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'Pimp' number 39 haunts Afghan car owners

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Count Dookkake said:
The challenge: Post a thread about a news item about laughable antics in a Christian African nation and see how GAF responds. You have not done this and then told me not to hold my breath.
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Where did I make that challenge?

I told you not to hold your breath because you were asking for something I never said I would provide.

Count Dookkake said:
Here's what would happen: There would be much laughter and name-calling. Why do you think we would be nicer to those idiots than any other idiots?
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Were that to occur, with the same kind of language used (specifically language that implied that all the people surrounding such a thing were childlike or mentally deficient) I would react the same.

As I said, illogical social norms are an inherent part of any society. I have no problem with people pointing out such illogicalities, even idiocies, but when it gets to the point of implying some general mental deficiency to a specific group of people (in this case, Afghans), of course I am going to react as I don't think it is appropriate.
 
OttomanScribe said:
How does this work? What does the second comment have to do with anything? I am well aware of the issues with clean water in developing countries, is it meant to imply that I am unaware of them?
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No, its meant to imply that you pulled a poor analogy, thinking that it would be critical to the modern western world (Or people that don't wish they could live in Baghdad 1000 years ago), out of your ass without thinking about the rest of the world.
 
Crunched said:
Fear of the number 13 is still stupid as hell. I've been in quite a few buildings that skip numbering a 13th floor altogether. I've always thought it was dumb.
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Yup. I live on the 13th floor.

It's marked 14.

But it's not as bad as all the new condo buildings in Downtown Toronto, which don't have any floors with the number "4" in them because the Chinese won't buy them.
 
OS, I apologize for misreading your comment. You were claiming that you would be just as upset if laughter was aimed at those guys, not that GAF would not be laughing.

Mea culpa.


Now where is my clean diaper?
 
OttomanScribe said:
As I said, illogical social norms are an inherent part of any society. I have no problem with people pointing out such illogicalities, even idiocies, but when it gets to the point of implying some general mental deficiency to a specific group of people (in this case, idiots who are afraid of 39 on their number plate), of course I am going to react as I don't think it is appropriate.
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fixed that for you
 
lunarworks said:
Yup. I live on the 13th floor.

It's marked 14.
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i always lol at that... the office i'm in doesn't have a floor labeled 13 but CLEARLY the 14th floor is the 13th. makes no sense.
 
Ryuukan said:
No, its meant to imply that you pulled a poor analogy, thinking that it would be critical to the modern western world (Or people that don't wish they could live in Baghdad 1000 years ago), out of your ass without thinking about the rest of the world.
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Still not getting it.

What my initial reply said was that both organic food and bottled water (in the sense of brand names) are illogical social norms followed by many people in the society I live in. Were I to then imply that all the people that followed such norms were childish or mentally deficient, I would be in the wrong, both in that such generalisations are inadequate, and in the sense that such norms are exactly that; social norms and not necessarily the fault of the individual. I pointed this out to critique the previous statements, which I felt neglected such things. Hey, I get butt hurt about what I view as problematic characterisations of people....

So explain further what you mean by 'without thinking of the rest of the world' and how your African tap water comment related?
 
Count Dookkake said:
OS, I apologize for misreading your comment. You were claiming that you would be just as upset if laughter was aimed at those guys, not that GAF would not be laughing.

Mea culpa.
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All good, probably my fault for not being clear.
 
OttomanScribe said:
Where did I make that challenge?

I told you not to hold your breath because you were asking for something I never said I would provide.


Were that to occur, with the same kind of language used (specifically language that implied that all the people surrounding such a thing were childlike or mentally deficient) I would react the same.

As I said, illogical social norms are an inherent part of any society. I have no problem with people pointing out such illogicalities, even idiocies, but when it gets to the point of implying some general mental deficiency to a specific group of people (in this case, Afghans), of course I am going to react as I don't think it is appropriate.
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I absolutely love how you turned this into a race issue. You really are truly butthurt and I am astonished that you manage to function in society (although, I assume barely) while being so immensely sensitive.
 
OttomanScribe said:
Still not getting it.

What my initial reply said was that both organic food and bottled water (in the sense of brand names) are illogical social norms followed by many people in the society I live in. Were I to then imply that all the people that followed such norms were childish or mentally deficient, I would be in the wrong, both in that such generalisations are inadequate, and in the sense that such norms are exactly that; social norms and not necessarily the fault of the individual. I pointed this out to critique the previous statements, which I felt neglected such things. Hey, I get butt hurt about what I view as problematic characterisations of people....

So explain further what you mean by 'without thinking of the rest of the world' and how your African tap water comment related?
Click to expand...

You can get really sick from drinking from a tap in many places in the world. In those places, bottled water is a necessary commodity. If you were only talking about where you live in particular, you should've said so initially.
 
dudeworld said:
I absolutely love how you turned this into a race issue. You really are truly butthurt and I am astonished that you manage to function in society (although, I assume barely) while being so immensely sensitive.
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I try to shy away from viscous generalities of mental deficiency. This is something that I have never found to be particularly detrimental in a social setting.

As I see it, the majority of people following this 39 thing are trying to avoid public ridicule, believing the 39 thing is irrelevant to this.


You can get really sick from drinking from a tap in many places in the world. In those places, bottled water is a necessary commodity. If you were only talking about where you live in particular, you should've said so initially.
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Ah. Now I get ya.

This is true, and an apt critique. Touche.

My specific point was in relation to bottled water brand names that make claims about their superiority to each other and to regular tap water, in taste, or just in terms of health. I should have been more specific, my bad. I drank the water in a village in Bangladesh, bottled water beats the taste of iron any day.
 
lunarworks said:
Yup. I live on the 13th floor.

It's marked 14.

But it's not as bad as all the new condo buildings in Downtown Toronto, which don't have any floors with the number "4" in them because the Chinese won't buy them.
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4, 13, soon enough all numbers will be unlucky and the alphabet will need to be used to designate floors
 
OttomanScribe said:
when it gets to the point of implying some general mental deficiency to a specific group of people (in this case, Afghans)
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Oh fuck off please. I wonder how many more posts it's going to take before my comment is referring to all of Islam and even Mohammed himself.

Let me be crystal clear: my dumbass comment was referring to the number 39 morons and them alone.

You make threads fun.
 
Borgnine said:
Let me be crystal clear: my dumbass comment was referring to the number 39 morons and them alone.
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Awesome. I still disagree, though it is a bit less problematic than a generalisation.

You make threads fun.
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Happy to please. A thread with a debate is better than a thread with everyone saying 'lol, idiots' in different ways.
 
OttomanScribe said:
I think the same about people who buy bottled water and organic food.
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Then you're an idiot because bottled water is still water and organic food is still food.

39 being an ill omen or a sign of impurity however is an assinine idea because it makes no logical sense.

We up to speed?
 
Dyno said:
Then you're an idiot because bottled water is still water and organic food is still food.

39 being an ill omen or a sign of impurity however is an assinine idea because it makes no logical sense.

We up to speed?
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Buying organic food specifically is buying an expensive and inefficient product with no benefits. In this sense it clearly leaves you worse off for the experience.

Not having the number 39 on your car has the clear benefit of meaning you avoid harassment. It doesn't seem to be about an 'ill omen' or a 'sign of impurity'... it seems more like the number '69' with what it entails, except a tad more negative.

It is like the implications of having your head shaved and looking like a skin head, even though very few people with that hair cut are skinheads, the association is made and so one might avoid getting such a haircut. The testimonies of the people quoted seem to show that people were avoiding it because of fear of harassment more than anything else.

Also don't call me an idiot. Ad hominum just degrades your arguments.
 
Dyno said:
Then you're an idiot because bottled water is still water and organic food is still food.

39 being an ill omen or a sign of impurity however is an assinine idea because it makes no logical sense.

We up to speed?
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Not to mention, bottled water and organic food have a different quality then non-bottled water and non-organic food. Whether it is taste, content, production methods, ... People can prefer one over the other. With numbers on a number plate however, there's absolutely nothing different about any of them, unless you invent the difference.

The comparison is flawed.
 
OttomanScribe said:
Buying organic food specifically is buying an expensive and inefficient product with no benefits. In this sense it clearly leaves you worse off for the experience.

Some people don't like to consume trace amounts of pesticides, hormones, or other chemicals. I'm not one of them but hey, at least

Not having the number 39 on your car has the clear benefit of meaning you avoid harassment. It doesn't seem to be about an 'ill omen' or a 'sign of impurity'... it seems more like the number '69' with what it entails, except a tad more negative.

It is like the implications of having your head shaved and looking like a skin head, even though very few people with that hair cut are skinheads, the association is made and so one might avoid getting such a haircut. The testimonies of the people quoted seem to show that people were avoiding it because of fear of harassment more than anything else.

Also don't call me an idiot. Ad hominum just degrades your arguments.
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Who's doing the 39 harrassing and why? It is they - like you - who are the idiots in this story.
 
Souldriver said:
Not to mention, bottled water and organic food have a different quality then non-bottled water and non-organic food. Whether it is taste, content, production methods, ... People can prefer one over the other. With numbers on a number plate however, there's absolutely nothing different about any of them, unless you invent the difference.

The comparison is flawed.
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People buy organic food because organic farming is less damaging to the environment, safer for farm workers, and the crops lack pesticides and other chemicals. Yeah, people who buy organic are fucking morons...
 
Dyno said:
Who's doing the 39 harrassing and why? It is they - like you - who are the idiots in this story.
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I agree that it is idiotic, though I don't make a distinction between this idiocy and any of the other cases of idiocy that plague most societies.

Do you?
 
winter said:
People buy organic food because organic farming is less damaging to the environment, safer for farm workers, and the crops lack pesticides and other chemicals. Yeah, people who buy organic are fucking morons...
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All of those things are wrong. Except maybe the last one (hypocrisy much :P)

Organic farming is inefficient, if it were to be used to provide the world's population, it would consume far more resources and therefore be far more damaging to the environment. Indeed there is simply not enough arable land for us to support the world's population using organic farming. So if one wants to make the leap, advocating organics is advocating the mass culling of large swathes of humanity through starvation.
It is not safer for farm workers, chemicals and pesticides are still used, they are just sourced differently and less efficiently.

Organic food is a scam. It is no better for you than non-organic food, and is less sustainable. Ask Norman Borlaug
'Some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They’ve never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. They have never produced a ton of food. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for 60 years, they’d be crying out for fertilizer, herbicides, irrigation canals and tractors and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things.'
 
OttomanScribe said:
I agree that it is idiotic, though I don't make a distinction between this idiocy and any of the other cases of idiocy that plague most societies.

Do you?
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Really, you didn't seem to agree in an earlier post.

Ottoman Idiot said:
Not having the number 39 on your car has the clear benefit of meaning you avoid harassment. It doesn't seem to be about an 'ill omen' or a 'sign of impurity'..
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It obviously is about the idea that 39 is a bad number for some stupid reason. Enough people are thinking this and even acting on it.

Stick to you points or admit you were wrong. This jumping about is classic trolling.
 
mjc said:
Hell, ship me one of those cars with a 39 plate.
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What I don't understand is why don't they just get a new fucking plate.

It's not as if it's welded to the car.

Or is the bureaucracy that bad? (I think I just answered my own question.)
 
winter said:
People buy organic food because organic farming is less damaging to the environment, safer for farm workers, and the crops lack pesticides and other chemicals. Yeah, people who buy organic are fucking morons...
Click to expand...

Another sucker.

Organic doesn't mean no pesticides or chemicals. "NO PESTICIDES OR CHEMICALS" means no pesticides or chemicals.
 
Dyno said:
Really, you didn't seem to agree in an earlier post.
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I believe I have consistently said that it is silly. My objection was to the language of mental deficiency specifically.

It obviously is about the idea that 39 is a bad number for some stupid reason. Enough people are thinking this and even acting on it.

Stick to you points or admit you were wrong. This jumping about is classic trolling.
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It is obvious about some spurious link between the number 39 and being a pimp. Being a pimp is not an admirable trait in Afghan society (at least not at the moment). People don't seem to think it is a 'bad number for some stupid reason', they seem to think that 'having the number 39 on your car or house means that you are a pimp'.

I don't think I have ever said otherwise.
 
OttomanScribe said:
Finding it impossible not to comment on my comments must be harder. I think you'll find I am consistently butthurt thank you very much. If someone were to refer to a Christian African nation as a 'bunch of children', while simultaneously being unaware of the propensity in any society for ridiculous nonsense hysteria and social norms, I would be just as butthurt, but whatever. Make it a Muslim thing.
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But it's not about them being african either, who cares where this happens, it's stupid as hell.

Culture can be an ugly and embarrasing thing anywhere in the world.
 
OttomanScribe said:
All of those things are wrong. Except maybe the last one (hypocrisy much :P)

Organic farming is inefficient, if it were to be used to provide the world's population, it would consume far more resources and therefore be far more damaging to the environment. Indeed there is simply not enough arable land for us to support the world's population using organic farming. So if one wants to make the leap, advocating organics is advocating the mass culling of large swathes of humanity through starvation.
It is not safer for farm workers, chemicals and pesticides are still used, they are just sourced differently and less efficiently.

Organic food is a scam. It is no better for you than non-organic food, and is less sustainable. Ask Norman Borlaug
'Some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They’ve never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. They have never produced a ton of food. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for 60 years, they’d be crying out for fertilizer, herbicides, irrigation canals and tractors and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things.'
Click to expand...

Wow, did you just create the Monsanto defense force? I never thought this day would come.
 
SneakyStephan said:
But it's not about them being african either, who cares where this happens, it's stupid as hell.

Culture can be an ugly and embarrasing thing anywhere in the world.
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What makes you define this as culture? Seems to me like it is a pretty human tendency, just as it is a tendency to act as though we don't all have similar quirks.
 
Ryuukan said:
Wow, did you just create the Monsanto defense force? I never thought this day would come.
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Care to expand on this point? I am a massive fan of Borlaug, few other people can claim to have saved a billion lives.

A defence of efficient farming methods does not equal an endorsement of any particular corporation. Organic farming is predominantly carried out by the same agricultural companies that carry out regular farming operations.

You previously, rightly, called me out on my water statements. Would you care to explain to me how anyone would be justified advocating organic farming practice to farmers in Bangladesh or India, considering the food requirements of those nations, and the kind of shortages that such a thing would create?
 
Clydefrog said:
I work on the 13th floor at work. It's actually the 13th floor too. This building ain't scared of shit.
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Pimp ass building.

3939 Pimp Street, Bitch Slap PA, 39393 USA
 
OttomanScribe said:
What makes you define this as culture? Seems to me like it is a pretty human tendency, just as it is a tendency to act as though we don't all have similar quirks.
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This is exactly what culture means? Copying behaviour however irrational it may or may not be?
Culture is always stated as what sets humans apart from animals, and all too often it just comes down to dumb/quirky/useless/superstitious stuff like this, anywhere you go, everywhere you look.

People copy eachother's weird ideas and behaviors, that is all I said.
Wether it be this, or some woman force feeding her child because being plump is desirable in her society, or american highschool kids thinking they get high from sniffing bags of shit a few years back.

There's nothing more to it and nothing to read into it.
You don't need to seperate people into groups to make fun of their silly behavior.
 
OttomanScribe said:
Care to expand on this point? I am a massive fan of Borlaug, few other people can claim to have saved a billion lives.

A defence of efficient farming methods does not equal an endorsement of any particular corporation. Organic farming is predominantly carried out by the same agricultural companies that carry out regular farming operations.

You previously, rightly, called me out on my water statements. Would you care to explain to me how anyone would be justified advocating organic farming practice to farmers in Bangladesh or India, considering the food requirements of those nations, and the kind of shortages that such a thing would create?
Click to expand...

I don't mean to derail the thread too much, but his beliefs were mainly inline with Monsanto, and they were, and still are, a big supporter to him and his legacy. His work was revolutionary and certainly saved lives. However, his ideals could be just as devastating as wide-scale organic farming.
 
Oh, OttomanScribe.

You don't have to defend every single Muslim on the planet from ridicule. If someone has done something moronic, then that person is a moron. Has nothing to do with religion.


This a prime example.
 
Lord Error said:
I've seen buildings that don't have 13th floor marked with number 13 in USA and Canada. It goes 12, then 14. Kinda worse than what this story talks about to be honest.
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And I've been in buildings in Korea that don't have a 4th floor. The elevator will be labeled 'F' or it will skip over 4. Because '4' sounds like 'death.'
After looking on Wiki, apparently Japan and China are the same way.

People everywhere have weird/dumb superstitions.
 
EYEL1NER said:
And I've been in buildings in Korea that don't have a 4th floor. The elevator will be labeled 'F' or it will skip over 4. Because '4' sounds like 'death.'
After looking on Wiki, apparently Japan and China are the same way.

People everywhere have weird/dumb superstitions.
Click to expand...

I was in a building for the super-wealthy. They skipped floors 4 and 13.

I laughed heartily. I had to explain myself to my hosts.
 
FlightOfHeaven said:
I was in a building for the super-wealthy. They skipped floors 4 and 13.

I laughed heartily. I had to explain myself to my hosts.
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I laughed the first time I saw it and I guffawed pretty hard when a civilian contractor, a Mr. Kim, explained fan death to me. But that's because I find it amusing, not because I think that they are idiots.
I didn't say to myself "They're like a bunch of children. That is the real shame." But hey, it's just backwards-ass Afghanistan, at it again I suppose.
 
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