Have we reached Peak Reddit, the point at which Reddit cannot get any Redditer? This comment, from the racist cesspit that is the European subreddit, suggests that we’re rapidly reaching the zenith of Redditry.
Huh. I can’t believe that young Mr. WhitePride_1488 forgot to mention “cucks.” Is this guy not a real Nazi after all?
Oh wait, he called someone a “cuck” in a previous comment. Crisis averted! Everything is under control!
And in case his raging racism and anti-Semitism, the “WhitePower” bit in his Reddit user name, his use of the neo-Nazi dogwhistle “1488,” and his general unpleasantness weren’t evidence enough of his status as a literal Nazi, he has also graced Reddit with his thoughts about a certain Mr. Hitler. For example:
Hitler didnt do anything wrong. He was kicking out the Jews in Germany so he could have his country back.
Oh, and this:
One day the world will know Hitler was right all along.
And, yes, he is of course a Holocaust denier. And a fan of Ann Coulter.
Frankly, I’m not sure which is worse.
H/T — r/BestOfOutrageCulture
Scarlett Athena,
IIRC, sexual orientation wasn’t a thing the mid or late 19th century. Not that people didn’t have orientations, of course. But homo and heterosexual weren’t terms that were in use. So when people like 1488 say history was built on keeping gay people from having any rights or power, they’re just completely wrong.
@ opposablethumbs
Berlusconi is almost an exact copy of Trump right down to appearance, yes. (Although Berlusconi came first, so maybe it’s the other way around?) He may have comparable levels of influence and popularity in Italy as Trump does in the US, but isn’t he pretty unanimously loathed by the rest of Europe?
@ freemage
Ahh, so that’s why so many Americans openly embrace anti-intellectualism. I hadn’t thought of that. Now that you point it out, it makes perfect sense.
It’s really sad how they let themselves be fooled by the very few people whose interests right wing policies actually serve.
I have to admit I’m no closer to understanding what makes Americans tick, though. If anything I’m more aware of how alien their culture is to me.
@ Alan
I’ve really grown to miss Bush. I never hated him like many people did, and I’ve heard good things about him from many sources. That he’s very intelligent, charismatic and sensitive in private.
And I really love bushisms. They remind me of my dad who is severely dyslexic and used to say similar, strangely insightful stuff all the time when he was younger.
@ WWTH
I’m not as sure about that. Historically of course gay people didn’t always have an easy time of it; but it didn’t seem to hinder figures like Julius Caeser or Richard the Lionheart, to name but two.
The 19th Century though gave us the trials of Oscar Wilde. That tells us something of the attitudes of the time.
Gay men seem to be appreciated in times of true meritocracy, such as war. Two of the founders of the SAS may well gave been gay. Lawrence of Arabia certainly was. This is perhaps reflected in the saying “You don’t have to be straight to be in the army; you just have to be able to shoot straight”
@ dust bunny
Yeah, some of my friends know him quite well and they say that about him. He was certainly ok with women and minorities (he made one of my friends assistant secretary of state or something). And his work to relieve poverty in Africa is apparently something he’s genuinely passionate about.
It’s a shame politicians have to pretend to be something they might not be to attain office and you have to wait until they no longer need bother to find out what they’re truly like.
@ Alan,
yeah I just read this not very recent article about his genuinely impressive achievements in the struggle against AIDS a couple of days ago. I hadn’t known about any of that before. Maybe it was linked here.
I still think he did the world a great disservice by dumbing the level of political discourse down like that. My memory only extends to Clinton, but I have an impression that political rhetoric used to be more polite and that the turn for worse happened with Bush. He contributed to the chain of events that has now led to Trump.
I like Bush as a person, but I still feel invading Iraq was a bad idea and I don’t see any justification for torture. The FBI was more effective at getting people to talk with standard interrogation technoques.
@Alan Robertshaw:
Though it may be an urban myth, my favorite detail about that has always been the prostitutes dancing in the streets once the verdict was announced. Not necessarily because of homophobia per se, but because they blamed gay brothels for a decline in trade and figured that with clients no longer daring to visit those, business would pick up again.
I’m not sure why I like that little detail and interpretation so much, but I’ve always thought it was a very good indicator of what a big deal the trial was.
@ rabid rabbit
Apparently it was a major news story, it sort of came about just as what we’d now called tabloid journalism was becoming popular ; and of course Oscar was a massive self publicist so he was very much someone people were interested in.
The trials themselves (there were three) are something we’re encouraged to study at the Bar as they were examples of some spectacularly good advocacy; and the lessons to be learned still apply today.
@ history nerd
Yeah, I have a particular interest in that issue for various reasons.
You’re right about the efficacy of the FBIs techniques (their interrogators will always tell you about the time they got the entire AQ operational structure because they bought someone some diabetic friendly biscuits)
What you may find particularly interesting is that lay people will criticise the use of torture on moral, legal and even efficacy grounds, but the one thing that really bugged the FBI (and the original CIA interrogators) is that they found the introduction of torture insulting.
You’ve identified the reason in you post. As one chap (CIA actually) put it:
“Imagine if you told the Navy SEALs that there was a high value target in a particular location; but you were going to bomb the building because you didn’t think the SEALs would be up to the job”
Yeah, I’ve heard the original response to the Department of Justice memos was along the lines of “What the f?!”
Luzbeltix
The plan sounds kind of neat, really, but all we have around ant-wise is teeny little grease ants that don’t seem to be able to bite or are just very recalcitrant to do so. I used to try to get them to do all kinds of stuff when I was a kid, so I was kind of an asshole to them (sorry ants!) but I never got bitten.
Ah reddit….where Star Wars spoilers get you banned, but verbally assaulting women, gays, trans, and minorities is A-OKAY!
Long-time lurker here. To Alan Robertshaw: seriously? George W., my fuck-wit ex-neighbour (not Texas, Greenwich, CT.)? Vapid, greedy, selfish, lazy, little wanker? Never done a day’s work in his life, barely passed any exams, only got into Harvard because of Daddy, you mean that George? Are you sure?
@ Eibhear
Hi. Yup, that’s the one apparently.
(Love that ‘wanker’ has made it to the US 🙂 )
I can easily believe that George W. Bush is more intelligent than he usually let on.
At least in part because that’s a pretty low bar to cross.
And sure, while he probably only got into Yale because his father was an alumnus, he still graduated from both it and later Harvard, even if he was considered merely an ‘average’ student. That’s an indication of at least some minimal intelligence.
*checks Wikipedia page* Hunh, I hadn’t realized Bush had played rugby. Went to a high school with a 1st XV myself in Canada. (Knew a guy who ended up in the Rugby Hall of Fame, too.)
One of the really annoying things about the U.S. political culture, and I suspect at least part of the source for this insistence on trying to play ‘regular folks’, is that so much of the U.S. has unofficial but highly entrenched class divisions, but it still pretends to be a classless society.
Would Hitler have been a Redditor?
Semi-off topic, but I’ve been reading Ian Kershaw’s biography of Adolf, and frankly as a young man he came across to me as exactly the kid of guy who would spend all of his time screaming on reddit if he was around today.
A self absorbed, arrogant lazy introverted nerd full of bigotry and sexism. He was pretty much the stereotype of the sort of guy who becomes an internet troll.
That’s an interesting insight. Thanks, skybison.
@Alan Robertshaw, History Nerd, and Dust Bunny, I’m afraid I must disagree. Yer man (George) is a bit older than I, so I don’t personally recall him, but the more perspicacious of the older kids hadn’t any time for that lot at all, and he was a disaster as a president. If any of ye lot are interested, I must recommend reading Tim Dumas’s book, “Greentown”. It isn’t about the loathsome Shrubs (it’s about the murder of poor Martha Moxley), but it’s an excellent evocation of the culture of Greenwich, CT., and I think it gives one a better understanding of George W.’s upbringing. Besides, Tim’s a nice kid and could use the royalties
P.S. Well, of course, Tim’s a much bigger kid now (although I’m always going to be bigger than him, and therefore I’m more important, and I shall always have better toys!), but I haven’t seen most of these people for forty years. And I amn’t from the States, I just lived there for a bit.
Ugh, such a lacking knowledge of history and what it was like when men literally did make all the laws and stuff.
There was no middle class in history. There was the very very rich, and the very very poor which were the vast majority.
These fuckers forever romanticise history then complain about how men die in the work force. Bitch, I would like to see you try doing a laboring job or something like that in the 1800s. You think the deaths are high now??
Hey, let’s also ignore how modern technology has helped reduce the incidents in the workplace and also that we train young builders and construction works of all sorts how to do things safely so they don’t hurt themselves.
I know a lot of dudes with this sort of job, and sometimes they get coworkers who simply lack common sense and see the guy get injured as a result of the lack of common sense. It is sad, but there are dudes like that that also come into the stats on men injured in the workplace.
Reasons I have known people who got injured in a job that is heavily male dominated:
– Taking guards off machines because it makes it go faster (despite being less safe)
– Jumping from too high a distance and hurting themselves instead of using a ladder
– Common sense errors/lapses of judgement where they put their hand into a machine that spins a sharp object of some sort.
– Older guys who refuse to use the new safety techniques for their work such as goggles, headphones and proper gear for minimising damage
– Bosses who are too cheap to buy the proper protective gear for their workers and cheap out or make the workers pay for it
NONE of this has anything to do with women specifically or feminism. I have met females in these male dominated areas and they work JUST as hard as the men do. Due to natural affinities we will see less women in these fields, on average, yes some women aren’t as strong as men. There are always exceptions though and the women that do go into these fields are often stronger than the average woman.
Sorry for the rant but I am really fucking sick of MRA/White Supremacist/whatever the fuck else hypocrisy and ignorance.
@ Rabid Rabbit
It was written – with the words “as if transformed into Furies” – by one of Wilde’s supporters.
I’ve never quite understood the logic. It was pretty well shown at the trials that Wilde and Douglas used young working class prostitutes a lot. Wilde seemed to have procured prostitutes for Douglas, and may have taken the rap for him on the severer charge of anal sex.
Male prostitutes OK, but female prostitutes terrible seems a tad inconsistent.
I’m pretty sure those “Furies” did not write the unjust laws under which Wilde was tried – nor vote for the men who passed them.
IIRC the laws under which Wilde was prosecuted (apart from the libel case, which he brought himself) had only recently been passed, on a nationalistic homophobic “this nation is weakened by teh gays” kind of surge.
The idea that gay men are no good at battle is pretty daft when you look at history. Julius Ceasar (who seems to have been poly and pan) was a pretty decent general. Thebes’ Sacred Band (300 sworn lovers) was undefeated for centuries until they met Alexander the Great, whose great loves were Hephaestion and Bagoas.
@ bluecat
Wilde was prosecuted under the Criminal Law Amendment Act. That had come into force a few years or so before.
The Act itself was very well intentioned. Some of the proto feminists (first wave, zeroth wave?) were its main proponents. It was intended to protect underage girls from exploitation from prostitution or ‘consensual’ sex. I think originally it was going to be called something like ‘The protection of women and girls Act’.
Someone stuck in an amendment though, adding a section outlawing ‘gross indecency’. That wasn’t defined but was understood to refer to homosexual activity falling short of actual buggery (which was a separate offence). Such behaviour previously hadn’t been an actual offence.
That’s what Wilde was charged with.
Harvard and Yale are both basically trophy schools — once you get in, it’s practically impossible to fail out, and more than half of students graduate with an A- average or better. (Although in fairness, they were stricter when Bush was there.)
Look, I too would jump for joy if a Republican with Bush’s platform were running today, but he was a rubbish president who wreaked havoc on the environment and civil rights, responded disastrously to crises, and created several huge messes that we’re still trying to fix. Let’s not get nostalgic.
I remember Bush and I remember him as a blundering fuckwit. He is still better than all of the Republican candidates.
For some reason I wanted him to win the election when I was 6. I also supported war when I was a child because past me was terrible. Probably because there are “bad guys” and we’re the “good guys” because we are AMERICA.
When I was older I wondered if the world would be better off if Al Gore won. The war may have not had happened, the middle east would be better off (although they would likely still have problems with terrorist groups), there might be less racism toward arabic people, and we would’ve certainly done more things to combat global warming.
Back then there wasn’t as much knowledge about global warming and a lot of people thought his platform was nonsense.
Makes you wonder who will be running in 2024 that will make us nostalgic for Trump.
Skybison, did you just jinx us?
I’m trying to imagine said 2024 person, and it’s too terrifying.