Comments on: Who is shooting and mutilating dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, and why?

By: cdh1971

cdh1971 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:06:00 +0000

I spent first thru third grade in Pearisburg, which is about 30 miles from Blacksburg, towards WV. When I came back to Oregon, I had an accent that was slightly more thick than you’d find in Charlottesville, or Staunton nowadays, but that was thirty years ago. I caught enough shit about my accent (from school officials!!!) back in Oregon that I decided to keep some of it

I moved back to the area in 2009, to Staunton. I was intending to re-start my graduate studies. Had to move back in 2010 due to an unforeseen personal catastrophe.

Anyway…no, Virginia in general, and the areas around Charlottesville and Harrisonburg are very, very different than some of the other areas of the South. This area contains the highest concentration of higher learning institutions in the US.

Staunton is such a great town, I just loved it. As for hipsters, I saw a few, but they just added to the local colour (I live just down the road from Portlandia, so I know the hipsters.) It really fcuked with my head when I had to leave.

By: cdh1971

cdh1971 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 04:48:00 +0000

There’s nothing for you to be sorry about – and, my compliments on your ability to channel your pent up anger on this subject in a well written and clear comment.

By: cdh1971

cdh1971 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 04:47:00 +0000

I agree with you br3rRabbit. Also, it really sucks that you find it necessary to flatten your Savannah accent in SF. The Savannah accent is indeed truly gorgeous.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 04:09:00 +0000

So long, and thanks for the kidney shot!

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 04:08:00 +0000

You’re not wrong, but you hardly addressed my point.

There are known facts. Dead dolphins, mutilated.

What do we know? People own boats. Local people own boats. Local peope reflect local prejudices.

I’d say we’ve taken quite a few lessons from Occam so far, and it’s a good place to start.

By: IamInnocent

IamInnocent — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 04:01:00 +0000

Occams razor is not a method; it is a lesson. It teaches us that we should base our judgments on the least assumptions possible. Circumstantial evidence is assumptive by essence.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 01:36:00 +0000

meanwhile, artistic wristwatches get one arrested.

It’s about enforcement.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 01:35:00 +0000

rednecks are just as likely to be women. There’s that.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 01:34:00 +0000

” On our “great progressive coasts” being a Southerner means being subjected to a prejudice that’s completely ok.”

Bless. Your. Heart.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 01:32:00 +0000

I believe you think that. Is there any room for you to be wrong, ever? How about now? ANY chance that you’ve dropped a turd in return for a perceived turd, and are claiming the high road while taking the same one Nathan is?

Bless your southern heart.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 01:30:00 +0000

I notice you weren’t asking. :)

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 01:29:00 +0000

I find it to be a believably defamatory and racist assumption. And the crackers have earned it.

By: acerplatanoides

acerplatanoides — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 01:28:00 +0000

You have Occams razor, right? A believable set of circumstances is a good place to -start- from.

By: Seriously

Seriously — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:29:00 +0000

Its ok. I have “rural” family in Eastern Wa who hunt and work blue collar jobs.I don’t talk politics with them, but they are good people who keep animals. They don’t abuse them. I get more than a little tired of it being open season on my family when every other sub group in the country is off limits. I understand….you just get tired of it. So I got a little over sensitive myself.
And your right, a Savannah accent is gorgeous. I say take it back.

By: Seriously

Seriously — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:37:00 +0000

Yes. I do. I think my meaning was clear. I am glad that I offered you a chance to be clever. Now scroll down and see how much a Southern poster feels about the comment above. That’s it I’m out.

By: Jonathan Donald

Jonathan Donald — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:01:00 +0000

I agree – fishermen, when faced with losing catch or equipment, will gladly sacrifice the lives of other creatures, especially if no one is monitoring them.

By: Greg Murphy

Greg Murphy — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 22:47:00 +0000

This new seapunk thing is clearly out of control.

By: textonascreen

textonascreen — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:17:00 +0000

So you lived in the Charlottesville area too? I was born there in ’62. It really isn’t the knuckle dragging south that Mr. Farr imagines is it? Being a college town makes a difference.

Don’t know if you’ve been through Staunton lately but it’s changed a lot. There are coffee shops and hipsters and I even saw a copy of Vernor Vinge’s “True Names” lying around.

Not the South I see in Alabama and Mississippi by any stretch.

By: mark

mark — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:34:00 +0000

I believe the title is misleading. Yes, it happened in the Gulf of Mexico, but more specifically, along the Miss., LA., coast. I doubt it was Mexicans, or Cubans. Kinda narrows it down a bit. Just sayin’.

By: hassan-i-sabbah

hassan-i-sabbah — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:10:00 +0000

Satanists. For Satan.

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:07:00 +0000

Hey, man, if you had a two-foot long prehensile penis…

Naah, I’m offending myself with that one.

By: giantasterisk

giantasterisk — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:04:00 +0000

I don’t think you’re correct in saying it’s just as likely that the culprits are women. Got any research you can point to that backs that up?

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:33:00 +0000

If people stopped buying the product then these people would have no reason to be on a boat in the first place.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:30:00 +0000

The difference is that with the original statement came context and motive.

I agree that it’s painting with a broad, speculative brush, but it wasn’t quite as random as you imply.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:28:00 +0000

“And really that is an unbelievably defamatory racist”

You know that rednecks aren’t a race right?

By: Paul Boudreaux

Paul Boudreaux — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:15:00 +0000

While we’re going down the path of being better than everyone else, the culprit(s) are about as equally likely to be female, cajun, native american, black, or asian. More importantly, they’re probably blue collar. Seriously, “Put your ‘%’ mindset on”, the sequel. Put your southern mindset on, and then you can see that maybe they were scared of the dolphins, stupid, drunk, unable to control base instincts, or are emotionless robots. The good news is it’s the south so the culprits are probably segregated and easier to lump together as a group. Just remember that you have a unique and valuable cultural identity. It’s ok because deep down you know you’re better than everyone else.

By: Luz Cabrera Selbe

Luz Cabrera Selbe — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:43:00 +0000

Stupid people killing Dolphins because Dolphins are smarter then them!!! Hello…..

By: br3rRabbit

br3rRabbit — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:33:00 +0000

Sorry about that. Obviously I have some pent up anger over this issue.

By: splicernyc

splicernyc — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:26:00 +0000

This should surprise me? The human race is filled to the brim with psychopaths who think nothing of slamming babies against the wall because they cried too loud and we’re surprised that dolphins are shot to death? The insanity of the human race is not an aberration, it’s a feature.

By: br3rRabbit

br3rRabbit — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:11:00 +0000

Well, on one hand I am happy that your view of the South is informed by more than “Lil Honey Boo Boo” or a harried stop at a truck stop. I would argue that the differences between individual towns, counties, or parishes are just as great as the differences you experienced btw different regions. Even within the same state.
And then there’s the other hand. That Mr Farr is the one that should get the break. Not the Southern Liberals who incessantly get tarred with that wide and rather stagnant brush.

On our “great progressive coasts” being a Southerner means being subjected to a prejudice that’s completely ok. It’s just the one little identity based prejudice that we should all just giggle off. After all, we have to feel superior to someone and the negroes and women are off-limits now. Darn it!

It absolutely infuriates me how hard I had to work to shed my gorgeous Savannah accent to get anywhere in my career in San Francisco. And how much easier things became once I did.
To not meet with arrogant, snide comments about incest and lynchings and obesity and illiteracy and religion at industry parties and professional settings where this shit would be grounds for litigation if just one or two words were changed.

It would be one thing if these people were judging me based upon the merits of my own culture – that’s something I could handle constructively. But these people are just huffing at a stereotype to which I don’t even remotely belong. And they know absolutely nothing about the culture that I DO come from. That is not admirable.

And then if I get angry over the incest or lynching jokes, my well meaning friends tell me to “cut them a break” because after all:

“You’re not like that, you’re one of the good ones.”

Christ, where have I heard that before? Like I said, it’s the exact same ignorance you see in the South. The same language even.

“The people of Wall Mart” are in every part of this country. Every part of the world, really. Do you think that you would enjoy having that stereotype just assigned to you over and over and over again?

So no. Nobody else is going to take up for the poor redneck Southerners. We sure as hell shouldn’t have to just sit there and take it.