And even secular Jewish culture, I would venture, reveres history more than any other major world culture.
That’s silly because people don’t call each other that. Calling someone a Hitler or a Napoleon is pretty commonplace and it’s usually when the person being called that is acting like a Hitler or a Napoleon. Not literally of course, I’m sure the woman in the OP doesn’t command a vast army. Still. For most people it’s like calling someone a commie. Oh, well. If you or your family was a victim of communism you get to file an HR action against someone for calling you a commie?
Where do you work, anyway? 
The last time I heard of someone being called “Napoleon”, it involved John J. McGraw, the pit bull-esque manager of the old N.Y. baseball Giants. I think his actual nickname was “Little Napoleon” which is sort of like calling a person “Giant Paul Bunyan”.
But I digress.
Now imagine for a second your example. If someone had called someone a commie and that person had suffered at the hands of communism, she has all the right in the world to be aggrieved by it. The world “let go” of bad evil communism a while ago, but that doesn’t mean that person has to.
If that person, however, goes nuclear at t0, and files for all she can get, with the offender not having a clue that this was a sensitive issue, then that person is going past what I consider right. A slip of the tongue is one thing, a campaign of harrassment is another. One you frown, the other you file.
I have been on the offending side more than once with beauties such as “what? is she blind?” and “nah, just shoot them and get it over with” for people who were respectively blind and had their parents shot. They made me feel bad enough that I still remember them after all these years, and I would bet that the offended forgot about them a long time ago.
People say stupid things. Whether you choose to educate them or squeeze the last drop of them, that’s up to you and the type of person you are (generic “you”, of course).
However, the OP was challenging the woman’s entire right to be offended- not that she merely went over the top, but that she should get over it and was just using a false offense to get someone in trouble. I know for me, that is the problem I have with the criticism of the scenario.
Hopefully, kambuckta advises us of the outcome of the official complaint made. It would be interesting to see what others in that workplace make of this. There may be all sorts of judgements and speculation on kambuckta’s part, and from any of the contributors here – but what really matters is the outcome right there in Melbourne.
OK, I thought I was used to internet Jew-supremacism by now, but what?!? What are you basing this on?
Consider me newly enlightened as to the latent anti-Semitism still lurking like a not very hidden cancer in society. Because this comment, among other similar charming remarks by several seemingly normal (i.e. not usually perceived as jerkish) members here, has made this one of the most scary and depressing fucking threads I’ve seen at the Dope. Congrats, y’all.
There was an OP? :checks: Oh, yeah.
Still, if she was just “ordinarily offended”, she would have said something along the lines of “you take that back, idiot, I am jewish”. Filing an official complaint for an “innocent” first time offense* does sound like trying to leverage your “offendability”. Why would you try to get the other guy in trouble if don’t think the guy was actually trying to get you?
- Which we don’t know that it was, of course. This guy could be a royal prick pushing the envelope day and night.
Wow. That made me blink.
I assume it was just a bit of rather mild hyperbole acknowledging that Jews have historically been rather…hmm…historical minded. I might be inclined to chalk it up myself to both the extraordinarily insular, generally oppressed culture combined with a very legalistic faith that paid tight attention to past precedence of scholars.
ALL peoples revere the past in one way or another of course, even if it is just in the form of heroic myth. But the Judaic world ( at least the educated one ) has always given the impression of a bit more obsessive about it than most. Though obviously ( as again with most/all peoples ) very Jew-centered in focus.
I don’t know that I can produce a cite to validate the above beyond general impressions myself, as tracking a given society’s fascination with history averaged over a population is probably no easy task. Especially pre-modern opinion polls. But I’ve always taken it as a given based on a mulitrplicity of anecdote and impressions from my own readings.
Uh…what Tamerlane said.
Right- I had to scroll back to make there was an OP, too.
My only point here is who is the person to judge- maybe this guy’s been harassing her, maybe she’s nuts. I just find it remarkable that the OP went straight to “Jews should get over this and not use it to excuse to get people in trouble” I guess I would assume there was more going on than I knew, were I in a similar position.
The OP’s attitude seemed hateful and patronizing in tone and content. To me, the saddest part it that the OP doesn’t see it in his/her own words.
Anyway, I think I’ve had my say here.
Well, it’s not just our religion, it’s our ethnic identity and culture. In order to not get our identities totally lost in the countries Jews have been living in (until recently not having our own country) we have to keep reminding ourselves who we are and where we come from. The Torah is not just a religious document, it’s our family tree (says the atheist, secular Jew…).
As perpetual guests in other peoples’ lands we must remember how fleeting hospitality can be. From ancient Egypt (we were guests in Egypt until enslaved) to Germany (most German Jews just considered themselves simply Germans- until that rapidly changed) the tide can quickly turn. Our history helps us survive and remain a united people when immersed in other cultures.
OK, now I’m done… 
Pretty much what I was trying to express with “extraordinarily insular, generally oppressed culture…” :). I’d say ( or agree, rather ) that historically the Jewish people give the impression of tending to be more tightly aware of their roots than usual as a type of cultural self-preservation.
I’d be remiss, this being the pit, if I didn’t mention that there is no historical or archaeological evidence for the Exodus.
OMG, I’m an Exodus denier!!!
You should have tried growing up my house! I’ll give you oppressed!
Anyway- after so many years in the Diaspora it’s pretty cool that we’re still a cohesive culture. It’s nice when a game plan works!
What a shame. I thought you were a cool guy.
For everyone else, do yourself a favor and go visit Yad Vashem some day. You’ll really get a different picture about the Holocaust, especially in the Children’s Memorial.
That said, filing an official report on someone for calling you “Hitler”? Actually, I don’t know, because remarkably few details were given. The whole thing sounds like an excuse for the OP to let out something that’s been bothering him for a while. Which worries me much more than someone getting written up for calling his Jewish boss “Hitler”–not because of the offense that may or may not carry, but because it’s a really dumb thing to do. If one of my friends called me Hitler, that wouldn’t bother me----hell, one of my friends wrote “Happy Birthday, You Fucking Kike” on my birthday cake this year, and I loved it–but if I had a new employee call me Hitler, well, they’d have bought themselves a thorough talking-to. A write-up? Not so much, only because that’s not my style. But if this little remark was part of a general demeanor and attitude that made me uncomfortable at work, hell yeah I’d write him up–that’s what official reports are for. We don’t know the context here.
This whole post seems a little odd to me. First off, I can’t recall ever being called Hitler or Napoleon, or seeing anyone else being referred to that way recently. “TPS Report Nazi”? I’ve heard things like that, and that specific kind of thing wouldn’t bother me personally (though I must stress that, again, we don’t know context and we can’t speak for what other people may or may not find offensive)–remember that just about every free German citizen at the time was a Nazi, not just the SS and other such people. I figure “TPS Report Nazi” means, rougly, “someone who supports a really strict viewpoint on TPS reports”. “TPS Report Himmler” or “TPS Report Hitler” would be much more offensive.
As for “commie”, as far as I’ve seen it, it’s a specific slur on left-leaning people for their political ideology. While that’s a fair bit less offensive than a racial slur–I get to choose my political ideology, for the most part–it is at the very least irritating and disrespectful. Belittling, too, since the implication is that I’m one of the brainwashed masses who can’t think for myself–which, as a Green Party member at a California institution of higher education, miffs me a bit.
On the extreme end, if you sit down with a rabbi for a couple of hours you may have a lot of trouble getting him to talk about anything other than Talmud, Torah and history. YMMV, but I suspect it doesn’t vary by much.
From kambuckta, that doesn’t surprise me one bit. OTOH, it puzzles me that Sapo, who I’ve always seen as a pretty insightful guy with little tolerance for bullshit, can’t acknowledge why it was not a good idea to say what he said. And still hasn’t apologized. With his track record as an ignorance fighter, I think if he had just said “Oops. I didn’t mean it to come out like that. Sorry, guys”, he’d be good in most peoples’ books here. JMHO. I can’t say I plan to carry a grudge–hell, I may forget all about this thread in a couple of months–but it definitely changes how I look at him, as much as I don’t want it to.
I know- I was just speaking from a “shared history” perspective.
So, what, are you saying all the Jews are still there, makin’ them bricks?
I thought I had explained and apologized enough, somewhere upthread. In case it wasn’t clear then, I will reiterate. I didn’t mean it to come like that. As I explained, all my Jewish friends are filthy rich (and not in a bad way, they are the kind of filthy rich that will hang out with a definitely non-rich guy like me, and this was mostly on college days, where well, shoes and cars were everyone’s priorities). If I had foreseen the uproar such a line was going to generate, I would have said something along the lines of more concerned about their next meal, the Red Sox, or whatever else that would not be seen as a stab into yet another Jewish negative stereotype.
Once again, the intention of my post was to add to the general consensus of “they will get over it whenever they want, each on his own”. It backfired horribly in all kinds of ways and derailed the thread. My bad. Shit happens.
I appreciate your positive general outview of me, and the fact that you just didn’t jump in condemnation but rather wondered about my faux pas, giving me the benefit of doubt. An attitude not always found down here in the Pit. As you, I am not the tally keeping type, but this will change my view of you. Tip of the hat.