by "Wobbles the Mind" (wobblesthemind)
Published 04/21/2017 at 09:40
by "Wobbles the Mind" (wobblesthemind)
Published 04/21/2017 at 09:40
Tags: Rants
STARS: 8
“big·ot (bit/) - noun: 1. a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions.” Big subject but I wanted to have you all give your takes. Two things have been bothering me lately in automotive articles and discussions. First, swearing in the titles and the use of needless profanity in main articles. Second and most importantly, when nationalities become a joke or argument point.
I’m really becoming exhausted with the “ze Germans” and “sausages in different sizes” and other sayings that are done because that’s what they read growing up. I dont think you need to go into bastardized Italian gibberish to discuss the driving dynamics of an Alfa Romeo. I don’t want to hear about how the “Chinese” can’t build a good enough car for America purely because “they are Chinese.” I’m sick of hearing people say they won’t buy Japanese or Korean or American because they are built in Mexico.
It’s one thing when you have a problem with that country’s current government but most of the time it has everything to do with whatever imagine you have created of the people and culture.
Now, none of this is bigotry when it starts out. These are the things that set the tone for people in the discussions to start saying that some nationality is lazy or incapable of quality. The jokes about kimchi, chopsticks, obesity, tea time, and moose maneuvers become too targeted and that’s when the bigotry I’m bothered by erupts.
I know it’s all just for fun and “they tease us too” and all of the other excuses we can form because cruelty is not our intent. I just want everyone to be aware that you control the atmosphere and quality of the discussions through your own opinions.
But if you are going to be not only closed minded by completely intolerant of opinions then hold your bigotry for a forum where like-minded people such as yourself gather and enjoy that kind of stuff together.
I don’t care what country the brand that owns another brand was founded in. Your problem isn’t the country, it’s the brand. It isn’t that you don’t buy American because they can’t build a sophisticated car, you just don’t like those automakers. If it’s too much work to type the brands you don’t like then maybe just tell people what you do like.
Just be in control of the tones you use so that we don’t promote bigots coming into this space to spit at imaginary wrongs which always end up hitting one of our many global friends, including the ones that call the same place you do “home.”
*I’m not calling anyone out nor has anyone done me any wrong. I’m just noticing the environment on the Internet is becoming more and more toxic in every direction.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
04/21/2017 at 09:47, STARS: 2
You can have my humorous stereotypes when you pry them from my greasy, numb, sausage-like American fingers! /s (Swearing in headlines is just lazy journalism. Poking fun at national identities through cars can be okay, IMHO, but it can tread on dangerous—personal—ground if you’re not careful. And it’s also usually lazy, too.)
"fintail" (fintail)
04/21/2017 at 09:49, STARS: 3
Keep away from FP, problem solved? The best action to take when offended is to consider the source, and keep walking. Although British people may disagree, there’s still no real right to not be offended :)
I won’t embrace cars built in or owned by certain areas due to political reasons. Has nothing to do with the brand, everything to do with other factors. Other brands can generate an eyeroll over designs I don’t agree with.
"EL_ULY" (uly)
04/21/2017 at 09:49, STARS: 7
There is a For Sweden vs For China joke here somewhere :]
Kidding aside, dude, I’ve fought this particular battle many times to no prevail.
Humans be humans, yo!
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
04/21/2017 at 09:53, STARS: 2
Yep, thankfully in the modern era we have stupid shit like “sports teams” to keep our tribalism in check. I sometimes joke that we’re only a couple NFL franchises away from a race war because people just so badly want to belong to SOMETHING. It’s stupid, we’re supposed to be better than that...but we’re usually not.
"LongbowMkII" (longbowmkii)
04/21/2017 at 09:54, STARS: 1
The lolchina is the one I notice the most. but it will pass eventually I think. similar to loljapan and lolkorea of the past.
"EL_ULY" (uly)
04/21/2017 at 09:56, STARS: 1
It really does boil down to that Ash, well said. Pride seems to be the main culprit I think.
Superbia, yo!
"whoarder is tellurium" (whoarder)
04/21/2017 at 09:57, STARS: 1
Clearly, Jeremy Clarkson is to blame.
"DutchieDC2R" (dutchiedc2r)
04/21/2017 at 09:57, STARS: 4
This is completely unrelated, but since youre a mod, I’ll put down my complaint here: Is there anything to be done about the countless hordes of Juke posts? I mean, really, I dont need to see a damn picture every day, or read about one every day. Wasn’t there a rule in the Oppo rules that said that constantly posting about a certain thing became spam or something? And not tolerated? Either way, I cant find the rules, but Im really getting frustrated with this issue, up to the point where I’m thinking: I’m done.
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
04/21/2017 at 09:58, STARS: 0
Yeah, good thing sports team keep our tribalism in check. So many of my friends went to fight in Oakland after high school. Damn Raiders! Those Iraqis, Afghanis, and Pakistanis are lucky we have pro sports leagues, or else we’d be over there dropping bombs on them...
"vondon302" (vondon302)
04/21/2017 at 09:58, STARS: 1
I drive a Mustang and work at FCA. Not much you can say to me that hasn’t been said. But I think your right on toxicity of the internet. It’s not just Kinja sites either some of the forum’s I used to comment on I don’t even look at any more. Also people seem ready to blow up at the most marginal slight and that’s in every day life. I was at Boston market the other day and a lady started a fight over the amount of gravey she got. Cops and everything and believe me she didn’t need anymore gravey.
"Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero" (sampsonite24)
04/21/2017 at 09:59, STARS: 1
personally my gripe is with the oppo facebook and the autistic jokes, and yeah the excessive use of swear words is annoying. like i dont have much of a filter when i speak but jalopnik is supposed to be a professional blog
"Jcarr" (jcarr)
04/21/2017 at 10:00, STARS: 0
What? When did Wobbles become a mod?
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
04/21/2017 at 10:01, STARS: 1
Joking aside, I bet the Venn Diagram of “pro sports hopefuls” and “enlisted infantry” has a lot of overlap. No offense to either, I’m just speaking to the marketing.
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
04/21/2017 at 10:01, STARS: 0
http://oppositelock.kinja.com/a-slightly-revised-oppositelock-handbook-for-commenting-1750418920
"DutchieDC2R" (dutchiedc2r)
04/21/2017 at 10:05, STARS: 0
He’s posting a thread regarding the tones of the comments on here, I assumed he’s one. Whats the point of making a post like that if you cant intervene?
"facw" (facw)
04/21/2017 at 10:06, STARS: 1
Here’s the most recent rules post: http://oppositelock.kinja.com/a-slightly-revised-oppositelock-handbook-for-commenting-1750418920
I don’t see anything about limiting posts on the same topic (there has been other moderation guidance on “theme day” posts).
"MoCamino" (mocamino)
04/21/2017 at 10:08, STARS: 2
I have to agree with you Wobbles. I see some otherwise really good posts here whose quality suffers because the author finds it necessary to drop obscenities in every other word. Don’t misunderstand me - I’m not a prude. I’ve spouted language myself that would have sent my mom running away in tears. (More often than I’d care to admit.) But when it’s clearly thrown in because the author is incapable of forming a complete sentence without it...well it’s just unnecessary.
Regarding the negative comments - agree to agree. Have an opinion, even a strongly-held one? Great. You have a right to it, and a right to express it. But it needs to be done in a friendly manner without attacks. If you can’t express it without being hateful, it’s probably time to walk away.
By the same token, don’t take an opinion you don’t agree with as an attack just because you don’t agree. It’s called being an adult. Sometimes people say things you don’t agree with. It doesn’t make them a bad person, or mean they hate you and everything for which you stand. It just means you disagree. Get over it.
"Jcarr" (jcarr)
04/21/2017 at 10:11, STARS: 0
Community self-policing?
"DutchieDC2R" (dutchiedc2r)
04/21/2017 at 10:11, STARS: 1
Youre right, I think thats the one I meant, ‘theme day’, and confused it with the general set of rules. My bad.
"DutchieDC2R" (dutchiedc2r)
04/21/2017 at 10:12, STARS: 0
Good luck with that one.
"Jcarr" (jcarr)
04/21/2017 at 10:13, STARS: 0
I don’t know, I think Oppo does a pretty good job of that. It’s not that often that mod action is needed.
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
04/21/2017 at 10:16, STARS: 0
Maybe. None of my friends who signed up were athletes. The pro sports hopefuls usually have college scholarships which helps keep a lot of them from signing up.
"DutchieDC2R" (dutchiedc2r)
04/21/2017 at 10:17, STARS: 0
You are, in a general sense, very right, and I agree. However, with this particular subject, I think it’ll be a lot harder to ‘self-police’. I do appreciate the thread and completely agree on all his points, I just think that the judgemental (and discriminative?) nature inside us is embed in. You (not you particularly of course) might not have the intention of writing an article that contains something racist, but even if its not intended, it might still slip in.
I do agree that starting an article like this is a good reminder for people to think twice when they write an article though.
"and 100 more" (nth256)
04/21/2017 at 10:38, STARS: 3
Juke posts have you to the point of leaving?
Not being critical of you or your preferences; just seems like such a very small part of the daily haul of posts that it’d be silly to leave just because of Juke-related content.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
04/21/2017 at 10:50, STARS: 1
I get your point but I think “ze Germans” is innocent enough, it’s like the equivalent of “MURRICA.”
"Dru" (therealkennyd)
04/21/2017 at 10:57, STARS: 3
My gripe with Chinese made cars has nothing to do with Chinese people and everything to do with terrible Chinese QC, with which I have some first hand experience. Though I can’t figure out why, I do associate a Mexican built vehicle with being sub-standard. But I tend to keep that to myself.
"TorqueToYield" (torquetoyield)
04/21/2017 at 11:03, STARS: 4
As an engineer buying lots of stuff from China I can tell you I make the same “damn Chinese low quality crap” comments, but the difference is it’s not about their race or ethnicity or even that they’re in China - it’s the fact that so so so much of the stuff coming out of small shops there is absolute garbage. There are obviously world class products coming out of China (iPhones), but I have real quality concerns about products made in China by random small companies based in hard facts. Honestly Mexico too. Not because of race/ethnicity/country of origin, but because of past and current professional experience.
Not every Made in the USA product is of high quality, but there are real quality concerns with foreign manufacturing beyond just bigotry.
But the rest of your post I agree with.
"fourvalleys" (fourvalleys)
04/21/2017 at 11:52, STARS: 0
They don’t have me to the point of leaving... but when combined with some of the other garbage that gets posted (theme days especially), it sure doesn’t encourage me to come here.
It also doesn’t encourage me to spend time actually writing things that are worth reading if they’re going to be bumped out of sight by posts of what your favorite brand of peanut butter is. I don’t get it.