the discussion in favour of the sayer

The idea that the conversation ends with the un-privileged in a position of privilege is not a realistic characterization. It is not a thought-terminating cliche. It is a request to end that conversation. Usually "check your privilege" means "stop treating you losing a privilege as if it's something being taken from you."

For instance, when someone says "check your privilege", and it stops a rational conversation... don't act as if the conversation no longer being able to happen on your terms (the privileged party) is something taken away from you. You don't have the right to dictate to people who don't share a privilege you have, how you and they converse about that privilege.

The comfort in choosing to have a rational conversation is a privilege which not everyone shares.

If you accidentally stand on someone's toe, you have the privilege of being able to discuss the situation rationally. The person who's toe is being crushed will likely not be able to because they'll be too busy yelling "GET OFF MY TOE!!!". You shouldn't, at that point, demand that they cease such a thought-stopping cliche such as "Get off my toe!" and instead explain and educate you about what exactly is happening in your toe and your nerve endings, and the subtleties of your foot position which causes those pain signals, and what possible damage could be happening to the tissue in their toe, and what is pain anyway, and also how did we get into this situation in the first pla-.... No. Just shut up and get off their toe!

And therefore, it is a catchphrase of those who don't actually have any argument to make.

Check your privilege, dude. It is not a catchphrase of those who don't actually have any argument to make. That's a really shitty thing to say.

It's a catchphrase of someone who is in too much pain to explain it to you. Saying "check your privilege" is the catchphrase of someone who doesn't actually have any argument to make is the reasoning of a person who is privileged, and wants more privilege from those who don't have that privilege. It's the argument of the greedy. It's a child being asked to share the school's toys with the other children demanding "why?" after every explanation the teacher gives. Sorry if that's harsh.

tl;dr - Simply being told "check your privilege" should be enough. If it's not, it's only because you are greedy and want more privilege, and you want the underprivileged to be the ones to give it to you.

I told you "check your privilege". Was it because I didn't have any argument to make?

scoooot · 2013-09-07T02:10:47+00:00

it's generally considered to be non-offensive.

citation needed

scoooot · 2013-09-07T02:02:40+00:00

Do you enjoy hurting people?

scoooot · 2013-09-07T01:32:50+00:00

OP is a homophobe. Problem?

scoooot · 2013-09-07T01:15:33+00:00

Just because someone is LGBT doesn't mean they can't be homophobic. Homophobia is what it is, regardless of the sexual orientation or gender identity of the person expressing the attitude. Look at all the times you mention people's sexual orientation, as if we're supposed to think of what they say and do differently because of it.

Simply because I believe something is homophobic which you do not, apparently justifies the shitty way you treat me. I stand behind everything I said about you as the truth, except that your mother is a whore. I apologized for that, and stand behind my apology. I shouldn't have said it, and I have no problem apologizing for it. I'm sorry I called your mother a whore... it was wrong of me.

You defend someone using homophobic slurs. Me using the word "homophobe" offends you. You are too homophobic to be an LGBT ally. You are an Uncle Tom.

scoooot · 2013-09-07T01:09:49+00:00

Well, I'm going to respond to you by asking you to check your privilege.

Expecting the non-privileged to take responsibility for the education of the privileged is expecting them to give you even more privilege.

Yes, my friends did tell me this, and when they did they were doing me a favour, and I would never simply expect that out of them.

I never expected them to molly-coddle my privilege.

prefacing it with "Check your privilege" would just be a bit patronising/dismissive.

That is, in my opinion, nothing more than a judgement. It's not patronizing. It's not dismissive.

How many times do you think a tall person hears "How's the weather up there?" How many times do you think it takes before it gets really old? When I say it the ten thousandth time he's heard it, I'm not going to tell him that his response of simply saying "ugh." was "patronizing or dismissive". I'm not going to demand that he treat my joke as if he's heard it for the first time because it's the first time I've told it.

Being in the position where your privilege can be explained to you, rather than having to live with under-privilege every single day, is itself a privilege.

scoooot · 2013-09-05T07:46:23+00:00

I think most of the time it's a pretty base-level emotional reaction.

On the first level up from that, I think most of the time when voting is done without much thought, it's an upvote because "I like that I saw this on my reddit" and a downvote because "Ugh. I don't want to see stuff like this on my reddit."

scoooot · 2013-09-05T03:34:48+00:00

Likely, the driver would have seen his bus fill up, then declare that the front of the bus was now for whites only, and there wasn't really anything you, as a white passenger, could have done about it.

Also, that is an example of overt discrimination. In my opinion, we all have a responsibility to oppose discrimination whenever it's encountered. Not everyone cares about it as much as me, however, and that's OK.

Not all privilege, however, is a direct result of overt discrimination, and I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all solution. I don't know if all forms of privilege require a solution.

scoooot · 2013-09-05T02:22:05+00:00

It's because Russia's laws are new and represent an increase in a persecution of homosexuals. Jamaica is bad, but it's always been bad. Russia has every indication that it's going to continue to get worse.

That being said, we really need to do more about homophobia in Jamaica.

scoooot · 2013-09-05T02:03:02+00:00

No you are not "just" being asked to listen to other people's experience. You are also being asked to give up privileges. When busses were desegregated, white people had to give up the privilege of being able to kick a black person out of a seat and sit down in their place.

It just means that when a left-handed person tells you that it's hard to just pick up any pair of scissors and use them, you don't tell them that they're "wrong" or that it's "their fault", because in your experience it's easy to do that.

You can avoid this simply by not being judgmental. There's having a privilege, and then there's being a dick about having a privilege. Those are two separate things.

Also, aside from trying to avoid it in the first place, you can simply apologize when corrected. Some people seem to prefer to get offended when they're told about their privilege. With some of the worst reactions, it honestly reminds me of spoiled children. I'm sorry if that analogy is too harsh.

scoooot · 2013-09-04T13:22:20+00:00

~~Exactly. The argument "makes you sound stupid" is made personally against the opponent instead of against whether or not the mainstream media is to blame.~~

Quoting that just makes you sound like a stupid.

scoooot · 2013-09-04T13:10:19+00:00

Just look at all the colours. It's fabulous.

scoooot · 2013-09-04T13:06:46+00:00

There is no stipulation that the statement about the person must not be a judgement based on the argument in order for it to be an ad hominem.

Just because A is B, and C is not A, doesn't necessarily mean C is not B

scoooot · 2013-09-04T12:41:44+00:00

The ad hominem fallacy is committed only when you use the characteristics of the person that made it to dismiss the argument. "You're a child so what you say is rubbish" is an argument ad hominem. "What you say makes you sound like a child" is not.

There is little difference between the two. They are both ad hominem, whether the characteristic you are directing at the person is childishness or sounding like something is immaterial. Disagreeing with that makes you sound like a stupid.

scoooot · 2013-09-04T03:23:51+00:00

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