# Can I flat out call a poster a liar in the Pit? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 13, 2015, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344 "2015-12-13T18:30:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344/41 "2015-12-23T04:53:51Z")
B-b-but, did _any_one notice _my_ pun? Lyre. You’re just trying to make me feel better. Don’t worry, I feel great. Because all day I’ve been thinking about how clever we all are, chuckling while confronting crowds of acquisitive cretins. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344/42 "2015-12-23T10:05:21Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Totally allowed. The list of things you can’t call other posters in the Pit is very limited: > > No hate speech\* > No death threats or wishing harm. > None of the terms listed on the “banned words” list. > > Anything else is fair game. And if you’re talking about someone who’s not a poster at all, the only restriction is “No hate speech.” > > \*“Hate speech,” in this context, refers specifically to the user of racial/religious/sexual slurs (“Faggot,” “Nigger,” etc.) or open calls for genocide (“Let’s just kill all the Muslims!”). Further clarification, if you’ll excuse my fat Darsh arse: “Hate speech” in this context means _directing_ such terms at someone? Is “Eskimo” hate speech on the grounds that some Arctic-Americans claim that the term is derogatory – whether casually uttered or directed at a person? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344/43 "2015-12-23T18:32:47Z")
No, it just means general usage of the terms. It doesn’t have to be directed at another poster. Mind, I say “general usage,” but context and intent do count. Nobody’s getting banned for discussing the use of the word “nigger” in the works of Mark Twain, obviously. “Intentionally pejorative usage,” might be a better term. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344/44 "2015-12-23T20:25:46Z")
I think I’ve been here too long. My first reaction was to check the Pit list to see who’d already started the _“Let’s see if we can discuss the use of the word “nigger” in the works of Mark Twain until someone slips up and gets warned”_ thread. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344/45 "2015-12-23T21:54:31Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > No, it just means general usage of the terms. It doesn’t have to be directed at another poster. > > Mind, I say “general usage,” but context and intent do count. Nobody’s getting banned for discussing the use of the word “nigger” in the works of Mark Twain, obviously. “Intentionally pejorative usage,” might be a better term. “Nigger” has a massive amount of historical baggage associated with it, though – mainly in the USA but you would need to be culturally deaf not to be quite sensitive about it on a US-based board. (Mind you, there’s a George MacDonald Fraser army story where a couple of sergeants are politely disagreeing in the Mess whether a certain historical character should have referred to Afghans as “niggers”, and the pipe-sergeant saying that of course “niggers” was wrong… the term should have been “wogs”. But that was in the late 1940s.) Other terms might be less clear-cut, I was thinking. I guess we find out when the warnings start getting handed out. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2015, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344/46 "2015-12-25T02:59:05Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Totally allowed. The list of things you can’t call other posters in the Pit is very limited: > > No hate speech\* > No death threats or wishing harm. > None of the terms listed on the “banned words” list. > > Anything else is fair game. And if you’re talking about someone who’s not a poster at all, the only restriction is “No hate speech.” > > \*“Hate speech,” in this context, refers specifically to the user of racial/religious/sexual slurs (“Faggot,” “Nigger,” etc.) or open calls for genocide (“Let’s just kill all the Muslims!”). I would never advocate killing all the Muslims. That would clearly be wrong. But would it be OK to advocate killing the ones who commit terrorist acts? After a fair trial of course. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2015, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344/47 "2015-12-25T22:39:51Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > “Hate speech,” in this context, refers specifically to the user of racial/religious/sexual slurs (“Faggot,” “Nigger,” etc.) or open calls for genocide (“Let’s just kill all the Muslims!”). What if I substituted the word ‘lawyers’ for ‘Muslims?’ ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2015, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344/48 "2015-12-25T23:37:50Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > What if I substituted the word ‘lawyers’ for ‘Muslims?’ There is a special rule that bans Shakespearean hate speech. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2015, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344/49 "2015-12-25T23:41:53Z")
Is it okay to call a poster a “lyre”, in order insinuate they have the mysterious melodic qualities of that instrument? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344/50 "2016-01-16T20:51:42Z")
> [@digs](#): > > B-b-but, did _any_one notice _my_ pun? > > Lyre. You’re just trying to make me feel better. > > Don’t worry, I feel great. Because all day I’ve been thinking about how clever we all are, chuckling while confronting crowds of acquisitive cretins. Not a bad pun, but a little too overt. You really belted it out, though. > [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > What? You don’t already have them all? You fail at Satanry. Well, Metallica and I were going through a rough patch. I kind of stopped listening as much once Jason Newstead left, so I hadn’t bought the new ones with Robert Trujillo. ---
**Author:** ![CCitizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@CCitizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CCitizen)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344/51 "2016-01-16T23:38:57Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > In fact I want to Pit someone who joined recently specifically for _being_ a liar. Many insults are permissible in The Pit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-flat-out-call-a-poster-a-liar-in-the-pit/740344.md?page=2)