Sweeping generalizations = bad November 18, 2005 4:44 AM   Subscribe

Much as I love all kinds of inflammation... Single Link Opinion post or not, there's something to be said for not making sweeping derogatory generalizations about a type of person when your link is about one person. Following that up with snide remarks and sniping fellow MeFites who question the word choice? Always the way to go.
posted by shmegegge to Etiquette/Policy at 4:44 AM (29 comments total)

Flag it and move on.
posted by warbaby at 4:45 AM on November 18, 2005


I did.
posted by sciurus at 4:45 AM on November 18, 2005


How does the epithet "ignorant hillbilly" possibly denigrate educated and thoughtful hillbillies everywhere?
posted by psmealey at 4:48 AM on November 18, 2005


I don't really have a problem with the word hillbilly. But then, I come from the city, so I guess it's not my place to get offended by it.
posted by antifuse at 4:49 AM on November 18, 2005


Oh, I did. But I'm not posting this to call for thread deletion. I'm posting this to call for a community reaction regarding your miserable "ends justify the means" behavior.
posted by shmegegge at 4:49 AM on November 18, 2005


Warbaby stopped updating his geopolitical blog a year ago so that he could post his insightful and unbiased commentary to the blue instead.
posted by furtive at 4:58 AM on November 18, 2005


Crap post, too many comments from poster, pissy in-thread response to MeTa link.
Flagged, moving on.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 4:59 AM on November 18, 2005


Water's smellin' like blood again, ma!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:59 AM on November 18, 2005


Oh, and lets not forget that his post could easily have passed as an insightful comment in the thread two links below.
posted by furtive at 5:00 AM on November 18, 2005


But then, I come from the city, so I guess it's not my place to get offended by it.

I'm confused.

Does the word hillbilly refer to anyone who doesn't come from the city? Anyone who comes from certain states? Or is it limited to a particular set of people in a particular set of hills?

And what about those guys in Deliverance? The people who attempt to bugger Jon Voight and Ned Beatty at the side of the river? Is it OK to call those guys hillbillies, or is there a more appropriate term for lawless rural rapists?

FWIW, a quick Google on the word hillbilly gives no indication that it's a word that's regarded as derogatory. All I can see are people pushing a whole load of products (ie, Hillbilly Hotdogs, Hillbilly Fire Apparatus, Hillbilly Estates RV Trailer and Campsite Park, or alternatively, people from rural cultures who are embracing the term and using it in a positive word to describe their cultural identity. ie, Hillbilly Bluegrass, the Hillbilly Poet, the Hillbilly Gypsies, Hillbilly Heritage, etc.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:04 AM on November 18, 2005


After that post title, I was forced to read warbaby's comments in the voice of Kahn Souphanousinphone.
posted by Tenuki at 5:06 AM on November 18, 2005


hill·bil·ly
n. Informal pl. hill·bil·lies

* A person from the backwoods or a remote mountain area.
* n : a disparaging term for an unsophisticated person [syn: bushwhacker]


===
PeterM: This was a job for dictionary.com, not Google.
posted by VulcanMike at 5:08 AM on November 18, 2005


I do believe the FPP was employing the second listed meaning.
posted by VulcanMike at 5:09 AM on November 18, 2005


If it walks like a hillbilly, talks like a hillbilly and votes like a hillbilly, might as well call it a redneck or a hillbilly.

Funny enough, I don't think of Kentucky as a source for such. Tennesee now, uh huh. My daddykin hi from that neck o the woods. But they done moved north a long time ago, to work in those car factories they used to have there.

Funny thing about hillbillies, most of 'em are just fine being called that, even proud. Many of 'em are good folk, too. Whatever else they may think, they tend to be the mind-your-own-business sort. Not a bad quality at all.
posted by Goofyy at 5:20 AM on November 18, 2005


It is a terrible post. His responses in the thread are even worse.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 5:24 AM on November 18, 2005


Warbaby: "Opposite George: See for yourself. Looks like the shallow end of the gene pool to me. Moron in the plural is also a derogatory name for a group of people. What's the legal age of consent in Kentucky? 13 or 60 lbs?"

This is the best you can do?

It's a crappy post that should have been a comment in a post already on the front page. But, I agree that it should be called out because warbaby is acting like, well, a baby. Why be that way? Is it becuase you're already conceding the rhetorical argument?
posted by OmieWise at 5:42 AM on November 18, 2005


Kinda seems like warbaby needs a nap or something.
posted by selfnoise at 5:58 AM on November 18, 2005


and that, as they say, is that.
posted by shmegegge at 6:03 AM on November 18, 2005


I do need a nap, but my heart condition woke me up at 2:30amand I couldn't get back to sleep. Sorry I was so grouchy, but I am grouchy. Thread's gone, game over. Happy?

I thought Stav had the best line.
posted by warbaby at 6:07 AM on November 18, 2005


wow, that post was terrible, it didn't even go anywhere. The grandstanding just made it winceable.
posted by jessamyn at 6:07 AM on November 18, 2005


A good FPP is inwinceable.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 6:10 AM on November 18, 2005


*reading upthread*

Yup, furtive. That's when I had my "cardiac event." I spent the next two months flat on my back. I typically only post much when I'm ill and housebound. The rest of the time I have a life, unlike some around here.

You want to play outing games with me? Ask arch-kook Karl how that goes...
posted by warbaby at 6:12 AM on November 18, 2005


No, I want to play inning games. Like baseball.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 6:14 AM on November 18, 2005


I typically only post much when I'm ill and housebound.

Couldn't you find people closer to home to abuse? I mean, that's what your family's for.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 6:16 AM on November 18, 2005


Whatever the case, I feel really bad for all those troops being lied to, day in, day out, while the fuckers who put them there get rich.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 6:16 AM on November 18, 2005


Thread's gone, not sure why this thread isn't closed.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:18 AM on November 18, 2005


But I'm not posting this to call for thread deletion.

*snicker*
posted by matteo at 6:18 AM on November 18, 2005


What the hell. Delete this thread too.
posted by warbaby at 6:20 AM on November 18, 2005


How about if I just close it?
posted by jessamyn at 6:20 AM on November 18, 2005


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