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Thinking about Gabbard in general, my animal instinct is to flatten my ears against my head, roll my eyes up till the whites show, bare my teeth, and trill like a cicada stuck in a Commodore 64.

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What's that word?

Started by Golden Applesauce, October 03, 2010, 09:41:48 PM

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Golden Applesauce

One of my roommates had the good fortune to turn 21 during our colleges Parent's Weekend, so several of my roommates' parents came to get drunk and party.  During the warm-up (this started at 9 am) a couple of the parents started talking about something called Why-Wham or YWAM or something about using skateboarders and polynesian dancers to attract children to the cult of evangelicalism.  One of the moms made a comment regarding "snot nosed brats ... behaving inappropriately" by talking among themselves, laughing, and making jokes at the expense of people who were trying to use skateboarding to make a fake religion appeal to children.

I called the woman on it, and told her that that "offended" me, because I was one of those kids once, and I'm tired of people thinking they can decree what is "appropriate" or "inappropriate" and denigrate those people who naturally fall on the other side of their artificial dividing line.  I'm especially tired of people who think that children are meant to be controlled by adults.  She apologized, but continued to make the case that this was somehow benefiting anyone.

But "offended" isn't the right word.  If something says something insulting and true, I have no cause to become offended at them for speaking the truth.  If someone says something insulting and false, I have no cause to be offended because the charge is ridiculous.

I was more irritated by the fact that this woman and people like her exist.  Thinking about it later, I realized that the only kind of apology I would have accepted would be either her completely changing her worldview or her death.

So what's the word for this?  Am I offended at the existence of evangelicals?  Is this feeling "hatred" for them?  Am I an evangelicalphobe?

Because thinking about this more, I realized that I a) want evangelicals to cease existing and b) that I don't even consider evangelicals to be real people, but rather puppet-gears of the Conversion Machine, little soulless shells of small evils.  I'm a little worried because this sounds an awful lot like bigotry, and I don't want to be a bigot.
Q: How regularly do you hire 8th graders?
A: We have hired a number of FORMER 8th graders.

The Johnny

I had an answer all written out now, but im confused by a couple points...

It was evangelical parents critizising evangelical-skater-youngsters for their methods? And, you were one of those evangelical-skater-youngsters at some point?
<<My image in some places, is of a monster of some kind who wants to pull a string and manipulate people. Nothing could be further from the truth. People are manipulated; I just want them to be manipulated more effectively.>>

-B.F. Skinner