It recently occurred to me that the “Bitch” section of “The Coast” would be a research gold-mine for a paper or even a thesis for anyone out there – admittedly unlikely – in a sociology or social psychology course at the university level. What is required, of course, is structure. While by no means complete, the suggested title “The Underclass of Halifax: A Thematic Approach” is intended as initial spadework in supplying the beginnings of that structure.
I see three main themes which lend some coherence to the topic: 1. Under-Class Language; 2. Under-Class Markers; 3. Under Class Morality. I will touch on each only briefly.
1. Under-Class Language: I have noted different gradations in the use of Under-Class Language, usually based on the term “fuck.” Its use is so common, however, that it has lost any power to offend and so no stars will be awarded for its use. Sometimes. more imaginatively, it is used in combination with other terms such as “fucktard” and “clusterfuck” in which case one star will be given. Clearly, Under-Class Language needs to raise the bar and avoid “fuck” altogether. My nominee for three-star Under-Class Language, at least so far, is “cuntflap,” the reference being to a customer in “Useless Server” (March 28). While it is not exactly clear what it denotes – a piece of cloth over the vulva or part of the vulva itself – it has a certain Shakespearean quality, don’t you think?
2. Under-Class Markers: A fine-grained analysis will deal with the full spectrum of markers, from occupation (or lack of one), xenophobia in general and Francophobia in particular, misogyny, strutting Don Cherry-types, and so forth. But the unifying factor in all of these is a rabid anti-intellectualism. Many of the Under-Class, for example, will be apoplectic with rage on reading something like this. But, as we say, Je m’en fou!
3. Under-Class Morality: Suprisingly perhaps, there is a strong thread of morality underlying many of the “Bitches,” one usually appealing to a sense of justice or fairness. The treatment of this theme will require further work since the contexts for each differ and, like the others, will require textual substantiation selected, where possible, from appropriate “Bitches.”
So there we are. Time to get to work! I’ll be taking notes! Cheerio! —Montrealman
This article appears in Mar 25-31, 2010.
Too long. Didn’t read. Go away troll.
hahahahaha, Montreal Franco calling Canadian English underclass hahahahaha!
It sucks to be a conquered people, doesn’t MM?
Condescending troll…
FYI “Clusterfuck” is a nautical term.
Paragraphs please.
Use of the “F” word in Canada:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5lG-i2bjhk
Yeah, fuck off, ya grenouille.
Envision this as part of the structure of your model of arrogance:
A-S-S-U-M-E
There’s a popular adage not exclusive to the ‘underclass’. Perhaps you are familiar? “A-s-s-u-m-e, makes an ass of you and me.”
The audacity of assuming that the denizen of LTWWB are somehow ‘underclass’ is laughable in consideration of your own participation here.
What of those of us who can more than adequately articulate ourselves without usage of profanity? The structure of your model fails to acknowledge the anonymity of this venue with participants from a varied cross-section of life who do not all fit the criteria you seek to prove a point that you might think is important but is totally irrelevant to anything that really matters. It also fails to take into account the license that anonymity allows people to communicate in a fashion that would not necessarily be part of real conversation with others face to face.
What is more amazing than someone like you being surprised that people of lower class actually having morals is that someone who presents as somewhat educated actually believes that ‘class’ has anything to do with education, language, money or lineage. C’est dommage pour toi je pense monsieur!
I just think of all the rewrites and time it took him to post this.
Fiddling with a sentence here, a phrase there.
AH! Finished!
And posted to the deafening silence of not being funny/trolly enough for anyone to care…
WTF? I got a headache reading the title.
generally, we only fucking swear on here because we don’t really in face-to-face interaction and so we feel it gets a point across at how truly pissed we are. That or we’re just using it to make fun of something… either way it gets a point across.
and under-class?!?!?!??! even LS has gotten the hang of hitting the enter key from time to time… who’s under-class?
if ever a thread spelled out hijack, I believe it to be this one.
This raging hard-on can go suck the wrapper off a green popsicle hanging out of kay’s wrinkly, hemorrhoid infested ass.
poutinetard
Well, shag my shingles, we’ve been slotted, labelled and catalogued by some little pseudo-intellectal and his/her vast knowledge that, I am sure, would fill a thimble.
From a city with a historic hockey team, awesome smoked meat sandwiches, uber hot women and it only took a couple of posts from some clown to ruin it all.
If there is a moderator out there, it’s time to step up and do something about this ‘trou d’cou’ (asshole in french, not sure of the spelling, but you get my point). Merci.
the nordiques?
don’t know what you mean….hardly worth mentioning really… they blew goats.
i think monsieur montrealman that you should have anticipated this reaction, based upon your higher level of existence. perhaps the love section will enjoy your witty banter^^
ok, all the ‘nordiques were Q city and this is montreal so fuck off’ people…
yeah, whatever.
I don’t know or care about hockey… fuckin sue me.
there’s greater things a city can be proud of.
namely, the sandwhich ranks higher…
wonder if I can come up with the scallop and haddock haliflaxseed sandwhich that is actually edible. forget tasty for now… let’s work on edible. one step at a time.
zZz you’re starting sound a lot like…well you know. Don’t make fun of my Habs, ok? Let’s stick to the matter at hand and try to get this tard banned.
Hali already has the perfect food – Donairs!!
boo hoo noser…
shouldn’t you be a canuck fan?
I’ll admit, even when I play 2K8 (yes, I see no need to upgrade when it’s practically always the same anyways) I use the Flames….
Iginla and tanguay all the way
and even KOD admits it was first to BRING the donair here….
it needs a more local name if it’s going to be what we’re fucking known for.
like philly cheese steak…
chicago deep dish…
Start thinkin people… pretty a name, halifax ain’t.
Montrealman or 450? 5 bucks on the rive Sud.
Canucks!!! No Thanks just because I’m not in NS anymore, is no reason to switch allegiances. Besides they’re more than enough Canuckleheads out here who need someone to show them the error of their ways…
technically, isn’t boston closer to halifax than montreal?
hali – boston 654 km
hali – montreal 789 km
shouldn’t most of us be bruin fans then???
funny thing allegiances are…
we cannot ban tards mr. blue…all are welcome in the playground (wipes nose with sleeve)
You lost me at thematic. Bumblefuck.
I am Canadian/Canadien! Well Nova Scotian first then Canadian.
and let’s not forget about the underclass douchebag bitches that write bitches, well, like this one for example. to me, you are a self centered egotistical asshole, and putting on airs of any superiority doesn’t make you better than us bitchers. if you don’t like the climate here, move the fuck to someplace tamer. the horrid paper comes quickly to mind. what a maroon, sheesh.
Did someone say poutine?
ZZZ, need I remind you Baaawwwwston is a YANKEE team?
Do the words “Fuck off” mean anything to you. BTW did you enjoy the FLQ Crisis and the Biker Gang Wars? Those were such sophisticated times.
ZzZ, Bruins fans? I guess I didn’t live close enough to a glue factory.
A shit disturber that uses big words…. impressive.
this blockhead underclass says your tete is full of pommes de rue you smarmy f— asshole piece of shit; toodles 🙂
stick with the other theme martym…i grew up listening to hockey on the *gasp* radio, then we graduated to the b/w tv with tinfoil on the aerial. the hockey teams we watched depended on where we lived. gohabsgo
Ahahaha – this post was absolutely brilliant. Clearly most people seem to have misplaced their sense of humour; note the irony.
Thanks for the laugh!
You can’t have that laugh. Give it back to me. I spent half my welfare check on that laugh.
I had a chuckle at this as well… although I admit my eyes glazed over after a while and I had to throw water at my face to make it through all the words chosen randomly from the thesaurus. I do admit, this would be a great place to source people of varying opinions and upbringings but in this day and age to even use the term “class” just seems UNclassy.
If this is your version of sarcasm, I applaud in your general direction, and if you’re just being condescending, then you can go suck a big bag of dirty dicks. Cheerio!
I believe the correct reply to the OP is :
FUCK YOU
…YOU…
Fucking Fuck !
(sorry Oceanlady, & any others … I know you’ve mentioned you don’t like foul language)
montrealman stole his ideas from moi…give over
oh, et merci pour le Poutine et le sandwich fume de viande et les STRIP BARS – ils sont “haute classe” oui?
this bitch made me laugh. i want more!!
okay, okay… hockey fans are united.
I was just saying… it’s not like half the people in NS are even going to GO to a habs game.. it’s fucking 8-10 hours drive away and BLOODY expensive… think ~2-300 bucks a game if you want to be able to see the ice.
it’s like… Yay, the province who doesn’t want to be in canada is winning…
Yay, go separatists… win that game for all eastern canada… the ones you want to exile by splitting the country apart… WOOT!
don’t get me wrong, I know plenty of habs fans… some I even like….
still.
My thanks to you all for your insightful comments but particularly to “Oceanlady” at 4:11 PM who raised some points that require clarification.
1.She accuses me of what is known in philosophical circles as a “performative contradiction,” i.e. of bringing myself under my own interdict in view of the fact that, since I contribute as well to “Bitch,” I must also belong to the Underclass. An excellent move, but in reply I must drawn attention to the nature of that “participation” which, in my case, is “spectatorial” rather than directly participatory and therefore evades the charge of self-contradiction. In philosophical circles, it is called a “second-order” critique. You could say that it is a “Bitch” about “Bitches.”
2. She maintains that there are those, among whom she rightly numbers herself, who can articulate their thoughts without recourse to profanity. In reply I might raise two points: (a) It was never my claim that everyone participating in “Bitch” was a member of the Underclass. My claim was never all-encompassing. Rather, the attribution may properly be made regarding those who satisfy the criteria laid out in “Underclass Traits.” Clearly, Ocean lady is not to be counted among them. (b) I have no objection to the use of profanity as such but only to its debased form (i.e. the use of the word “fuck”) which has exhausted any rhetorical force it might have previously enjoyed. See my remarks regarding “Cuntflap.”
I think these points also undermine Oceanlady’s “anonymity argument,” that profanity is used by contributors who would not, under face-to-face circimstances, ordinarily employ it. I say go ahead, but put it in an interesting form.
3. Oceanlady maintains that the point I am making is “totally irrelevant to anything that really matters.” Of course, this all depends on what one means by “really matters.” Oceanlady does not give us her take on this but, for my money, reflective self-awareness, the ability to contextualize one’s thoughts (some call it “intelligence”) really does matter and my essay, in effect, was an attempt to cultivate it.
4. Finally, Oceanlady is shocked that I seem to have been suprised that there is an implicit morality underlying the majority of the Underclass’s “Bitches.” She seems to think that I attribute “actually having morals,” to having “class,” with the possession of material factors like money, education, and so on. Perhaps I was unclear. My point was that the implicit presence of Underclass Morality – the unspoken appeal to the moral principles of justice and fairness – might come as a suprise in view of the vituperative nature of the majority of the “Bitches.” It was never my claim that the Underclass, by its nature, was bereft of such principles. Once again, Oceanlady, whose “Bitches” to not characteristically engage in such vituperation, is exempt from all charges.
So thank you Oceanlady for your thoughtful comments. You have elevated the discussion above the usual level of the simply adversarial and vituperative.
A final note: “Kellis” at 8:39PM is definitely on to something. But I’ve gone on long enough.
Cheerio!
Yeah…didnt read the bitch, it was too long. I cant read long rambling bitches, my eyes glaze over. Didn’t read the response either. Again, too damn long, sorry. But the “You can’t have that laugh. Give it back to me. I spent half my welfare check on that laugh.” from sodeypop made me chuckle. I love random.
lol, obvious troll is obvious.
By the way MM, every “!” you use drops your IQ by 10 pts.
I think theres such a diversity on this forum. We got people who I imagine are ‘well off middle aged’ to pot heads, people of welfare, single working moms, average ‘middle class’, I think we have a bit of everything which is what makes this place unique and never boring. I dont think theres any one thing that we all have in common. Its nice.
BTW Oceanlady,
I think sombody liikeeesss yooouuuu. Heee wannntsss to kiiissss yooouuu….
He llooovvvesss you, he wants to kiissss you, hug you and marrrryyy you!
yawn
Is he talking about OceanVictim?
The paper would be a failure to begin with. And you know it.
Your youthful pretentiousness is rather amusing, not unlike myself when I graduated fresh out of SMU 35 years ago. However, at this junction, you strike me as a naive pontificating little twit with a large vocabulary that reeks of a well-worn thesaurus and Reader’s Digest’s Word Power pages. Just who are you trying to impress?
By the way, I claim the word ‘cuntflap’ for the Queen and the Commonwealth.
yay, some are underclass (myself graciously included…) and some aren’t.
astounding results.
except… well, point 1.
aren’t you pointing new things out, thereby re-directing potential bitches, and thus participating in this little endeavor?
or was that post the conclusion to this ridiculously nonsensical experiment? in which case, you really can’t answer unless you want to subject yourself to your inane rules and ‘theories’ on the ‘humanoid’ behaviors on anonymous boards.
2. you’re as bad a the moderator…. ‘ I have no objection to the use of profanity as such but only to its debased form (i.e. the use of the word “fuck”) ‘
s/fuck/cunt/ and you have moderator views… why are some acceptable and some just showing no ‘class’ ?
3. we’re not going for “contextualize one’s thoughts” … have you even READ some of LS and Q’s posts? they aren’t contextualizing anything…
MOST of my posts aren’t for my own “reflective self-awareness”… nor for anyone else…
simply breaking the day by trying to be a combination of funny/crude/serious/over-the-top
4. I don’t care.
and lastly, vituperation gave me a BUZZWORD BINGO!.. so screw you all.
I didn’t think I’d ever get that one but sure enough, you used it (conjugated versions) three times!’
Now Johnny, Tell me what I’ve won!
The best thing about grad-school thesis papers is . . . no one ever reads them!
Plus, a PhD in Cultural Studies pretty much condemns its owner to a dreary half-life of unending “semi-employment” on the academic sessional/contract circuit. Enjoy your tour of the many 3rd and 4th rate “colleges” that dot the North American landscape!
Also, the really funny thing is that our OP seems completely oblivious to the CONTEXT of the little community chat he has stumbled upon. He’s walked into the middle of one of Halifax’s longest-running inside jokes, and doesn’t realize that he is the one who doesn’t get it. (Isn’t that the very definition of “socially tone-deaf?”)
Here’s a hint for your “research” MontrĂ©alman: G7 Summit . . . 1995 . . . ringing any bells yet?
You’ll need to know that for your little project.
That first line turned my nose into a high-pressure coffee hose, RubyJane – sooooooo true!
The naivety of the op is somehow embarrassing.
All I got from the post is that he is grading us on the cleverness of our swear words. 3 stars for cuntflap? Well, I say see how many stars we can get! I’m thinking TTFN is going to win.
montrealman…….if the board is full of underclass individuals why are you hanging out here hanging on every word? wouldn’t that be counterproductive to your life of douchebaggery? oops i swore, i must lose some points on my IQ for that.
having already done my degree and thesis in psychology i would like to know how you plan to quantify and of the so called results that would like to get?
in order to determine someones socio-economic class there a a large number of factors that need to be taken into account for a paper. your opinion of board posters is not one of them.
since you know nothing of anyone on here other than comments you can’t make a class determination. for instance, am i rich? am i poor? black? white ?
so , kindly GO FUCK YOURSELF……from someone who already has that degree and still swears
it was to be funny and prove a point…
sour grapes…. so very very sour….
I can see my ford comment has been removed so I’m thinking Mod 4.0 is going to rule with an iron fist as well.
Iron Fist?
I hope not, that’s so rigid and not really my style. That said, falling way off-topic or spouting needless vitriol will likely garner a response or post removal.
Taking a liberal stance would be awesome, if you let me. But that, my friends, depends partly on you.
Let me ask you this LTWWB peeps… What kind of moderation role would you like to see here? Any chance for a relationship of mutual respect, or must I loom authoritatively?
Is it too much to ask for some respite while I acclimatize? Or has a battle already begun?
we will deal no combat damage this round…
Tim and Andy had the nice balance of letting the inmates SORT OF run the asylum…
not very fear mongering but did protect mostly just business names and direct threats very well.
the rest was full throttle…
they also put in their two cents when it was interesting to them and came up with some funny ideas like tags and such to keep it fresh.
we liked them… and so sorry to hear about Andy’s passing…
but yes, a female tim and andy..
Timandy if you will…
would be a boon and welcome addition to this screwed up family.
mmm…we go off topic all the time it’s what we do best
Mod 4.0 you take a liberal stance, I’ll take a wide stance.
Easier to pick up Republican Congressmen in bathroom stalls that way
Hi Mod4.0 . . . or can I call you “Maude?”
I think the last moderator didn’t quite get that there is a certain “mutuality” that goes on here, even if you can’t quite call it mutual “respect.”
It’s all sort of a game. All the same people show up here every day, usually just to vent or play around and have a laugh. You can’t quite call it “witty repartĂ©e” but it is a “give and take” of sorts.
There IS a certain “community standard” that most people seem to recognize, even though it is obviously a bit . . . well, lax. Let’s just say that the insults are all part of the fun.
It seems that many of us are self-employed, or are stuck in jobs that have a certain amount of procrastination time built in. LTWWB can be a bit of a bright spot (?) in a dull day.
Andy usually let the sandbox police itself. In the event that something was truly offensive or threatening, he would intervene. He also joined in once in a while, and was a good sport, considering the godlike omnipotence that his role conferred.
So “Maude,” WELCOME . . . welcome to the underbelly. I hope you find it as twistedly amusing as the rest of us.
What about Thundercunt? Fuck off OP.
zZz….Timandy? Sounds like an black call centre girl/ex exotic dancer.
“Let me ask you this LTWWB peeps… What kind of moderation role would you like to see here?”
Let me first say, so far you seem alright. The last mod came in here and instantly said something along the lines of “If you use the word ‘cunt’, I’m removing your post.” Which ultimately led to a lot of us losing respect for the mod.
Less moderation, the better. Don’t delete posts because they’re off topic, don’t delete posts because they use ‘bad’ words. You should only remove posts that are:
1. Spam.
2. Reveal identities, or reveal unwarranted private information.
That’s the kind of role I would like to see a moderator play here.
Everyone here takes themselves waaaaay to seriously.
Andy did mention that there were a number of posts that would come in each day that were really beyond the pale: some stuff that was genuinely scary in a threatening, racist or extremist kind of way.
I don’t care to read stuff like that because it does cross a line from being in good fun to being, well, just sick.
But I would rather the community be the judge, whenever possible, and allow most things to be discussed, because most things seem pretty much “in bounds.” Deranged, twisted and juvenile, yes, but still within bounds.
we like the interesting stuff, nor the millionth bus bitch or crosswalk bitch *yawn*
and i would like to be able to say cunt if i can say cocksucker……..just sayin
oh, and if you send us all some money through paypal we will behave for a week LOL
“Let me ask you this LTWWB peeps… What kind of moderation role would you like to see here?”
Simple. COMPLAINT-DRIVEN moderation.
Fuck off, Fat. Stop being so predictable. You’re boring.
ok, mod 4.0, there is a classic example those 2, that’s about as far as they would let those 2 go, anything else gets deleted i think because they are attacking each other
kay loves the complaint-driven model because she’s a major complainer.
in the same breathe..
“Fuck off, Fat. Stop being so predictable. You’re boring.”
is technically pretty off-topic and yet no-one has asked it be removed because… well…
it’s both expected from her and would look weird if she didn’t appear to reply at all…
and so in that sense… predictable in and of itself.
RubyJ-“…in jobs that have a certain amount of procrastination time built in.”
It’s called multitasking.
To All My Friends in the Halifax Underclass!
As my Bitch “The Underclass in Halifax: A Thematic Approach” slides off into archival cyberspace and since it appears that Bitchers have only one kick at the can – my latest Bitch entitled “Further Reflections on the Underclass in Halifax: Excavating the Concept” was rejected – the time has come to admit that the entire thing was a spoof.
I hope everyone enjoyed it. I know I did!
well i did but what happened to “cherrio”
dick
dingus/dinkus are suitable as replacement words
how about crotch-neglecting-ass-muncher?
it’s hyphenated so it’s technically one word.
I agree with the complaint driven system…someone complains, you ban them & delete everything they’ve ever posted .
Should cut down on the complaints fairly quickly.
I know that’s how I’d do it ~:)
well I wouldn’t go quite that far…
though I suppose I’m more prone to pissing people off.
reviewing their past activity perhaps,
but complete ban on first shot…
say it ain’t so
Thank you all once again for your kind thoughts. Rest assured that I shall treasure your sensitive compassion and generous good wishes as I embark on the days ahead.
To Paingirl at 9:16: I must admit that I had s econd thoughts about spoofing where you were concerned since you are clearly an extremely nice person. However, “Cheerio” was also a spoof. While I am a man and do live in Montreal (I was originally from, wait for it, Halifax!) I am an Anglo with, shamefully, limited French. The idea behind “Cheerio” was the reverse, to suggest that I was a Francophone misguidedly using an antiquated Anglicism. I hope I haven’t hurt your feelings, and that’s not a spoof!
Okay, one more time.
Cheerio!
well, how charming, i only speak french to unsuspecting anglos^^
My God! I’ve been outed! They published my masterful second installment on the Underclass in Halifax -“Further Reflections on the Underclass in Halifax: Excavating the Concept” on the Underclass in Halifax.” Promise you won’t tell!
Cheerio!