Is it socially "OK" to call North Korean enemies "Norks"?

Factual Questions
1

…I mean, like if we ever go to war with North Korea. I’m just wondering if “Nork” (from NORth Korean. And no, I didn’t make it up myself.) would be a socially acceptible nickname (Like “Charlie” or “Yank,” and whatnot) or if it’d be considered really racist and offensive.

I wouldn’t think it’s be a bad word, but I’m not the best judge of these kind of things.

And…now that I think about it, I’m not real entirely sure that this is even a proper GQ. :smack:

But…can anyone shed some light on the subject, for me?

2

It is always OK to dehumanize the enemy. It makes it easier to kill them if they are “not like you.”

3

Where did you get it from?

4

I’ve seen it in a few places (VERY few places) online. Most notably, the famed Racial Slur Database.

It seems like a perfectly useful slur/nickname, but I just didn’t know if one’d be able to say it while in the U.S. without sounding like a racist.

(And yes, I’m aware of the irony of it being acceptible to wage war and kill people, but offensive to mock your enemy’s ethnicity. Hey, I don’t make the rules, I just try to live with them.)

5

If you used it in a social setting I was in you would get lambasted for using such a stupid name.

6

I took it to mean a combination of the words “North” (Korean) and “Dork.”

7

I think you’d probably get a lot of blank stares.

8

Nickname already taken

9

Not really. While I am against both, war sometimes serves a worthwhile cause whereas dehumanizing someone doesn’t except, as someone mentioned, to make it easier to hurt, kill, or otherwise think less of them.

10

You can say “somethimes serves a worthwhile cause,” I would say sometimes is the least bad out of a bunch of bad possibilities.

11

It would seem that calling somebody an “enemy” is more hostile than calling him a “Nork.” (a breast, apparently) Which would you rather be called?

12

Only if they’re named “Norman”.

(You’d have to be my age, and grew up near NYC.)

13

If you mean the Sandy Becker character, he was “Norton Nork.”

I guess we must be about the same age.

14

Why wait for a war?

There’s nothing offensive about the name. It’s like calling a North Dakotan a Nodak.

In fact I will refer to the North Koreans only as Norks from now own.

It is written.

BTW in the game Mercenaries that just came out, you fight the North Koreans a lot. In the heat of battle I tend to call them the VC for some bizarre reason. I can now call them Norks.