The Clique, and other greivances

[Zack]

Better to be alcoholic in private than public and better yet to never touch alcohol at all.

You're making a false equivalency. There is a (very large) middle ground between alcoholism and "never [touching] alcohol at all," believe it or not.

 

[jackelgull]

Okay, but there is a difference between drinking in private and being an alcoholic- it comes down to a matter of how much. And drinking in private means that the consequences of being drunk are reduced compared to drinking in the presence of strangers. And by private I don't necessarily mean alone- get a friend to invite over and drink with if you feel that drinking alone is depressing and would cause you drink more.

That said, try tea instead of alcohol, I would strongly recommend it. Takes 3/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup of milk, 1 teaspoon of tea leaf and one table spoon of sugar. Less addictive than alcohol and has milk which is healthy.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I make a more correct reading of your own words than you are capable of.

You might want to be careful about making claims like that. It puts you on company with people who believe they can tell when someone's "no" actually means "yes".

 

[Mise]

As a general point I think some people misunderstand what some people mean by the terms "racism" or "sexism". Sometimes, those terms refer to specific acts in which someone does something explicitly racist or sexist. So if I tell women that they are biologically hardwired to be homemakers while men are hardwired to be breadwinners, and therefore it's not only natural but right that men earn more than women, then that's sexist. That's just me being sexist, holding sexist views, and saying a sexist thing. But sometimes, "sexism", "racism", etc refer to something systemic: it refers to a consequence of seemingly natural and entirely explainable socioeconomic circumstances that are the fault of nobody in particular, but that benefit a set group to the detriment of another group. So if I take my previous example, sometimes, we use the word "sexism" to refer to the system that produced the illiberal or unjust result of women systematically earning less than men, rather than any specific act of sexism or sexist viewpoint.

I think a lot of the time, people mistake accusations of the latter against "the system", and people take it as the former -- against them personally. I think we need to be aware of the distinction, and make it very clear what we mean. And when we hear that we have said something sexist or racist, we need to be clear about what that means, too. It might not mean what we think it means, as they say.

This isn't something that happens a whole lot, but it happens more often than I see acknowledged. It sometimes leads to misunderstandings.

 

[amadeus]

I haven't read this thread at all yet save for Traitorfish's opening post, but I don't think there's any clique here. In any case, it's not nearly as bad as other sites that have voting mechanisms on posts (looking at you, reddit) where unpopular opinions can be hidden by the forum's users.

 

[Masada]

Aelf, Azale, Reindeer and traitor, there's the four you wanted.

Three of those don't, so far as I know, identify as Communists.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The point that was made was not even about women, but someone who gets drunk and rapes someone. Personally, IMO if both parties are drunk enough to have sex involuntarily, then no one is responsible. If one party is still in possession of their wits, then they are the one who should be held responsible.

Proving anything hours or days after the fact, may very well be hard to prove, unless one can prove a pattern of behavior that is ongoing and needs to be stopped.

A rape victim is NEVER at fault for the crime. NEVER.

Quite frankly, I am one of those people who believe that alcohol should be avoided like the plague by both man and women. I am a Muslim and I do believe that alcohol is the mother of all evils. So I suppose I am a little less sympathetic than most people would be.

But my thought is this- if you want to get drunk, do it in private. Buy some beers then go to your basement and get wasted. Unless of course you want to get laid, then by all means go to the pub where there are possible partners around. But if you get drunk in private or with friend the chances of regret dwindle. And if you want to go to the pub for social purposes, such as meet with a colleague, how much drink do you need. Seriously, I would support something like the Prohibition if I thought that it would actually work.

I don't drink either. I did grow up with an alcoholic father, though, and my mother finally admitted that for many years after my parents' divorce and I saw her infrequently or not at all, she'd actually been drinking and her excuses were lies.

This is likely a topic for a different thread, but I have to ask: When you recommend getting drunk in private, do you factor in the possibility of the individual having a family who would also be present?

 

[Camikaze]

Moderator Action: Thread closed for review.

 

[Camikaze]

Moderator Action: The thread can remain closed. The last page has involved trolling and a derailment, and the topic was on shaky ground to begin with.

For future reference, please note you can't opt in for flaming in RD threads. You might opt in for comment of some sort, but the fact that someone has posted in the thread doesn't mean it's open season on them. Suggesting particular identifiable posters on the forum are better or worse than others isn't okay, particularly in an RD thread.

The choice of an RD designation from the OP was a good one, because it made it possible to have a civil discussion of the topic to some extent (it's unlikely a thread on this topic could operate within the rules without an RD standard). But that designation comes with certain standards which weren't met in the last page, and it's unlikely the thread would've continued to prosper without getting increasingly and dangerously specific.

If you have an issue with another poster's posting style, the best course of action would be to discuss it with them via a friendly PM, rather than fleshing the issue out in public.