Here's how one is "insulted" in 2009 hotlinking a sports avatar:

[cboy4]

http://www.banemacleod.com/lab/avs/avatars_nba.html

:wtf:

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They couldn't have written something instead like, "I'm a thief" or "I'm a dirt bag" or "I'm scum"

The insult had to be, "I'm gay" because there's apparently nothing more humiliating than saying you're gay.

Hey, you know, I don't blame someone for not being happy their bandwidth is getting ripped off vis-a-vis a hotlink.

But this isn't the first time I've seen this, you're a fag being used as a message of hot linking shame.

Maybe the author is only 12 years old. Who knows. But it's disturbing none the less.

You know?

[babylonsister]

1. There's way too many ignorant people in this world, and country.

"Erase the Hate" ...:thumbsup:

[MADem]

2. He's not 12. He's been "messing with computers" for almost two decades.

What he is, is an asshole.

His "bio:" http://www.banemacleod.com/about/bio.html

[cboy4]

4. Hmmm, I didn't see that.

What's sad is he claims to be a Democrat. :(

[MADem]

6. Not all Democrats are liberals. It's that "big tent" thing.

But, like I said, he's an asshole. A childish and ignorant one, too.

[taterguy]

3. I'm insulted about the improper use of an apostrophe

[cboy4]

5. There's a place for humor taterguy.

Sadly, someone in the Lounge, or elsewhere during your life, mistakenly led you on that you're hilarious in all things you say.

We all know that waterboarding is often more amusing than your act.

Homophobia isn't funny. Not ever.

You're definitely eligible for a stand-up 101 refund.

[taterguy]

9. I was mocking ignorance, not homophobia

It's not my fault that I can't resist calling someone out for poor grammar.

I have very poor impulse control.

[cwydro]

10. I got the joke.

Funny how those types always have grammar issues.:P

[cboy4]

14. Yea, you can't resist a lot of things.

Like using your head.

You may fool most people, but not me.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. Gotta start the education early.

>>>>Maybe the author is only 12 years old. Who knows. But it's disturbing none the less.

You know?>>>>

This attitude is nearly universal among American male pubescents. It seems to go underground sometime around late HS early college age. Possibly they're old enough to understand more... possibly they're just afraid to be called on it.

Point: efforts to educate the school age ... esp. EARLY school age population.. have generally been unsuccessful. School boards and school administrators don't want the flack and of course, they're busy with "more important" things.

Much like a certain president we know and love.

But I think it's interesting that "gay" as an insult is almost universal among male children ( and as in the case described in the OP, *childish* male adults) and then drops off or goes latent thereafter.

I'm not sure what it means, but it means something. It seems to point to a failure of the educational system .... among many other things.

[Berry Cool]

8. I think it points to parental failure.

I think if parents don't make it clear from the outset to their children that they don't think "gay" is an insult, or that they disapprove of "gay" as an insult, their children are 100% guaranteed to be conditioned by their peers into using it as an insult. Because they will hear other kids say "That's so gay" to insult something, and they will pick it up and use it. Even if they don't know what it means.

It is up to the parents to make it clear that "We don't want that kind of talk in our house. We do not think there is something terrible about being gay." But many of them don't. Many of them stay silent on the topic, perhaps because it gives them some kind of foolish "assurance" that their own kids aren't gay--a possibility they may not want to contemplate, no matter how open-minded they are about other people being gay. In the back of their minds, they're thinking: "He insults things by calling them 'gay'--what a relief--he must not be gay." And they also tell themselves that "gay" as an insult is just one of those "boys will be boys" things they can't do much about. (Of course, it's not--and girls say it too.)

How different if parents who disappoved reacted to hearing their kids say "That's so gay" the same way they might react to hearing the N-word from one of their kids. "Hey! We do not say that in this house. Do you know what it means? Really? Is that what you think? Because if it is, we need to have a talk..."

[Smarmie Doofus]

11. This is mega-perceptive:

>>>>>>Many of them stay silent on the topic, perhaps because it gives them some kind of foolish "assurance" that their own kids aren't gay--a possibility they may not want to contemplate, no matter how open-minded they are about other people being gay. In the back of their minds, they're thinking: "He insults things by calling them 'gay'--what a relief--he must not be gay.">>>>>

I hadn't thought about it in exactly that way but I believe this correctly describes the failure of parents... even those parents who ought to know better.... to leave the "gay as insult" thing alone.


>>>How different if parents who disapproved reacted to hearing their kids say "That's so gay" the same way they might react to hearing the N-word from one of their kids. "Hey! We do not say that in this house. Do you know what it means? Really? Is that what you think? Because if it is, we need to have a talk..." >>>>


Interesting in that one rarely... these days anyway... rarely hears "faggot" or even "fag"... which is the true corollary to the N word. "Gay" was a word that we ( GLBTs) adopted as a respectable alternative to the ( invariably pejorative) labels in circulation in the vernacular in the early 70's.

One is tempted to see at least a smidgeon of linguistic, and even social progress in that fact. "Gay" as insult sounds... at least to this ear... distinctly less menacing than "faggot", which *always* sounded like a "fighting word".

But only a smidgeon.

Re. parents: I agree of course. But most parents would take their cue from the school system, I'm thinking. I think you're giving the average parent too much credit to think they're going to initiate this sort of thing on their own. They should; but they won't.

[Lisa0825]

12. I sent him a note through the contact link

What a moran.

http://www.banemacleod.com/contact/

[cboy4]

13. Right on

:)

[Initech]

15. The author isn't 12, more like 8.

[Lisa0825]

16. Come on DU... send him a note to share your opinion :-)

http://www.banemacleod.com/contact/

[seabeyond]

17. hubby and i talkin today, only way to really insult a guy, call him gay or girl.

and that is the biggest insult to male, ..... and really, it is a put down to gays and women.