I got picked on by blacks and Irish people for being Jewish but I must love these people

wrote in message
...
Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

There must have been a lot of people involved in more than one of those.
("Wrong night? oh ****, I spent all last night making copies of the new
Ubuntu release and that's what I've brought - can somebody lend me a
whip
and a set of straps?")

Jack, that's hysterical. There does seem to be some sort of link
between geekdom and an inclination toward SM and bondage. What's that
about, I wonder? It's not my thing, but it's so prevalent around where
I live that it's become fairly mundane. I did go to a bondage/SM party
once, and I overheard a group of people in the next room, who had tied
up a guy in a chair, and were standing around admiring their work. They
were seriously geeking out about knot techniques, which soon devolved
into Unix jokes.

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

I just got some mental pictures that are going to haunt me for the rest of
my life

Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:
It's true, many Jews can pass as non-Jewish.

Or the other way round, in some circles. I've been taken for Jewish
twice. Once was by a guy in Pittsburgh with a "mitzvahmobile" selling
religious paraphernalia who thought I was a potential customer, and
once by a fascist newspaper seller in Glasgow when I took a photo of
him.


You can't be a 'little bit black'. Even if you're mixed-race you
are not white!
That is only true in a racist culture.

Only in a *very* racist culture, like the US. The UK is sufficiently
better that while the Formula 1 racing champion Lewis Hamilton looks
like Obama's kid brother, I've never seen him described as black in
the British media. Coffee-coloured people don't usually get an ethnic
label in the UK.

I never understood the idea that if you happened to have an ancestor of
darker skin, you were therefore a member of the darker-skinned group, no
matter how distant in the past, no matter your current appearance or
cultural identification, or even just what proportion of your genetic makeup
can be traced back to that ancestor (if it was several generations ago, its
quite possible you have *none* of their DNA).

I find it even harder to understand when a person of 'mixed heritage' starts
ranting about how they are opressed by what the 'white people' did to their
ancestors when they are at most only 50% related to the opressed - and more
than likely more related to the opressors than the opressed. Note that I am
in no way condoning the terrible treatement of many indigenous and enslaved
people at the hands of their oppressors, but if someone of 'mixed heritage'
wants to lay a guilt trip on me (who had nothing whatseover to do with how
their ancestors were treated), then they also have to accept at least 50% of
that very same guilt themselves because they also have ancestors who were of
the culture as the one they are accusing.

Then again, although 'geek' I am also fair skinned, from protestant English
stock, and my primary (and only) language is English. I was hardly going to
experience much racism or religious bigotry as I grew up (except perhaps
being called a Pom occasionally). Now class opression is a different story
and my family can talk about that, but its not my story.

Yowie
--
"because its more fun to be evil" - Jarppi, _The Dudesons_

"Christina Websell" wrote in
:


I'm finding the thread very interesting. I studied Aspergers Syndrome
a little for my job because parents of Aspergers children often ask
for them to be taken into care when they are in their early teens as
they cannot cope with their behaviour.
It's typically because Aspies cannot empathise with other's feelings
and cannot understand social signals that would give them a clue that
they are p+ss+ng people off. They also take things very literally,
with no idea of irony or humour. This is easy to deal with for a
parent of a small child, but not a teenager.

It's not enough to be a geek, although Aspies can be very geeky and
talk about nothing except their current interest. The difference is
that Aspies will do it inappropriately to everyone.
I've seen no symptoms of Aspergers as I know it in this thread. What
you are all describing is fascinating aspects of your own personality
where you pursue an interest that is very important to you.

You are allowed to be a geek. It doesn't mean you have Aspergers.

Tweed

Tweed it is the geeks who have made the internet what it is today

wrote:
Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

There must have been a lot of people involved in more than one of
those. ("Wrong night? oh ****, I spent all last night making copies
of the new Ubuntu release and that's what I've brought - can
somebody lend me a whip and a set of straps?")

Jack, that's hysterical. There does seem to be some sort of link
between geekdom and an inclination toward SM and bondage. What's that
about, I wonder? It's not my thing, but it's so prevalent around where
I live that it's become fairly mundane. I did go to a bondage/SM party
once, and I overheard a group of people in the next room, who had tied
up a guy in a chair, and were standing around admiring their work.
They were seriously geeking out about knot techniques, which soon
devolved into Unix jokes.

I would suggest ti is because geeks tend to ignore the usual sorts of social
boundaries and norms because such unwritten rules don't make any sense to
them. On the whole geeks are moral Libertarians - "as long as you don't
bother me, I don't really care what you get up to in your spare time". So
geeks if not actively *attracting* the various subcultures that are deemed
otherwise socially unacceptable, will tolerate them and not persecute them.
The roleplaying conventions I have gone to had a distinct
overprepresentation of goths and of transvestites (some of whom were also
goth). But as long as they could roll their own D100, it didn't matter what
they looked like or who they shagged, they were there for the roleplaying
and roleplaying they did.

had to laugh at the geekingout at knots thing looks around guiltily

Yowie
--
"because its more fun to be evil" - Jarppi, _The Dudesons_

Yowie wrote:

wrote:

There does seem to be some sort of link
between geekdom and an inclination toward SM and bondage. What's that
about, I wonder?

I would suggest ti is because geeks tend to ignore the usual sorts of social
boundaries and norms because such unwritten rules don't make any sense to
them. On the whole geeks are moral Libertarians - "as long as you don't
bother me, I don't really care what you get up to in your spare time".

Hmm, well that explains why they're more tolerant of it, but not why they're
attracted to it ("it" being kinky stuff). But I wonder if what you're saying
about social norms not making sense might make sexual activity that has a
lot of explicit rules more attractive. And since "vanilla" forms of sex
depend so much on the same kinds of social interactions that are so mystifying
(except they're much more intense), maybe they can't relate as well to
that? I don't know.

The roleplaying conventions I have gone to had a distinct
overprepresentation of goths and of transvestites (some of whom were also
goth). But as long as they could roll their own D100, it didn't matter what
they looked like or who they shagged, they were there for the roleplaying
and roleplaying they did.

Oh, and BDSM is all *about* roleplaying. So now I have to ask, why are
geeks so drawn to roleplaying, generally speaking? Being a geek and an
RPG player, you can probably answer that, at least for yourself and the
people you know.

had to laugh at the geekingout at knots thing looks around guiltily

It was pretty funny, I have to say. So were the Unix jokes. I kept
thinking, how does that enhance the overall atmosphere here? Those
jokes make me feel like I'm at work.

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

Christina Websell wrote:

I've seen no symptoms of Aspergers as I know it in this thread. What you
are all describing is fascinating aspects of your own personality where you
pursue an interest that is very important to you.

You are allowed to be a geek. It doesn't mean you have Aspergers.

This online test is interesting (to me, anyway - I am certainly a geek)
(watch the line wrap)

http://www.glennrowe.net/BaronCohen/.../AutismSpectru
mQuotient.aspx

I scored 30 on this test..... I would describe myself as an introvert,
for sure, but, wow.

Deb.
--
http://www.scientific-art.com

"He looked a fierce and quarrelsome cat, but claw he never would;
He only bit the ones he loved, because they tasted good." S. Greenfield

Christina Websell wrote:
"Dan M" wrote in message
...
Guys i get the feeling the originater of this thread is a troll who was
doing some baiting in this group
Yeah, I suspected that as well. But as long as we trim the newsgroups, we
can still turn it into a productive thread!

I'm finding the thread very interesting. I studied Aspergers Syndrome a
little for my job because parents of Aspergers children often ask for them
to be taken into care when they are in their early teens as they cannot cope
with their behaviour.
It's typically because Aspies cannot empathise with other's feelings and
cannot understand social signals that would give them a clue that they are
p+ss+ng people off. They also take things very literally, with no idea of
irony or humour. This is easy to deal with for a parent of a small child,
but not a teenager.

It's not enough to be a geek, although Aspies can be very geeky and talk
about nothing except their current interest. The difference is that Aspies
will do it inappropriately to everyone.
I've seen no symptoms of Aspergers as I know it in this thread. What you
are all describing is fascinating aspects of your own personality where you
pursue an interest that is very important to you.

You are allowed to be a geek. It doesn't mean you have Aspergers.

Tweed

People like having labels for things. And since there's so much dispute
over the various bits of the autism spectrum, or whatever they call it,
it seems difficult to draw the line between 'autism' or 'Asperger's
Syndrome' and 'basically normal, but a bit more introverted than
average', especially for non-specialists.

It happens even among parents of children with .... odd ... behaviour -
in some places, you need a diagnosis of autism to get assistance, but
then it seems like you end up with a lot of children with pretty mild
symptoms in the category, and some services aren't offered to some
autistic children *because* they have typically autistic behaviour -
they are too difficult to handle.

So labelling a child helps some of them get counselling or special
education, but results in progams being set up for children with milder
cases. And that can result in what one mother of an autistic child
described to me as 'he's not eligible for that program for autistic
children because he's got autistic behaviours.'

Sorry for going on a bit. Autism is a devastating problem for most
people afflicted with it. It's interesting to wonder if maybe certain
personality traits that aren't much admired in our society are related
to the disorder, thereby giving them a name and place, but I have my
doubts. Someone once wrote that people who are a bit odd but not
actually suffering from autism should be described as 'quirky' and
celebrated for their quirkiness, rather than treated as medical cases!
I like that idea.

Cheryl

Yowie wrote:

I never understood the idea that if you happened to have an ancestor of
darker skin, you were therefore a member of the darker-skinned group, no
matter how distant in the past, no matter your current appearance or
cultural identification, or even just what proportion of your genetic makeup
can be traced back to that ancestor (if it was several generations ago, its
quite possible you have *none* of their DNA).

In the context of race-based slavery (which in itself, doesn't appear to
have been the most common form of slavery throughout history),
mixed-race people posed a real problem. It must have been much simpler
to fall back on the old idea of being born into slavery, which meant
that if even one of your distant ancestors was a slave, you were too.
You didn't get to be half a slave because half of your ancestry was of
the other racial group!

But this sort of thinking isn't limited to race. Lots of people think
you should belong to your original ethnic group, even if you (or your
grandparents!) emigrated to a new and multi-cultural country. This can
be as mild as enjoying Irish music or Spanish cooking even if it's been
three or four generations since anyone in your family has been in
Ireland or Spain - or as vicious as support by money or actions
terrorism that has it's roots and motivation in Ireland or Spain.

Cheryl

(Debbie Wilson) wrote:

I scored 30 on this test..... I would describe myself as an introvert,
for sure, but, wow.

I, too, scored much higher than I would have guessed -- 34. Probably we
shouldn't over-estimate the accuracy of a single test, particularly a
self-evaluative one.
--

Wayne M.

Debbie Wilson wrote:

This online test is interesting (to me, anyway - I am certainly a geek)
(watch the line wrap)

http://www.glennrowe.net/BaronCohen/.../AutismSpectru
mQuotient.aspx

I scored 30 on this test..... I would describe myself as an introvert,
for sure, but, wow.

I, in turn, seem to be much less introvert than I thought. I scored 21.
No wonder I feel a complete outsider in this thread... No one ever
picked on me. But I didn't pick on anyone, either.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban.
In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.