What gives you the right to post that foul of a language on a video caption! You should be ashamed of yourselves.
I will not continue buying from your website if you keep posting these type of foul language posts.
Kurt Thomae
@kthomae - Assuming your post is not in jest, genuinely serious question here - why does it bother you that they use the word ‘fucking’? I’m really curious. They aren’t asking you to use that word. They aren’t trying to get your kids/grandkids/spouse/golden retreiver to use it. It’s just a word on a webpage. And in the song it refers to. Why does it bother you? I’m not going to judge or tell you you’re wrong for your reason - I’m just really curious because it doesn’t affect me that way so I don’t understand your concern.
Ok. Sure. Sorry!!!
Meh and the community will stop saying words such as fuck, shit, bastard, bitch, motherfucker, and similar, right now. This instant, shithead.
@f00l I will admit I don’t like the language a lot of times on here but I also understand that the forum doesn’t revolve around me. The times were the conversations go beyond what I want to read or participate in, I move along. That’s what the mouse or scroll thingys are for, right? Put on your big girl panties and deal with it because you enjoy the members as I do or find a forum that restricts the language.
Since I do not curse often here, I thought about having giphy look up “timid fuck” just to see what it would post. I looked it up beforehand on google, and the results were exactly what I thought they would be.
@f00l i think it is spelled prawn, not pr0n. those little shrimpies just go at it like rabbits.
__________________________________
( maybe the expression should be )
( go at it like ~~shrimp~~ prawn )
----------------------------------
o ^__^
o (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
@kthomae, a less aggressive request for clarity might have gone smoother. As you can see, the forums are full of smart asses. Still, I’ll try to get back to a level of reasonable discourse.
The line of censorship can be drawn to suit different comfort levels. Comedian and Hollywood levels of comfort, for instance, allow for a wide swath of expression without censorship. Certainly there are still restrictions here but they are not what you’ve come to expect in ecommerce.
Why? When you increase censorship you increase subjectivity about what is deleted and what is left. Often times, posts with profanity are displeased with a service or a product. They are angry and they use language that angry humans use. Most retailers would be happy to remove complaints. We are happy to not censor them.
This isn’t a practice we allow on all our sites, but it particular suits Meh.com, where we let our reluctance to be conventional retailers shine.
That this policy allows for aggressive ridicule like you received isn’t great. But the policy itself is celebrated in this way and we are not willing to change it. Playing to the audience in our write ups and photo captions is what the creative teams do – and there is indeed more restraint there than in the forums. I’d say we’re PG-13 there and we allow R here in the forums for above purposes.
@dashcloud you can’t say much at all right now on MorningSave (so that site). Maybe someday we’d censor it on Mediocre if it mattered (not much official going on there at the moment)
In all honesty, this is the reason I don’t participate much on Meh anymore. I used to be here all the time, but I generally try to avoid profanity in my life. I have a general rule of living that if I can’t do something with my wife and kids around, I don’t do it.
I know most people on here couldn’t care less about my opinion, but I think it is a valid concern–and most likely has drove many people away, just like me. I just happen to take the time to post my opinion, because it gives me another opportunity to star my own post.
@RiotDemon cursing in and of itself does not bother me so much, as the philosophical or theological arguments against cursing don’t depend so much on the words but the intent of the words (except the GD word, which is the worst curse word of all as it literally breaks one of the ten commandants). It has more to do with respecting people. Just like I would hold the door open for someone–or I would refrain from walking outside in my boxers to get my mail, I think there are some things that one should not do as a matter of common decency. How I feel about cursing is irrelevant because it’s not about me–it’s about the people around me that I may offend. I’m just a supporter of an increase in manners, I suppose.
@phatmass
I would not be here is cursing if those words were used to hurt. Or used casually, because we were too stupid or insensitive to care whether it might hurt or not. I accept there may be small errors along the way. Including mine.
The OP here came across as so condescendingly superior than I made somewhat brutal joke as a reply.
We, for the most part, do not often use curse words in anger or criticism - with some exceptions. But it’s rare and not the rule.
Those words are used mostly for humor, exaggeration, cosmic commentary, hit-finger-with-hammer-moments. pseudo-exaggeration, and sometimes for humorously trying to turn the meanings inside out.
It’s an aesthetic, and there are other defensible aesthetics that don’t allow these words in use, such as office speech or business speech or public social speech, and in many websites and forums. In the early days I didn’t like those words here much - but the place settled down and found its voice, or my own sensibility changed, and all seems fine. I’m obviously good with it at the moment.
In my family-friends’ social life, these are used, to some extent, with some participants. Everyone knows who and what and how far. If they forget, “temp freezing look” or “Hey dial it back please”.
I tend to get annoyed when someone uses these words to express political anger, and I can get quite angry when someone uses these words to hurt. If I choose to take those situations on, I never use profanity.
I have a theory that someone who has to resort to profanity in those political anger moments may be incapable of thought at the moment, and needs a little non-profane shock treatment to get those minds turned back on. It seems to work, at least for the moment.
If someone uses those words to hurt, against someone who it seems can’t defend themselves, I might do a serious close range freezing look. Or say something to adjust the situation. Not using profanity.
I understand your choice.
my earliest public profanity happened when I was about kindergarten age. This was in a era when public cursing was nearly unknown.
My family and I were leaving Memorial Stadium in Austin. The Texas Longhorns, very highly ranked before the the game, had just lost a hard-fought game to “XYZ University.” This killed UT’s chances for the National Championship that year.
As we exited the stadium, I said, rather loudly, “Damn XYZ”.
My mother turned to me in horror. She was practically red in the face and in shock. She said, “What did you just say? Did you just say what I think you said?”
My Dad, famous for never ever cursing, never, even in complete privacy, practically yelled, “the phrase was ‘Damn XYZ’! I repeat, does everyone hear me? ‘Damn XYZ!’”
Mom started to laugh, as did many people around us. I and my siblings got ice cream, that once, because I had spoken my mind.
My siblings and I found out quite quickly that the profanity exception for that occasion was, unfortunately, a one-off and not replicable.
@phatmass I guess I just don’t understand. I avoid cursing at work because so many people are easily offended. Pretty much almost everyone I know in my personal life doesn’t care about cursing. The words aren’t bad words unless you mean them to be bad. They’re just words. Normal words that aren’t generally bad can be way worse than curse words.
@phatmass I think it’s extremely reasonable to not cuss to avoid offending people. I don’t use profanity much of the time for the same reason.
I teach my boys that restraint is actually what makes cursing effective. They aren’t allowed to be profane without having restraint. At a young age that restraint is basically around anyone who cares, especially authority figures.
When I view or hear other swear words used I often am disappointed at their lack of utility and over-abundance. However, put to good use I laugh harder and/or more efficiently understand how someone feels.
A real aside here but I recently wondered how akin manners were to political correctness. I find it ironic that scorn for one could occur without the other. I think reality is that scorn for political correctness is selective to a cause one is frustrated about. I’d certainly say that’s how manners work too. Both sides have their place, do they not?
I have a theory that someone who has to resort to profanity … may be incapable of thought at the moment
about the only time i curse is at my spouse, and it is EXACTLY when i am incapable of clear thought
i think you may soon be known as yoda
i saw a poster about cursing in a swimming pool that was meant to enlighten young, aspiring athletes. i can’t remember what it said, which bothers me more than it should.
__________________________________
/ a bulleted list something along \
| the lines of you curse because |
| you don't have decent language |
| skills to enable you to use |
\ crisp, intelligent words /
----------------------------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
@snapster I don’t disagree. One of my best friends is actually a priest who curses quite often. Although, never at someone–mostly in situations where he misses a turn, or Notre Dame gets scored on. Stuff like that.
I just think it’s so common here in this forum I feel like I may get numb to it. Conditioned to profanity, if you will. So, I don’t hang out much anymore. That’s just me.
@Yoda_Daenerys
There are a few family members/friends with whom swearword use is quite common between us.
If I get so hot over an issue that I start throwing around swear words, eventually I make myself back down and apologize. Not over my POV, unless I have reconsidered it. Over the swear words. Someone who drops to those words, or other cheap words of auto-characterization, isn’t making any kind of decent argument.
The other uses are intended as either humorous, or standard bitching about daily life. For these, I do not apologize, unless they were heard outside the intended conversational partners.
@snapster I rarely swear outside of this forums, although I did a lot when I was younger and worked with people who did a lot, and of course then these words lost their shock value and punch. It was quickly apparent to me that swear words are used here partly (I’d guess anyway) because people can use them more than most of us would otherwise use them in “real life” (or on many other forums for that matter) and typically (and equally as importantly in my opinion) they aren’t (usually) used in anger here. Instead they are used “just because we can” and at times very cleverly, to get laughs… On the rare occasion they are used in anger then the group seems to turn on that poster.
Reminds me of how how grade schoolers swear when they first discoverer some of these words - they over use them, use them with a level of smart ass glee at sneaking the “forbidden”, etc. The tone here strikes as similar. In some respects it’s also like how soft porn images get used here as well (along with some really disgusting images that you just can’t unsee even if you try to quickly scroll past them), although prudently, at least some people, warn others that a particular thread is not “safe” to open at work.
I think one of the issues of using these kinds of words frequently (like you teach your sons) is that the value of them wears off. There is a time and place where a particular word is the only one that will express the depth of emotion… and that includes, in my opinion, swear words. Personally I am not taking scissors to the dictionary. Long ago working with adjudicated youth I learned that if I kept it totally clean I could deliberately choose to drop a single swear word and immediately have their undivided attention (as in, “she must be really mad to use a swear word we’d better stop”).
The use of them here appears to be firmly entrenched in the culture of the forum. Things like the f-bomb word count have gone on for something like forever. Sometimes the limits get pushed here a bit, of course that is also what the “back” key and scroll fast is for. We can back out of the thread and move on to another one. Although I haven’t gone back to carefully look (I have been on here since about the end of the first week that this site had formally opened - I missed only a couple of the first meh faces) the sense I have is that there has been a bit of a shift to more soft porn, more swearing (especially the f-bomb), less innuendo and instead more direct expression, which then can result in a somewhat higher need for eye-bleach…
On the other hand that is balanced by group acts of kindness and generosity, friendships that appear to have developed in real life outside of these forums, long running jokes, real caring when something bad happens to someone, group efforts to prank people, prank your employees, help people… all the kinds of things that build loyalty to the group and the community, reinforce the culture that has developed here and then of course to cause people to join together and attack those that violate norms that have developed over time.
As meh staff are benevolent overlords the rest of us now think we own these forums LOL… Of course the forum exists at your pleasure and thus this is not a democracy here even though we might mistake the “benign neglect” and light moderation for that. Of course as you are king of the hill it is up to you whether or not the benign neglect and beatings will continue (grin).
@phatmass Just saw your comment that a friend of yours is a priest with an extensive curse word vocabulary. My dad was a minister. When I was four we moved to a major town where he was at a very large, ritzy church that collected a lot of lawyers, doctors, CEO’s, etc. dad was 28 at the time, the other ministers were a lot older. Much later he told us he was sort of intimidated when he started that job.
Anyway my first Sunday there the Sunday school teacher asked a question and said she was sure I knew the answer since I was the minister’s kid. I told her, “The hell I do”. She asked me where I had learned that word. I told her, “My daddy uses that at home all the time”. Not what dad needed his first week there LOL. The other one he used was damn. Mom would always have a fit whenever he swore and then used what I had said as ammunition for years (I think she might have been tele transported out of the victorian era or perhaps had past life in a convent). My uncle was a minister in another denomination. Apparently at their minister gatherings, unlike at dad’s, they told dirty jokes which he then told to all his nieces and nephews at family gatherings, much to dismay of “the aunts”.
It was a riot when dad would out argue the door to door sales people selling their religion. He’d corner them with the bible’s contradictions. Great fun to watch him verbally paint them into a biblical corner and then wipe the floor with their butts. He was into religious tolerance where no one religion had a monopoly on God, truth or the “right way” which is why he’d torture those poor folks when they made the mistake of tangling with him, although I am not so sure his church knew of his views in that respect.
@Kidsandliz lol. Talking to people who come to my door about religion is just fantastic fun. They all leave with a Pope is Dope tshirt. I keep all sizes handy.
@phatmass @Kidsandliz
My Mom’s family (lawyers and ministers) were involved in the breaking of their denomination into two different denominations over, if I recall, the issue of musical accompaniment during services.
Doctrine was important - does one permit in services only those practices described in the New Testament - or is musical accompaniment allowed because the New Testament does not forbid it?
@f00l “Where would we be without stuff to argue over?” - umm better off? LOL (yeah I know you were being sarcastic).
With respect to the shirt you hand out, I’d hazard a guess most would love that t-shirt since most of the door to door sales people are involved with fringe religions where they are the only ones with true enlightenment and so the Catholic church would be on their list of churches that are wrong.
@Kidsandliz @phatmass
Do people still do that? Go door to door arguing religion?
We were taught to always nice to the LDS and the college-aged ones, and offered any other them water or iced tea - (hot out); and they were always incredibly polite and well-mannered.
We didn’t mind the LDS and other youth, since it was as much training in self-discipline for the young as it was attempted missionary work. (I am assuming that the door-to-door success rate was effectively zero, locally.)
Of course, we never discussed faith, affiliation, doctrine, or our personal attitudes - any more than one might with any salesperson.
Always-Right Grandmother insisted that one had to know with whom to discuss which topics. I think she could have handled trolls.
I was, as a young kid, along for this one: Once she was visiting a local high school to give a ride to a friend of hers who taught there. She witnessed a combative student cuss out a teacher. She, ever fearless, marched right up to the student, and said, “Excuse me, young man; I can see that you are having a difficult day. You have my sympathy. I certainly hope that, when you arrive home, your Mother doesn’t bite you. That would make this rather bad day even worse for you.”
All that with a straight face. After she, I, and her teacher friend left the school, she did smile. She told her teacher-friend of the encounter with the student, and speculated “has that young man figured it out yet?” And then turned to me and said “Remember: You need never curse to make a point.”
I’m afraid I never adopted her degree of discipline and civility.
@f00l I live in the bible belt. All ages, some more persistent than others. I generally don’t answer the door if I see them coming but there are several groups (one that came like clockwork once a month) that rang the doorbell multiple times, looked through the windows and banged on them and it took 5 min before they’d go away. I am never rude, and neither was dad, but I do not like being accosted. Since I lived in the middle of the block I’d often see them coming so I’ll lower the blinds, turn out the lights in the front of the house and sit in the back. Easier than trying to get them to go away without having to shut the door in their face with them still talking because they refused to hear me that I am not interested in hearing their sales pitch (and no I don’t say that to their face either, I just tell them I am not interested, am busy and need to get back to what I was doing all while easing the door shut). Now that I live in a apt building it hasn’t been an issue yet with the door to door version but we have two bible thumpers who live here where, I think, converting us is their only topic of conversion so I try to avoid them.
@Kidsandliz
Your Bible Belt is more intense than my Bible Belt.
I haven’t heard of anyone doing door-to-door in a decade. Before then, I heard of one person who lived in an area where he was pestered. He had a “no soliciting” sign and made up a sign that said “No religious solicitations, please. Do not knock or ring.”
And he got one of those monster water guns to keep filled-up and ready by the door.
The “let me convert you” people tried his door exactly one time after that.
@f00l My place is apparently a bit more BibleBelty than yours, as the door-to-door types are as thick as daffodils in the spring. I have a “No Proselytizing” sign on my porch. One young lady rang my doorbell and started her spiel, and I stopped her (politely) and pointed at the sign. She gave me a very confused look, and muttered “I don’t know what that means.” I tried to explain in in words of no more than 3 syllables until she understood. Sigh.
My favorite story: One late fall day a few years back, there was a fast-moving storm headed my way from the west. Bad, since I had been putting off resealing the flashing around my chimney, and it was going to leak if I didn’t get it sealed before the storm arrived. As I was sitting on my sloped roof intently working some very thick silicon sealer around the flashing and watching westward for the storm, a van turned off the highway and headed up my driveway. Parked under the oaks, out popped 9 people of various ages and genders, all strangers to me.
The alpha male of the group then told me to stop what I was doing and come down immediately so we could talk about religion. I don’t like being dictated to by strangers at any time, but especially not when I’m in (or on) my own my own house and busy with something important. I told him politely that I was busy doing something important (Because, hey, don’t all sixty-something little-old-grey-haired ladies just climb up on their roofs for no reason? Although the view was rather nice up there …) -and he rattled off something about somethingsomething-salvation being more important. While I try to be polite to visitors, this was getting a bit odd. And about that time, I saw the top of a very dark storm cloud appear above the oaks. It looked ominous.
So I yelled down that I had to finish what I was doing because a very bad storm was going to arrive in about 10 minutes. I also told them that I was not interested in their religious message, but they were welcome to come into the house to wait out the worst of the storm. Alpha Male, from his vantage point 30+ feet below mine looking east into clear skies, scoffed and said: “What storm? There’s no storm, Lady!” So I ignored them while I finished up my task, then headed for the ladder at the back side of the house as the skies grew dark. I got into the house just as pounding rain mixed with hail hit the roof. And for the next 30 minutes, out at the end of my driveway next to the highway sat a van, as the wind, rain and hail made it too hard to drive. I hope I can be forgiven for just a bit of schadenfreude.
@rockblossom Don’t feel guilty. You warned them. That they did not believe you is not your fault. They were stupid though. Had they taken you up on the offer to come inside until the storm had passed they would have had you as a captive audience. And as I tell my kid all the time, “there are consequences for decisions and behaviors. Next time if you don’t like the consequence choose a behavior that has a consequence you like.” She is a slow learner on that front. LOL
The sign also, except for the syllable count. Obviously, a bit too high.
One of my college profs, a man with a national rep in his area, lived for a while in the Bible Belt. He told me that when they came too his door, he and his wife would suddenly start having problems with English, and would suddenly become fanatic Buddhists.
@Kidsandliz @rockblossom
A freethinking liberal arts college in a religious area - I have been told - has some apartment buildings next door that are 100% occupied by students. The “let me convert you” types have learned not to knock on those doors.
These students have developed a signaling system to notify all the other students that the apartment complex is under religious siege. The resident students, contrary to normal custom, suddenly start answering their front doors naked.
I have heard that something similar happened in Jester Center Dorm at UT Austin, capacity >3000, having its own zip code. When missionary-types appeared, suddenly the hallways were filled with students who forgot their clothing.
@Kidsandliz
I was not present to witness either custom - the impression I had of both is that the proselytizing persons had been asked not to knock on people’s doors or otherwise bother the residents, and the requests had been ignored in each case.
The stories also had somewhat apocryphal flavors. The persons who told me were also not witnesses or participants. I’m not certain how far it went in reality. The stories may have grown in the telling.
The best way to deal with someone using that kind of language is (as you so astutely observe) to ignore them. They don’t know fuck about that which they are talking.
Now, calm down, people. It’s fairly obvious the user is trolling. Reading the post is painful, because there are so many errors it’s almost incomprehensible. Therefore, in an effort to sooth everyone, I have corrected a few things.
What gives you the right to post that foul of aSUCH FOUL language on a video caption*!* ? (If it’s a real question, it deserves a question mark. Perhaps it’s the beginning of an exposition on First Amendment rights.) You should be ashamed of yourselvesYOURSELF. (Technically the plural is incorrect, as meh.com is a corporation. In the famous Citizens United case, the Supreme Court held that corporations have the same free speech rights as ordinary individuals.)
I will not continue buyingTO BUY (Gerunds are so passive. Clearly the user wishes to be active.) from your website if you keep posting theseTHIS type of foul language posts. (The corporate entity meh.com is not posting posts. Users on the site post posts. Note that other types of foul language posts are not discouraged. Note also that meh posted the video caption, which got a little lost in the grammar.)
@OldCatLady
I’m just not up to those standards - perhaps could do a quick tribute attempt if I listened to a few more of her books 1st.
She can fucking write.
I grew up and had a good part of my adult life where there were some words that just WERE NOT USED in front of women. That obviously no longer holds true, but I still wonder that when “fuck” is used often in ordinary conversation, what term is available when you’re really mad? I mean, it has to be something really upsetting for me to say fuck, but it is a kind of a vent for the situation.
@pooflady
In my world, in the absence of swear words that are taken by the listener in they way those words would have been taken, say, 60 years ago, people are forced into speaking with reason if they want anyone to listen to them.
@pooflady Exactly! I unfortunately use the F word but it’s usually in place of me throwing something like a plate or a fist…haha. Unless alcohol is involved sadly cuss words are my friends then. I hate hearing it around my grand babies or my mama, who has never heard me cuss. I do like my cuss words, son of a biscuit eater, mother of hot dogs, holy sugar…they sound nicer even though they are still for cussing.
i found some explanation of all of this that i found interesting
then i was taken to some urban dictionary definition feed.
for those of you who have been in the whole with kimmy schmidt as long as i have, i dare you to look up the definition for “the shocker” in urban dictionary and try to not spit your food (or drink) while reading.
I don’t want imagery that I would define as soft core porn in our forum and I would censor it if I encountered it. Problem may be that I think that still means nudity. Could it mean clothed but sexually focused to some? I don’t like those because they are usually misogynistic but they are ingrained in pop culture and hard to draw the line on.
@justbuyit I failed to see any humor in your post and censored it.
@snapster No problem, your sandbox - your rules (whim?). Do you have an issue with pointing out the ethnocentrism and religiocentrism blatantly exhibited in another member’s post if I refrain from profanity? I didn’t mean for the posting I made to guise a personal attack, but after I posted it, I could certainly see how you or any other rational person might have interpreted it as such. It wasn’t - I really didn’t mean to break the golden rule (which I understand from reading other postings made recently revolves loosely around ‘don’t be a dick’). For that, I do apologize.
In removing the totality of the posting (the second part of which was as observation that was not acrimonious in any manner), you’ve left me confused as to what will and will not be redacted.
@snapster Thank for this post. I would never say anything about some of the images I’ve seen posted for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I don’t have the gift of gab and would probably muck up what I was trying to get across. You do not have that issue!
@snapster
The shifting cultural standards can get all like twisty little passages when one tries to follow them.
Some snicker-worthy-in-private stuff that was ok in that closed context use in the past - or was accepted as ok by basically decent people - is now not ok. My take is that we are mostly the better for these changes. But sometimes uncertain.
And some stuff that was not ok is now kinda ok or straight up ok. Esp if funny. Esp if funny to the group that might be seen as insulted, demeaned, or disempowered by a surface quick take of whatever.
Political correctness can be good, and help to correct pervasive and harmful nearly-unconscious biases and status-quo situations - or it can be nutcase culture police stuff. Those lines are hard to draw and can change over time.
Figuring out what is appropriate is not a modern thing - is as old as language.
I prefer loose standards, as long as no one is targeted, or the targeted group is cool with it or finds it funny or ok, and it passes the “people i most admire” are ok with it" test. The stuff that fits this definition also changes over time.
If the end result is increased intelligence and sensitivity in conversation, increased humor accepted by about everyone, no disempowerment, acceptance by groups who appear to be the likely butt of the language or images, then it’s prob a good direction.
And then there’s evil (no need to provide examples, we all know them)
And then there’s madness (as I see it)
Students at an ultra-liberal Ohio college are in an uproar over the fried chicken, sushi and Vietnamese sandwiches served in the school cafeterias, complaining the dishes are “insensitive” and “culturally inappropriate.” Gastronomically correct students at Oberlin College — alma mater of Lena Dunham — are filling the school newspaper with complaints and demanding meetings with campus dining officials and even the college president.
General Tso’s chicken was made with steamed chicken instead of fried — which is not authentically Chinese, and simply “weird,” one student bellyached in the Oberlin Review. Others were up in arms over banh mi Vietnamese sandwiches served with coleslaw instead of pickled vegetables, and on ciabatta bread, rather than the traditional French baguette Worse, the sushi rice was undercooked in a way that was, according to one student, “disrespectful” of her culture.
Oberlin’s black student union joined in the fray this month by staging a protest outside Afrikan Heritage House, an on-campus dorm. The cafeteria there wasn’t serving enough vegan and vegetarian options and had failed to make fried chicken a permanent feature on the Sunday night menu, the school newspaper reported. Those students started a petition that also recommends the reduction of cream used in dishes, because “black American food doesn’t have much cream in it,” according to the Review.
No word on whether Oberlin will provide proper Chinese food with alongside non-offensive movies for the Jewish students who didn’t go home for Christmas.
As the year comes to a close it’s important to read this and yes, laugh. But it’s more important to see how far we’ve come. It started with the lie of Mike Brown, middled with Baltimore riots and Mizzou protests… and now ends with cafeteria food being labeled “racist.” Think about that for a second. Right now, there’s a college student in his dorm-room, half-baked, seething over sub-par Orange Chicken.
I suppose the point might be to have conversations on this that are open, fun, sensitive, loose, sometimes serious. And to respect social context and respect individuals.
@snapster As a post script - obviously I found the post to be pretty damn funny within the context of the posters previous postings. If connotation and intension could be easily translated into what was meant to be a flippant and expressly pithy post, I’m certain a few others may have also. But as said, I can see where it fell flat and missed the mark.
Also, your notice to me, although appreciated, may lead a reader to assume the posting of mine which you censored contained ‘soft core porn’ as it follows you expressing your views on such content. I’d like to point out that my posting did not contain such.
@f00l My PC behavior is to speak to and treat people as I want them to do to me. The golden rule can normally keep you out of deep doodoo(can I say that here or do I have to say shit? Kidding)
@justbuyit
I saw your original post. Obviously, I’m not looking at it now.
Ethnocentrism - I have no idea what you might be criticizing re @pharmass, unless having a European cultural heritage is now verboten as an option. (And if it were, that would be ethnocentrism.)
religiocentrism - uh, for an individual in his/her personal faith, what’s the prob? Have we lost the right to individual belief systems, freely chosen,and not imposed on others? It appeared to me that @phatmass expresses a pref without in any way strong-arming anyone into agreement with a preferred set of rules, or into agreement with the beliefs that back up the preferred rule set.
@phatmass appears to be expressing a personal philosophy, not trying to force anyone else down that path.
In daily life I also try to do golden rule stuff. Once in a while I try to give a little momentum in that direction to another person in some situation. Usually a barest whiff of suggestion, unless actual harm is being done real-time to someone. I am unfit to be the culture police.
Re Meh - every group develops its own conversational standards. Meh as a locus seems open to having people “push things a little” if done without intent to harm. And so i do, while hoping I’m nor crossing the “dick” line. I may fail at that sometimes. It bothers me if I think I have failed.
If I were in a conversational locus that frowned on profanity, or on the sort of humor we try to practice here, I would respect the local norms. Or not be there at all.
@f00l I believe we’re not at all on the same page. Neither are criticisms - they’re just simple observations. Of course we all make evaluations of others and other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture and as for religiocentrism, well, he/she opened the door with the proclamation that ‘GD’ was the ultimate in profanity. My post was simply a pithy way to point out that not everyone agrees - we all see the world differently, we all have varying beliefs. As a long time reader of the forum, I made the comment in light of the other members prior engagements here on the forum which I have read - specifically and purposefully making it (my comment) derisively mocking, sardonic if you will, in an attempt to drive the point that the poster may be construed as a bit hypocritical. That’s all. My comments contain a bit of HYPERBOLE (against the hypocrisy for perhaps even comic balance), that apparently only I at present ‘get’.
And with that frustration, I feel I’ll go back to reading and keeping my mouth shut (or sitting on my fingers have you). There seems to be a lot of jumping to conclusions (wildly argumentative conclusions at that) off the deep end of sanity within this thread. It’s a little too charged and no one seems to be able to locate the lighten up switch.
@f00l Shoot you don’t need to worry about crossing the line, from what I’ve seen you’re one of the good ones, as most posters in this forum are, in my opinion. That’s one of the reasons I feel comfortable discussing and even sometimes debating with you. I love that Meh is not stodgy or so uptight. It’s definitely a big part of its charm. It draws very interesting, and different, types of people. Could I do without some of the cussing and some of the raunchiness? Sure. Would I be better off, not so sure.
It’s true that we’re prob not on the same page. But I think most of the people here are far better at reading that you seem willing to credit.
I don’t remember the details of your original comment. Only that my immediate reaction was that you appeared not to have understood what @phatmass said in the way that most people here seem to have read it, and that your response seemed quite hostile and judgmental, far more so than anything @phatmass said.
Yes @phatmass made a remark about the “GD” phrase in slightly “absolute”. terms, given the context. But there was no shouting of “truth” and the sermon seems to be missing also. And the statement was clearly also in personal terms. There was no attempt by @phatmass that I could see to impose those beliefs on anyone.
I understand this to be legal in civilized and respectful adult conversation, even if it might feel awkward in anthropology or philosophy class. Two diff contexts. Neither implies some “centrism” or other.
Do people have to write endless paragraphs qualifying every word? That would make for some prose I won’t be reading. Ouch.
I did not find @phatmass hypocritical. I believe I understand the language in the manner intended by the writer.
Much of comedy - and hyperbole - and cultural or political argument - is highly dependent on timing, setting, audience. Art, success of exactly no-one is a lock. So who “gets it” here? I know of no certain formula.
So, @phatmass and “GD”; crime of the century, what? If you’re the only one who sees or can find the light switch (to stretch your metaphor), I guess I’ll have to sit in the dark.
And that last is harsher than I feel, so I’m a @f00l. (I liked the phrasing, which is a personal weakness.). Dear me.
@f00l No, we’re not on the same page - and yes, I give people here plenty of credit. I should have written “Neither are criticisms in the manner in which you interpreted them” in my previous reply.
That passive aggressiveness looks good on you.
My post fell flat. I’ve admitted that - hell, I even apologized - but you came at me. Sorry you felt like you needed to interject and had to play Meh police (again).
Now you go right on and keep punching me in the tits. But I won’t be reading it.
@justbuyit
Actually, I was just trying to talk with you. Not pound you. If it came across otherwise, then I did not succeed in conveying anything worthwhile at all.
@justbuyit appreciate your follow up and sorry I didn’t differentiate the deletion from the previous paragraph topic.
The post lasted long enough to email notify @phatmass and it seemed intended to be hurtful. Though I am not religous, I had an Episcopalian Priest and a Lutheran Minister as grandfathers. They lived and died with their beliefs and zero of the time do I think I should have debated them on their logic. Life is too short. I understand that those personally hurt by religion may feel very different but I’d define this as a futile topic for our ecommerce forums. When charged with profanity it seems most simple to delete and deescalate.
Edit: ok not having Phatmass see it steps down my concern. If you want to parse out intent you’re welcome to, but probably a dead end.
@justbuyit Oh, I saw what you wrote via the miracle of email (thanks @snapster!). Those big words you used were funny. I wasn’t offended at all because I don’t get offended by people. I value your humanity and am positive that in real life we’d get along super swell!
@snapster Thank you for your reply. My post was meant to be provocative, but not provocative in a hurtful manner, as I have stated. I agree with you that parsing intent further would be futile. I’ll defer to your astute sentiment that life is much too short to debate the issue in whole and keep it in mind for any future intercourse within this milieu.
@snapster I guess I am thinking some of the minimally clothed but very sexually suggestive images are the ones that border on or is soft porn. There have been a couple of accidental gifs with the random function that were a bit beyond that, but not many and those were not the fault of the poster (although a few did mention they either deleted what they got or otherwise chose not to post something they found). I look at soft porn more as R rated rather than X rated… of course I am only making an observation so please don’t read my post as a negative judgement about the forums. We all are free to vote with the delete membership function. In my personal opinion, on the balance the positive here far outweighs the negative.
I find a cuss word here and there funny, especially if used to enhance a story, etc. However, I really feel these words are used more and more often to avoid having to think of a better word. It’s kind of like how a huge number of first episodes for new shows start off with a sex scene. Now I’m not a prude but I feel like writers have gotten so lazy that instead of using their talent to write some exciting scene to grab an audience, they all think well sex always brings the viewers in I’ll just do that. It’s really frustrating to me…lol. I want a storyline and a plot…I don’t really need to see two people getting it on…yes they have made sex ordinary. I am as guilty of this habit as anyone although I don’t cuss like I used to and didn’t do it every other word ever, but I have challenged myself (what can I say I’m bored) to find other words to use in place of amazing and awesome whether I am speaking or typing. It’s been hard just for those two words, can’t imagine how hard it would be for some posters to try to sub cuss words. Long story short, I don’t like all the cussing but I also don’t want to leave so as long as no one is cussing at me I try to go along to get along.
@mehbee My teenager has been watching documentaries about gangsters. I saw the first episode of “Boardwalk Empire” and knew she would love it. Except for the sex. Way too much sex. And naked women. And naked men. So no way would she be comfortable watching it. Why do I need to see Lucky Luciano’s dick? I totally agree with you. And it’s not just HBO shows- almost everything I watch has more sex than most teens could handle.
@f00l I get that casual shots of boobs and dangly bits are standard for Europe, but HBO also shows hard core, sweaty, ride-em cowboy type sex for minutes at a time. Geez, folks, turn the lights off like normal Americans. And can we just once see dragons on GOT without an incest-rape scene?
@sammydog01
I am way behind on GOT (did the books way back) and haven’t started Boardwalk Empire. If they’re hitting the viewers in the face with extended longish fairly graphic sex scenes, I’m very bored very quickly. Time to multi-task and perhaps catch up on the story bits somewhat by inference if I wind up paying no attention at all.
@sammydog01 There is so much that goes along with the “sex” part. It can cause people to have body image issues, to be really confused as to what role sex plays, or should play, in their life. I think it being everywhere takes the specialness away from the act, so many things that rub me the wrong way. If a couple having sex or making love pushing the story line along, that’s cool but to put in sex because you’re a lazy writer or because you think it’s expected…well it just chaps my hide…lol. That said, even if a show starts off like that I always give it a chance because there have been several shows I wanted to turn off because of the explicitedness(?) but didn’t and was very happy as the show did not focus just on that. Parents have a very, very hard job nowadays.
@mehbee We (family of 4; 2 teenaged sons) watch virtually no TV these days, tho not really for the reasons you’ve noted. We just have very busy lives full of other sorts of activities.
Perhaps we’re just delaying the inevitable, but for now our concerns are limited to youtube video and some other website content (in a somewhat restricted internet universe).
@mehbee My middle schooler says most of the boys in his class claim to watch porn. My guess is that most of them are lying but I would be surprised if they all were. It’s too easy to find online. And the school gave them all chromebooks that are required for homework. The school locks content on their wifi but the chromebooks have no parental safety features at home. I guess we are expected to watch over their shoulders 24/7. Thanks, school, you’re a big help.
@sammydog01 Our kids are in similar situation: school laptops. They do all laptop activities in the family room where a parent or sibling could see. For now, that appears to be a big enough deterrent.
@compunaut I work at home and watch most my TV either during the day when I’m working or on the weekend when I’m cleaning. Not that my husband and I don’t watch it at night ever but it’s not an everyday thing.
@sammydog01 And I can tell you from personal experience a lot of boys who watch it young think that is how sex is supposed to be. I married one of those guys who were introduced to porn way too young. He sure married the wrong girl…lol
Is this where we post dead baby cannibal jokes? I get my threads confused. Fuck. Wait. I think I fucked this shit up and clicked the wrong little bitch fucking button. My fingers are whores. Dirty. Fucking Whores.
@chr See? This. This is why I treat Meh like an ex-girlfriend’s Facebook profile. I check it out every once in awhile out of curiosity, but then feel real bad about it afterwords.
@phatmass I am so in agreement with you on this particular post. There’s nothing humorus about what was said and the tone was more, you don’t like it, too bad let me shove some more in your face. But I guess if you can’t discuss an issue intelligently or just let someone else have their own opinion, this is the type of post you get.
Threads like this one will have folks “celebrating our policy” that are pretty gross both out and even in context. At least it’s not an attack. If our forums looked like this thread, we’d clearly have to rethink our ability to be progressive. At least gross posts hurt the posters reputation regardless of the rules officially allowing it.
@therealjrn I’m confused too. Other than one post that was apparently offensive enough to be removed I don’t see anything that’s not pretty standard on this site. What part of this thread is so bad? Or maybe I just have a bad reputation and don’t know it?
What the fuck is this horse shit?
This isn’t going to end well.
But to answer your question, owning the company gives them the right to post that foul language on their site.
@kthomae - Assuming your post is not in jest, genuinely serious question here - why does it bother you that they use the word ‘fucking’? I’m really curious. They aren’t asking you to use that word. They aren’t trying to get your kids/grandkids/spouse/golden retreiver to use it. It’s just a word on a webpage. And in the song it refers to. Why does it bother you? I’m not going to judge or tell you you’re wrong for your reason - I’m just really curious because it doesn’t affect me that way so I don’t understand your concern.
@kthomae
Ok. Sure. Sorry!!!
Meh and the community will stop saying words such as fuck, shit, bastard, bitch, motherfucker, and similar, right now. This instant, shithead.
@f00l I will admit I don’t like the language a lot of times on here but I also understand that the forum doesn’t revolve around me. The times were the conversations go beyond what I want to read or participate in, I move along. That’s what the mouse or scroll thingys are for, right? Put on your big girl panties and deal with it because you enjoy the members as I do or find a forum that restricts the language.
You’ve been here for 307 days, bought one item, and are just now complaining? Lol.
@RiotDemon How did you see his signup date and purchase history?
@Climb I clicked on his name.
@Climb Only works for VMPs
@Climb Howdy! Welcome to the internets! Don’t get shitty, people will get fucking upset.
@sammydog01 That’s not a true statement:
sammydog01 joined us 654 days ago on December 24th, 2014.
sammydog01 is a hardcore meh fiend having placed 129 orders, clicked the meh button 651 times, and voted in 550 polls.
@MrMark
/giphy you are correct
@sammydog01
I want to steal the brain of whoever did that giphy.
Paging @Carl669 we need more fucks up in here.
@RiotDemon We need more fuck ups in here? I thought we had plenty already.
This is the one fucking thing I’ll take the blame for.
@Ignorant That’s fucking fantastic!
/giphy fucking fantastic
@therealjrn WHY CANT I CLICK AWAY?!
Since I do not curse often here, I thought about having giphy look up “timid fuck” just to see what it would post. I looked it up beforehand on google, and the results were exactly what I thought they would be.
@conandlibrarian
Yet more subcategories I could never have thought up by myself. Yeah.
@f00l
@therealjrn
"Timid fuck" is, of course, very popular in the world of pr0n. and there are so so many varieties of “timid fuck”.
I never knew.
@f00l i think it is spelled prawn, not pr0n. those little shrimpies just go at it like rabbits.
@Yoda_Daenerys
Can I get prawn-pr0n at youporn.com?
Wowiee!
/youtube randy mollusks
Fucking fuckity fuck fuck.
@kthomae, a less aggressive request for clarity might have gone smoother. As you can see, the forums are full of smart asses. Still, I’ll try to get back to a level of reasonable discourse.
The line of censorship can be drawn to suit different comfort levels. Comedian and Hollywood levels of comfort, for instance, allow for a wide swath of expression without censorship. Certainly there are still restrictions here but they are not what you’ve come to expect in ecommerce.
Why? When you increase censorship you increase subjectivity about what is deleted and what is left. Often times, posts with profanity are displeased with a service or a product. They are angry and they use language that angry humans use. Most retailers would be happy to remove complaints. We are happy to not censor them.
This isn’t a practice we allow on all our sites, but it particular suits Meh.com, where we let our reluctance to be conventional retailers shine.
That this policy allows for aggressive ridicule like you received isn’t great. But the policy itself is celebrated in this way and we are not willing to change it. Playing to the audience in our write ups and photo captions is what the creative teams do – and there is indeed more restraint there than in the forums. I’d say we’re PG-13 there and we allow R here in the forums for above purposes.
@snapster Yep … totally PG-13.
(Blame @ignorant.)
Also since I said you were actually a cat before …
https://www.threadless.com/product/6035/careless_whisker
@snapster Whoa. A little NSFW warning would be appreciated before dropping the A word.
@snapster
You speak with reason and consideration.
Ok, now feel somewhat ashamed regarding my faint loser attempt at humor.
Damn. Fucked Up again.
@MrMark Your workplace has a problem with these guys?
I’m gonna go say fuck on Morning Save’s facebook page and see what happens.
@snapster What site can’t we can say fuck on that you/Mediocre own?
@dashcloud
FuckMeh.com?
@snapster I’d rather be a smartass than a dumbass.
@RiotDemon i’d rather be pissed off than pissed on
@f00l there’s no reason to feel bad little buddy, it’s ok, it’s nobody’s fault
-Rooter, Land before time
@dashcloud you can’t say much at all right now on MorningSave (so that site). Maybe someday we’d censor it on Mediocre if it mattered (not much official going on there at the moment)
@Yoda_Daenerys
Not to worry
Curse, or curse not
There is no shame.
(Excepting @ignorant’s)
@sammydog01 You’re too funny
Fuck that.
@kthomae
the first amendment. for an explanation of why they do it, see @snapster’s comment above.
(i thought about being snarky, but at this point, it really serves no purpose. maybe i’m just getting too old.)
@carl669 Oh fuck. Are you getting soft?!?
Also, this thread is currently averaging less than one fuck per comment/reply.
/jumble fcuk
fuck
@carl669 i thought you were the resident expert on the Mehchronicom, not the Bill of Rights
/youtube school house rocks bill of rights
@Yoda_Daenerys
The Venerable @carl669 is also The Keeper And Protector Of The Fuck Count.
I think saying pumpkin is delicious is a bigger fucking offense.
@ELUNO I don’t like Pumpkins at all but I love pumpkin spice.
@ELUNO Hear, hear!!!
@ELUNO
The early settlers did what they could do with the edibles they found.
I quite like pumpkin pie, a few times a year. And I can put up with Starbucks etc.
/giphy whaaaaa?
@connorbush it was a total accident of chance that this giphy appeared. sorry.
/giphy well that escalated quickly
Just curious. If this is R, where would I go to find X?
@pooflady
As mentioned in the thread a bit earlier, Google “Timid Fuck”.
@f00l Ah. I was strictly thinking verbal; gifs, et cetera, didn’t occur to me.
@pooflady meh: after dark
@pooflady
Google that phrase, follow the links, and you won’t be seeing just gifs. It’s seems to be a major category.
In all honesty, this is the reason I don’t participate much on Meh anymore. I used to be here all the time, but I generally try to avoid profanity in my life. I have a general rule of living that if I can’t do something with my wife and kids around, I don’t do it.
I know most people on here couldn’t care less about my opinion, but I think it is a valid concern–and most likely has drove many people away, just like me. I just happen to take the time to post my opinion, because it gives me another opportunity to star my own post.
@phatmass #irespecttheselfstar
@phatmass honest question, why does cursing bother you so much?
@RiotDemon cursing in and of itself does not bother me so much, as the philosophical or theological arguments against cursing don’t depend so much on the words but the intent of the words (except the GD word, which is the worst curse word of all as it literally breaks one of the ten commandants). It has more to do with respecting people. Just like I would hold the door open for someone–or I would refrain from walking outside in my boxers to get my mail, I think there are some things that one should not do as a matter of common decency. How I feel about cursing is irrelevant because it’s not about me–it’s about the people around me that I may offend. I’m just a supporter of an increase in manners, I suppose.
@phatmass I will try to not use offensive language if I see you around.
@phatmass
I would not be here is cursing if those words were used to hurt. Or used casually, because we were too stupid or insensitive to care whether it might hurt or not. I accept there may be small errors along the way. Including mine.
The OP here came across as so condescendingly superior than I made somewhat brutal joke as a reply.
We, for the most part, do not often use curse words in anger or criticism - with some exceptions. But it’s rare and not the rule.
Those words are used mostly for humor, exaggeration, cosmic commentary, hit-finger-with-hammer-moments. pseudo-exaggeration, and sometimes for humorously trying to turn the meanings inside out.
It’s an aesthetic, and there are other defensible aesthetics that don’t allow these words in use, such as office speech or business speech or public social speech, and in many websites and forums. In the early days I didn’t like those words here much - but the place settled down and found its voice, or my own sensibility changed, and all seems fine. I’m obviously good with it at the moment.
In my family-friends’ social life, these are used, to some extent, with some participants. Everyone knows who and what and how far. If they forget, “temp freezing look” or “Hey dial it back please”.
I tend to get annoyed when someone uses these words to express political anger, and I can get quite angry when someone uses these words to hurt. If I choose to take those situations on, I never use profanity.
I have a theory that someone who has to resort to profanity in those political anger moments may be incapable of thought at the moment, and needs a little non-profane shock treatment to get those minds turned back on. It seems to work, at least for the moment.
If someone uses those words to hurt, against someone who it seems can’t defend themselves, I might do a serious close range freezing look. Or say something to adjust the situation. Not using profanity.
I understand your choice.
my earliest public profanity happened when I was about kindergarten age. This was in a era when public cursing was nearly unknown.
My family and I were leaving Memorial Stadium in Austin. The Texas Longhorns, very highly ranked before the the game, had just lost a hard-fought game to “XYZ University.” This killed UT’s chances for the National Championship that year.
As we exited the stadium, I said, rather loudly, “Damn XYZ”.
My mother turned to me in horror. She was practically red in the face and in shock. She said, “What did you just say? Did you just say what I think you said?”
My Dad, famous for never ever cursing, never, even in complete privacy, practically yelled, “the phrase was ‘Damn XYZ’! I repeat, does everyone hear me? ‘Damn XYZ!’”
Mom started to laugh, as did many people around us. I and my siblings got ice cream, that once, because I had spoken my mind.
My siblings and I found out quite quickly that the profanity exception for that occasion was, unfortunately, a one-off and not replicable.
@phatmass I guess I just don’t understand. I avoid cursing at work because so many people are easily offended. Pretty much almost everyone I know in my personal life doesn’t care about cursing. The words aren’t bad words unless you mean them to be bad. They’re just words. Normal words that aren’t generally bad can be way worse than curse words.
@phatmass I think it’s extremely reasonable to not cuss to avoid offending people. I don’t use profanity much of the time for the same reason.
I teach my boys that restraint is actually what makes cursing effective. They aren’t allowed to be profane without having restraint. At a young age that restraint is basically around anyone who cares, especially authority figures.
When I view or hear other swear words used I often am disappointed at their lack of utility and over-abundance. However, put to good use I laugh harder and/or more efficiently understand how someone feels.
A real aside here but I recently wondered how akin manners were to political correctness. I find it ironic that scorn for one could occur without the other. I think reality is that scorn for political correctness is selective to a cause one is frustrated about. I’d certainly say that’s how manners work too. Both sides have their place, do they not?
@f00l
about the only time i curse is at my spouse, and it is EXACTLY when i am incapable of clear thought
i think you may soon be known as yoda
i saw a poster about cursing in a swimming pool that was meant to enlighten young, aspiring athletes. i can’t remember what it said, which bothers me more than it should.
@snapster I don’t disagree. One of my best friends is actually a priest who curses quite often. Although, never at someone–mostly in situations where he misses a turn, or Notre Dame gets scored on. Stuff like that.
I just think it’s so common here in this forum I feel like I may get numb to it. Conditioned to profanity, if you will. So, I don’t hang out much anymore. That’s just me.
@Yoda_Daenerys
There are a few family members/friends with whom swearword use is quite common between us.
If I get so hot over an issue that I start throwing around swear words, eventually I make myself back down and apologize. Not over my POV, unless I have reconsidered it. Over the swear words. Someone who drops to those words, or other cheap words of auto-characterization, isn’t making any kind of decent argument.
The other uses are intended as either humorous, or standard bitching about daily life. For these, I do not apologize, unless they were heard outside the intended conversational partners.
@phatmass
As opposed to the swearing that happens in my family when Notre Dame doesnt get scored on?
(Not to worry. We love ND. There are a very few schools ND is not allowed to beat. Against other schools, we want ND to win.)
@snapster I rarely swear outside of this forums, although I did a lot when I was younger and worked with people who did a lot, and of course then these words lost their shock value and punch. It was quickly apparent to me that swear words are used here partly (I’d guess anyway) because people can use them more than most of us would otherwise use them in “real life” (or on many other forums for that matter) and typically (and equally as importantly in my opinion) they aren’t (usually) used in anger here. Instead they are used “just because we can” and at times very cleverly, to get laughs… On the rare occasion they are used in anger then the group seems to turn on that poster.
Reminds me of how how grade schoolers swear when they first discoverer some of these words - they over use them, use them with a level of smart ass glee at sneaking the “forbidden”, etc. The tone here strikes as similar. In some respects it’s also like how soft porn images get used here as well (along with some really disgusting images that you just can’t unsee even if you try to quickly scroll past them), although prudently, at least some people, warn others that a particular thread is not “safe” to open at work.
I think one of the issues of using these kinds of words frequently (like you teach your sons) is that the value of them wears off. There is a time and place where a particular word is the only one that will express the depth of emotion… and that includes, in my opinion, swear words. Personally I am not taking scissors to the dictionary. Long ago working with adjudicated youth I learned that if I kept it totally clean I could deliberately choose to drop a single swear word and immediately have their undivided attention (as in, “she must be really mad to use a swear word we’d better stop”).
The use of them here appears to be firmly entrenched in the culture of the forum. Things like the f-bomb word count have gone on for something like forever. Sometimes the limits get pushed here a bit, of course that is also what the “back” key and scroll fast is for. We can back out of the thread and move on to another one. Although I haven’t gone back to carefully look (I have been on here since about the end of the first week that this site had formally opened - I missed only a couple of the first meh faces) the sense I have is that there has been a bit of a shift to more soft porn, more swearing (especially the f-bomb), less innuendo and instead more direct expression, which then can result in a somewhat higher need for eye-bleach…
On the other hand that is balanced by group acts of kindness and generosity, friendships that appear to have developed in real life outside of these forums, long running jokes, real caring when something bad happens to someone, group efforts to prank people, prank your employees, help people… all the kinds of things that build loyalty to the group and the community, reinforce the culture that has developed here and then of course to cause people to join together and attack those that violate norms that have developed over time.
As meh staff are benevolent overlords the rest of us now think we own these forums LOL… Of course the forum exists at your pleasure and thus this is not a democracy here even though we might mistake the “benign neglect” and light moderation for that. Of course as you are king of the hill it is up to you whether or not the benign neglect and beatings will continue (grin).
@Kidsandliz I guess I missed all the disgusting images, or I’m just immune. I’m not sure which is worse.
@phatmass And here, I thought your name was a typo of phatass. I’m not even joking.
Peace.
@phatmass Bye, you won’t be missed.
@DrunkCat I’ll miss you @phatmass.
/giphy don’t go
@DrunkCat I’d be missed more than you. I have more orders.
@phatmass Jokes on you, I don’t care if anyone misses me.
@phatmass Just saw your comment that a friend of yours is a priest with an extensive curse word vocabulary. My dad was a minister. When I was four we moved to a major town where he was at a very large, ritzy church that collected a lot of lawyers, doctors, CEO’s, etc. dad was 28 at the time, the other ministers were a lot older. Much later he told us he was sort of intimidated when he started that job.
Anyway my first Sunday there the Sunday school teacher asked a question and said she was sure I knew the answer since I was the minister’s kid. I told her, “The hell I do”. She asked me where I had learned that word. I told her, “My daddy uses that at home all the time”. Not what dad needed his first week there LOL. The other one he used was damn. Mom would always have a fit whenever he swore and then used what I had said as ammunition for years (I think she might have been tele transported out of the victorian era or perhaps had past life in a convent). My uncle was a minister in another denomination. Apparently at their minister gatherings, unlike at dad’s, they told dirty jokes which he then told to all his nieces and nephews at family gatherings, much to dismay of “the aunts”.
It was a riot when dad would out argue the door to door sales people selling their religion. He’d corner them with the bible’s contradictions. Great fun to watch him verbally paint them into a biblical corner and then wipe the floor with their butts. He was into religious tolerance where no one religion had a monopoly on God, truth or the “right way” which is why he’d torture those poor folks when they made the mistake of tangling with him, although I am not so sure his church knew of his views in that respect.
@Kidsandliz lol. Talking to people who come to my door about religion is just fantastic fun. They all leave with a Pope is Dope tshirt. I keep all sizes handy.
@phatmass
@Kidsandliz
My Mom’s family (lawyers and ministers) were involved in the breaking of their denomination into two different denominations over, if I recall, the issue of musical accompaniment during services.
Doctrine was important - does one permit in services only those practices described in the New Testament - or is musical accompaniment allowed because the New Testament does not forbid it?
Where would we be without stuff to argue over?
@f00l “Where would we be without stuff to argue over?” - umm better off? LOL (yeah I know you were being sarcastic).
With respect to the shirt you hand out, I’d hazard a guess most would love that t-shirt since most of the door to door sales people are involved with fringe religions where they are the only ones with true enlightenment and so the Catholic church would be on their list of churches that are wrong.
@Kidsandliz
@phatmass
Do people still do that? Go door to door arguing religion?
We were taught to always nice to the LDS and the college-aged ones, and offered any other them water or iced tea - (hot out); and they were always incredibly polite and well-mannered.
We didn’t mind the LDS and other youth, since it was as much training in self-discipline for the young as it was attempted missionary work. (I am assuming that the door-to-door success rate was effectively zero, locally.)
Of course, we never discussed faith, affiliation, doctrine, or our personal attitudes - any more than one might with any salesperson.
Always-Right Grandmother insisted that one had to know with whom to discuss which topics. I think she could have handled trolls.
I was, as a young kid, along for this one: Once she was visiting a local high school to give a ride to a friend of hers who taught there. She witnessed a combative student cuss out a teacher. She, ever fearless, marched right up to the student, and said, “Excuse me, young man; I can see that you are having a difficult day. You have my sympathy. I certainly hope that, when you arrive home, your Mother doesn’t bite you. That would make this rather bad day even worse for you.”
All that with a straight face. After she, I, and her teacher friend left the school, she did smile. She told her teacher-friend of the encounter with the student, and speculated “has that young man figured it out yet?” And then turned to me and said “Remember: You need never curse to make a point.”
I’m afraid I never adopted her degree of discipline and civility.
@f00l I live in the bible belt. All ages, some more persistent than others. I generally don’t answer the door if I see them coming but there are several groups (one that came like clockwork once a month) that rang the doorbell multiple times, looked through the windows and banged on them and it took 5 min before they’d go away. I am never rude, and neither was dad, but I do not like being accosted. Since I lived in the middle of the block I’d often see them coming so I’ll lower the blinds, turn out the lights in the front of the house and sit in the back. Easier than trying to get them to go away without having to shut the door in their face with them still talking because they refused to hear me that I am not interested in hearing their sales pitch (and no I don’t say that to their face either, I just tell them I am not interested, am busy and need to get back to what I was doing all while easing the door shut). Now that I live in a apt building it hasn’t been an issue yet with the door to door version but we have two bible thumpers who live here where, I think, converting us is their only topic of conversion so I try to avoid them.
@Kidsandliz
Your Bible Belt is more intense than my Bible Belt.
I haven’t heard of anyone doing door-to-door in a decade. Before then, I heard of one person who lived in an area where he was pestered. He had a “no soliciting” sign and made up a sign that said “No religious solicitations, please. Do not knock or ring.”
And he got one of those monster water guns to keep filled-up and ready by the door.
The “let me convert you” people tried his door exactly one time after that.
@phatmass uhh… I want a Pope is Dope t-shirt.
@f00l My place is apparently a bit more BibleBelty than yours, as the door-to-door types are as thick as daffodils in the spring. I have a “No Proselytizing” sign on my porch. One young lady rang my doorbell and started her spiel, and I stopped her (politely) and pointed at the sign. She gave me a very confused look, and muttered “I don’t know what that means.” I tried to explain in in words of no more than 3 syllables until she understood. Sigh.
My favorite story: One late fall day a few years back, there was a fast-moving storm headed my way from the west. Bad, since I had been putting off resealing the flashing around my chimney, and it was going to leak if I didn’t get it sealed before the storm arrived. As I was sitting on my sloped roof intently working some very thick silicon sealer around the flashing and watching westward for the storm, a van turned off the highway and headed up my driveway. Parked under the oaks, out popped 9 people of various ages and genders, all strangers to me.
The alpha male of the group then told me to stop what I was doing and come down immediately so we could talk about religion. I don’t like being dictated to by strangers at any time, but especially not when I’m in (or on) my own my own house and busy with something important. I told him politely that I was busy doing something important (Because, hey, don’t all sixty-something little-old-grey-haired ladies just climb up on their roofs for no reason? Although the view was rather nice up there …) -and he rattled off something about somethingsomething-salvation being more important. While I try to be polite to visitors, this was getting a bit odd. And about that time, I saw the top of a very dark storm cloud appear above the oaks. It looked ominous.
So I yelled down that I had to finish what I was doing because a very bad storm was going to arrive in about 10 minutes. I also told them that I was not interested in their religious message, but they were welcome to come into the house to wait out the worst of the storm. Alpha Male, from his vantage point 30+ feet below mine looking east into clear skies, scoffed and said: “What storm? There’s no storm, Lady!” So I ignored them while I finished up my task, then headed for the ladder at the back side of the house as the skies grew dark. I got into the house just as pounding rain mixed with hail hit the roof. And for the next 30 minutes, out at the end of my driveway next to the highway sat a van, as the wind, rain and hail made it too hard to drive. I hope I can be forgiven for just a bit of schadenfreude.
@carl669 http://www.phatmass.com/shop/pope-dope-shirt/
@rockblossom Don’t feel guilty. You warned them. That they did not believe you is not your fault. They were stupid though. Had they taken you up on the offer to come inside until the storm had passed they would have had you as a captive audience. And as I tell my kid all the time, “there are consequences for decisions and behaviors. Next time if you don’t like the consequence choose a behavior that has a consequence you like.” She is a slow learner on that front. LOL
@rockblossom
That storm was “just right”.
The sign also, except for the syllable count. Obviously, a bit too high.
One of my college profs, a man with a national rep in his area, lived for a while in the Bible Belt. He told me that when they came too his door, he and his wife would suddenly start having problems with English, and would suddenly become fanatic Buddhists.
@Kidsandliz
@rockblossom
A freethinking liberal arts college in a religious area - I have been told - has some apartment buildings next door that are 100% occupied by students. The “let me convert you” types have learned not to knock on those doors.
These students have developed a signaling system to notify all the other students that the apartment complex is under religious siege. The resident students, contrary to normal custom, suddenly start answering their front doors naked.
I have heard that something similar happened in Jester Center Dorm at UT Austin, capacity >3000, having its own zip code. When missionary-types appeared, suddenly the hallways were filled with students who forgot their clothing.
@f00l In my opinion doing what those students did is inappropriate.
@Kidsandliz
I was not present to witness either custom - the impression I had of both is that the proselytizing persons had been asked not to knock on people’s doors or otherwise bother the residents, and the requests had been ignored in each case.
The stories also had somewhat apocryphal flavors. The persons who told me were also not witnesses or participants. I’m not certain how far it went in reality. The stories may have grown in the telling.
@rockblossom That’s awesome.
Dear Mr. Thomae,
The best way to deal with someone using that kind of language is (as you so astutely observe) to ignore them. They don’t know fuck about that which they are talking.
@connorbush you could have at least hid it behind a link that say click here to win
@Yoda_Daenerys their videos are interesting. Too bad I don’t like their music.
Now, calm down, people. It’s fairly obvious the user is trolling. Reading the post is painful, because there are so many errors it’s almost incomprehensible. Therefore, in an effort to sooth everyone, I have corrected a few things.
What gives you the right to post that foul of a SUCH FOUL language on a video caption*!* ? (If it’s a real question, it deserves a question mark. Perhaps it’s the beginning of an exposition on First Amendment rights.) You should be ashamed of yourselves YOURSELF. (Technically the plural is incorrect, as meh.com is a corporation. In the famous Citizens United case, the Supreme Court held that corporations have the same free speech rights as ordinary individuals.)
I will not continue buying TO BUY (Gerunds are so passive. Clearly the user wishes to be active.) from your website if you keep posting these THIS type of foul language posts. (The corporate entity meh.com is not posting posts. Users on the site post posts. Note that other types of foul language posts are not discouraged. Note also that meh posted the video caption, which got a little lost in the grammar.)
@OldCatLady
http://shirt.woot.com/offers/more-better-grammar-1
@OldCatLady
Smartass fuckhead, you.
(Oh, my. Can you re-write the OP in Florence King language?)
@f00l No, I can’t. To the best of my recollection, she wrote clearly, grammatically, and concisely. You give it a try.
@OldCatLady
I’m just not up to those standards - perhaps could do a quick tribute attempt if I listened to a few more of her books 1st.
She can fucking write.
@OldCatLady
@narfcake That woot shirt would have been better it it started “… 6 Rules …”
@baqui63 Hey, I don’t design them! The farthest I’ve gone was suggesting this:
/image catshirtswoot
@narfcake I know.
Though to my knowledge you are the owner of the largest privately held collection of woot t-shirts.
perhaps the question was rhetorical since @kthomae has not been back since the original post
my guess is we’re all just worked up into a frenzy and said user isn’t even listening
it’s like something my mother used to say…
@Yoda_Daenerys Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice! There, let’s see what happens.
I grew up and had a good part of my adult life where there were some words that just WERE NOT USED in front of women. That obviously no longer holds true, but I still wonder that when “fuck” is used often in ordinary conversation, what term is available when you’re really mad? I mean, it has to be something really upsetting for me to say fuck, but it is a kind of a vent for the situation.
@pooflady
In my world, in the absence of swear words that are taken by the listener in they way those words would have been taken, say, 60 years ago, people are forced into speaking with reason if they want anyone to listen to them.
Even when furious. Or, perhaps, esp when furious.
To my thinking, this is as it should be.
@f00l To be honest, I almost never use the word with someone else; it’s reserved for doing something stupid or painful.
@pooflady I usually just say it louder. Or combine it with a dozen or so other obscenities in a stream-of-consciousness swear-sentence.
@pooflady Exactly! I unfortunately use the F word but it’s usually in place of me throwing something like a plate or a fist…haha. Unless alcohol is involved sadly cuss words are my friends then. I hate hearing it around my grand babies or my mama, who has never heard me cuss. I do like my cuss words, son of a biscuit eater, mother of hot dogs, holy sugar…they sound nicer even though they are still for cussing.
@mehbee That’s Bowdlerizing. I tell people to go doodle in their hats.
i found some explanation of all of this that i found interesting
then i was taken to some urban dictionary definition feed.
for those of you who have been in the whole with kimmy schmidt as long as i have, i dare you to look up the definition for “the shocker” in urban dictionary and try to not spit your food (or drink) while reading.
i’ve lived a sheltered life
/youtube gimme shelter
@Yoda_Daenerys
@Yoda_Daenerys
Re The Shocker
The Howard Stern Show explained all these terms to me.
@Yoda_Daenerys I looked it up. I also found a definition for “the goat”. Turns out it means something totally different than scapegoat. Who knew?
@sammydog01 did you spit upon reading? now i have to go look up the goat…
@Yoda_Daenerys @sammydog01 I can’t even access the urban dictionary at the office. Have to wait til I get home
@compunaut
Smartphone blocked at work?
@f00l Pshaw. You know I don’t have a ‘smart phone’. It does have a nifty slide-out keyboard for sending text messages, tho.
I don’t want imagery that I would define as soft core porn in our forum and I would censor it if I encountered it. Problem may be that I think that still means nudity. Could it mean clothed but sexually focused to some? I don’t like those because they are usually misogynistic but they are ingrained in pop culture and hard to draw the line on.
@justbuyit I failed to see any humor in your post and censored it.
@snapster No problem, your sandbox - your rules (whim?). Do you have an issue with pointing out the ethnocentrism and religiocentrism blatantly exhibited in another member’s post if I refrain from profanity? I didn’t mean for the posting I made to guise a personal attack, but after I posted it, I could certainly see how you or any other rational person might have interpreted it as such. It wasn’t - I really didn’t mean to break the golden rule (which I understand from reading other postings made recently revolves loosely around ‘don’t be a dick’). For that, I do apologize.
In removing the totality of the posting (the second part of which was as observation that was not acrimonious in any manner), you’ve left me confused as to what will and will not be redacted.
@snapster Thank you for stating this so clearly.
@snapster Thank for this post. I would never say anything about some of the images I’ve seen posted for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I don’t have the gift of gab and would probably muck up what I was trying to get across. You do not have that issue!
@snapster
The shifting cultural standards can get all like twisty little passages when one tries to follow them.
Some snicker-worthy-in-private stuff that was ok in that closed context use in the past - or was accepted as ok by basically decent people - is now not ok. My take is that we are mostly the better for these changes. But sometimes uncertain.
And some stuff that was not ok is now kinda ok or straight up ok. Esp if funny. Esp if funny to the group that might be seen as insulted, demeaned, or disempowered by a surface quick take of whatever.
Political correctness can be good, and help to correct pervasive and harmful nearly-unconscious biases and status-quo situations - or it can be nutcase culture police stuff. Those lines are hard to draw and can change over time.
Figuring out what is appropriate is not a modern thing - is as old as language.
I prefer loose standards, as long as no one is targeted, or the targeted group is cool with it or finds it funny or ok, and it passes the “people i most admire” are ok with it" test. The stuff that fits this definition also changes over time.
If the end result is increased intelligence and sensitivity in conversation, increased humor accepted by about everyone, no disempowerment, acceptance by groups who appear to be the likely butt of the language or images, then it’s prob a good direction.
And then there’s evil (no need to provide examples, we all know them)
And then there’s madness (as I see it)
I suppose the point might be to have conversations on this that are open, fun, sensitive, loose, sometimes serious. And to respect social context and respect individuals.
@snapster As a post script - obviously I found the post to be pretty damn funny within the context of the posters previous postings. If connotation and intension could be easily translated into what was meant to be a flippant and expressly pithy post, I’m certain a few others may have also. But as said, I can see where it fell flat and missed the mark.
Also, your notice to me, although appreciated, may lead a reader to assume the posting of mine which you censored contained ‘soft core porn’ as it follows you expressing your views on such content. I’d like to point out that my posting did not contain such.
@f00l My PC behavior is to speak to and treat people as I want them to do to me. The golden rule can normally keep you out of deep doodoo(can I say that here or do I have to say shit? Kidding)
@justbuyit
I saw your original post. Obviously, I’m not looking at it now.
Ethnocentrism - I have no idea what you might be criticizing re @pharmass, unless having a European cultural heritage is now verboten as an option. (And if it were, that would be ethnocentrism.)
religiocentrism - uh, for an individual in his/her personal faith, what’s the prob? Have we lost the right to individual belief systems, freely chosen,and not imposed on others? It appeared to me that @phatmass expresses a pref without in any way strong-arming anyone into agreement with a preferred set of rules, or into agreement with the beliefs that back up the preferred rule set.
@phatmass appears to be expressing a personal philosophy, not trying to force anyone else down that path.
@mehbee
??? All good.
In daily life I also try to do golden rule stuff. Once in a while I try to give a little momentum in that direction to another person in some situation. Usually a barest whiff of suggestion, unless actual harm is being done real-time to someone. I am unfit to be the culture police.
Re Meh - every group develops its own conversational standards. Meh as a locus seems open to having people “push things a little” if done without intent to harm. And so i do, while hoping I’m nor crossing the “dick” line. I may fail at that sometimes. It bothers me if I think I have failed.
If I were in a conversational locus that frowned on profanity, or on the sort of humor we try to practice here, I would respect the local norms. Or not be there at all.
@f00l I believe we’re not at all on the same page. Neither are criticisms - they’re just simple observations. Of course we all make evaluations of others and other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture and as for religiocentrism, well, he/she opened the door with the proclamation that ‘GD’ was the ultimate in profanity. My post was simply a pithy way to point out that not everyone agrees - we all see the world differently, we all have varying beliefs. As a long time reader of the forum, I made the comment in light of the other members prior engagements here on the forum which I have read - specifically and purposefully making it (my comment) derisively mocking, sardonic if you will, in an attempt to drive the point that the poster may be construed as a bit hypocritical. That’s all. My comments contain a bit of HYPERBOLE (against the hypocrisy for perhaps even comic balance), that apparently only I at present ‘get’.
And with that frustration, I feel I’ll go back to reading and keeping my mouth shut (or sitting on my fingers have you). There seems to be a lot of jumping to conclusions (wildly argumentative conclusions at that) off the deep end of sanity within this thread. It’s a little too charged and no one seems to be able to locate the lighten up switch.
@f00l Shoot you don’t need to worry about crossing the line, from what I’ve seen you’re one of the good ones, as most posters in this forum are, in my opinion. That’s one of the reasons I feel comfortable discussing and even sometimes debating with you. I love that Meh is not stodgy or so uptight. It’s definitely a big part of its charm. It draws very interesting, and different, types of people. Could I do without some of the cussing and some of the raunchiness? Sure. Would I be better off, not so sure.
@justbuyit
It’s true that we’re prob not on the same page. But I think most of the people here are far better at reading that you seem willing to credit.
I don’t remember the details of your original comment. Only that my immediate reaction was that you appeared not to have understood what @phatmass said in the way that most people here seem to have read it, and that your response seemed quite hostile and judgmental, far more so than anything @phatmass said.
Yes @phatmass made a remark about the “GD” phrase in slightly “absolute”. terms, given the context. But there was no shouting of “truth” and the sermon seems to be missing also. And the statement was clearly also in personal terms. There was no attempt by @phatmass that I could see to impose those beliefs on anyone.
I understand this to be legal in civilized and respectful adult conversation, even if it might feel awkward in anthropology or philosophy class. Two diff contexts. Neither implies some “centrism” or other.
Do people have to write endless paragraphs qualifying every word? That would make for some prose I won’t be reading. Ouch.
I did not find @phatmass hypocritical. I believe I understand the language in the manner intended by the writer.
Much of comedy - and hyperbole - and cultural or political argument - is highly dependent on timing, setting, audience. Art, success of exactly no-one is a lock. So who “gets it” here? I know of no certain formula.
So, @phatmass and “GD”; crime of the century, what? If you’re the only one who sees or can find the light switch (to stretch your metaphor), I guess I’ll have to sit in the dark.
And that last is harsher than I feel, so I’m a @f00l. (I liked the phrasing, which is a personal weakness.). Dear me.
@f00l No, we’re not on the same page - and yes, I give people here plenty of credit. I should have written “Neither are criticisms in the manner in which you interpreted them” in my previous reply.
That passive aggressiveness looks good on you.
My post fell flat. I’ve admitted that - hell, I even apologized - but you came at me. Sorry you felt like you needed to interject and had to play Meh police (again).
Now you go right on and keep punching me in the tits. But I won’t be reading it.
@justbuyit
Actually, I was just trying to talk with you. Not pound you. If it came across otherwise, then I did not succeed in conveying anything worthwhile at all.
My apologies.
@justbuyit Wait. Did I miss a post that contained humor about me? I wanna see!
@phatmass
It’s gone.
It didn’t come across to many as much fun.
@justbuyit appreciate your follow up and sorry I didn’t differentiate the deletion from the previous paragraph topic.
The post lasted long enough to email notify @phatmass and it seemed intended to be hurtful. Though I am not religous, I had an Episcopalian Priest and a Lutheran Minister as grandfathers. They lived and died with their beliefs and zero of the time do I think I should have debated them on their logic. Life is too short. I understand that those personally hurt by religion may feel very different but I’d define this as a futile topic for our ecommerce forums. When charged with profanity it seems most simple to delete and deescalate.
Edit: ok not having Phatmass see it steps down my concern. If you want to parse out intent you’re welcome to, but probably a dead end.
@justbuyit Oh, I saw what you wrote via the miracle of email (thanks @snapster!). Those big words you used were funny. I wasn’t offended at all because I don’t get offended by people. I value your humanity and am positive that in real life we’d get along super swell!
@snapster Thank you for your reply. My post was meant to be provocative, but not provocative in a hurtful manner, as I have stated. I agree with you that parsing intent further would be futile. I’ll defer to your astute sentiment that life is much too short to debate the issue in whole and keep it in mind for any future intercourse within this milieu.
@snapster I guess I am thinking some of the minimally clothed but very sexually suggestive images are the ones that border on or is soft porn. There have been a couple of accidental gifs with the random function that were a bit beyond that, but not many and those were not the fault of the poster (although a few did mention they either deleted what they got or otherwise chose not to post something they found). I look at soft porn more as R rated rather than X rated… of course I am only making an observation so please don’t read my post as a negative judgement about the forums. We all are free to vote with the delete membership function. In my personal opinion, on the balance the positive here far outweighs the negative.
@snapster I saw one that definitely qualified once, but couldn’t find any way to report the post…
@Al_Coholic Flag it to @thumperchick or hollboll or moose (or all three)- they can censor posts and have occasionally.
I find a cuss word here and there funny, especially if used to enhance a story, etc. However, I really feel these words are used more and more often to avoid having to think of a better word. It’s kind of like how a huge number of first episodes for new shows start off with a sex scene. Now I’m not a prude but I feel like writers have gotten so lazy that instead of using their talent to write some exciting scene to grab an audience, they all think well sex always brings the viewers in I’ll just do that. It’s really frustrating to me…lol. I want a storyline and a plot…I don’t really need to see two people getting it on…yes they have made sex ordinary. I am as guilty of this habit as anyone although I don’t cuss like I used to and didn’t do it every other word ever, but I have challenged myself (what can I say I’m bored) to find other words to use in place of amazing and awesome whether I am speaking or typing. It’s been hard just for those two words, can’t imagine how hard it would be for some posters to try to sub cuss words. Long story short, I don’t like all the cussing but I also don’t want to leave so as long as no one is cussing at me I try to go along to get along.
@mehbee this was way too fucking long
@mehbee My teenager has been watching documentaries about gangsters. I saw the first episode of “Boardwalk Empire” and knew she would love it. Except for the sex. Way too much sex. And naked women. And naked men. So no way would she be comfortable watching it. Why do I need to see Lucky Luciano’s dick? I totally agree with you. And it’s not just HBO shows- almost everything I watch has more sex than most teens could handle.
@sammydog01
@mehbee
Perhaps body parts are “in”, so we just get used to body parts, as is the case in Europe and elsewhere.
Or lots of body parts are a cultural waters “test”, so that we can get over it and go back to “story”,
I react to some explicit stuff not so much as “brave”, more as slightly
/giphy gimmick
@f00l I get that casual shots of boobs and dangly bits are standard for Europe, but HBO also shows hard core, sweaty, ride-em cowboy type sex for minutes at a time. Geez, folks, turn the lights off like normal Americans. And can we just once see dragons on GOT without an incest-rape scene?
@sammydog01
I am way behind on GOT (did the books way back) and haven’t started Boardwalk Empire. If they’re hitting the viewers in the face with extended longish fairly graphic sex scenes, I’m very bored very quickly. Time to multi-task and perhaps catch up on the story bits somewhat by inference if I wind up paying no attention at all.
Feels like all sauce, no dinner.
@sammydog01 There is so much that goes along with the “sex” part. It can cause people to have body image issues, to be really confused as to what role sex plays, or should play, in their life. I think it being everywhere takes the specialness away from the act, so many things that rub me the wrong way. If a couple having sex or making love pushing the story line along, that’s cool but to put in sex because you’re a lazy writer or because you think it’s expected…well it just chaps my hide…lol. That said, even if a show starts off like that I always give it a chance because there have been several shows I wanted to turn off because of the explicitedness(?) but didn’t and was very happy as the show did not focus just on that. Parents have a very, very hard job nowadays.
@sammydog01 Exactly, just because it’s common in other places doesn’t mean it’s necessary or needed.
@mehbee We (family of 4; 2 teenaged sons) watch virtually no TV these days, tho not really for the reasons you’ve noted. We just have very busy lives full of other sorts of activities.
Perhaps we’re just delaying the inevitable, but for now our concerns are limited to youtube video and some other website content (in a somewhat restricted internet universe).
@mehbee My middle schooler says most of the boys in his class claim to watch porn. My guess is that most of them are lying but I would be surprised if they all were. It’s too easy to find online. And the school gave them all chromebooks that are required for homework. The school locks content on their wifi but the chromebooks have no parental safety features at home. I guess we are expected to watch over their shoulders 24/7. Thanks, school, you’re a big help.
@sammydog01 Our kids are in similar situation: school laptops. They do all laptop activities in the family room where a parent or sibling could see. For now, that appears to be a big enough deterrent.
@compunaut I work at home and watch most my TV either during the day when I’m working or on the weekend when I’m cleaning. Not that my husband and I don’t watch it at night ever but it’s not an everyday thing.
@sammydog01 And I can tell you from personal experience a lot of boys who watch it young think that is how sex is supposed to be. I married one of those guys who were introduced to porn way too young. He sure married the wrong girl…lol
@sammydog01
If you Google anything to do with pr0n, it’s all there, tons free, zero filters, no login, no credit card. Just click and watch.
Any kid who has 10 min or more of unsupervised internet accesss and wanted to see it has seen it.
I suppose that will be our world.
“Brave New World” posited Soma.
Our controllers won’t need a dispensary. Just video in a browser.
@sammydog01 You are supposed to turn the lights off?!?
@ELUNO You must be from Europe.
@Thumperchick Love it!
Is this where we post dead baby cannibal jokes? I get my threads confused. Fuck. Wait. I think I fucked this shit up and clicked the wrong little bitch fucking button. My fingers are whores. Dirty. Fucking Whores.
@chr
@therealjrn
The first cultural crime appears to be weird green eyeshadow.
@f00l I love green eyeshadow… But I’m weird.
@chr See? This. This is why I treat Meh like an ex-girlfriend’s Facebook profile. I check it out every once in awhile out of curiosity, but then feel real bad about it afterwords.
@phatmass
Feel real bad? Hope not so much that. But ok if it’s not your thing.
@phatmass I am so in agreement with you on this particular post. There’s nothing humorus about what was said and the tone was more, you don’t like it, too bad let me shove some more in your face. But I guess if you can’t discuss an issue intelligently or just let someone else have their own opinion, this is the type of post you get.
@f00l What was funny about that post or interesting? What kind of “thing” does it fall under?
@mehbee
???
Reference? Got lost here.
Threads like this one will have folks “celebrating our policy” that are pretty gross both out and even in context. At least it’s not an attack. If our forums looked like this thread, we’d clearly have to rethink our ability to be progressive. At least gross posts hurt the posters reputation regardless of the rules officially allowing it.
@snapster Mixed message much? Your company posts some swear words and now you are calling that type of language gross? I’m confused here.
@therealjrn I’m confused too. Other than one post that was apparently offensive enough to be removed I don’t see anything that’s not pretty standard on this site. What part of this thread is so bad? Or maybe I just have a bad reputation and don’t know it?
@sammydog01 Are we always the last to know? lol
@therealjrn Shitty use of swear words is gross.
@snapster
I might have to keep that and use it in the future. Kinda pithy. Thx.
I’m pretty sure if meh had any manners they’d sell it at a discounted price.
@Kevin Umm so what are the odds if they sold them they’d trip the pause function? (grin)
@Kidsandliz Future Fuku name alert!
I’m just gunna leave this here:
Meh.com is my fucking safe place so I would appreciate y’all not getting so shitty around here.
@therealjrn
Feeling safe now?
/giphy safe
