If you still doubt that we are going mainstream...

[onager]

Here's part of a "Glorious Fourth of July" thread from a board I haunt, devoted to scale modeling. The board owners - wisely, IMO - tend to delete political posts instantly.

We come to that board to read about our hobby, and generally get away from real life for a while. Just like people who hobbyize in fly fishing, dolls, etc. etc.

But still, every once in a while, some yobbo tries to stir up trouble. They almost always come from the far-right/Fundie side of the aisle.

It was really funny once when some loyal 'Murican went on a rant about "socialists," apparently forgetting that the board has hundreds of non-American members. A British modeler responded, in effect: "I've been a Socialist my whole life. You don't know what you're talking about."

Another posted some knee-slapping anti-gay humor and got instantly called out by a Dutch military veteran: "We've had gays in our military for a long time. They're good soldiers. STFU."

This week, for the Fourth, somebody started a "Happy Birthday USA" thread.

Here's what happened, in some selected posts:

POST: God Bless America

RESPONSE #1: Which particular god is that?

RESPONSE #2: A good question...which I often ask. It seems rude to ignore all the other gods, their devotees could be reading this.

RESPONSE #3 (this is me): One apparently not discovered until 1954...when the words "under God" were first added to the Pledge of Allegiance. BLA-BLA-BLA...

RESPONSE #4: Interesting info' and some sanity in all the above xenophobia.