RIP RBR Meltdown
https://www.rollbamaroll.com/2022/9/28/23376836/rest-in-peace-rbr-meltdown-2006-2022
While none of us are thrilled about the situation in general, it’s important to note that we weren’t told that we can’t post the meltdown anymore. We were told that we could no longer publish comments containing racism, homophobia, etc. Erik alludes to this below, but we basically decided that we’d rather have no meltdown than a PG meltdown.
September 28th, 2022 at 7:55 PM ^
https://www.rollbamaroll.com/2022/9/28/23376836/rest-in-peace-rbr-meltdown-2006-2022
Sorry, forgot that it didn't auto link.
September 28th, 2022 at 7:58 PM ^
That sucks. My favorite weekly column. It was absolutely hilarious.
My favorite this year, after ND loss to Marshall: "I bet Rudy wishes he would have taken that job at the steel mill"
This PC culture is horseshit.
September 28th, 2022 at 8:18 PM ^
Idk, I think people on the internet are horseshit. Using slurs as putdowns is just lazy and generally not all that funny. Case in point - your favorited example is actually clever.
Similarly, I think RBR could probably curate a Meltdown that's not exactly PG, but is definitely less cringey than it's been recently. But I'm sure that would take more work
September 28th, 2022 at 9:05 PM ^
It is a bummer that we can't point and laugh at (note: not with) people who are doing that as a reaction to their own football team.
Ultimately I get it, though. It comes down to advertisers - no one wants to have their brand pop up next to a post with a bunch of slurs in it.
September 29th, 2022 at 1:37 AM ^
Ultimately, it comes down to fear and weakness, which allows a small number of complainers to wield undue influence, like shutting down a popular column that anyone could simply choose not to read. If you disagree, go back to the final column and highlight all the terribly offensive comments.
September 29th, 2022 at 8:48 AM ^
If only we could all be as brave and strong as you . . . and use/encourage slurs.
September 29th, 2022 at 10:54 AM ^
If only we could all be as brave and strong as you . . . and use/encourage slurs.
he literally never did that. good job making something up in your head based on preconceived notions then accusing someone of something you made up.
September 29th, 2022 at 11:35 AM ^
Except he 100% did - he said they stopped doing their b-rate TWIS because of ‘weakness and fear’. In reality, they explained why they stopped - they were told (by their advertisers) to stop amplifying racist, sexist and homophobic nonsense. Rather than editing those comments out, they decided to just stop the column. If you actually read the fucking article you would realize that - but go ahead and cry about wokeness, or snowflakes or whatever the insult-du-jour is today.
The oracle (and you, apparently) are either too stupid/lazy to read the explanation/understand it, or are generally ok with spewing hateful shit because someone’s football team lost. Either way, not a good look
September 29th, 2022 at 11:18 AM ^
What “slurs” are you talking about?
September 29th, 2022 at 11:36 AM ^
The slurs that they regularly featured that are the very reason the ripoff TWIS is ending. I read that column once and racist/sexist/homophobic stuff must’ve been somewhere between 10-20% of all the comments. Not sure how you could read it enough to be pissed it’s going away, and not pick up on any of that. Says more about you than anything else, really.
In short, maybe try to figure out what you’re complaining about before spouting off next time
September 29th, 2022 at 12:44 PM ^
I've read Meltdown many, many times and I can't ever recall any racist comments. Definitely a lot of middle school homophobic language, for sure. If you can find any instances of actual racism I'll stand corrected. But just because a guy makes cock jokes doesn't make him a racist too.
September 29th, 2022 at 12:48 PM ^
It does according to detroitblue -- humor has to be "clean" - maybe mr. rogers can write/edit the column... also detroitblue - you did the right thing -- you read it once, didn't like it, and didn't read it again.. was that difficult?
September 29th, 2022 at 1:39 PM ^
Considering the most recent one is no longer posted, that is probably the one that lead to this whole thing. So you're probably not going to get too many examples. Though a quick look through of a previous one did turn up a "monkey boy" comment about the Texas special teams coach.
September 29th, 2022 at 2:14 PM ^
I never complained about dick jokes or low brow humor, but good try champ.
No, it wasn’t difficult - neither is understanding the reason why the column was cancelled, and I’ll give you a hint - it’s not wokeness, cancel culture or whatever other nonsense you want to get worked up about. Now kindly leave the discussion to the adults
September 29th, 2022 at 1:58 PM ^
I didn’t read the column and don’t really care other than to understand what all the fuss is about. Here’s what I found from a quick glance over the latest meltdown:
- “Coach refused to let his QB win the game pass best receivers. Instead the coach made him run because he is a black QB all coaches make black QB’S run get hurt. White QB’S pass college. NFL win the game. No choice black men want to play n NFL money.”
- “Man I wonder if the OC and DC were black would they still be the coach’s and how the hell is 17 on this team oh I know he white”
Quick glance, so there could be other racist stuff, not including sexist and other stuff.But if that’s it, it’s like two comments out of 50 or 60.
September 29th, 2022 at 2:09 PM ^
Like i said - i read it once and there were multiple racist/homophobic ‘jokes’. I couldn’t care less about dick jokes or general asshattery - that’s what made TWIS fun. For fuck’s sake the proprietors on the blog acknowledged the bigotry in their post about ending the column, yet you, who read it ‘many times’ can’t think of one. Maybe work on your reading comprehension, eh?
September 29th, 2022 at 2:48 PM ^
dude --you need to chill -- you are attacking anyone with a different opinion -- and who is the adult here....?
September 29th, 2022 at 2:55 PM ^
Wasn’t talking to you - was talking to the apparently illiterate gentleman who was arguing that there wasn’t consistent racism in those posts WHEN THE PEOPLE WHO PUBLISH THEM SAID ‘WE’RE ENDING THIS COLUMN BECAUSE THERE’S TOO MUCH RACISM’. Are you really this stupid, or is it an act?
September 29th, 2022 at 3:11 PM ^
somebody missed their medication...
September 29th, 2022 at 3:16 PM ^
Somebody doesn’t know how to read . . .
September 29th, 2022 at 3:34 PM ^
Take a break from the internet, friend. I didn’t provide any commentary, merely pointed out to another poster who claimed to never see racism on the Meltdown that there were, indeed, racist comments, posting what I found in the last piece.
Relax.
September 29th, 2022 at 4:06 PM ^
List one.
September 29th, 2022 at 6:29 AM ^
With absolutely no understanding of what RBR meltdown is imma go ahead and guess that it’s readership will absolutely love commenting that “PC culture” is bullshit. Seems to be a favorite pastime of some.
Some people don’t seem to realize you can be crass and “edgy” and get away with it if you’re not an asshole and are actually clever. See Pardon My Take etc. (Again not saying RBR meltdown is not clever or is rude because I’ve never read it but seeing people complain about PC culture or being cancelled is fucking annoying.)
September 29th, 2022 at 10:36 AM ^
This is the key point for me:
We were told that we could no longer publish comments containing racism, homophobia, etc. Erik alludes to this below, but we basically decided that we’d rather have no meltdown than a PG meltdown.
So, basically they'd rather have no meltdown than one that includes racist, homophobic, etc. comments. That's what I'm hearing from this statement. That's, eh... not a good look. You can avoid being PG without being racist or homophobic.
September 29th, 2022 at 2:27 PM ^
Yep pretty much the state reason for stopping is the worst part about it all.
I didn't read that column but if the authors explicitly say "if we can't be racist, we quit" then that's pretty damning.
September 29th, 2022 at 7:44 PM ^
Holy shit you guys can't be serious. It says they can't publish those comments, they were not the ones who made those comments. They would take those comments from message bards of teams who had a bad day. You know... Shadenfreude? What would a TWIS be if you cant post comments from the most crazy comments you find?
Unless you are trying to say it's racist to laugh at people who are so miserable that they say racist things?
September 30th, 2022 at 12:24 AM ^
You could...post the...non-racist and non-homophobic ones...?
And ignore the racist and homophobic ones...?
This isn't hard.
September 30th, 2022 at 1:56 PM ^
All they are doing is copying and pasting comments from elsewhere...you're telling me its a huge inconvenience to NOT copy and paste a racist comment? Cause that's what they are saying. Maybe a better way to say it is "if we can't re-post racist things, we quit". Does that make you feel better? They don't have to be the authors of said comments to be complicit in spreading them. I think it's probably for the best not to amplify and broadcast shitty comments you see in relatively obscure parts of the internet. You can be plenty funny and find lots of fan misery in comments that aren't hate speech. They felt it wasn't worth the effort to try.
I find the whole line of thinking that "we are just laughing at how racist that fan base is" pretty dubious. Because it's the internet, and it's anonymous. There's no accountability to that person who posts something hateful, you aren't really laughing at them. When you see a racist comment posted by "klansman69" on a Texas A&M blog....I don't think every reader is going to go somehow "hold the Texas A&M fanbase accountable". There's no good deed being done here. More likely it just normalizes and spreads hateful speech. And based on reactions here, some think its fine to say those racist things because "free speech good, cancel culture bad."
September 28th, 2022 at 10:09 PM ^
Says the aging white guy. You've been denied an opportunity to enjoy racial slurs as entertainment.
September 29th, 2022 at 1:31 AM ^
Can you point out the “slurs” you’re talking about, because I didn’t see any? Or is that you didn’t see any either, or didn’t read it, and just took the opportunity to virtue signal?
September 29th, 2022 at 12:47 PM ^
Calling everyone you don't like a racist just gives cover to the actual racists. It waters down the meaning of a word that is supposed to be a terrible label for awful people. But it plays well on anonymous internet boards.
September 29th, 2022 at 2:24 PM ^
Wonder why you’re so worked up about this? The people who run that blog acknowledged flat out that there were too many racist/hateful comments in that column, but here you are getting upset that nobody is going to put all those racist comments in a list for you to read and, presumably, laugh at? Is your argument that people should be able to just say/repeat racist comments without being called or treated as racist? What the fuck is the matter with you?
September 29th, 2022 at 10:21 AM ^
This sounds like an ageism slur.
September 28th, 2022 at 11:10 PM ^
PC culture that just made a literal 30 year old billboard in Chicago for the Metra into a scandal is bullshit, not being able to be a racist = not bullshit.
Having said that, I've never read those articles before but they literally said they weren't allowed to be "racist or homophobic", hence my comment
September 29th, 2022 at 10:43 AM ^
Advertisers don't want to pay money to have their names on a column full of bigotry, misogyny, and hate-speech.
That's not "politically correct", it's being a decent non-asshole human being.
That kind of cheap, lazy, hate-normalizing writing is what's horseshit, not people and companies dissociating from it.
Time to evolve.
October 1st, 2022 at 6:30 PM ^
This. I'm all for advertisers reading the market and satisfying their obligation to investors, particularly if it that means bending to social pressure.
The ironic whining about snowflakes and wokeness is irritating.
Some of the most conservative of us complain about "degenerates" ruining the country and are unable to recognize a free society expressing itself.
The youth today live in a world I don't understand with problems I never had. I'm going to have to trust them to lead and accept their decisions.
September 29th, 2022 at 11:30 AM ^
Fuck off dude
September 29th, 2022 at 12:53 PM ^
Maybe be civil and show some tolerance?
September 29th, 2022 at 11:49 AM ^
Says a lot about you that your favorite column is a third-rate TWIS ripoff. There’s just no accounting for taste
September 28th, 2022 at 8:02 PM ^
Michigan never made the meltdown!!
September 28th, 2022 at 8:45 PM ^
Once again showing:
The Michigan Difference
September 29th, 2022 at 11:37 AM ^
How were we not on there after the MSU game last season? What else happened that could overshadow?
September 28th, 2022 at 8:03 PM ^
The Meltdown was fine, I found it hard to read. Not necessarily because I found to to be particularly racist or homophobic, although if it was, that's unfortunate. My main issue with it was that I always felt it needed some serious editing. They'd post "quotes" that were a mile long and while amusing as far as "rants" go, they were practically unreadable. I prefer my aggregated content to be readable and hit me with the "good stuff."
Obviously, as a longtime member here, I'll always be partial to TWIS. I think Jason Kirk's "The Main Character" on USA Today last season was possibly the closest thing to Brian's version. I'm kinda disappointed that didn't come back this season.
That said, RIP Meltdown. You were okay, but I found you hard to read.
September 28th, 2022 at 8:08 PM ^
I miss TWIS. Though I have often wondered if it was Brian's fault Michigan suffered the late Carr, post Carr Era due to schadenfreude because Brian was writing TWIS.
September 29th, 2022 at 11:53 AM ^
100% agree. Meltdown was a great idea (as was TWIS and The Main Character) but the editing was lazy. It was much toto much cut-n-paste and much too little focused quotation of the key elements and responses to them. Long stretches of any edition of Meltdown were just regurgitations of stuff we read from disgruntled fans here. I don't think I ever actually read one from start to finish because it got too boring reading the same thing over and over. TWIS had Brian's reactions to stupid posts. Meltdown didn't have reactions, just walls of quoted text.
I understand that trying to edit such a thing into acceptable shape would have been a huge task, and that such an effort risked being negated in any case because the line between endorsement and satire isn't always clear to the casual viewer (like advertising reps would be), so it doesn't surprise me that RTR decided that it wasn't worth the effort.
I'm sorry in principal that the column is gone, but I really won't much miss it.
September 28th, 2022 at 8:04 PM ^
Wait… are they saying that eliminating racism and homophobia from their threads would effectively make it not worth it? Maybe I’m totally misreading, but that seems like a pretty terrible excuse.
September 28th, 2022 at 8:20 PM ^
Agree. I think it'd be worth a shot. I imagine the line would be pretty hard to define, though, and maybe it's not worth the effort to them (though I'd be surprised, given the traffic they must get)
September 28th, 2022 at 8:43 PM ^
Maybe you just read the preamble, & I don’t want to overstate the obvious, but their point was that it was not racist nor homophobic & was just meant to be humorous.