Yeah, all the time. You think I save my opinions for the internet only? lol. We must live in different worlds, Fly. We discuss this kind of stuff quite often.

You're goddamn right we live in different worlds, and don't you EVER forget that.

LOL "I tell my friends about how rap music is a cause of black criminal pathology and THEY never call me racist, there must be something wrong with all of you for thinking so"

I think you might be overlooking an explanation!

To callback to Chris Rock here(what you want, a cookie?), wil, it's pretty transparent what the deal is with all this ****.

You operate, with all these opinions on race and class(which are interwined, ldo), as some sort of weird self-esteem thing. You want validation and praise for not having a kid until your 30s, you want validation and praise for not dancing black, you want validation and praise for not listening to any music with a decent ****ing bass line, but more than all of that, you want an excuse to look down on the people who do violate your rules.

So that girl you know who got knocked up can't just be a ****ing human being who made a bad decision in her best attempt to live her life, a discussion about the minimum wage ends up being about the MORAL FAILINGS of everyone who didn't simply get an MBA and find a finance job if they didn't want to be poor anymore, etc.

You're about 5'7" of dog**** in a leather sack, and your daughter will make the world a worse place through word and deed.

I'd like to see if you can concoct a more loaded hypothetical scenario before I answer. Is it late at night? Is my wife wearing expensive jewelry? Are we in the middle of The Purge? Am I wearing a sandwich board like Bruce Willis in Die Hard 3?

Lol where do you even get this **** from? You must have a vivid imagination. Yeah I didn't have a kid when I didn't feel ready, so what? I don't dance, period, and I don't feel as if I look down on people. I can be critical about people making stupid ass decisions when they know better, I'll admit that.

I'm 5'9, by the way.

Choose whatever scenario you like, but if your choice is to walk through the crowd alone with cheeks clenched to keep up with your good ideals, I think you're doing it wrong.

Its the 'edge phenomena' objection. Applied wrongly on occasions but even when applied correctly its awkward because all the interesting bits are on the edge.

There's a concern that can be legitimate that a meaningful conversation about anything a racist says might be pandering to racism. e.g. talking about situations where it might be reasonable to avoid people of any race panders to those who single out particular races to avoid in those situations.

Gets very silly when people start talking about it being safer to not avoid the situations because its shows fear but I assume they're really just trying to avoid pandering.

I assume you're talking about best selling franchise, but I really don't consider mushrooms and turtles to be 'people' per se, and saving the princess is a noble purpose anyway.

thug life is not about being gansta. Thug life is about being successful in the face of all of the barriers and adversity a black man in the US has to overcome. You shouldn't be intimidated by the success of young black men.

I get that. It's why it doesn't tick me off too much when typically decent posters like zikzak start piling on with the trolls. I'm gathering many here simply don't think any meaningful conversation can possibly come out of this. I disagree quite a bit and wish they didn't derive such pleasure poking at people they look down on.

Meaningful conversation can come out of it but that doesn't mean it always should. 'when to cross the street' seems pretty dull to me but the influence of culture is interesting and well worth a sensible discussion. Maybe its the wrong place for such topics.

I would prefer that as well, especially as some over-trust their judgement so much. Can't say I'm never guilty though.

Then ignore them (us?) and have the meaningful conversation you want. It's funny that you spend all this time trying to convince people there's this meaningful conversation that could be had - instead of HAVING that conversation.

The trick is to unclench and smile from the good feeling that causes.

Great advice. Mat made that point as well. I'm learning to do it, but as you can see not everyone is very good at ignoring insults.

Who are the chaotic evil posters?

Avoid projects named "the jungle". Problem solved.

Tips I Learned from Training Day.

This sounds like an alignment in an fantasy RPG.

It would be valid if it was a simple them and us but that's not the case. Its generally unclear which points are valid until they are discussed and it can make the conversation almost impossible.

Ironically conflating common concepts is a good example of disrupting a discussion in a way that can't easily be ignored. Its a lot of work to realise they are doing it and even once you know there's still crucial information missing.

For sure. Let's face it, even in the best, most civil environments discussing highly controversial issues can be tough. It's nearly impossible here. Another thing I'd advise new posters arriving here is to lurk for a good long time (is that in the sticky?) to get used to the regs personalities. Then don't post anything controversial for a good while until you've been accepted. I noticed there was pretty good, thoughtful discussion in the Atlanta Hawks racism thread between many of the regs. I mostly stayed away to keep it from tanking.

It is and that's the joke. One of nine alignments from older editions of D&D. It can be an interesting discussion vehicle for moral viewpoints, when not used to determine a character's behavior in a given situation.

Hey, I apologize for my seriously harsh tone and choice of towards you previously ITT.

Its pretty ****ing simple. If person A and B are talking and you think B isn't taking A seriously or is belittling their point - just reply to A and ignore B.

Some people are doing a lot of talking to B about how mean they're being to A and how they ruin the conversation.

No, because its stupid. I'm not going to advise anyone to not participate. If their participation causes them to get butthurt - it would probably happen anyway even if they waited a couple of weeks.

That's not to say people shouldn't cut new people some slack. But that's a different argument.