She didn’t say it changed her views, though, just that she felt better knowing he was no longer alive. I’m vehemently, permanently against the death penalty, but it’s not because I morally believe it’s wrong for the state to execute in any circumstance or that there aren’t some people who truly don’t deserve to live,…

God, shut up.

Yes, it’s clear you have them.

It’s the Brown Folks Three Card Monty. It was a bomb! It was a hoax! It was a conspiracy! Where’s the queen, where’s the queen, look over here, nope, over there!

The look on his mother’s face when he grinned at the professor from MIT telling him he was just the type of student MIT and Harvard want was pretty damned great.

Maybe go fuck yourself?

Be quiet now.

Just goes to show you, white guys who feel they have a claim to oppression are usually some of the biggest dicks imaginable. See also: racism, misogyny and lesbophobia in predominantly white gay male communities, etc.

A bleat of “Ad hominem!” is the refuge of a pedantic asshole who has no other weapon at his disposal.

That’s what we call Samsonite Syndrome.

Lol what horseshit.

Shut up shut up shut uppppppp.

Lol fuck off.

Well, I can offer you personal experience to the contrary.

But we’re not all respected equals, particularly in various specific situations: teachers, bosses, elders, parents. Pretending the power differential isn’t there doesn’t make it go away.

Plus it’s insulting to make the pretense that children and adults are equals and peers by using first names, while still maintaining all the power differentials. I’d rather the power differential be acknowledged than waived away until the adult needs to exert authority, which they will.

Except it’s not really egalitarian. It’s making a show of being egalitarian while maintaining all the internal power structures.

My mom just this year uncomfortably told my undergrad roommate - whom she’s known for over 20 years now - that we’re old enough that she could just call her by her first name instead of Mrs. May. My old roommate still calls her Mrs. May lol.

But then don’t you think that pretending to erase the power difference by not using honorifics is somewhat insulting, given that the power difference is still there in precisely the same form it was before? You can call an adult Bob instead of Mr. Smith all you want, but when Bob wants to exercise his authority, he…

EXACTLY.