re: #87 Obdicut

I had a very clear reason for using “oil ticks” for the Saudi ruling class — they are a corrupt group of people who are rich beyond imagining for no reason of accomplishment, but the sheer good fortune of being the most brutal warlords in an area full of oil. They are parasites by the definition of the word.

But I stopped using it, because 1) I became a better writer over the years, and 2) I realized that terms like that can have the unfortunate effect of encouraging people who really are bigoted.

Some people seem to think I was an experienced political pundit who should have understood all these issues when LGF first started becoming popular, but the fact is I wasn’t. I was not a terrible writer (well, sometimes I guess I was), but my main experience was with music and with computer programming. I was literally learning the ropes in those days, and figuring out where I stood myself on a lot of these issues, and yep, I made a lot of mistakes — and I learned from them.