Underdogs And Outsiders
June 19, 2003 6:23 AM Subscribe
Long Live The Underdog! One of the few things my father taught me - and followed to his dying day - was to "always support the underdogs. They may not be right, but they have the same right to be wrong as we do." Or more, as John Stuart Mill would argue and a certain Walthamstow group of anarchists would agree. Underdog Online - the outsider's in site - celebrates the underdog and the outsider in a healthily frivolous and assertive way - from gay men and the Internet and The Smiths's cover art to the suggestion of a beer dinner for June 21 and a quirky report on how lawyers experience murder trials. Long live the underdog, indeed!
Outsiders? The Underdog Online home page approvingly quotes Gore Vidal saying ''for the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.'' But all the site seems to contain is the same things everybody else is talking about: The Matrix, horoscopes, Metallica, beer, alternative sexuality... This is mainstream outsiderdom, and more or less a marketing strategy. Anarchy, mohawks, dark glasses... these are sad, shopworn symbols of outsiderness as a marketing strategy. There are real outsiders and real underdogs out there. But you probably will not encounter these people unless you work in one of the mental health professions.
posted by Faze at 8:52 AM on June 19, 2003
posted by Faze at 8:52 AM on June 19, 2003
Fair enough, Faze. I did try to find things to disagree with you, but your emphatic example put paid to all that.
What I really meant, I guess, is: "look at this interesting website, full of interesting articles". Shoot/sue me?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:01 AM on June 19, 2003
What I really meant, I guess, is: "look at this interesting website, full of interesting articles". Shoot/sue me?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:01 AM on June 19, 2003
Shoot/sue me?
good idea, but it's not like we haven't tried that already. problem is, executions are against Matt's guidelines, and US/Portugal civil cases are a jurisdictional nightmare
posted by matteo at 10:12 AM on June 19, 2003
good idea, but it's not like we haven't tried that already. problem is, executions are against Matt's guidelines, and US/Portugal civil cases are a jurisdictional nightmare
posted by matteo at 10:12 AM on June 19, 2003
Shoot/sue me? Jeepers, Miguel, I wasn't criticizing you, just the mundane pretensions of that site.
posted by Faze at 12:23 PM on June 19, 2003
posted by Faze at 12:23 PM on June 19, 2003
I always preferred Tennessee Tuxedo to Underdog, but I've been rather obsessed with cartoon penguins lately (that's what all the search engines tell me). And I always had a vague picture of mr_crash_davis wearing an ill-fitting superhero suit, but now that impression is positively confirmed (another danger of in-line images).
Shoot/sue me? Miguel, remember the motto of The Underdog: "You should know that you just can't win."
posted by wendell at 1:24 PM on June 19, 2003
Shoot/sue me? Miguel, remember the motto of The Underdog: "You should know that you just can't win."
posted by wendell at 1:24 PM on June 19, 2003
Darn it, Mr Crash Davis, you beat me to it! Great cartoon from "back in the day!"
posted by davidmsc at 3:41 PM on June 19, 2003
posted by davidmsc at 3:41 PM on June 19, 2003
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You find cool things Miguel! Thanks.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:20 AM on June 19, 2003