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General- Randy Archer Subject: Bigotry
#1
So.... I signed up here based on the following topic:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2382

... I wanted to weigh in on it and sadly it is locked... and I understand both points. I apologize if the post is unwelcome, but I had something to say and felt compelled to sign up to say it...

To me the concept of ironic bigotry is a scary one. A little background. I am a bi... mostly gay... guy dating a beautiful girl in Texas...

I have a child.

In Texas I know the fact that I've mostly dated men my grownup life could someday cost me my child if things ever went to court for custody. I live in fear of this sometimes.

However, in the gay community I am often sneered at for dating a girl who, for all intents and purposed was the one exception to my no more women rule. For having a child with another woman... the gay community too has its bigots, and certainly some sprung from oppression.

And make no mistake, a black man calling a white man honkey may it in hate. I saw that someone used the German's and polish jews as an example and it got me thinking... the German's now eradicate all Nazi hints from their society, surpressing it even unto making it against the law... and yet many people still view them through that lense. People who weren't even alive at the time bear the burden of mistakes not made by them, bear the hate of generations past.. some of whom actually fought for what is right... and are hated for crimes they never commit. Ironic bigotry is much like this, because when a black men unironically calls a white guy cracker.... he is not harkening just back to oppression, he is basically leveling that same blame on an innocent person. Imagine being called a rapist because your grandfather had? Is that extreme an example? Yes, but it fits.

Bigotry exists everywhere. In all circles, and the reason we must avoid even the ironic use of it is... it adds up. Don't get me wrong, I have used the word fag ironically myself. I've dated some wonderful men, taking punches for my sexuality... and feel I have earned a right to it. I don't say it here because it's against the rules... but I wouldn't say it as a ruling representative because as admins you set a standard, and that standard must be set higher than what seems reasonable. We can not assume everyone understands irony, but worse... when you call people in the game crackers... when society allows this to happen... it gives fuel to true bigots.

"Look, those niggers can call you cracker and you just got to say "yes sir, thank you for the insult".... this rhetoric isn't uncommon. Equality must truly be equal, right and wrong can not be based on history alone, but the future you wish to create. When you stand as the representative of a servers stance on no bigotry.... the buck has to stop there. None has to mean none. Not "oh this kind is ok because..." because you do generate ill feelings.

I sit there and wonder sometimes "how many people that call me a fag in hate now, once just did so ironically over xbox live. How many do so out of fear, or maybe even because someone in my community said 'oh you aren't really straight, straight to bed more like'" and yes this does happen.

We can't make excuses for any kind of bigotry, because if we are all to be equal then we must hold all races, sexualities, and the jokes we make about them to the same standard. Even if it seems like it doesn't make sense. The beauty of equality is it doesn't have to make sense when applied. We do it because it's right. We do it because we don't ever want to be part of the first trickle in a snowball of a new kind of persecution where we see ourselves saying "we didn't realize it would get this bad."

If this comes off as rambling, I apologize... but as a man who has been persecuted on multiple sides of the fence (the mother of my child is also mormon, and I used to attend functions with her for that)... I've seen how easily concessions become hate, how easy excuses create oppression, and a 2d spaceman game about farting isn't going to stop that tide, but it doesn't have to move with that flow either. Is it ridiculous? Yes... but all bigotry is ridiculous, and you have to think about what you put forth delivers. The reason cracker is ok but nigger isn't is there is none.... or else equality is just a word that turns to ash in our mouths.

I want to say that I like all the admins here, this is not ass kissing... you all have some rough edges but I think anyone attracted to this game and stays probably will. This is only my perspective on the issue, and I'll end with three quotes I try to live my real life by...

"In the end, we won't remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends..."
"I have decided to choose love, hate is too heavy a burden to bear..."
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
#2
insulting the people who are empowered by a system is not in any way a form of violence against them

dont make new threads to reply to locked threads

thank you for sharing your IMPORTANT OPINION with us. this is not the place for big preachy rants
#3
Degrading them for an empowerment that they were born into is no more right than insulting those on the flip side of the coin. Bigotry doesn't have to simply fall within a narrow context. Justification of bigotry only alllows bigotry to continue. And my complaint stems from a practice of defending something, in game or out, by admins.
#4
shut up whitey
#5
kill whitey
#6
My point above is any word designed to insult a specific set of people... is bigotry. Bigotry doesn't become ok just because the people you're insulting are a majority, or a small section of them are "empowered". Degradation of a person based on race, sexuality, or other variables beyond their control doesn't have a limitation. If it's wrong for one set, it's wrong for all. THAT is equality. Not this idea that "oh, well they are part of a group empowered by a system, it's totes ok to slam them". You can't preach equality and tolerance and then only follow it on one side of the coin. THAT is hypocrisy.
#7
Well uh... thanks for your input I guess, but I'm going to lock this thread before it results is a bunch of dumb replies (because that is exactly where this is going)
If another admin disagrees with me then fine whatever.
#8
Seen a peanut post before, sure, but never a peanut thread.


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