And I find your misuse of apostrophes more than a little annoying.
But in general I agree with you. The SDMB is about fighting ignorance, and that’s about the free exchange of ideas. That includes bad ones, including bigoted ones. You can’t fight ignorance by merely suppressing it. If someone’s antisemitic we should be educating him, not silencing him.
Well, I am not aware of any anti-semitism on PCP’s part other than interpretation of this nickname. I welcome correction.
He was educated, told it was perpetuating a stereotype and people found it offensive. At that point if the person keeps using it, the mods should use their authority to make him stop. Which they did.
If someone was using the term “Jap” or “fairy” they’d be told it’s offensive, and then be told to stop using it. How is this any different?
It’s different because we are talking about a bank. So any criticism of money-grubbing, greed or sneaky practices at the bank are off limits because those are Jewish stereotypes. Can you imagine me a scenario where “jap” or “fairy” would be used in a similar way?
My question is, why would someone need to keep making the same joke over and over about something so lame? If that’s really what it is, how many times do you have to point out that guy’s got brass nuts?
Ask the Drumpf people. Or the Shrillary people. Or the Bernie Bros people. Etc etc
You seem to be entirely missing the point. It would be fine to criticize the bank using its actual name. Referring to the bank by an antisemitic slur is what’s off limits. Criticizing a Japanese bank by calling it a “nip-joint” would also be unacceptable.
I side with the dissent on this one. There’s an obvious punning connection between Goldman Sachs and Gold Man Sacks. And while it’s clearly derogatory, there’s nothing inherently Jewish about Gold Man Sacks.
Is there a stereotype about Jews being involved in financial dealings? Unfortunately yes. But this is a genuine case of a specific individual who is involved in financial dealings and who happens to be Jewish.
It’s already been explained that it is.
The quotes above are some of the dumbest things ever posted on the Straight Dope Message Board, IMO.
I’m with CarnalK and other dissenters here.
I agree that PCP deserved the warning for not following Mod instructions, but the notion that mocking a financial institution’s name by breaking it up into 3 words, one of which is a homophone, is anti-semitic because one of the those words is “gold” is beyond overly-sensitive into “are you fucking kidding me?” territory.
And then to dig mod heels in and insist is even dumber.
I did a quick google search and I found exactly zero support for the idea that “Gold Man Sacks” is used as an anti-semitic term.
It has been used for comedic purposes: [
](Exploring Harvard Fetishes: Gold Man-Sacks | SatireV)
I also found it used as a headline for a story about a medical marijuana place in Boston called Patriot Care because Goldman Sachs is one of the investors: GOLDMAN SACKS - THE TOKIN’ TRUTH.
But nothing anywhere to suggest that anyone besides the mods here see it as an anti-semitic slur.
Not really. The claim has been made but there’s zero supporting evidence other than the specious logic y’all used to reach your conclusion.
I said ‘Goldman-Sachs’, not ‘gold man-sacks’!
Really?
You are claiming that there is no specifically Jewish slant to PCP’s remarks?
And the Drumpf remarks are not mocking German heritage, but are a reaction to his specific attack on another person for a change to his name. German, Irish, or Mandarin would not have been the point of those comments.
Bo: The wording: “gold man-sacks”, juxtaposed with “assette managemt” clearly indicates an attempt at sexual innuendo. It’s a different locution than: “Gold Man Sacks”.
But those are folks with a political axe to grind. Some can get really het up about who they want you to vote for. However, I’ve usually not encountered many people who feel truly beholden to wisecracks about reproductive organs. Have you?
And just for the record, I’m not saying anything one way or the other about it being a slur per se. However, I do find it really odd that the only seemingly other interpretation (that it’s a puerile attempt at humor) is completely unconvincing. Especially in light of him 1) being told to forego it, and 2) never defending himself about why he does it. You’d think if that theory was correct, you’d at least get a, “Oh, c’mon, guys! I was just kidding!!”
sigh
I should have read the rest of the thread before posting. :rolleyes:
Aye, but my point is that there is zero supporting evidence and zero instances I could find of Gold Man Sacks being used anywhere and being called an anti-semitic slur, except for this message board.
And mocking the bank’s name isn’t mocking Jews, IMO, it’s mocking the bank. Is the bank Jewish?
If I have a beef with a reporter who continually writes stories I think are biased and with the fact that multiple news outlets repeat his stories and I were to refer to the “lame stream media”, would the fact that the reporter used a wheelchair instantly elevate my use of “lame stream media” to a slur on the physically handicapped? Even if I had written a whole screed decrying the ADA and the need to install ramps at so many public places, the answer is no, it doesn’t turn “lame stream media” into a slur against the physically handicapped.
But that’s the logic used to tie “Gold Man Sacks” to being an anti-semitic slur.
Whatever sympathy I might have had with your argument dissipated when you regurgitated this bankrupt meme.
So you’re saying that the overall impression you have of PCP is such that you think he would post an anti-semitic slur, so you see one in what he wrote?
You have nothing to show that “Gold Man Sacks” is mocking Jewish heritage. You seem to have taken one sentence that seeks to equate a Jewish leader of a bank and an Italian leader of a crime organization (an obviously negative equivalence) and then decided that everything associated with that must also point to clear anti-semitism.
Note that the entire rest of the paragraph quoted is about bankers, not Jews.
Could Lloyd Blankfein be referred to as Lloyd Bankfiend without it being an anti-semitic slur?