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[Closed] BBC: Cyclist calls out driver for sexual harassment

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Ernie, I’m happy to accept your explanation.

No you're not, you are repeating the claim that I threatened you with violence, which I can say with 100% certainty I never did.

And I am not really offering an "explanation" am I? Since I know nothing about the incidence, apart from what you claim, ie it had something to do with hunting.

Why didn't a mod pick it up? Why didn't anyone else report it? As Cougar has confirmed it would definitely have resulted in me getting a ban, quite possibly a life ban.

If it was only about the second post you posted doesn't make it easier to find it?

To be honest I am surprised that you claim to have joined stw after me. And reason for that is that when I first joined stw I had been a member of MTB Britain forum, which was a tiny forum in comparison. There was a prolific user there who went by the username Rusty so I particularly noticed your username and initially wondered if there was a connection.

Perhaps your memory is hazy and you have confused me with someone else. Although a thread about hunting is definitely one which I am likely to have commented on, which maybe adds to the confusion.

What I do know is that claiming that I threatened violence is a very serious allegation, if you can't back it up with hard evidence it shouldn't be made. Otherwise we can all play that game and I could make a completely unsubstantiated allegation that you once made an offensive racist comment. I wouldn't have to back it up, just claim that it was many years ago, that I definitely remember it, and it was on a thread about asylum seekers.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 10:13 am
 nbt
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My Dad's a tory and he's generally very pleasant. He definitely doesn't support Boris or Brexit though


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 10:17 am
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I know a couple of people who voted for Brexit based on the £350m for the NHS “promise”. They’re not inherently racist, they’re generally pleasant and polite people – you could maybe accuse them of being a bit thick or not doing due diligence or not thinking things through properly but they’re not frothing gammons waving union jacks and banging on about immigration.

+1

Do you possibly spend too much time online being all righteously angry Cougar? (and whoever else expressed that view)

On a side note, should we have another thread for this debate to continue, maybe call it "STW eats itself"?

I was quite interested in the GB News thread before it got horribly derailed into a gammon vs SJW tirade.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 10:33 am
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As recently as today I read “I was banned for a month because of some minor infraction…” no, no you weren’t

In my case, I believe I was. I asked for some evidence of the reason for banning, and none was supplied.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 10:53 am
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"can you show me a pleasant brexiter? A pleasant Boris supporter? A pleasant tory?"

I think that it's important to treat/judge people on the basis of their individual flaws or merits.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 11:04 am
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Indeed. My dad was very pleasant, went out of his way to help people, always good humoured, could talk to anybody about anything. Way more pleasant than I will ever be.
For a reason I could never understand, even after discussion, he voted Tory and no doubt he would have voted Brexit if he were alive to do so.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 11:07 am
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Indeed. My dad was very pleasant, went out of his way to help people, always good humoured, could talk to anybody about anything. Way more pleasant than I will ever be.
For a reason I could never understand, even after discussion, he voted Tory and no doubt he would have voted Brexit if he were alive to do so.

I was just about to post almost exactly the same thing about my Dad, I think asking the question

....“can you show me a pleasant brexiter? A pleasant Boris supporter? A pleasant tory?”.

....is spectacularly narrow minded to be honest .


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 11:16 am
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We all seem to have completely missed Bunnyhop's comment on the last page:

At least we are in agreement that woman on bicycles should not have to have their bottoms pinched (even by well known soap actors – which is what happened to me), should not have male taxi drivers getting out of their cars and shouting sexist abuse (ending in the word LOVE), with male passengers all laughing, after he’d cut me up (I’d screamed), should not have to have drivers picking on the lone woman at the back of a long line of male mtbikers slightly holding up their car, because the driver was too scared to pick on any of the burly riders ahead. The list goes on.

This sort of shit is horrible to contemplate and is hardly an incentive for women to ride bikes in public spaces. Instead of turning this thread into a Brexit/Tory/etc critique (of which I'm also quite guilty of), shall we try and steer back on topic?


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 11:26 am
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They’re not inherently racist, they’re generally pleasant and polite people – you could maybe accuse them of being a bit thick or not doing due diligence or not thinking things through properly but they’re not frothing gammons waving union jacks and banging on about immigration.

A lot of people were suckered on Brexit, fed false hope, were desperate for change, didn't check facts and sources.

That doesn't make them racists or gammon. It makes them vulnerable, and victims.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 11:33 am
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I'd happily meet Dominique Greive. Pleasant whenever I've seen him on French or UK media.

Vaguely on topic I've had stuff thrown at me from cars: various liquids, cigarettes (with enough left to know it wasn't an accident), rubbish, and some homophobic nonsense shouted too. Haven't had my bum pinched or slapped on the bike though.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 11:33 am
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Vaguely on topic I’ve had stuff thrown at me from cars: various liquids, cigarettes (with enough left to know it wasn’t an accident), rubbish, and some homophobic nonsense shouted too. Haven’t had my bum pinched or slapped on the bike though.

There was an analogy I saw about how cycling is the closest that men will ever experience about how it feels to be a woman.

The constant worrying about whether the next car/man coming around the corner is going to "harass" you (close pass, hooting vs leering, inappropriate comment). The constant feel of being vulnerable, of being largely powerless to do anything about it (other than riding/running away).

The difference is that I can park my bike at home, go out into the street in normal clothes and I'm just "a man". And then I get treated normally again. It was a powerfully written analogy, much better and more detailed than I've managed to recall up there.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 11:50 am
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The constant worrying about whether the next car/man coming around the corner is going to “harass” you (close pass, hooting vs leering, inappropriate comment). The constant feel of being vulnerable, of being largely powerless to do anything about it (other than riding/running away).

The difference is that I can park my bike at home, go out into the street in normal clothes and I’m just “a man”. And then I get treated normally again. It was a powerfully written analogy, much better and more detailed than I’ve managed to recall up there.

On a date, men worry about being laughed at, women worry about being killed.
On the road, drivers worry about being inconvenienced, cyclists worry about being killed


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 12:01 pm
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There was an analogy I saw about how cycling is the closest that men will ever experience about how it feels to be a woman.

The constant worrying about whether the next car/man coming around the corner is going to “harass” you (close pass, hooting vs leering, inappropriate comment). The constant feel of being vulnerable, of being largely powerless to do anything about it (other than riding/running away).

Good point and although I don't really worry about it feeling vulnerable is never great.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 12:07 pm
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Perhaps your memory is hazy and you have confused me with someone else. Although a thread about hunting is definitely one which I am likely to have commented on, which maybe adds to the confusion.

What I do know is that claiming that I threatened violence is a very serious allegation, if you can’t back it up with hard evidence it shouldn’t be made. Otherwise we can all play that game and I could make a completely unsubstantiated allegation that you once made an offensive racist comment. I wouldn’t have to back it up, just claim that it was many years ago, that I definitely remember it, and it was on a thread about asylum seekers.

Of course, you're right.

As I can't find the post all I can do is offer my unreserved apology and withdraw the allegation.

It was an idiotic thing to do, and I'm sure it's my memory at fault.
As I said, this was the first forum I joined as was inclined to take things a little to heart back then.

Once again, I apologise.
Sorry.
And apologies to everyone else for derailing an interesting thread.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 12:29 pm
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I was banned in the time it took to post a comment, re-read it, realise a big swear had been missed by the filter then hit the edit button.

...

In my case, I believe I was.

There is no way anyone would get banned, in isolation, for a failing of the swear filter. Unless it was over a decade ago in which case things might've been different back then, I don't know, I rather suspect you're misrepresenting the situation.

If this genuinely happened as you're both presenting and there wasn't some form of prior history such as a dozen previous warnings that you're omitting to mention then it was a mistake and I can only apologise for that.

A ban is considered a last resort, the situations you're describing are scarcely worth a warning. If you receive a ban then either you've been asked to desist a form of behaviour and failed to do so leaving the team no choice but to mute you, or if it's punitive then it'll be either for a gross indiscretion or cumulative problems. The moderators don't want to ban people.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 12:30 pm
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I know a couple of people who voted for Brexit based on the £350m for the NHS “promise”.

At the risk of paraphrasing Withnail, I wouldn't really call someone who voted leave by mistake a 'brextier'.

….is spectacularly narrow minded to be honest .

Honestly, you may be right. I was really talking about the "we won you lost get over it" brigade I suppose.

... SJW

Oh yeah, good call. That's another one for the list.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 12:35 pm
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Erm, no need to go to such lengths to apologise Rusty. Just withdrawing the allegation is more than enough for me thanks.


 
Posted : 17/06/2021 12:42 pm
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