On Fri, 20 Jan 2006, notbob wrote:

> On 2006-01-20, Elaine Parrish > wrote:
>
> > The "Gentle" people adhered to the code and
> > were termed "Genteel". "Gentleman" has a specific meaning and is not
> > interchangeable with "man" or "male". As is true for "gentlewoman" or
> > "lady" [id.est the Gentleman's Lady].
>
> These are the same "Gentle" people who would bring their children to
> a public picnic to watch a black man lynched from a tree, have his
> genitals cut off, stuffed in his mouth, and set on fire. How
> very "Genteel".


Would these be picnics that were advertised in all the newspapers, on the
radio, and on television for weeks on end that were picked up by the
newswires and broadcast all throughout the country drawing huge crowds of
reporters documenting these events?

Would these be picnics that were held in the public square or at the
football stadium or at the baseball park at high noon with everyone taking
pictures and making video?


You know, notbob, this is the USA and you have the right to be an idiotic
fool, but you really shouldn't be so proud of strutting it around in
public.


Of the great many horrid atrocities that have occurred on Southern soil,
they didn't happen as you describe. The proof of that is that the
white trash scum that perpetrated those atrocities did so under cover of
darkness draped in sheets and hoods. They cloaked themselves in secrecy
and committed heinous acts out of the view of mainstream society. If
you know these atrocities, then you were peering out from under a pointed
hood at the time.

The people that participated in the atrocities were, throughout history
and are still now, the most cowardly, despicable, vile people on this
earth and are not mainstream southern society. They are not now, nor have
they ever been. Anyone unable to grasp that concept is stupid. Anyone who
would prejudge, judge, and condemn an entire group of people for the acts
of a few is a bigot by definition and ignorant by example. And, he should
go right out and buy himself a white sheet and a hood, because he is not a
bit different than they are regardless of his chosen object of
vilification. Moreover, he can proudly assume solid standing in the rank
and file of White Trash with his like-minded brethren and not ever have to
worry about being accepted in mainstream society.

Your need to hold culpable an entire group of people for the acts of some
is absolutely no different than the members of the KKK holding culpable an
entire group of people for the acts of some. Your need to vilify an entire
group of people is exactly like theirs. They can't meet the burdens of
society, stand on their own merits, or bear close scrutiny. Therefore,
they choose a group of people to vilify so they will have someone to which
they can feel superior. Geez, notbob, that's the classic case of the
jackass calling the donkey long-eared.

Man's capacity for committing horrendous acts against his fellow man is
infinite. It has been since the beginning of time and will be until the
end of time. There is no corner of the earth that has been spared. There
is no corner of these United States that has been spared, either. The
atrocities perpetrated against African-Americans on Southern soil were
(and are) unconscionable, as were (and are) the atrocities committed
throughout this country. More atrocities were (and are) perpetrated
against other races and groups daily even now as well from sea to shining
sea. We have a short and brutal history in this country. There is more
than enough blame to go around. Mainstream society in the US has never
accepted the atrocities as a norm and they do not now.

If you'd like to suggest that I am guilty because I didn't stop it or fix
it or change it, then I would charge you with the same. You were here for
a couple of years, why didn't you fix it? Why don't you fix it where you
live now? Do you really believe that all the KKK members, Neo-Nazis,
skinheads, white supremists, separatists, and all the other various and
sundry racists and bigots only live south of the Mason-Dixon line? If you
do, you need to take a bow because you are a righteous member of
Bigots-R-Us and totally equal to the White Trash dudes in the sheets and hoods.

People really have very little power regarding changing, stopping, fixing,
etc. the atrocities that mankind commits against mankind in this world.
This world is in a frightful state - right now as you live and breath.
It's filled with hate, crime, injustice, misdeeds, wars, corruption, and
inhumanity. What would you have me do - then or now? What have you done?
What are you doing? Why don't you just fix it all? Why did you allow it
to get this way in the first place? Of course, if it was never your
intention to invoke this idiotic argument, then this topic is not moot,
and I apologize for injecting it here.


>
> > By the same token, "white trash" and "poor white trash" and "white trash
> > scum" also have specific meanings.
>
> Yeah, it pretty much means you're not one of the "Genteel" crowd and
> there's a fair chance you can end up beat to a pulp or worse.
>

Hey, this is the USA, if you want to be white trash that is your right. Go
for it! Go all the way, be White Trash Scum. Just dont expect the world to
embrace you for it.

If you are not one of the genteel crowd, it is simply because you choose
not to be. You choose not to be by not bothering to learn some basic
manners and simple etiquette and choosing not to have personal integrity.
It has nothing to do with your station in life or with any financial
accounting or with the color of your skin. It has to do, totally and
completely, with the way you chose to conduct yourself in your private
life and when you interact with others, and how you behave in public, and
whether or not you choose to be honorable.

From your posts, I can see why you might have had a problem here.

This ng is filled with genteel people - those with manners and social
graces. They certainly are not all southerners and they aren't all from
the US. Here, no one is being judged by race, creed, color, national origin,
socio-economic standing, or condition of birth. And yet, the genteel are
easily recognizable. They are people with enough pride and self-respect to
rise out of the gutter of human baseness. We see the gutter-snipes and
white trash often enough right here, too, and they are just as easily
recognizable. Which you choose to be is your own free will. It is a matter
of personal choice and, perhaps, a modicum of intelligence - just enough
to recognize that there is a world above gutter level and to have enough
gumption to want to rise off your belly and crawl out. Then all one has to
do is to take enough personal responsibility to honor the guidelines of
civility, decorum, and common decency. For some, that is beyond all they
can muster. The same inadequacies of character and spirit that allow man
to abdicate his responsibilities in other areas, allow him to abdicate it
socially. Some think that respect is an on-demand right, while others see
no value in it at all. Those that don't have self-respect don't hold
respect as having value and don't have respect for others.

In any culture, there are mores, protocols, and acceptable and
non-acceptable behaviors. If you moved into any other culture, would you,
really, not expect to find unique mores, protocols, and acceptable and
non-acceptable behaviors that were different from your own? Do you really
believe that another culture would accept you if you if you disregarded
their cultural norms? The Asian societies are some of the most genteel
I've ever encountered. Do you think you would be respected in their
society if you disregarded their societal norms?

That would be very short-sighted of you. Geez, people cannot even move
from one ng to another in Usenet and be accepted if they do not learn the
culture and at least try to observe the mores. The fine citizens of RFC
protect, support, and even force this ngs culture on newbies. The attitude
in most ngs - including this one - is get with the program or get out. And
plenty of RFCers are quick to turn out into the cyber streets with
virtual baseball bats and tire irons to impress their will on others. You are,
frequently, leading the way. And, yes, that is a reference to that
jackass/mule/long-eared thang again.

With as much respect as I can muster (I am required to say that under the
guidelines of the Southern Code of Conduct, page 498, subsection 102A,
paragraph 5), if you want to denigrate my culture, you might want to
actually learn something about it first or have a baseball bat bigger than
my own (page 786, subsection 35, paragraph 3). A couple of years in
Tennessee won't get you many points (but it is better than someone that
has never even been here) and this post certainly doesn't inspire
confidence. But if you really think you know my culture well enough to
denigrate it, then put on your white sheet and your pointy hood and come
ahead. You'll not be the first bigot I've encountered and you won't be the
last.



> There's a lot of things I love about The South,

hehe. You conceal it very well.

>but the lack of
> tolerance for anyone not conforming to the accepted norm, whether by
> choice or by chance of birth, isn't one of them.

One norm? We have only one norm? Oh, I remember now. Going to church!

Well, yeah, but the Organized Religions are lightening up a bit. The
Church of Christ still hotly promotes that they are the only ones going to
heaven, but the others are pretty much ignoring that stance now. And none
of them drown you in the river for not going to church anymore. Geez, that
sounds pretty tolerant to me.


I spent a couple
> years in TN. Some of the finest most friendly people I ever met.
> But, you exercise individuality at your own peril.

Awwww, thats not fair. Being lewd, crude, rude, and vulgar are staples
with the White Trash. They welcome like kind and they have successfully
created a typical societal underbelly. You could slither over there any
time <g>.

>
> nb
>