Damn it.

[tahnan]

You want In Passing...? I'll give you "overheard in passing." From the guy behind me in line in the T Pass office at MIT:

"...the retards can't read, that's the problem. We should be bombing Alabama, bomb Tennessee. All those Republican states. "Gas the South," how's that for a slogan?"

I did the best I thought I could, in a semi-claustrophobic public space: I glared at him and said "I'm not so sure I like that idea"--in a Southern accent.

"Well, I do..." he said, somewhat nervously.

"Ah'm sorry to hear that," I told him, took my T Pass, and turned to walk past them with an "Excuse me, gentlemen."

Sigh. I promise not to take this as an excuse to hate Yankees, which would be the same mistake they were making, but man it would feel good. I don't promise not to take this as an excuse to hate people.

Comments

[navrins]

Hate everyone; it's the only possible form of total equality. :-/

a.k.a. Kill 'em all; let g-d sort them out!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

People. People are morons.

I've never heard you use your Southern accent. I bet it's cute.

[saxikath]

I have, and it is. :)

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

It's appalling that this kind of regional hatred is still so common.

I'm not all that surprised that people dislike the cultural differences in different parts of the country. (Alas.) But what surprises me is that people think that jokes like these are _funny_. I can understand, though disagree with, people complaining about how Californians are all hippies or people from Massachusetts are all jerks. It's hateful and narrowminded, but at least it's honest prejudice, not hatred masquerading as humor.

I'm also surprised that your opponent didn't back off when called on his comment. I expect most people, when making an unfortunate comment (which a lot of people do without attaching much meaning to it) to realize that they don't really mean we should commit genocide on our own people.

Why don't, if people really believe that Southerners are stupid, why don't they suggest that instead of bombing Iraq we should be building more schools in the South? Because, of course, that's incomprehensively stupid. People don't believe that Southerners are stupid in the same sense that, say, people in the inner city often are. People believe, and it's painful to even say it, that people in the South are intrinsicly stupid, regardless of if they have a PhD from Georgia Tech or if they're a farmer from rural Kentucky.

I wonder how much if it has to do with the characteristics of the accent. (As opposed to media images and whatnot.) It is a slower style of speech. Does that really influence people that much? Then again, the upper-class British Masterpiece Theatre accent is also pretty slow, and is immediately associated with education. I wonder, also, when this stereotype started - maybe it's a post-Civil-War thing.

On the other hand, there are jerks everywhere, and there's probably better things to do than try and understand them.

burn Atlanta again?

[jadelennox]

Ayuh. That's the kind of forward thinking I like to see.

Or, more regionally approriately for me:

Youze Southerners can't take a joke. It's wickid funny to make funnayuz. Bigotry is cool!

(On a more serious note, many of my friends (note the word "friends") who have lived here for years still have no problem saying to my face that New Englanders are cold, rude, and unfriendly. So it goes all ways. People are used to regional assumptions.)

[jadelennox]

But good for you on the quick thinking. You could have really blown his mind -- if a further conversation had happened -- by saying that you went to a good Christian school in the South, but sorry, got to go back to the doctoral work now.

Re: burn Atlanta again?

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Point taken. It's simply the case that most New Englanders are co...joke. Seriously, it's a good point that we do all have regional assumptions.

On the other hand: a man behind me in line spouting regional stereotypes by saying "Southerns are idiots" is one thing, and I probably would have rolled my eyes and said nothing; a man behind me in line saying "Bomb Alabama" is another.

(I mean, you don't see Southerners saying "We should attack the North," do you? Er. Um. Yeah. OK. But I don't like them, either.)

[bookishfellow.livejournal.com]

Proof positive, if any were needed, that stupidity is not a regional trait. Unless the region you're talking about is, oh, the Milky Way galaxy. Excellent retort, and I too am amazed your interlocutor stuck by his statement instead of quickly backpedaling. (Is that a sign of conviction or of really limited comeback ability?)

Re: burn Atlanta again?

[navrins]

We are, aren't we? (Especially, I might add, compared to both the Southern stereotype and most of the Southerners I've known.)

But New Yorkers are worse.

-- ex-New-Yorker/New Jerseyite

[bumblepudding.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but you've got to admit that "Gas the South" *is* kind of a catchy slogan.

You know. Supposing that you were minded to gas a large number of people. And they happened to live south of you.

Minus the gassing yen or the geographical relation, it obviously wouldn't work at all.

[tablesaw]

"We should be bombing Alabama, bomb Tennessee. All those Republican states. "Gas the South," how's that for a slogan?"

Strangely, this plan is less absurd than one might think.

I mean, the United States is supposedly trying to root out Weapons of Mass Destruction. And who has more Weapons of Mass Destruction than anyone else in the world? The United States. The United States also has a history of supplying arms and intelligence to Rogue States like Iraq. The US should, therefore, invade itself. This plan has the added benefit of not needing UN approval (since it's an entirely domestic affair) and not needing the help of any allies for staging areas (since the troops are already in place, including reserves).

Of course, we'd want to start with Washington, not Tennessee.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

I promise not to take this as an excuse to hate Yankees

Ah. But always feel free to hate The Yankees. I mean, how many World Series do they need to win, anyway?