Was this AskMe deleted? May 30, 2010 11:32 PM   Subscribe

I think there was an AskMe requesting evidence for the effectiveness (or not) of yoga and meditation, some time in the last few days. Was this post deleted, or am I just not searching on the right terms/tags? I tried yoga, meditation, skepticism; nothing came up. Even the Google didn't help.
posted by flutable to MetaFilter-Related at 11:32 PM (31 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

Yeah, it was deleted; this is the thread. The basic question is okay, but the presentation was bad enough that it was getting flagged to death and pretty understandably so.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:34 PM on May 30, 2010


Fair enough. I thought that'd be the reason.

There is some useful information in there, thanks for linking.
posted by flutable at 12:00 AM on May 31, 2010


Pony request: "Retarded" blinks red in live preview. If still posted, it auto-flags.
posted by longsleeves at 12:45 AM on May 31, 2010 [5 favorites]


I don't think that asking retarded people to blink and turn red before posting is a solution to this problem, and I really wonder what kind of bigot would even suggest that. Grateful if the mods could ban longsleeves immediately.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 1:22 AM on May 31, 2010 [8 favorites]


That's a shame, since there were some reasonable, helpful answers in there. Was the asker given the option--prior to deletion at a relatively late stage (i.e. lots of on-topic answers already)--to have the r-bomb edited out, or changed to "Belgian" or something?
posted by availablelight at 4:00 AM on May 31, 2010


The use of the r-bomb was offensive, as was the intimation that people who practice meditation in a non-empirical context are 'stupid' and 'insane'.

Gross generalisations, ad hominem attacks and sneering cynicism don't sound like the actions of a good skeptic to me.
posted by TheOtherGuy at 4:48 AM on May 31, 2010 [1 favorite]


It's interesting how much people are focusing on the use of "retarded" and not that the question was also gratuitously, blatantly racist.
posted by Jaltcoh at 5:35 AM on May 31, 2010 [3 favorites]


Belgian? I like frittes, mussels, beer and bike racing. What's wrong with Belgium?
posted by fixedgear at 5:40 AM on May 31, 2010




[Link goes to one of a half-dozen Belgianist Monty Python skits, probably not work safe unless you work for Rand Paul.]
posted by availablelight at 6:09 AM on May 31, 2010


For lots of people, the main challenge of AskMe is presenting yourself as someone who's both worthy of advice and capable of accepting it.
posted by hermitosis at 7:31 AM on May 31, 2010 [12 favorites]


Racist? Because it identifies yoga practitioners as primarily Indian men and denigrates the practice? I thought it read as plain vanilla obnoxious.
posted by phearlez at 7:43 AM on May 31, 2010 [1 favorite]


Racist? Because it identifies yoga practitioners as primarily Indian men and denigrates the practice?

When a post is frothing at the mouth with adjectives like "childish," "insane," and "retarded," it's pretty hard to justify throwing "Indian" in there too. I mean, it might be true that yoga practitioners are primarily Indian men, but why is it worthwhile to mention that fact in the middle of a torrent of invective against yoga practitioners?
posted by magnificent frigatebird at 8:14 AM on May 31, 2010


Admittedly, I am a Westerner, but, that said, the vast majority of yoga practitioners I've ever met have been white women.
posted by box at 8:22 AM on May 31, 2010


Was the asker given the option--prior to deletion at a relatively late stage (i.e. lots of on-topic answers already)--to have the r-bomb edited out, or changed to "Belgian" or something?

It's pretty rare that we'll do that kind of shovelwork on a question and it ever happening at all depends on a few factors not least of which being whether we have a ton of time to dedicate to the process and whether we feel like the problem is the result of an error or misunderstanding rather than just sloppy framing. I didn't have the time and this didn't seem like e.g. a single poor word choice, so it wasn't even in the cards.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:39 AM on May 31, 2010


Was the asker given the option--prior to deletion at a relatively late stage (i.e. lots of on-topic answers already)--to have the r-bomb edited out, or changed to "Belgian" or something?

No. The asker can do that next week if they want to. Unless a question is some sort of emergency, that sort of going back and forth with the user falls pretty well outside what we'll do. There's no easy way to have a back and forth quth a question poster where you can reach them quickly and put the question "on hold" while you do that. Rarely someone will get back to us sonn after deletion and say "ugh, can I rewrite that, here is my rewrite" and we can fix it but other than that the onus is sort of on the suer to not ask a question that pisses everyone off in the first place. This question had more problems than a simple word change.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:19 AM on May 31, 2010


For lots of people, the main challenge of AskMe is presenting yourself as someone who's both worthy of advice and capable of accepting it
I admit I found it a challenge in this case to try find an informative compressed way to answer, while sort-of practicing mindfulness there and then in order to not get grumpy with the op. I failed, and produced some silky snark in spite of ten agonized minutes of editing. So much for half-empirically understanding that negativity sparks more negativity.
posted by Namlit at 10:14 AM on May 31, 2010


That poster has been free with the R-word before - checked out their history because I was curious to see if this was business-as-usual or if they just had a real hate on for yoga peeps.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 10:46 AM on May 31, 2010


A bit hemispherist, WCityMike? Half of the planet is creeping toward winter :)
posted by bilabial at 12:18 PM on May 31, 2010


borkinchikapa's peanut gallery line forms to the right --->
posted by P.o.B. at 12:55 PM on May 31, 2010


Racist? Because it identifies yoga practitioners as primarily Indian men and denigrates the practice?

Give it another read if you think that's all it does.
posted by Jaltcoh at 1:10 PM on May 31, 2010


Half of the planet is creeping toward winter

Creeping? I wish! It's wet and cold and most definitely winter here right now.

(OK so it never gets that cold by some people's standards, doesn't snow for example, but this is definitely winter)

(and yes I'm just bitter because I already miss being warm)
posted by shelleycat at 2:18 PM on May 31, 2010


AMERICAN seasons?

How can you be so insensitive. Not everywhere in America has seasons, such as many parts of Texas.
posted by ishotjr at 2:40 PM on May 31, 2010


Indeed, I'm in Florida! This thermometer goes up to 11. Or something.

(My only beef is that none of the windows in this house open. And I had no heat through our winter, which did get down into the low 30s.)
posted by bilabial at 4:22 PM on May 31, 2010


Belgian? I like frittes, mussels, beer and bike racing. What's wrong with Belgium?

When it comes to the important issues, Belgians tend to waffle.


SHUT UP — I AM HILARIOUS
posted by Sys Rq at 4:29 PM on May 31, 2010 [3 favorites]


You puny Earth-first bigots conveniently ignore that here on Uranus, seasons last for 84 of your puny Earth years. MeFi members such as myself who are citizens of Uranus (aka "Uranals" or "Assholes") are sick of this kind of prejudice, and are constructing an interplanetary fart gun to spray alien flatus right up your puny air conditioning units, you bums.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 8:23 PM on May 31, 2010 [1 favorite]


Despite this poorly-worded question, the user in question has posted a lot of questions. Many are hilarious and some are really interesting. My favorite is the one where he asks if there's anywhere in the world where a westerner can go and be attacked by a native tribe with bows and arrows.
posted by malapropist at 2:08 PM on June 1, 2010


Half of the planet is creeping toward winter

Or, as we call it in England, Summer.
posted by Grangousier at 2:55 PM on June 1, 2010


Indeed, that gives a much fuller picture.
posted by box at 5:10 PM on June 1, 2010


Racist? Because it identifies yoga practitioners as primarily Indian men and denigrates the practice?

Give it another read if you think that's all it does.


As I said, I thought it was obnoxious so I'm not claiming that's "all" it does, I just didn't see anything specifically hateful vs generically hateful.

Perhaps I am overly generous in not assigning those kinds of specific motivations/thoughts without overt proof, but my general reaction is to assume that someone does something stupid because they're stupid and are hateful/rude because they're a garden-variety jerk. More specific suckyness may certainly be possible but I just tend not to see it unless it's overt.

Magnificent frigatebird makes a good case for it as racism but when I read it was just that this was someone who throws around mud at all angles and lets it fall where it may. I'm not defending hir one way or another, I was actually curious about where that assumption came from.
posted by phearlez at 8:53 AM on June 2, 2010


Everyone is upset about the use of the word retarded and the racism. Is there no one offended by the blatant attack on suburban white women? When did hatred of the Soccer Mom become socially acceptable?
posted by 26.2 at 11:59 PM on June 2, 2010


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