After this thread has run its course, I'm going to merge it with the "DUmpster Rules and Links", as it does have a great deal to do with the unspoken rules that decent and civilized people have been observing since the foundation of conservativecave more than three years ago.
The most constant criticism, or discomfort, expressed about the DUmpster is that it's not quite sporting, as if we're making fun of retarded people, taunting and teasing the mentally-deficient.
Those are sentiments expressed not by the primitives on Skins's island, but by decent and civilized people who are members of conservativecave.
Well, it seems to be a matter of taste and judgement.
Of course it is not decent to mock people who were born with some sort of tragic defect, or attained it later in life from some sort of tragic illness or accident.
It needs pointed out that in all the history of the DUmpster no one has ever, wittingly or unwittingly, ridiculed a primitive who matches that criteria. Never; not once.....and remember, franksolich has read every single word of every single comment ever posted in the DUmpster--it's part of his job, as moderator--and as the DUmpster is by far the largest forum on conservativecave, that's been a Hell of a lot of reading.
The DUmpster is however famous far-and-wide for mocking and ridiculing those who knowingly and willingly choose to be retarded or ugly. They weren't born this way, or became this way because of something that happened to them in life; they freely and voluntarily choose to be this way.
Skins's island abounds, teems, is congested with, the mentally-ill and the obese, for example.
There's tons of primitives who are nuts, or fat, or both.
Take the subway cat, for example, a primitive of prominence here in the DUmpster, who's both of the above.
The subway cat first attracted notice years and years ago, in both P-J Comix's most-excellent DUmmie FUnnies on freerepublic, and in the Best/Worst of DU forum at our old home; long before conservativecave and the DUmpster ever existed.
She attracted notice, and an audience, not because she is nuts and fat, but because the subway cat "politicizes" her ailments and deformities, constantly blaming her problems on evil Republicans, not least George Bush and Richard Cheney.
Ditto for the gigantic primitive; what attracted attention to the Las Vegas blimp was not that he weighed 519 pounds when he was first observed, but that he blamed his obesity (and all his other problems) on evil Republicans, not least George Bush and Richard Cheney.
Primitives voluntarily stupid and ugly are fair game.
Some years ago, when franksolich was categorizing the primitives, our distinguished colleague miskie pointed out he had omitted one classification, the abbandonado primitives. (The oversight was of course corrected.)
The abbandonado primitives are those primitives in decrepit shape, mentally or physically, who are trying to work through their problems by putting the blame for those problems where the blame lies, which is not on evil Republicans, not least George Bush and Richard Cheney.
Since the abbandonado primitives are actually seeking solutions to their problems, trying to take control of their lives, they tend to be scorned and even shunned by all the other primitives. They after all are violating one of the principal taboos of the primitives, that of taking responsibility and control of their individual destinies.
That's a big no-no on Skins's island, and hence their rejection and isolation.
There's lots and lots of abbandonado primitives on Skins's island, and they're never mocked by decent and civilized people.
Only the willfully stupid, nuts, and fat primitives have been ridiculed here.
This is not currently an issue here in the DUmpster, but it has been an issue before, most remarkably in the Best/Worse of DU forum at our old home, some years ago; that of mocking and deriding underaged primitives, minor children (who shouldn't be hanging around Skins's island anyway).
There was the case of the chinless wonder, the precocious Lil Ava, who was 14 or 15 years old, and into making "videos" bashing both George Bush and the War for the Liberation of Iraq. There were many sharp remarks about the teenaged heiferette at our old home, one of which excited the attention of Lil Ava's maternal ancestress, who went there and alleged one comment in particular amounted to a death-threat against her daughter.
franksolich was not around during this controversy, but saw the comment some years later; only a deranged liberal mother hen from Alabama could have possibly construed that comment (made by whom, I no longer remember) as anything other than mild criticism.
But because the chinless wonder was a girl-child who should've been playing with dolls rather than hanging around predatory primitives on Skins's island, decent and civilized people muted their comments about her.
(For the record, the precocious one is now 20 years of age, and fair game.)
In the lifetime of the DUmpster, there was a a similar case, that of the overly-cerebral Asher Heimermann, who was all of 14 years old in 2008, when he took to the stump for the Big Zero.
The kid-genius, who created a stir on Skins's island, was generally ignored here, although franksolich for a while got his digs in by imitating the style and manners of the kid, which seems about as far as one should go, when dealing with diminuitive primitives.
