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[Kagus]

I'd forgotten how much casual bigotry goes on here.

Don't worry about it, it's just those goddamn Belgians acting up again.

[Hanslanda]

I'd forgotten how much casual bigotry goes on here.

Frankly, I don't hate or disprove of AA. They help some people and that's great. I take offense to my First Amendment rights being suppressed. That's all I personally was trying to say.

[Arx]

I'd forgotten how much casual bigotry goes on here.

Frankly, I don't hate or disprove of AA. They help some people and that's great. I take offense to my First Amendment rights being suppressed. That's all I personally was trying to say.

Oh, no, I have no problem with that and I fully support your right to exercise your religious choices whether I agree with them or not. That was a comment on dragdeler casually slurring all Catholics as low-lifes with self-esteem problems and no success in life.

[Hanslanda]

Okay, I just wanted my position to be clear.

[dragdeler]

-snip-

[WealthyRadish]

Guess that just makes you an uncle St. Thomas.

[Reelya]

Yeah, I never liked the whole "Uncle Tom" thing.

The reason is that the original Uncle Tom story was an anti-slavery thing, however it got adapted by the Southerners into things like minstrel shows about a friendly and helpful black slave. So, using the phrase in that way to mean "collaborator" really disrespects the original author and their intentions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom

At the time of the novel's initial publication in 1851, Uncle Tom was a rejection of the existing stereotypes of minstrel shows; Stowe's melodramatic story humanized the suffering of slavery for white audiences by portraying Tom as a Jesus-like figure who is ultimately martyred, beaten to death by a cruel master because he refuses to betray the whereabouts of two women who had escaped from slavery. Stowe reversed the gender conventions of slave narratives by juxtaposing Uncle Tom's passivity against the daring of three African American women who escape from slavery.

Ok, so that's the original Uncle Tom. A black man who is beaten until he dies rather than betray other slaves, along with depicting strong non-white female characters.

American copyright law before 1856 did not give novel authors any control over derivative stage adaptations, so Stowe neither approved the adaptations nor profited from them. Minstrel show retellings in particular, usually performed by white men in blackface, tended to be derisive and pro-slavery, transforming Uncle Tom from Christian martyr to a fool or an apologist for slavery.

So, because there were no effective copyright laws back then, the pro-slave people converted the story into a minstrel show about how slavery was A-OK, just ask friendly Uncle Tom.

[dragdeler]

-snip-

[WealthyRadish]

Yeah, I never liked the whole "Uncle Tom" thing.

The reason is that the original Uncle Tom story was an anti-slavery thing, however it got adapted by the Southerners into things like minstrel shows about a friendly and helpful black slave. So, using the phrase in that way to mean "collaborator" really disrespects the original author and their intentions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom

At the time of the novel's initial publication in 1851, Uncle Tom was a rejection of the existing stereotypes of minstrel shows; Stowe's melodramatic story humanized the suffering of slavery for white audiences by portraying Tom as a Jesus-like figure who is ultimately martyred, beaten to death by a cruel master because he refuses to betray the whereabouts of two women who had escaped from slavery. Stowe reversed the gender conventions of slave narratives by juxtaposing Uncle Tom's passivity against the daring of three African American women who escape from slavery.

Ok, so that's the original Uncle Tom. A black man who is beaten until he dies rather than betray other slaves, along with depicting strong non-white female characters.

American copyright law before 1856 did not give novel authors any control over derivative stage adaptations, so Stowe neither approved the adaptations nor profited from them. Minstrel show retellings in particular, usually performed by white men in blackface, tended to be derisive and pro-slavery, transforming Uncle Tom from Christian martyr to a fool or an apologist for slavery.

So, because there were no effective copyright laws back then, the pro-slave people converted the story into a minstrel show about how slavery was A-OK, just ask friendly Uncle Tom.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks like this is just asserting that the original meaning of a term should supplant the way it's actually used. If the term acquired its most recent ironic meaning as part of a negative reaction to the minstrel shows (the word being used as a criticism of the archetype as portrayed in those shows) then the modern usage seems to me to be clean of its racist origin, and so the only argument here is whether someone should take up the banner of a (long dead) author's moral rights to a word that has acquired new meaning and held it for many decades (longer than the author held it, even).

[Kagus]

I think I managed to brainfart my way into taking my last (on this prescription) evening-time relaxation pill along with the rest of my morning pills today, leaving me with only half of my usual nighttime meds... Right in time for the night leading up to a stressful and anxiety-ridden day tomorrow.

At least I can take out a fresh scrip tomorrow, but still... Why, brain? Why?

[Rose]

The more I work on Armok Vision, the more I want to make my own colony simulator game, but I don't have the focus or know-how to pull it off.

[Rolan7]

Going back to an online community, seeing how much it's changed, how much it hasn't.
Messing around a bit, expecting to be too out of touch.  No one recognized me, yet they liked my content.  I suppose I learned the ways, heh.

I thought I moved on, but this is okay too.

[Reelya]

Don't worry, we'll always have Roblox.

[KittyTac]

Going back to an online community, seeing how much it's changed, how much it hasn't.
Messing around a bit, expecting to be too out of touch.  No one recognized me, yet they liked my content.  I suppose I learned the ways, heh.

I thought I moved on, but this is okay too.

What community?

[Rolan7]

Thanks for asking, but I really can't say.  Which is part of why it's a sad.  And yet it does make me kinda happy, at the same time.

That is to say, it's totally Roblox

...I keep meaning to try Roblox but I'd rather keep screwing around with javascript experiments, which I think says something about Roblox.  All I know about it is that some of my little cousins are obsessed with it, yet switch between games so rapidly.  As shitty sandbox platforms go, I'll have to stick with BYOND.