February 24, 2007

Why God Favors America "We're gonna die now."
  • bloody hell, scary. but at the same time, why take the piss out of people? i hate clarkson/hammond and the other twat. look at us, we're doing something crazy.
  • Hm, Jeremy Clarkson, champion of gay rights, good music and Hilary Clinton - Alabama is truly a land of miracles. Do you think the reaction would have been better or worse if there hadn't been a visible film crew? I like the way the 'boys' turned up so promptly. Do you think they sit around playing cards like firemen, and then slide down a pole into the truck when the faggot alarm is sounded?
  • "Well, looks like we got ourselves the BBC"
  • Freedom of speech -- just watch what you say.
  • What is this show?
  • I like the way the 'boys' turned up so promptly. They were probably at a dog fight right down the street.
  • News flash: hicks don't like being made fun of. What exactly was the point of this excursion? To prove that people in the US south are bigoted, republican and violent? Brilliant. I would have been more entertained if one of these guys got hit in the head with a rock. What a bunch of self-righteous pricks.
  • Indeed.
  • Clarkson is an embarrassment, and if we can't get the fat prick off the telly, we should at least confiscate his passport and keep the shame in-house.
  • nickdanger-- the show is called Top Gear and is occasionally available stateside in slightly Americanized form on the Science Channel on cable.
  • I liked the part where they washed the 'insults' off their cars with Coca-Cola. So appripo.
  • What a bunch of self-righteous pricks. Asswipes. You meant to say asswipes. They're definitely more asswipe than prick.
  • Yeah, but "self-righteous pricks" has a better flow to it, don't you think?
  • Yeah, but "self-righteous pricks" has a better flow to it, don't you think? Good point. In Chicago we have a quaint term which I think fits these guys well. Fucksticks Usage - Dem guys are a buncha fucksticks.
  • I challenge these blokes to drive through a few select English cities with the slogans "DIE CHAVE SCUM" and "I HATE CHAVS" on their cars. Let's see what kind of treatment they get there.
  • Morons are everywhere. This is hardly a unique Southern/American trait; as these smug self-righteous assholes so clearly demonstrate through their own idiotic behaviour. To be honest, I'd like to see these dipsticks try pulling such a stunt in some other area with strong religious beliefs. Iraq and Ireland strike me as two other places where similar provocation might not end quite so harmlessly.
  • Or what EarWax, said.
  • I thought it was funny. But then, I know exactly how stupid American southerners can be.
  • The pink eyelashes on the truck cracked me up.
  • But then, I know exactly how stupid American southerners can be. About as much as American northerners, I'm going to guess you would say.
  • MonkeyFilter: Morons are everywhere (!) I loves ya, P-Boy! MonkeyFilter: Dem gu.... No Argh, I'm so NOT going there! Bigots are everywhere. Bigots like to hide in closets. Unbeknownst to you, do you have a bigot in YOUR closet?
  • About as much as American northerners, I'm going to guess you would say. Nah. I wouldn't say that. I have no problem with those states around the Great Lakes area.
  • Nah. I wouldn't say that. I' ll assume that's humor. My wife, who earned both her B.A. and M.A. from elite northern schools, will be among the first to report that she has endured more stereotypes as a Southerner than as a woman.
  • About as much as American northerners, I'm going to guess you would say. I grew up in West Virginia, and I'm now (unfortunately) living in Wisconsin. I'll vouch for that.
  • This was on the blue a while ago. It's a shame people keep going on about this particular part of the show. The ending, when they reach New Orleans and find it in pretty much the same state as when Katrina had just passed was much, much more relevant. But I guess flame wars about whether southerners are more stupid than otherners are more fun...
  • Not sure what the debate is really about. Which section of the country features people who are more educated than the other section? Therein lies your answer. Improve education in the "stupid" section, and watch the "stupid" people decrease in numbers. It seems rather obvious to grasp, but not everyone really seems to get that. It is dangerous to call one group of people less intelligent than another. It is not, however, dangerous to say that one group of people is less educated than another.
  • Excellent point, bernockle. And I do wonder what portion of the anti-intellectual nonsense you hear bandied about these days stems from the idea that many highly-educated people have had their opportunities handed to them.
  • You GOT it, Nockle! Education is the key. Too bad we can't put one day of Bushie's war spending into a state to be used only for improving schools. We could do that for two months! One day for each state. What a concept. Education instead of weapons. Put social concerns ahead of national defense? The terriorists have won!
  • Well the overarching point shouldn't have been aimed particularly at the South, as egregious as that benighted region is, but that merely displaying your (unpopular) views on politics, sexuality, religion or music can actually get you killed! This is an outrageous absurdity in a world that I guess only pretends to be civilised. Of course the irony is deeper when you get killed by "Christians" (or Muslims etc.) who aren't quite down with "Thou shalt not kill" or "patriots" who disdain the Bill of Rights as applied to others besides themselves. Space travel can't come too soon as escape may be the only sane alternative.
  • I' ll assume that's humor. Perhaps. However, cliches exist for a reason: they're repeatedly correct. And I too can attest to the ignorance of people from "hick towns," as I grew up in one in California. As bernockle said, education is a major factor, but I believe the culture is the real culprit. People who grow up in reality-averse and education-averse cultures tend to refuse to become educated and be intolerant of worldviews that contradict their own. And as kamus said, having a contradicting worldview in a culture like that could get you in a lot of trouble. Of course I don't mean that ALL people from the south are stupid. Many of my very-educated friends are from the south. But they're not living there now.
  • You go, bigot.
  • Bigotry is about things people can't change. I have no problem being critical of things that people can change but refuse to do so.
  • And I too can attest to the ignorance of people from "hick towns," as I grew up in one in California. California is not the South. Please advise how this makes you an expert in Southern culture. People who grow up in reality-averse and education-averse cultures tend to refuse to become educated and be intolerant of worldviews that contradict their own. I absolutely agree with this. I have no problem with it at all. What I have a problem with is the implication you're making that it's somehow a predominantly Southern problem, which would be offensive in the extreme, were it not so patently ridiculous. As you said, there are "hick" towns all over. The Midwest, the Great Lakes, Alaska, even the alleged intellectual Valhalla that is New England -- hell, you could make the claim that there are huge neighborhoods in cities like Chicago, L.A., Boston and New York City that qualify as "hick," in the sense of having a strong anti-intellectual streak ingrained in the neighborhood culture. Try driving those cars through Southie and see what happens. But hey, we all got funny accents down here and live in trailers, AMIRITE? Of course I don't mean that ALL people from the south are stupid. Many of my very-educated friends are from the south. But they're not living there now. Good for them. Some of us like it down here.
  • Yeah, I see you totally get my point. Done here, folks.
  • I've found that people here in the Deep North are often cranky, uptight, and rude. I used to hate living in WV, now I'd prefer it. It may not be the most progressive region, but at least they're pleasant to be around.
  • I have no problem being critical of things that people can change but refuse to do so. No, I think we all get your point. The problem is, you're not criticizing individual people for being bigots. You're criticizing people who choose to stay in the South simply because we choose to live here. I should leave my family, the place that has been home for us since we got off the goddamn boat 200 years ago, and that incidentally I love and willingly came back to after living outside the region for years, and move up north because to do otherwise makes me a dumb redneck racist? Jesus, this kind of shit pisses me off.
  • Yeah, I see you totally get my point. I can't help it. I live in Arkansas.
  • Well the overarching point shouldn't have been aimed particularly at the South, as egregious as that benighted region is, but that merely displaying your (unpopular) views on politics, sexuality, religion or music can actually get you killed! This is an outrageous absurdity in a world that I guess only pretends to be civilised. Of course the irony is deeper when you get killed by "Christians" (or Muslims etc.) who aren't quite down with "Thou shalt not kill" or "patriots" who disdain the Bill of Rights as applied to others besides themselves. It's pretty much an accepted fact that people of education-averse cultures tend to be brutes and become violent when they find someone who doesn't fit their narrow world view. This is the same everywhere you find narrow-minded people, but the south just gets picked on the most because of its high concentration of fundamentalist Christians. Is it at all surprising to find out that education-averse folk have a skewed view of what Christianity means, or anything else for that matter? The same thing would have happened in Southie, as mct said. Anywhere you find people with deliberately narrow views. The bigger point here is that, knowing full well what the outcome would be, these twits deliberately provoked them into violence, thus proving themselves just as uncivilized as the hicks. These fellas thought they'd show us in their smarmy way that having unpopular views can get you hurt. Congratulations! Is there anyone on the planet who didn't know that already? What they really showed us is that they're exploitative, unimaginative, cruel and unfunny. I'm siding with the hicks; at least they're honest about themselves.
  • These fellas thought they'd show us in their smarmy way that having unpopular views can get you hurt. Congratulations! Is there anyone on the planet who didn't know that already? Well, in many coastal areas of the US, unpopular views are better tolerated. For instance, at a Bay Area street fair a couple of years ago, some turkey was carrying around a big sign decrying gay marriage. He had nothing to worry about as far as attacks to his body were concerned. (Arguments were a different matter.) Also, you say that the south just gets picked on the most because of its high concentration of fundamentalist Christians. You seem to be forgetting that in large part, current US foreign policy is driven by backwoods, narrow, hillbilly bible-thumper style thinking these days (with predictable results). I think it is especially appropriate that foreigners do the nose tweaking in this video.
  • Koko, I agree with 95 percent of what you're saying. But I don't accept it as fact that people of education-averse cultures "tend to be brutes and become violent when they find someone who doesn't fit their narrow world view." There are plenty of well-educated bigots in the world who simply have the resources to express their brutishness in a way that doesn't require direct physical confrontation. And the vast majority of uneducated people with narrow minds that I've ever known would never, ever dream of harming another human being just because they disagreed.(In my experience, fundamentalist Christians are much more likely to take you on in the state legislature than in a back alley.) Who knows how many little hick places these idiots stopped at before they finally found someone who was willing to create a scene? This is "reality" TV -- of course they're not going to show you all the hundreds of people who just gave them a funny look and went about their business.
  • Of course they were being provocative and intentionally offensive -- that was the point. And if that makes them jerks, so be it. But note this: you can write any slogan that is likely to be offensive to any local population on your car and drive it around. But not everywhere will you get rocks thrown at you and be chased in your vehicle, by (plausibly) gun-wielding locals. I'm curious if one put "God Hates Fags" or "No Queer Like a Dead Queer" on your car and drove it along Castro in San Francisco or in West Hollywood how many rocks you'd get thrown at you. Or if you'd be chased and possibly run off the road. It's not the offense that they were fishing for -- I can offend more people before 6am than most people offend all day -- but it is telling that you could go to any small, poor town in any red state and be threatened with your life for having things like "NASCAR SUCKS," and "HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT" on your car. Now tell me that it's the woman's fault for walking down the dark alleyway in a bad part of town. Was their behavior provocative? Of course. Did it directly contribute to the hot water they found themselves in? Sure. Was the reaction of the locals predictable? That was the whole fucking point. And if you don't see that those who react in violence to childish car-sloganeering are WORLDS worse than the childish car-sloganeers, you've got bigger problems than this thread can solve. I can think of several ways to get my sorry ass killed simply by sloganeering on my car: - South Central LA with White Supremacist slogans. - Poor parts of Belfast with (pro- or anti-) unionist slogans. - Small town in the Bible Belt with Hillary/Gay/Anti-NASCAR slogans. One of these things is not like the others, kids. Black people in South Central have a justifiable flight/fight response to white supremacists -- the statements are a THREAT. Same goes for the wrong part of Belfast. Now only deeply indoctrinated, culturally-backward and absolutist-mindset people are going to see a threat in Hillary, Teh Gheys, or NASCAR SUCKS! I'd bet that "socialized medicine now!" would've done the same thing. And, for better or worse, I know just where to go to most easily find the highest concentration of these folks. And it's just where these guys went. The back roads and small towns of the Bible Belt South.
  • I'm curious if one put "God Hates Fags" or "No Queer Like a Dead Queer" on your car and drove it along Castro in San Francisco or in West Hollywood how many rocks you'd get thrown at you. I'd imagine there would be a few. If there were actually any along the road, anyway. Now only deeply indoctrinated, culturally-backward and absolutist-mindset people are going to see a threat in Hillary, Teh Gheys, or NASCAR SUCKS! I bet they're just tired of being stereotyped and having other deeply indoctrinated people look down their noses at them. Besides, what these guys did is the rough equivalent of walking into an aquarium and saying "OMGZ! Fish!" Is this footage really so superior, culturally speaking, to NASCAR?
  • I bet they're just tired of being stereotyped and having other deeply indoctrinated people look down their noses at them. A-fucking-men. A whole fleet of cars shows up painted with slogans that I doubt they found so much actually threatening as just insulting in their perceived ability and obvious intent to offend, and with TV cameras in tow -- even culturally backward hicks could figure out without too much effort that these were people whose sole purpose was to make fun of them. And that, more than just about anything, will get rocks thrown at you down here. And, for better or worse, I know just where to go to most easily find the highest concentration of these folks. And it's just where these guys went. The back roads and small towns of the Bible Belt South. You know this how, chimaera?
  • Again: the New Orleans part was much, much, much more important. And the only thing people can talk about is this bs? What are you, Southerners?
  • And that, more than just about anything, will get rocks thrown at you down here. .... You know this how, chimaera? I have little sympathy for shit-stirrers. But if political mockery is enough to provoke people to commit assault (possibly with the deadly weapon modifier, as that's the throwing of rocks was, make no bones about it) and chase you in pickup trucks (misdemeanor threats at the very least), and that's simple how it is "down there," well, I think you've made my point for me.
  • No, chimaera, we don't take kindly to assholes. Tell me how that's the same thing as all of us being ignorant bigoted rednecks. Someone throwing gravel at your freaking car is not assault with a deadly weapon, no matter how overdramatically you react for the benefit of the TV cameras. And still, you haven't given a shred of evidence to support your claim that you "know" there's a higher concentration of the culturally backward, etc. in the South. "Reality" TV doesn't count. Movies don't count. TV footage from 40 years ago doesn't count.
  • - Gravel? Did you watch the video? Those thunks on the cars weren't the tinkle of gravel. - I fail to see where called "all of you" ignorant bigoted rednecks. I don't see where I called "all of you" anything. You seem to be projecting something here to indicate that I have made blanket statements about everyone who lives in the South. - I'm not going to spend time researching my claim that I am more likely to find people who react with violence to "Hillary For President" "NASCAR SUCKS" and "MANLOVE OK" signs in the Bible Belt South, so please consider that assertion withdrawn. - I do pose this question, though: what region of the country do you believe one would be MORE likely to be subject to violence with the above slogans? - I would be curious to know why you have identified yourself as part of the "we" and took offense when I said that you were more likely to find violence in response to Hillary/TheGays/Etc in the south. Seriously, how is that different from me saying that you're more likely to find hispanic gang members in East LA and black gang members in south central? - Finally to put it as clearly as possible, do you feel that the response of those shown in this video is an appropriate response to the provocation? If not, why do you insist on defending them, even identifying with them?
  • Can I just interject here and say that this is my 4th day in Texas, and I'm getting a great kick out of saying y'all? Thanks, y'all!
  • Welcome to Texas, fish tick. What part are y'all in? I'm down in 'Youston. Here, this time of year, we have to watch out for Trail Riders during our morning commute, as they arrive in town for the Rodeo. Yeeeeeee Ha!
  • Ah'm in Addison, y'all. I do so love cilantro and lahm and jalapenos that ah do declare ah'd like to stay here a longer tahm, but ahm afeard ah miss the smoke-free, pedestrian-friendly, medicare-handy climate of mah own dear Halifax. Ah got me a bit of a sunburn in Febree, though, ah do declare! Gotta love that, y'all! It's right purdy here.
  • Are you saying there is no basis to the stereotype? Although distorted and overblown, most stereotypes have some basis in fact.
  • Sorry for the derail, all, btw - I am using a foreign mac with a french keyboard and can't find all sorts of things like the slash to do "small" talk, dang it. For the record, I think those guys doing the Dixie-baiting were idiots. I'd throw rocks, too - well, rude remarks, at least. I've been noting with surprise the lack of opinionated bumperstickers here in the Dallas area and wondering if it is due to fear of repercussions. Seriously - no religious ones, no political ones, just a very few military-supportive magnets.
  • I do pose this question, though: what region of the country do you believe one would be MORE likely to be subject to violence with the above slogans? Your premise appears to be that it's the Hillary/NASCAR/etc. slogans that are what pissed them off enough to make them throw rocks. I believe this is where you're going wrong. Picture this: You're an undereducated guy who's been raised in a poor, somewhat insular community. You're not particularly eloquent, so witty ripostes are not your thing. In fact, you don't know a hell of a lot of anything that comes out of a book, because you were raised in one of the poorest regions of the country -- ergo, education and literacy funding are absolute shit, so in your little neck of the woods, the good life consists of little more than finding a good job as an electrician or plumber or mason, and praying to God Almighty (in whose Word you were raised to believe as the literal, inerrant truth) that one day you might be successful enough to be a contractor, because by God that's how you make it out there. You don't have good libraries or universities around you, and it wouldn't really matter if you did, because when you're raised in poor and undereducated regions, you're not going to be inclined toward those sorts of pursuits. No, your idea of unwinding at the end of the day consists of nothing more than cracking open a few beers with the boys, taking your girl out for dinner and a movie, maybe breaking out the smoker and doing up some ribs right on a Saturday, when you can take all day to cook them sloooooooooooow and invite the neighborhood over to enjoy them. Not too often, though, because ribs and beer for that many people ain't cheap. Speaking of, you're just squeaking by on the bills, you've come to terms with the fact that you're never going to be rich or famous, and you'll pretty much have to dirty your hands for the rest of your life if you want to get by, because you're probably not lucky enough to hit it big. Then some motherfuckers show up who want to make fun of you. continued...
  • You're not stupid. You're undereducated, maybe, but you're not a goddamn (forgive me, Lord) moron. You know that's what they're doing. They paint some shit on their cars that mocks your beliefs and your way of life. They have the gall to come into your home, your territory, your way of life, and they wave a big goddamn middle finger in your face. FUCK YOU, YOU IGNORANT GODDAMN HILLBILLIES, they're saying, and if that weren't bad enough, these cocksuckers brought cameras. They're looking for a show. Well, by God, you think, these motherfuckers want a show. I'm gonna give 'em just that. So you round up the boys and you put the fear of God Almighty into these motherfuckers. Assault? Aw hell, you're not gonna assault a goddamn (sorry, Lord) thing. You're not a moron, remember, and so you're not gonna assault anybody who's got cameras rolling. But you're gonna scare 'em. You're gonna scare 'em good, because you want these miserable high and mighty motherfuckers brought down off their pedestals and onto the ground where the rest of the mere mortals like you are forced to live their lives every blessed day. So you shout some shit and you throw some rocks at their cars and you laugh your goddamn (workin' on it, Lord, I'm tryin') ass off at these sorry sons of bitches who came looking for trouble and screamed like asthmatic girls and high-tailed it out when they found what they were looking for. You gave them the show they wanted. And you did it knowing exactly what both you and they were doing. Because though you may not be the most literate sumbitch in the world, you know a P.T. Barnum-wannabe cocksucker when you see him, and if he wants to dance in this county, by God he's gonna have to pay the band. Are you justified in this? I confess I do not know. What I do know is that I have a very, very hard time blaming you for reacting the way you did. You're not pissed off about someone liking Hillary Clinton. Hell, there's people in your county voted for her, and you haven't done anything to them, except maybe not give 'em the time of day, but hell, ain't like they invited you to break bread with them, either. No, you just don't like being made to look a fool, especially not with the cameras rolling. So you figured you'd give 'em a show, and that's what they got. It's what they wanted, and the irony is that they're just fucking dumb enough to think that you're the evil prick in this situation, those ham-handed, manipulative, overacting motherfuckers.
  • s/b voted for her husband
  • I understand and appreciate the narrative, MCT, and that is certainly a plausible story. But just as plausible is one where your same protagonist, poor though he his, and disadvantaged from the start with respect to education, is one where he's not merely a product of is environment, but a victim of it, and in turn, a participant not only in the perpetuation but in the glorification of it. You see, maybe he started out bright. Really bright, never needing anyone to teach him to read bright. He just picked it up from watching TV and reading signs on businesses. Say around 4th or 5th grade, he started getting shunned by his peers because they accused him of "being better than them" and a "nancy boy bookworm." Only, you see, his father did the same thing. Held him down because if being a car mechanic was good enough for him, he wasn't going to let his son make him feel stupid. So he got beat up a few times, and decided that it was easier to go with the flow. By high school, he grew up a lot, and I mean a LOT, so he was a linebacker. Getting girls left and right, even cheerleaders. And yes, beating up the nancy boy bookworms he was indoctrinated by his family and neighborhood life to hate. And those welfare queens. And those (insert foreign nationality or other race here) over in the bad part of town who don't even put in the effort to take care of their own ramshackle houses. He was taught all along that hard work was the ultimate expression of a person's worth, and look at those nerdly types who couldn't even split a log -- nerds and queers. And now, people like Hillary want to have socialized medicine. He hears that people in Canada die all the time because they get on 5-year waiting lists for bypass operations and hit hospital quotas for repairing perforated ulcers. Hillary and her fornicating husband are supported by the pencilnecks over in those coastal states. And even here in some of the college towns where there's queers and atheists trying to take "under God" out of the allegiance when George Washington himself put it there. Unamerican. Socialists. They want to raise his taxes so that (insert foreign nationality or race name here) can get treatment for free that hisdidn't even get until he'd been in the union for 6 months. So now these assholes come to poke fun while he's out back working on his car or just taking a break with his friends, and he knows it's not about Hillary (though he agrees with Rush that she's an elitist, socialist feminazi). It's not about the pink paint that says "manlove," it's these smarmy better-than-thou assholes from some OTHER socialist country come to poke fun at him. And if they're going to pick a fight, well he'll just give them that fight and maybe with a couple stitches and a busted camera they'll know better than to mess with people. Because it ain't right to mess with people like that, so those members of the liberal media will get a couple knocks and might think twice next time before doing something like this again. See? Coming up with the life story of a guy who violently confronted a couple shit-stirrers, pelted them with rocks, and chased after them in his truck is fun.
  • And interestingly enough, MCT, I think your story and mine could be about the exact same guy, and what he is is a product of his culture -- the culture with which his family and friends indoctrinated him, and which, for various reasons, he never much rebelled against. Because like in nearly EVERY culture, the nail that sticks out gets pounded down.
  • Very good discussions going on here. What gets me is that Top Gear is supposed to be a car review show, or at least it used to be - "This week, we look at the new Ford Cockroach. Is it the best family car?" Instead of which it's "This week, we waste the license fee letting Clarkson, Hammond and the wanker with the hair race a Ferrari down a mountain against a paraglider. Then we'll be sneering at people who only use a car to get around."
  • See? Coming up with the life story of a guy who violently confronted a couple shit-stirrers, pelted them with rocks, and chased after them in his truck is fun I rather thought mct's narrative had more compassion.
  • First of all, that was a TV show we all watched. It was scripted, produced, and edited for the purpose of making you see what they wanted you to see. Were the boys in the pickup at the gas station scene really violemt? How ling did Clarkson and the other wankers sit around waiting for them to show up because it would make a nice shot? Were rocks really thrown in anger or was it added later in post-production? Was the fear and panic real or acted? Did you buy what they were selling hook, line and sinker? Secondly, a group (southerners) was deliberately targeted and baited with insults and ridicule. The majority reaction was horn honks and finger raising. One person (the gas station lady) confronted them directly, as she obviously took the ridicule personally. She (supposedly) called "the boys" who came to the rescue (maybe more out of loyalty to her than anything else - are they her sons/family?). So far I don't see any overreaction here. This is nothing more than you'd get with your car painted in Michigan maize and blue on Ohio State's campus (and that's in the enlightened North!). Those who think there's anything inferior about the Alabamans because of this video really are bigots.
  • Yeah, we need Clarkson to go back and repeat the experiment, and wait to see what really happens... Incidentally, if the local police had been called, do you think they would have arrested: (a) no-one (b) Clarkson (c) 'the boys' (d) Clarkson and 'the boys' and put them into the same cell, (e) Hillary Clinton?
  • I think mct pretty much nailed it; though my opinion is about 10x more cynical and admittedly comes from my New England upbringing. Plus I was high when I wrote it. Basically the hicks were reacting to being made fun of by a bunch of assholes with a film crew. I think it's pretty much as simple as that. I probably would have thrown things at them too. If not rocks, perhaps balled-up tissues. Or really, really dirty looks. Once their backs were turned.
  • To perhaps elucidate my perspective, here, I should state that I have an extremely low tolerance for violence. The dirty looks, middle fingers, catcalls and insults are all right by me. Reasonable reaction to insulting provocation. But rather than respond in kind, they apparently chose to escalate -- and for that I have no sympathy for their poor hurt feelings. Any person or group of people who condones crossing the line, escalating from antagonism to violence will get no sympathy from me, and are always MORE wrong than those who insult them in the first place. I see an awful lot of comments here to seem to have no problem justifying that escalation, and I find that frankly disturbing. And yes, MCTs story was far more compassionate and mine less so, but that can be clearly placed to our separate and respective points of view on this issue. My point was that it is not possible to extrapolate beyond what we saw. Was the presentation biased? Sure. I'd love to hear another perspective from an eyewitness. But I heard those rocks (or dirt clods) on the trucks, and a rock that makes that kind of noise on a car could easily require stitches on someone's head. And that sounds like assault to me.
  • Shoulda been ignored. Two wrongs don't make a right, and every part of the world has dumb hicks in it. Even yours. Especially yours. Alas. Now what's say we stop all this a-fussin' and a-fightin' and get down to some lovin'?! *flexes to impress Koko*
  • yes, MCTs story was far more compassionate and mine less so, but that can be clearly placed to our separate and respective points of view on this issue With respect, I completely disagree with you there. Clearly MCT's story was totally influenced by Jupiter being in the House of Capricorn, whereas YOUR story was obviously simply a result of Mercury's influence on Scorpio, your Moon sign.
  • Them's fightin' words.
  • *EARTH-SIGN ON EARTH-SIGN LOVE* *AQUARIUS? STUPIDEST. AGE. EVER.* *GEMINI SCUM MUST DIE*
  • [ground+CTRL] lol major quidnunc u r on a tangent [ground+CTRL] OMG major quidnunc please respond [mjrquidnunc] OMFG planet earth is #0000FF [mjrquidnunc] 0 = wot i can do [ground+CTRL] u fuckwit
  • *Shows quiddy his 'moon sign'*
  • *casts magic missile at random foreigners*
  • *is disgusted with Rocket's red-neck hillbilly dark-side-of-the-moon sign
  • That's no moon . . .
  • Huh Pete! I DO TO know a m(.)n when I see it!
  • Late to the party, but wanna add my 2 cents. The irony is that these guys consider themselves better than those they mock -- you know, all those people who categorize others by stereotypes. What supercilious twits.
  • Or: What mct said.
  • Curious factoid: if you have seen the Pixar film 'Cars', you will have heard Jeremy Clarkson as the voice of Harv, Lightning McQueen's agent.
  • MonkeyFilter: What supercilious twits. HW, I bow to you.
  • Jeremy Piven did Harv's voice in Cars.
  • Ah, I should have said, if you've seen the UK version. (sory about posting an entire Wikipedia article, but it's in there somewhere). Of course, in our version McQueen was played by Daniel Radcliffe, Doc Hudson by Ian McKellen, Sally by Helena Bonham-Carter, and Mater by Bob Hoskins...