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Topic: "gay" (Read 24777 times)
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Chrispy
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #15 on: July 25, 2005, 02:54:01 am » |
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It rarely is.. just please, for the betterment of the world, stop it, and encourage others to.
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Deus Siddis
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #16 on: July 25, 2005, 03:04:57 am » |
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"You can say that it means happy but it's still offensive."
But that is what it means. People can get offended at anything they want to. Believe me, it's easy.
"Granted, you were not the one who said it, but I don't understand why your defending it."
Because I don't think it was meant as an insult and it's getting kind of hard to say anything, without there being a good chance that you've accidentally used slang with some hidden meaning. Plus, it sucks being on the hot seat. No point in putting someone on it, unless he's done something that really is obnoxious. (As we've all seen not too long ago.)
Plus, by putting itself into the spot light of american politics and television/movies, it has made itself fair game. When you try and promote your viewpoint, there will be people who think it is stupid, or bad or else may be neutral or are favorable to it. Evangelists hook a few followers by advertising, but if they run into me, they'll get an ass full of opinions.
In the US, using "gay" in the way you've protested has become pretty common in the youngest generation. Why? Because seeing a lion pretend it's an elephant, when it obviously is not, is funny to younger viewers. They're probably not going to go and vote for or against gay marriage, but they'll say whatever seems funny or get's the point across. Younger generations have always been keen on pointing out the flaws in the viewpoints of their older predecessors.
"Its true humans need to genders to reproduce, but reproduction isnt a problem."
Of course not, you need reproduction to keep the species running. Homosexuallity is not so much of a "problem" either, but it is a malfuction of the process of progressing from one generation, to the next. If a strain does not find a suitable means of recreating itself, it terminates. This may sound cold, but it is just how things work in reality. And as the Klingons say, "Science is a dish best served cold." Hehe, just kiding, it was the Vulcans who said that. 
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Chrispy
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #17 on: July 25, 2005, 04:10:28 am » |
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Wow, I cant believe your actually defending the bashing of minorities. Thats what this is.
First of all it doenst matter how common something is. Rape is very common but its still ridiculously terrible. I know about over doing political correctness, but this is not, this is the bashing of a minority for who they are. Homosexuality doesnt hurt anyone, there is nothing wrong with it, and the individuals who are homosexual do not deserve this. Its common, its almost socially acceptable, but that doesnt make it right.
Imagine if your ears were green, and whenever something perverted came up they called the pervert a green-ear. And when you protested you received the reply 'I didnt mean it that way.' I'm sure you wouldnt appreciate being a name for a pervert.
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Deus Siddis
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"vulcan"
« Reply #19 on: July 25, 2005, 05:39:24 am » |
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"Wow, I cant believe your actually defending the bashing of minorities. Thats what this is."
I can't believe this is considered such a serious issue. I also cannot believe that you have now decided to use emotional cliched "cards", instead of making reasonable arguments. Perhaps you would like to define for me, what "minority" means? It seems that you are a minority on this board, because most of its participants are not from canada. I am a minority, because I do not believe in any god. Rich elitists are also a minority. Everyone is a minority and a majority, depending on the issue. If you want to spread a word that'll better the world, maybe it should be to think for yourself, instead of getting sucked into one of two rigid viewpoints, polarized from each other.
"Rape is very common but its still ridiculously terrible."
It is not necessary to make connections with violent crimes. Nothing horrible has happened, nor can it -- this is a discussion board.
"Homosexuality doesnt hurt anyone, there is nothing wrong with it, and the individuals who are homosexual do not deserve this. Its common, its almost socially acceptable, but that doesnt make it right."
I was informing you of a reality and if it was socially acceptable, it might not be quite as popular. If you can see it or not, demanding that people do what you say can often make them go the other extreme.
"Imagine if your ears were green, and whenever something perverted came up they called the pervert a green-ear. And when you protested you received the reply 'I didnt mean it that way.' I'm sure you wouldnt appreciate being a name for a pervert."
I would be happy because then I could tell you that story and inform you that I didn't really care that much what they said. In fact, if I wasn't self conscious of my green ears, I probably wouldn't even notice that someone said something that should insult me. Also, while I mentioned Vulcans in my last post, I think it should be noted that they do not have green ears, but pointy ones and green blood. They are also very good at staying in control of their emotions, which is good when debating something that is considered controversial.
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Zeus Legion
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #20 on: July 25, 2005, 06:14:05 am » |
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Four points regarding the word gay, as it was used above.
First, it's silly to try to defend it by claiming it just means happy. Gays appropriated the term and destroyed its old meaning. The gay old days where the word could be used in poetry are long gone.
Second, the word is not a slur per se -- after all "gay" is a name gays themselves appropriated. What is offensive about it is that the word has been linked with various bad attributes. So, it's about as offensive as saying that you were "man-handled" or that someone is a "testosterone freak" or that a coward is behaving "womanishly." Maybe it's a little different, since gays are an "oppressed class" (at least to some degree, especially in the Arab world).
Third, it's rich in meaning in the way some other slurs aren't. For example, saying "Stop being such a Jew" is offensive but also poor in meaning -- it just means "stop being so greedy." But saying "Playing on Android is gay" really says more than any one-word substitute. What would you substitute? Lame? (An offensive word to the disabled, I should point out.) But lame is hardly a synonym. It lacks the accusation of non-manliness and doesn't quite capture the same accusation of frivolity.
Fourth, like "lame" then word "gay" has really become detached from its original meaning. Most people use "gay" without even thinking of homosexuals, just as they use "lame" without thinking of the disabled.
I personally don't use slurs ever, and use profanity as sparingly as possible. But I don't think you guys should jump all over him for using it. It's just a word.
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Megagun
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Moo
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #21 on: July 25, 2005, 11:40:20 am » |
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Okay, so I won't bother commenting about this all "gay" is evil/not evil when used in blabla way..
Anyways, did you know homosexuality is common in a LOT of species? Chimpanzees use it to kill off stresses, and so do many other species you can find here on Earth. Even Octopusses!
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harth1026
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #22 on: July 25, 2005, 03:18:40 pm » |
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In Jurassic Park, we are told that some species of frogs are able to change from one gender to another in a single sex environment in order to have new generations of the species. This is one case when being gay is good for the species.
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #23 on: July 25, 2005, 04:52:57 pm » |
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Also, homosexuals in the wild tend to help out raising their siblings' children, so it may be evolutionarily advantageous to have, say, 2 straight kids and 1 gay one. The kids of your 2 straight kids will have extra support from your gay kid. So, don't rush to call it a 'malfunction'. Evolution wouldn't tolerate it if it were that bad.
Anyway, it might not be your genes which determine whether you're gay, but your mother's: she has a gene which gives each of her children a chance of being gay. If that's the case, you can't breed it out by keeping the gays from breeding (phew for those who think homosexuality is good); you could only breed it out by preventing those who have gay children from breeding. Yoiks!
There are lots of other ways it could arise, and only a few of them could be called 'malfunction'.
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Deus Siddis
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #25 on: July 25, 2005, 05:45:11 pm » |
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If it were very beneficial, it would probably be more common, with a gay nursery class or the like (maybe it is in other species or maybe not).
Personally, I don't think it is a chain getting passed on, but more of an anomaly that come up every now and then (like many other things). It is probably more common when some environmental issues (as in glowing green toxic waste, not upbringing or whatever) come into play (which cause other things to happen that nobody likes, such as cancer). While it's not necessarily a destructive force, it might not bring any great advantages. But evolution is not a conscious force, so some mutations form something new and others don't go anywhere (but that doesn't mean they won't appear again at random).
As science explores how human genes actually work, more answers to questions will come in. Until then, just remember to keep politics out of science.
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Arne
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Yak!
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #26 on: July 25, 2005, 06:12:37 pm » |
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Here follows an attempt to answer the question why people write in 1337:
0. Originally it was a way to get pass word filters on BBS (for illegal downloads and such). Spammers seem to use some sort of form of 1337 to get pass email filters too.
1. People (ages 12-18?) thinks it's cool and elite.
2. It's a sort of sarcasm imitating point #1. This has gotten kind of old.
3. It's a sort of sarcasm imitating point #2.
...as for the word 'gay' I'm guilty of using it with a negative connotation (describing a weird anomal).
I wouldn't say no to a harem full of bisexual girls though... (but harems are one of those things that's only good in theory, in reality you have like 20 conspiring girls unloading wave after wave of PMS on you.)
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Deus Siddis
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #27 on: July 25, 2005, 08:16:50 pm » |
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I don't think "cya" or "brb" or other abreviations are that bad for IM, because not everyone can type that fast. Horribly misspelling full length words is just useless and difficult to decode, though.
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TiLT
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To boldly go where no Spathi has dared go before
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #28 on: July 25, 2005, 08:19:25 pm » |
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Reading this thread made my IQ drop by at least 30 points.
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Deus Siddis
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Re: "gay"
« Reply #29 on: July 25, 2005, 08:42:22 pm » |
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After mine dropped into the negative range, I stopped counting.
But hey, at least now you have all the details on homosexual animal societies.
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