Posted by MWBailey on Friday, July 4, 2008
I love that Banjo Chat thing. the people are a lot nicer than on A Certain Other chat in the "religion" area. I had gotten hooked on playing in voice chat in another room there, that was basically populated with the members of a former user-created room where such activity was common, and to a degree, expected., after that Certain Place deleted all of the topically-oriented user-created rooms.
Unfortunately, the voice chat performers had to keep moving around because the regular chatters in the area(s) they migrated to kept reporting/booting/hacking them. Then, most switched to a certain video-oriented chat service.. Now, I dont mind the idea of a cam, except for the fact that I dont have one.
No, the problem with that service was/is that when I try to use their sound/video system, my signal breaks up horribly on the receiving (the other chatters') end, and I just was not and still am not sufficiently financially endowed to replace the whole computer and everything with new state-of-the-art stuff.
Initially, the people in the religion-oriented Certain Other chat place were somewhat willing , in some rooms, to allow me to play, but it became a case of me asking permission, then getting "stepped on" (cut off by a fellow voice user)and harrassed in other ways by others who were away from their computers when permission was given for me to play, and who were of the kinds of minds that
1. can't stand for anybody but themselves to be on the mic for any length of time, and boot or hack them to get rid of them, or else:
2. just absolutely hate banjo music, even though they dont really know what a banjo sounds like. And boot or hack the performer to get rid of them.
Now, #2 might sound a bit ill-tempered on my part. Please allow me to explain...
It's just down to ethnic stereotyping, really. Now yes, I do realize that there are some people who really can't stand the way a banjo sounds, but that's a rational person with a rationally-based dislike.
I'm talking about people who hate a particular genre of ethnically-perceived music that they have been told is not suitable for them or any decent person to listen to, because the people who play it are, by dint of their ethnicity, non-decent or similarly less acceptable than people who play other kinds of music.
--or, simply decide on a similar or identical set of beliefs, based on such erroneous associations (as an all-too-common example) as the song Duelling Banjos with the rape scene from Deliverance, or (as another example only) the hugely fat and obviously mentally-challenged banjo player in Cold Mountain (which is doubly unfair, if youthink about it. Not only to banjo players but also to people with mental disorders).
Or, combinations of both of the above, and other truly unfair (and, frankly, idiotic) prejudices. Bear in mind that theyu have not actually seen or heard such things for themselves; they have simply heard about them, and thus decided, in the classic pattern of poorly-reasoned prejudice, that it must be true because so-and-so said it, and he/she is my friend/parent/religious leader/relative/whatever, so it must be true.
In other words, its true because it should be,HAS to be, because so-and-so says its true, so it must be true-- because it MUST be. And so on, in a truly circular groove.
Thus, the actual reasons given(read, "lame excuses blurted out"), when queried, tend to be something similar to "Oh, well, everybody knows that banjo players are hicks and drunks and rat-eating, sexually-criminal ne'er-do-wells who are a drain on decent society, so obviously they shouldnt be allowed to play in any decent chatroom." (or other venue).
Suffice to say that I got tired of being constantly cut off and endlessly harrassed. Not to mention becoming heartily sick of people who are so traumatized by the presence of someone who does not completely agree with their religious/political/behavioral/whatever beliefs (or, as they often insist, the lack thereof) that they turn into vengeful, ravening lunatics who will not stop at any ploy of sophistry to try to paint the one who dares to disagree in a thick coating of shame and degradation. I regret to admit that i finally succumbed to the temptation to do so in retaliation.
It has been becoming that way in a certain other venue that shall also remain nameless here.
And I'm sick of it.
So, I'm not going to allow myself to be lured into it any more.
Good thing that such topics are taboo on this site, or are at least considered to be fairly impolite things to discuss, and thus, are apparently...
Not discussed.
Others might see that as a dangerous situation, but I see it as near-utopian bliss.
'Nuff said.
AAAaaacckk, another novel-length entry! The entry that swallowed BHO! (lol). Entryzillaaahhh!
2 comments on “Banjo Chat and why it's Better than Other Chats”
twayneking Says:
Friday, July 4, 2008 @9:12:52 AM
Gotta agree with you there, Mark. I consider myself a person of faith, but boy howdy can some folks lose their religion over the subject.
Know whut I mean?
Tom King
(Also from Texas - behind the Pine Curtain)
MWBailey Says:
Friday, July 4, 2008 @1:45:37 PM
Absolutely. All too well.
LOL, behind the "Pine Curtain?" hmmm...are you familiar with the Wright Family (they live in/around Kennard), meaning Jerry , Margaret, Lloyd, and Hollis? Piney Woods is a big area, but I wondered.
You must sign into your myHangout account before you can post comments.
