Admit it. Looking at this screen-capture of the infamous JT Bowtie "oh thnap" video really wrenches your gut.
You wanna cuss the guy. You wanna spit on the guy. And, if things were to get a bit thick, you'd gladly and closed-fistedly administer the young man a complementary root canal. But why?
Is it because he said mean things about Ole Miss? No. Is it because he is a self-righteous and overtly ignorant Alabama fan? No. Is it because he dresses flamboyantly? Likely not. Is it because his sexuality is questionable? Not particularly.
Truly, I posit that none of the above really had much at all to do with the vitriol directed towards JT Bowtie by we Rebels. I feel it was something else entirely.
He called us "white trash" and, as far as I can tell, that term is somehow quite offensive to Southern whites.
While nowhere close to the same league as "the N-word" and not quite as offensive as fag*, gumpie, or stupid wop dago**, calling a Southern person--especially one who is well-to-do or even moderately middle class--"white trash" is akin to a black person calling a white person a "cracker" or a Southerner calling someone from north of Richmond a "damned yankee." It is something you say when you legitimately intend to demean and offend someone based on characteristics which, in most cases, are well out of the control of the offendee.
I can honestly say that, despite being pretty far off from what one intends to describe with the term (skin color aside), I felt a tinge of a sting inside when JT said something about Ole Miss having a "white trash student section."
"The fuck?" I thought. "I used to be up in that student section all the time, JT, you asshole." Yes, I was legitimately offended by that remark. I even wanted to stick a knife in his nostril or something bizarre and difficultly violent.
If JTBowtie hadn't twice called the Ole Miss students and fans "white trash," there wouldn't have been such backlash against the guy. People wouldn't have as agressively or offensively questioned his sexuality. People woudln't have saught him out. People wouldn't have screamed at him in public. People wouldn't have attacked him.
I assert this with confidence because people make fun of Ole Miss all the time, just as folks make fun of every SEC school. Ribbing, smack talk, and HATE WEEK are all vital parts of the SEC experience. The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, the Third Saturday in October, and the Egg Bowl--naturally amongst many others--are all founded on this. Bloggers, YouTubers, message board idiots, and even some professional "journalists" say silly and mean-spirited things about teams, fans and players all of the time. Few of them, however, cross the somewhat-arbitrary line crossed by JT Bowtie.
As for JTBowtie, lets just leave the stupid fuck alone already. The guy is a self-serving wad of pus-filled stool and the more you confront him, accost him, or violently act against him gives him more cause to continue being whatever it is that he is trying to be. This becomes obvious when one considers the fact that the Alabama news reports surrounding the threats he received from Rebel fans were uploaded by him into his own damned YouTube account; one of which sits under a title containing the term "Oh Snap." The guy wanted this, and we all satisfied him. He wanted people to notice him in the Grove and on the Square before doing crazy shit which would draw attention to him. Keep in mind, the guy is an aspiring model and actor. He even says so himself. Any kind of publicity is good publicity for him.
Now, I must admit that, upon seeing him in the grove, I screamed something at him about his pants, so I'm in no way innocent here; but I didn't approach the guy looking to fight him. I didn't pursue him. I didn't cuss him. I just yelled, and really, that wasn't out of my own anger at the guy, but really at my unhealthy desire to keep those in my immediate vicinity constantly entertained (oh look he's setting his shirt on fire!).
Now, that we're all somewhat over it (we are, aren't we?) I suggest that we simply don't worry with him. Life is going to come back to bite him in the ass when he's driving a Kia, balding in his early thirties, and waiting tables at a TGIFridays after he gets off of his nine-to-five in a very vain attempt to surmount the mountain of debt which is crushing his undeniably feeble soul. Also, he'll need to get warts frozen off of his asshole. I saw it in my tarot cards.
Let him die and let him rot. That's my final piece.
*With apologies to the Cup's homosexual community.
**Who gets it? Anybody?