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Chibi - what is your first language? It does not seem to be English, because you do not seem able to read it.

I may excuse some of your vitriol as an inability to tell when someone is joking in a text format. Here's a hint: the ' >;-P ' at the end of my post means, "said entirely in humor and without malice". I was mocking the stereotype *itself*

OK, now back to your other 'point'.

I AM NOT defending people's right to mock each other (though, in a free society...it IS a right. It may not BE right, but it's protected. Much like Neo-Nazi rallies. You want your Gay Pride parade? Gotta put up with the skinhead circus, sorry.). What I am advocating is a lack of caring about being mocked. Yes, it's best to be able to back that up with a physical defense if pushed to that. Yes I categorically reject your assertion that "retaliatory violence is not available to all and sundry". Twenty years of teaching self-defense to all and sundry qualifies me to tell you in no uncertain terms that, yes, any willing person can be taught to use what resources they have to defend themselves. Now, if you are catatonic or completely out of touch with reality, or disabled to a point where you can not be communicated with...then I can't help you. In that case alone, you'd be right. This has *nothing* to do with swagger or machismo; it has to do with experience and a loathing of self-inflicted helplessness. Sometimes, such a thing is willful, sometimes it is simple ignorance ("I had no idea I could learn to protect myself!"). The latter is sad, the former is unacceptable. Each of us has a basic responsibility to be able to fend for ourselves. You may reject the notion - but that does not change the fact that sometimes there is no help available, and it's better to have *some* ability to resist what an evil person may want to do to you.

There. Do you understand a little better now? I like good people not being hurt by bad people. To me, that has at least two parts: avoid the fight entirely by making the other person powerless to bother you; failing that, remove the other person's *ability* to bother you by means of an effective defense. I am in no way the advocate for malice that you somehow seem to have mistaken me for.

I suggest you read your posts again.

You have consistently harped on about how terrible it is to complain about the harrassment of red headed people.
My nephew is unable to defend himself. Other people are not so forthright and opinionated as you and would find it difficult to stand up to bullying.

You are still inferring that anyone not cut from the same herioc cloth as yourself is weak. Well they maybe weak, that is the way of the world. Harrying them for not being able to defend themselves makes you sound like one of the bullies.

*sigh*

I have taught self-defense, at times for little to no payment, precisely *because* some people are weak. Contributing to a female college freshmen's ability to defend herself the first time away from home is more important to me than money. Ditto poor kids going into integrated schools far from their own neighborhoods; suburbanite workers commuting to urban jobs; shelter residents, rookie police officers going into beats in rough neighborhoods.... I'm not 'harrying' them. The very hardest thing to teach a person IS aggression. The one student I can't help (who is physically capable) is the person who can't bring themselves to harm another human being. I don't understand them, and I don't know why they come to class. I have no magic wand to give such folk.

There are gentle souls; but I contend you can be a gentle soul and still throw a good punch when you have to. I am for people being (or appearing) thick-skinned, and dangerous when cornered. Yep. No apologies there.

As for redheads... My harping is perhaps because...it's not a real problem. In 20 years I never, ever had someone walk into one of my classes and say, "I'm here because of THIS" and point to their red hair.

Oh, and much as I don't like to reveal personal details on the intarnetz - I was happily married to a redhead. I've got nothing against them.

VoidAngel wrote:Imagine a world where no one gave a @#$% if you used the n-word, or told a Polish joke..

*imagines this world...imagines this world united under one flag...sees the flag become the union jack*
huh go figures.

I will be the first to admit that we have some vast shortcomings that others overcame long ago, or just never developed.

Thats been tried before Stella.
On the other hand the Union Jack flag, did give us this...



I could go back to being a royalist for her!

Nicorex wrote:Thats been tried before Stella.
On the other hand the Union Jack flag, did give us this...



I could go back to being a royalist for her!

Been my background for about a year and a bit; used GIMP to hide all the BBC shizz though, too distracting.

I don't think that's what she was getting at.

@Avatar 720: Wow I didnt even notice the BBC stuff untill you mentioned it... I was looking at her eyes. 8)

@VoidAngel: Ohh I know.. I just wanted to put a pic of Amy Pond up. hahaha

Nicorex wrote:@Avatar 720: Wow I didnt even notice the BBC stuff untill you mentioned it... I was looking at her eyes. 8)

Karen does have strangely alluring eyes, but it's probably to do with the pose and stuff that they look especially deep.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:

VoidAngel wrote:I think we've come down a few steps from burning them a birth.

People need to stop crying about dumb @#$% like this (like you did Earthbeard - take a bully down and the rest pay attention).



There are better causes to take up defense of. Besides, everyone knows that redheads have insane tempers and will fly into a berzerk rage and kill you if you tease them too much. Or look at them funny. Or if it's a full moon on a Tuesday. Or if the Dow-Jones drops 3.17 points. Or... >;-P

You seem to get some sort of pleasure from mocking others and finding the most facile excuse to defend it.
For the individual that is being victimised it is a cause worth defending. You seem only to wish to defend your pathetic self justification at mocking and belittling others.
Am sorry for you that the only way you can feel good about yourself is by making others appear ridiculous to your mind.

This constant sniping at people that find such behaviour offensive is getting very tedious.

Use of retaliatory violence is not available to all and sundry. You may find Earthbound herioc, but how is my autistic nephew "to pay attention and take a bully down."
This machismo swaggering is idiotic and short sighted.

Hey I got beat just as much as I beat - I'm just a stubborn bull and got a short temper

Violence doesn't solve a damned thing - all it did was scare off a few bullies, but they just came back in bigger packs, or shouted it from across the road instead!

Effective use of violence solves quite a few problems. That's a fact.

VoidAngel wrote:Effective use of violence solves quite a few problems. That's a fact.

Can't fight back if they're dead, right?

VoidAngel wrote:Effective use of violence solves quite a few problems. That's a fact.

must be the same school of thought as a certain vegetarian animal loving man with a square bit of hair under his nose

Again, not everyone has a black belt in origami like Void.
Again how is an autistic 10 year old supposed to deal with idiots calling him ginge and upsetting him.
That is fact
Not everyone is like you Void, and for that I am eternally grateful.

The title of the thread is
"Why the prejudice against gingers/red-heads?"
Not "Void is a tough case, cos it's a hard knock life"
go sing it with little orphan Annie pal.
had enough of your self obsessed wranglings
To save everyone else from the tedium I am off out of this.
Anything more to say on the matter keep it to PMs
over and out.

(Edited 'cause I missed the request for PMs. PM sent.)

Someone tell me how an effective self-defense = genocidal maniac? I do believe there's some law about internet forums that says you just lost any argument you may have had, Stella.

She didn't actually mention hitler or the nazis, just made a clever allusion. I would say the game is still in play.

Anyway, I do think its sad that "
The N-word isn't offensive. If it was, why would about 50% or more of blacks use it if they were offended by it? Fact is, the N word would have basically died out of the language (Barring the inevitable racists) if it wasn't for Gangsta Blacks saying "Yo N, what's up N, how about we go pop a cap in dat N's ass?"

If I call a back guy N-gg-r/kneegrow whatever it is (all from the Latin for black anyway innit?) it's bad, coz I'm white? Yet gansta rap has more N's and 'be-atches' than most small countries!
Maybe when the gansta rappers refer to G they mean Ginger, not Gansta?

Anyway abusing someone verbally, physically or emotionally because of their hair colour is essentially genetic-ism. Which I guess is what raceism is (because its ok for white Irish to abuse white english and vice versa?)

Additionally I think the red hair = evil is pretty old, like it occurs in the mythology surrounding lilith (or potentially was added on later?). Her copper hair = sexual beast. Oh wait sexy wimmenz = BAD!
So in conclusion red heads = hawt.

The reason that you can't say "this word is offensive" with any certainty proves my point: offense lies with the offended.

I *could* take offense at the word "the". Or "you". Would take make it an "offensive word"? I guess it depends on how mind-controlled by PC you are. "OMG! We can't OFFEND anyone! Doooommz!" Nonsense. We'll all be having our mouths sewn shut in a preemptive attempt to prevent offense if we go down that road much further.

No. You can tell when someone is TRYING to offend. Confucius said it best, "He who takes offense when no offense is intended is a fool. He who takes offense when offense is intended, is a bigger fool."

Potential NSFW, but easily tops all the other redheads in this thread.

Amy Adams is going to be Lois Lane in the new Superman movie...awesome!

Amaya wrote:Potential NSFW, but easily tops all the other redheads in this thread.

Spoiler:

Not natural, ergo doesn't win

Earthbeard wrote:

Amaya wrote:Potential NSFW, but easily tops all the other redheads in this thread.

Spoiler:

Not natural, ergo doesn't win

Also, where the heck is her nipple? If it's where her hand is, then she's got some serious issues going on.

VoidAngel wrote:The reason that you can't say "this word is offensive" with any certainty proves my point: offense lies with the offended.

I *could* take offense at the word "the". Or "you". Would take make it an "offensive word"? I guess it depends on how mind-controlled by PC you are. "OMG! We can't OFFEND anyone! Doooommz!" Nonsense. We'll all be having our mouths sewn shut in a preemptive attempt to prevent offense if we go down that road much further.

No. You can tell when someone is TRYING to offend. Confucius said it best, "He who takes offense when no offense is intended is a fool. He who takes offense when offense is intended, is a bigger fool."

VoidAngel why don't you the-ing the you you-ing you-er, the your -ing lorum ipsum you, and a bucket of spoons, you spoon-you-er. While you're at it spoon the the-ing you spoon! You heard me, the jigger in Soviet Russia the the's YOU!

Offended yet?

Not even close. Now, had you mentioned tree goats...you might have been getting somewhere. Oops.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote: You are quoting out of context.

How so? Your line was drawing a parallel between gingers and the discrimination against blacks by arguing that both have suffered injusitce and been told not to worry based on flimsy reasons.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote: If are trying to infer that I have any racist tendencies then you are way out of line.

How could I possibly have been calling you a racist? Are you trying to be offended?

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote: I suggest you re read my post.
I only feel bad about the amount of derisive drivel some people have to put up with because of a genetic trait; whetrher that be the colour of their skin, the colour of their hair, or their gender.

How are gingers and blacks even close to comparable? Do you have even a single example of gingers suffering the same crap as blacks? Slavery? Institutionalized discrimination by both companies and nations? All you've brought up as examples of the discrimination against gingers are anecdotes about people being teased. People get teased about everything.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote: I suggest if you lack the wit to grasp the content of the comment you should refrain from passing judgement.

Ouch. You sound angry. Those damn gingers and their fiery temperaments. (yeah, I know that I don't know that you're ginger).

Does anyone have any proof that gingers get it any worse than anyone?

Effective use of violence solves quite a few problems.

Seems to cause equally as many as well.

VoidAngel wrote:We'll all be having our mouths sewn shut in a preemptive attempt to prevent offense if we go down that road much further.

Actually we're moving towards digit removal and the burning of keyboards.

Tune in next time folks, when we find some other equally hyperbolic and IQ reducing thread to piss all over. Will it be the situations in the Middle East ? The impending economic collapse of western civilisation ? The fact that it seems weird that Bees are so keen on jam, and yet they spend their time making honey.. what's that all about eh ? Or perhpas even the illicit control of Dakka by a cabal of Jewish bankers for neferious ends.

Either way, there's a good chance you may well wish to gnaw your own arm off and then bleach your eyes.