I'm posting this here rather than on the blog at question because I couldn't figure out how to leave a comment there.
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Written 28 May, 2010
Socially Mundane, Indeed!
I awoke this morning to find Sweetie bouncing off the walls. Literally. On a prim.
"What's up with you?" I asked.
She was so flabbergasted she couldn't speak for a few moments. Then she told me about this post made by Ari Blackthorne on his blog Socially Mundane.
The piece is called "Your God-Given Human Right to NOT be Offended?" and its logical inconsistencies were driving her nuts.
It seems Ari has a dragon somewhere on his land. It seems the dragon may have some sort of Muslim symbol embedded in it.
And it seems Ari got a mostly polite request in broken-English saying 20-some Muslim Second Lifers were offended by the symbol's placement and asking him to remove it.
Now, if I wanted to deliberately offend someone I might put, oh, say, Andre Serrano's Piss Christ on my land, or reprint those Danish cartoons that depict Muhammad. But certainly, if someone requested me to remove something I just happened to have on my land because they found it offensive, I would at least take a rational look at the object with the possibility in mind of altering, covering, or removing, or at least warning folks they might find it offensive.
But not Ari. He went off on an amazing twisted rant in which he proclaims himself the most tolerant person ever and then proceeds to attack gays, liberals, Obama, the media, and, indirectly, Muslims.
Some of Ari's diatribe is meant to be ironic, although he mostly fails in his irony. He shotguns pretty much everything he disagrees with (now I'm being ironic, for I suspect he disagrees with lots more but didn't have time or energy to be inclusive). Then he protects himself by saying calling him intolerant would in and of itself be intolerant. It sounds like Level II Kohlberg thinking to me.
I've not yet figured out why Ari illustrated his intolerant (yes, I said it!) rant with a photo of a young girl. To show his amazing level of tolerance, perhaps?
I traveled to Ari's throne store to see if I could spot the dragon-in-question, but didn't see it. I also visited a Muslim-themed (see, it's full of minarets!) capture-and-collar role play sim
which is in Ari's picks, but didn't see the dragon there, either.
Maybe the dragon is in or around Ari's home, which might account for the intensity of his tirade.
It's hard to know where to respond to Ari's vituperation. To his attacks on the (he thinks) left-leaning media? Has he heard of Faux News? To his attack on Obama for not stopping BP's catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico? (How strange that conservatives rail against government and systematically dismantled constraints on big business then cry and demand government action when there's a disaster.) To his attack on the word holiday and the de-Christianization of Christmas? To his homophobia?
I think I'll stop being personal about Ari here and do posts about two of his amazing tolerant beliefs.
And Ari-- chill, man! Someone just asked you nicely to do something.
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Written 28 May, 2010
Socially Mundane, Indeed!
I awoke this morning to find Sweetie bouncing off the walls. Literally. On a prim.
"What's up with you?" I asked.
She was so flabbergasted she couldn't speak for a few moments. Then she told me about this post made by Ari Blackthorne on his blog Socially Mundane.
The piece is called "Your God-Given Human Right to NOT be Offended?" and its logical inconsistencies were driving her nuts.
It seems Ari has a dragon somewhere on his land. It seems the dragon may have some sort of Muslim symbol embedded in it.
And it seems Ari got a mostly polite request in broken-English saying 20-some Muslim Second Lifers were offended by the symbol's placement and asking him to remove it.
Now, if I wanted to deliberately offend someone I might put, oh, say, Andre Serrano's Piss Christ on my land, or reprint those Danish cartoons that depict Muhammad. But certainly, if someone requested me to remove something I just happened to have on my land because they found it offensive, I would at least take a rational look at the object with the possibility in mind of altering, covering, or removing, or at least warning folks they might find it offensive.
But not Ari. He went off on an amazing twisted rant in which he proclaims himself the most tolerant person ever and then proceeds to attack gays, liberals, Obama, the media, and, indirectly, Muslims.
Some of Ari's diatribe is meant to be ironic, although he mostly fails in his irony. He shotguns pretty much everything he disagrees with (now I'm being ironic, for I suspect he disagrees with lots more but didn't have time or energy to be inclusive). Then he protects himself by saying calling him intolerant would in and of itself be intolerant. It sounds like Level II Kohlberg thinking to me.
I've not yet figured out why Ari illustrated his intolerant (yes, I said it!) rant with a photo of a young girl. To show his amazing level of tolerance, perhaps?
I traveled to Ari's throne store to see if I could spot the dragon-in-question, but didn't see it. I also visited a Muslim-themed (see, it's full of minarets!) capture-and-collar role play sim
which is in Ari's picks, but didn't see the dragon there, either.
Maybe the dragon is in or around Ari's home, which might account for the intensity of his tirade.
It's hard to know where to respond to Ari's vituperation. To his attacks on the (he thinks) left-leaning media? Has he heard of Faux News? To his attack on Obama for not stopping BP's catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico? (How strange that conservatives rail against government and systematically dismantled constraints on big business then cry and demand government action when there's a disaster.) To his attack on the word holiday and the de-Christianization of Christmas? To his homophobia?
I think I'll stop being personal about Ari here and do posts about two of his amazing tolerant beliefs.
And Ari-- chill, man! Someone just asked you nicely to do something.
3 comments:
For the record, the Dragon in question is one I sell through my store. I refuse to change it. As for the IM I quoted in my post, that was the first one from that person. The subsequent versions are considerably more ... mmm creatively worded, because I wasn't in-world at 2 A.M. and thus didn't respond quickly enough I guess.
But 'nuff, said on all that. I stand by what I say and what I say is pretty simple: If I offend you then we should separate our presence from one another. The question comes down to who was here first.
This blog is your house, so I have no right to demand you change anything about it in any way shape or form, regardless of how it makes me feel. It would be rude and uncouth, no matter how polite I am.
However, if I were to proclaim that "your blog theme uses my religion's colors and therefor you are offending me, please change it..." you can't possibly be serious about giving such a "request" any thought beyond a "WTF?"
Anyone who actually would is a far-left liberal. Because it's all about "social justice" (bright red-flag words there). They like to think they are tolerant - except to those with differing viewpoints on things. The sad part is they they would force-feed their ideas on me, in *my* house.
To that I say "kiss it".
/me shrugs and walks away to leave you with your little shangri-la fantasy world and snickers on his way out.
I spent quite a while on my three posts this morning, and then took off for Chinese while the lunch special was in effect. Yum! I planned to IM you when I got back, since I can't seem to comment on your blog. I'm glad you found my posts, now I won't need to log in.
You didn't mention the person got rude later, but I don't suppose it made a difference. You clearly had your back up with the first message.
Yeah, you're right, when folks are in virulent disagreement, it's often best to just keep away from one another. So I'll just try to handle my driving need to buy medieval thrones and stay away from your store. Sorry I didn't see the dragon, though.
If someone made a request for me to modify something of mine, I would give it some thought. That has nothing to do with liberalism, and everything to do with consideration for other people.
(Feel free to email me directly if you like.)
Allow me to clarify a couple things...
The request was for me to change the product - as they are sold - not a copy of the product the person wanted to purchase - but the "whole line" of product. I apologize that wasn't made clear.
Think of it this way: I tell Ford the shape of the headlights on their SUVs is offensive - so change them. Not just on one custom vehicle for me - but the whole line that you sell.
The dragon is not at my throne store, it is at my Plain Jane store (that's the sim name, not the store name). Furthermore, I have no idea what texture the person was referring to.
Now I have come to realize what you are saying... if it was this person asking for a change to the one they are purchasing for themselves: of *course* I would change their copy for them (in fact, I sell almost everything a copy/modify for this purpose.)
So, as is typical for most disagreements in SL and online in general, it is a typical misunderstanding we have going on here.
So, to recap: this person was demanding I change the whole line of dragon - not just one for themselves, but the very design of the dragon as I sell them from here on out forever more. LOL
(This is why I tried to use the example of demanding you change your blog theme in my first post - same principal).
As for replying on my blog: I use the disqus system which is simple javascript. Could be your browser.
http://disqus.com/
Kind regards to you.
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