Your gut reaction to homophobia

[TonyAndonuts]

Sooo....Youtube comments suck. And I'm not saying that because they're forcing Google+ upon you now, I mean the content of Youtube comments suck, most of the time at least. Whenever I watch a Youtube video that has anything at all to do with politics, religion, LGBT, or My Little Pony, there's always an argument in the comments section. In this case, it's been LGBT comments I've been seeing lately. Lets say for example I watch a Let's Play video where the person playing makes a small comment about how he thinks video games that allow gay relationships are a good thing. You're pretty much guaranteed to find a very homophobic and bigoted comment down below along with a bunch of other people responding angrily and not calmly, or agreeing with the person.

Now, it doesn't have to be Youtube, but when you hear or see homophobia either online or even in real life, what's your gut reaction? In the Youtube example, seeing comments like that make me want to respond and tell the person how uneducated they are about LGBT and how most of what they said is wrong. But I also think to myself that I could just be wasting my time, because the odds that my one comment will change this person's viewpoint are very slim, especially if they've already been responding to a bunch of angry comments and probably not willing to actually listen and just wants to piss people off.

[MisterTinkles]

I take the direct Dfiant1 approach in these cases......

[Jason111]

Whenever someone insults gay people(online or in real life) I get it quite personally. It's as if they are saying all those horrible things right to my face... Which is, if you think about it exactly what's going on.

First, I tell them how horribly wrong their "facts" are and then I make them believe that their opinion makes them retarded. I do it very politely, though.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Now, it doesn't have to be Youtube, but when you hear or see homophobia either online or even in real life, what's your gut reaction?

My gut reacts with instant hostility. I often get a strong desire to reach through my computer and slap the people who say way hella stupid shit. I don't do 'stupid' well - In real life I have learned how to curb my own enthusiasm to destroy my enemies.

My actions are different that my reactions. I have learned to temper my emotions and desires a bit.

Online, I ignore it for the most part. Why? Because an online argument can never be resolved/won.

In the real world it depends on how homophobia expresses itself. If its a random scream of 'Fags!' My response is a louder (and much deeper voiced) reply of 'Bigot!' - interestingly enough more people stop to stare at the bigot than they do the fag(s) now days.

If its rancor and 'lecture' I lecture back.

In the rare cases where it leads to physical blows - well I tend to get into the I must win or die and I fight like a sissy girl - meaning I don't follow 'rules' and 'niceties' and 'honor' I'm not in it for that, I'm in it to win - punch, scratch, kick balls - its not about playing by rules, its about destroying my enemy followed up with 'And just in case you don't know this, a faggot just kicked your ass, punk'. And in most circumstances I do win.

I am not proud of those instances - it is who I am to my core. Yes I have 'anger issues' yes its illegal, yes its not 'nice' and yes it seems so totally contrary to what I appear to be. I never threw the first punch, I just replied to the level of angst shown me or others.

I try real hard to reply to the level of 'angst' the bigot presents (hatred of gays, jews, blacks, women whatever) without pushing it up a notch. So if it requires a muttered 'Oh look yet one more bigot in the world' to deal with a muttered 'nigger/fag/jew' whatever comment I stick with that.

There is, ultimately, no changing the mind of a bigot. There is, however, demonstrating to the bigot that his or her actions/words are not tolerated. They may not shut up about it then and there, but next time they will think a nanosecond longer before spewing hatred.

Intolerance of hate/bigotry will drive the bigots to keeping their fucking mouths shut - it will not end bigotry. What ends bigotry is education and through example and reasoned living demonstrate that we do not live up to their expectations of what they THINK we are and what being us means.

[MisterTinkles]

I just post a comment to their post--

"Oh look, your stupidity is showing"!!!
"This answers the question of how many morons it takes to say something ignorant".
"Wow, I had no idea a body could live after donating their brain"!
"Did you come to this conclusion all by your little self, or did mommy help you"?
"Brain dead morons just LOOOVE to show their ignorance and stupidity in public forums"!!

I have a million of them........well, 43 anyway.

[Pix]

I usually just skim over them on YT if I even bother to read them at all. If I do bother to read them I'm more curious if they're actually sharing their true sentiments or if they're just crying out for attention (ie, trolling). I could tell one was just a troll pretending to be a gay hating fundamentalist Christian because his spelling was too good and yet failed to capitalize either "Bible" or "Hell" while otherwise capitalizing correctly (I think there was another reason for my thinking "fake"). And of course it was on a pro-gay video so he'd searched it out to post his sermon condemning us to hell because he thought it was funny and just wanted to see people get upset.

In the past I have responded to genuine bigots but usually in a mildly teasing way. I did take one to task but I was sick with swine flu at the time so I was cranky and she surprised me by apologizing years later (which I shared about here).

[Jovial]

Normally I am non-confrontational. However, if the need to defend the LGBT community arose I would not hold back regardless of the attacker. Though it may take me awhile to break into full out aggressive mode

[Genersis]

My gut emotional reaction is normally a mixture of primarily confusion, with a bit of anger and sadness in that order.

My physical reaction is to either (try to)reply level headedly if the comment isn't just someone trolling, and if it is someone trolling(by that, I mean just an insult with no argument of substance to it), then ignore it.

[Lilitu]

I've learnt to completely discredit all youtube comments because let's face it... its not even that the people on youtube are terrible, it's the act of commenting that somehow magically makes everybody look like a ridiculously stupid 12 year old who thinks they're funny and have friends but actually has none.

I've literally found ONE channel that only has nice normal people on it and I'm not telling anyone because then they'll invade it...

My gut reaction to such things is offence, naturally (when it's youtube it's contempt and condescension). And it's worst when it comes from people you respect.

[Rosie]

I'm with the others who pay little to no attention to YouTube comments. When I experience homophobia in real life or somewhere else on the internet I insult people blatantly, and loudly. Depending on what they have said I may come back with a valid response as to why their comments were ignorant and false (such as in class), but if they just throw generic insults out there I basically tell them to fuck off.