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Is there anything good in Hexbear? (lemmy.one)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by DrPop@lemmy.one to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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The few conversations I've had there have been unproductive and inflammatory. While even in other instances when I've said something someone disagreed with they would at least support their statement. Also no one would tell me why the "Confused Unga Bunga" meme is racist but they keep accusing me of it. I'm all for open discussions but even the comments there are so angry and toxic.

Edit: I'm reading every comment and taking everything people said and considering all sides. My stance on the phrase has changed but I am still hesitant about giving hexbear a chance. I'll sleep on it though.

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[–] zkikiz@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

That photo is from a film about neanderthals. The phrase "unga bunga" has its earliest known usage in a Bugs Bunny short mocking Aborigines, but it's a generic enough phrase that I'm not sure you can write off the entire phrase as racist against Aborigines: any nonsense word could be used in its place and I'm not sure anyone creating or sharing the meme has actually watched that Bugs Bunny clip from 1950. It's just a nonsense phrase used to indicate low intelligence or nonsense. Given that the photo is of a neanderthal, I think anyone seeing the meme will understand that it's supposed to mean "a caveman would be confused by this" and not about any particular group of modern or indigenous humans. Most usages of the meme imply that the poster themselves is the confused one, so I don't think a racist would find it very funny to post something like that.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/confused-unga-bunga

Given that the words "unga" and "bunga" have existed in print since at least 1700 AD, I'm not sure we can point to that one Bugs cartoon as the definitive and only definition of that particular nonsense phrase. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=unga%2C+bunga&year_start=1500&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3

[–] fiat_lux@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

I promise you plenty of indigenous Australians have had to tolerate this phrase and the associated ableism for that entire time, and it is still used against them now.

The association of 'primitive' cultures and low intelligence is a huge continuing problem, including dehumanisation in the form of calling people different species' names.

[–] Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I grew up watching those cartoons, and we definitely used it in an anti-aborigonal way for quite some time after it was pulled. Into the 90s at at least, probably mid-00s.

I'm glad to hear it's losing that history.