There’s now talk that Jays might have to trade him (like Yunel Escobar).
This is fecking insane!! Political correctness run amok!!
Who here among us has never called someone else a bad name or slur??
I have never called anyone a “faot" or a "nier”. Are you saying this is something that you do? If so, I think you have bigger problems than some guy on a baseball team being disciplined.
So where do we draw the line then?? If we both get into an argument on the field and you call me a fucking pussy, or a fucking idiot, is that also not a slur?? Or is that less of a slur, and somehow acceptable??
No, I dont use those words either. I’m saying to me a slur is a slur, or an insult is an insult.
If you call me a fucking asshole I might be offended as well, and should you then also not get a 2-day suspension??
Cite for that steaming pile of bullshit? Need a safe space?
If asshole was a derogatory term for a portion of our society who have found themselves victimized, assaulted, and murdered for a portion of their identity, then sure. Otherwise, you’re just a whiny pansy.
Gay guys calling into AM590 radio
Not me
Lets say my alcoholic daddy used to beat the shit out of me, and called me an asshole constantly from age 10 to 18. And then a stranger calls me the same name during a baseball game, do I not have the right to be offended??
Now who’s doing the name-calling???
Ironically, this is what they used to say to gay guys 20 years ago, stop being a whiny pansy
The thing is, “Idiot” or “Jackass” or “Dickhead” whatever else you can come up with doesn’t attack a specific group of people, whereas the F word in question does.
Not true. calling someopne an idiot would also insult every child or adult with learning disabilities, the mentally handicapped, every person with Down syndrome, every person with an inherited low IQ…etc…etc.
Again, where are we gonna start drawing the line??
And why are gays suddenly a protected class, and the mentally handicapped are not??
We’re not a protected class, mentally handicapped people are. Not to say as society changes and evolves there won’t be a backlash in some settings for poor workplace behavior, even to a non federally protected class. In many places we can still be legally fired or kicked out of our apartments for being gay, so your poorly phrased argument isn’t really valid.
I dont agree with that either.
Not sure where you’re from, but in Toronto thats illegal and will (rightfully) get the landlord sued
I should have clarified. In the US there are seven protected classes, being gay isn’t one of them so unless a state or local entity has provided protection, there is none. For example, a friend who lives in Alabama can legally marry her girlfriend of 20 years (federally approved) but can be fired by her boss for being gay if he were to find out.
Well, why don’t you begin? Where do you draw the line? Is anything and everything OK so long as you say “sorry” after?
Not that they’re a protected class, but what if someone, in a fit of anger, loudly and publicly calls someone a pedophile, or a rapist? It’s just calling someone a name, right? You don’t mean it if you say it when you’re angry and you can excuse it by saying “sorry”.
Don’t you think that’s crossing a line?
Random people calling in to a sports radio show? So, not the Blue Jays, or anyone that matters, just assholes being assholes. Call me when the people advocating this matter.
And yet you’re crying.
The fact that you have to create a very specific and borderline bizarre situation to further your argument should tell you that you really don’t have a leg to stand on.
WAAAHHH!!! I can’t say bigoted things without being called a bigot! WAAAAHHH!!!
Well TIL. Guess you’re just a whiny pile of shit that is afraid of being called an asshole.
What if someone called you a dumb fuck? Would that be more acceptable. Because, based on your contributions here, it would be pretty fucking accurate.
If a coworker called you that at a public work event then maybe they would.
And if the public work event is the sort of thing that needs good PR in order to make the company money, it’s even more likely.
When the OP starts off with saying Pillar was “Crucified” by getting a two game suspension he did not appeal, we’re starting the discussion with hysteria, which is not a fantastic way to begin.
Pillar’s suspension was merited and is in line with similar suspension for similar incidents. The Toronto Blue Jays are an entertainment organization in the business of selling public exhibitions of baseball to paying customers. There’s a character clause in Kevin Pillar’s contract for a reason; displays of vulgar and socially reprehensible behaviour are bad for his employer and merit sanction.
Pillar isn’t being overly torn apart by the media or the fan base for this. If anything, there seem to be two sides; those who think the minor suspension and apology were quite appropriate and that he seems like a generally nice guy who’s learned a lesson and those who think he should nopt be punished at all because ooh, special snowflakes shouldn’t get offended. The latter group is pig headed and wrong.
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There’s now talk that Jays might have to trade him (like Yunel Escobar).
[/QUOTE]
What a bunch of crap. First of all, no, there is no serious talk at all of this.
Secondly, the reason the Blue Jays traded Escobar was as part of the package to get Josh Johnson, Jose Reyes and Mark Buerhle, and the reason they were willing to include him in that package is that he wasn’t as good as the guy they were getting in return. The Blue Jays will no more trade Kevin Pillar than they’ll start playing their games in the lake. For one thing, if you’d been following the team, you would know they have essentially run out of outfielders who are eligible to play in the major leagues.
Funnily enough, I was listening to the Fan 590 this morning, as I always do, and the possibility wasn’t once mentioned. Indeed, they got a call from a gay hockey player and frequent caller who discussed the issue with quite a bit of nuance and intelligence, and he seemed to feel the suspension was plenty and the apology more than sincere. His point, indeed, was that the real problem is not, specifically, Kevin Pillar, but a general attitude of homophobia that runs through organized sports that inevitably will lead to a person - even a decent one, like Kevin Pillar - using a vulgar word in an outburst.
[QUOTE=Esco]
Lets say my alcoholic daddy used to beat the shit out of me, and called me an asshole constantly from age 10 to 18. And then a stranger calls me the same name during a baseball game, do I not have the right to be offended?
[/QUOTE]
Of course you do. You have the right to be offended by absolutely anything. You have the right to be offended by the fact that stop signs are red, or by people walking dogs wearing bandanas, or by the fact that sometimes it rains. You may choose to take offense at anything you want. This is a free country. Do as you please.
What you don’t seem to comprehend - actually, I think you do comprehend it but won’t admit it - is that some offensive acts are more socially unacceptable than others, and for damned good reason. Calling someone a “jerk” is mildly offensive. Calling a black person a “nigger” is easily fifty times worse, maybe a thousand times worse. They’re both insults and can both be meant with hostility, but it is obvious to anyone whose brain is not made of cheese that the latter insult is extraordinarily hurtful. It is hurtful because black people have, for much longer than living memory, been subject to a great deal of abuse, discrimination, violence and disadvantage, and that word is loaded with all of those things. It hurts the feelings not only of its target but of those who hear of the slur being made in a way “jerk” simply does not. That is a fact, and it remains a fact whether you like it or not.
“Faggot” (and I will dispense with the silliness of things like n-word' and f____t’ because we are discussing these words as adults and euphemisms do not change that) is much more like a racial slur than a common insult like “jerk.” Homosexual men have it very, very rough; I hope that is not news to you, but I will assure you that if you are a white straight guy you might have a long way to go before you really understand how hurtful slurs like that can be. Gay people, unlike straight people, face a literal lifetime of fear, ostracization, hatred and insult. There are Christian radio stations that broadcast “gays are evil” probably half the time they’re on the air. Things are getting better but these are pretty recent damn developments, in case you haven’t noticed. It is within my lifetime not ancient history, that 32 (mostly) gay men were burned to death in an arson attack in a gay club, and the police and firefighters on the scene made fun of the victims, and authorities could not be bothered to make any mention or call for a moment of silence. It was just 25-30 years ago that soldiers from CFB Kingston, where I grew up, would brag of going out “Fag bashing,” hardly surprising when, at the time, the Canadian Forces had secret investigators whose job it was to entrap homosexuals so they could be thrown out of the Army. Countless gay people have been ejected from their churches, their families - literally pushed out of their families for being gay. I personally cannot even begin to imagine the pain in the heart of someone who experiences that, and ask you to think of the astounding resolve it would take for such a person to look forward to the rest of their life having to face such hideous cruelty and be willing to go on and make the best of it. If you don’t understand how the slur “faggot” can sting a person in the heart, well, you need to wake up and smell the roses, and start trying to imagine what it’s like to walk a mile in another man’s moccasins.
Sure, but in that case we should start penalizing ALL slurs and insults, not just a select few
And there you have it ^^^
The ones who decry name-calling so much just showed their true colours
If you call somebody a fucking asshole, it’s a personal insult to that person.
If you call somebody a fucking faggot, it’s a personal insult to that person and to hundreds of millions of gay people.
So the two are not equivalent.