### Author:  [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/21 "2008-06-11T22:10:06Z")
Are the things you posted anti-American? If so, then the bozo is saying that you are anti-American and should stay in Canada. I could then see why the mods there are letting this slide.
A gruff “stay home” is not a personal attack, IMHO.
If he said anti-Americans are jerks, then by association he’d be calling you one and that would be a personal attack.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2008, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/22 "2008-06-11T23:33:38Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou]
This is the content of the contentious post:
“I tend to think some of our Canadian counter parts here are as anti American as the dam Muslims in which case they should keep there asses in Canada. Just my view sorry if I have offended anyone ;)”
[/QUOTE]
If it weren’t for the word “here,” I’d say No, not a personal attack. But as it stands, the most obvious interpretation is that Yes, it is.
I’d also say that people who write “Just my view sorry if I have offended anyone ;)” usually aren’t sorry when they offend anyone.
And that I am reminded of how much I love the SDMB, because I seldom see attitudes or spelling like that around here.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2008, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/23 "2008-06-12T04:10:09Z")
[QUOTE=BwanaBob]
Are the things you posted anti-American?\
[/QUOTE]
Does it matter? (For the record, I don’t think they were. They certainly weren’t intended that way.) An opinion that is against a country is not a personal attack, but I’m pretty sure this response was.
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### Author:  [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2008, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/24 "2008-06-12T12:03:18Z")
Wait a minute… according to your stated location, you are _ **still in** _ Canada. Posting on an American-based message board does not constitute **“leaving home”**!
Do you suppose that poster actually thinks Teh Internets has a physical locus, per se? Because honestly, when one is online, one is pretty much everywhere at once. So you could tell **him** (or her) to keep his ass in America!
P.S.: People with a cognitive disconnect which precludes rational discourse always seem to respond to dissent regarding national policy with a personal attack. Otherwise, they’d have to address your actual points rationally.
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### Author:  [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2008, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/25 "2008-06-12T13:29:50Z")
Clearly a personal attack.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/26 "2008-06-12T15:36:01Z")
[QUOTE=brujaja]
Wait a minute… according to your stated location, you are _ **still in** _ Canada. Posting on an American-based message board does not constitute **“leaving home”**!
[/quote]
I’m sorry, I don’t understand this at all. Where was “leaving home” brought into this discussion? (Not snarky - seriously asking.)
> [@](#):
>
> Do you suppose that poster actually thinks Teh Internets has a physical locus, per se? Because honestly, when one is online, one is pretty much everywhere at once. So you could tell **him** (or her) to keep his ass in America!
Excellent point - filed away for future consideration.
> [@](#):
>
> P.S.: People with a cognitive disconnect which precludes rational discourse always seem to respond to dissent regarding national policy with a personal attack. Otherwise, they’d have to address your actual points rationally.
Hoo boy, have I learned that lesson recently. I thought I was having a debate with adults, and next thing I know I’m the guest of honour at a mob.
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### Author:  [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/27 "2008-06-12T17:26:12Z")
You people must have a different dictionary.
To me, a personal attack is a direct insult (You’re a jerk - go fuck yourself, you’re ugly). Telling me to go home or stay away is not a personal attack.
The fact that you’re Anti-American or not is irrelevant. The clown has shown a dislike for those he perceives as AA and doesn’t want them around. It’s not love, but it’s certainly not a personal attack.
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2008, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/28 "2008-06-12T22:38:04Z")
Damn Canadians!
[looks around]What?[/looks around]
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/29 "2008-06-13T02:35:45Z")
Nonono, it’s dam Muslims. The Canadians are the anti-Americans. Do try to keep that straight, would you?
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### Author:  [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/30 "2008-06-13T02:52:02Z")
I asked a similar question on this board before: If a poster identifies himself as a member of a particluar group of people (say for example, a Miracle Whip lovers) and then a subsequent poster expressly states that anyone who loves Miracle Whip is a mental deficient anit-American probable homosexual baby-murdering slime ball, has the first poster been personally insulted?
The overwhelming majority opinion was that no personal insult had ocurred. But it sounds like we’re coming to a different conclusion in this thread.
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### Author:  [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/31 "2008-06-13T04:51:26Z")
Canadian counter parts? Is he referring to marble countertops, or backsplashes, or cutting boards, or what?
If he meant “counterparts” then he was referring to illiterate, weaselly pinheaded boors, of which you are clearly not an example.
Personal attack, but not on you. So ignore him.
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### Author:  [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/32 "2008-06-13T05:10:49Z")
Aww, this poster sounds cute. (“Cute” is my word for people it’s fun to frustrate by correcting their basic spelling, sometimes grammar, and then posting links to whatever fallacy they may be using from here [Fallacies - Nizkor](http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/) if applicable).
> [@BwanaBob](#):
>
> You people must have a different dictionary.
>
> To me, a personal attack is a direct insult (You’re a jerk - go fuck yourself, you’re ugly). Telling me to go home or stay away is not a personal attack.
>
> The fact that you’re Anti-American or not is irrelevant. The clown has shown a dislike for those he perceives as AA and doesn’t want them around. It’s not love, but it’s certainly not a personal attack.
Actually, if you want to be perfectly kosher on your terminology isn’t a personal attack when you substitute a perceived flaw of character for evidence in a debate? To stick with the theme “what does your opinion mean anyway, you’re obviously just another blind anti-American.” Regardless of whether what they’re responding to a valid point or not. In this case it’s a personal attack in that he’s specifically dismissing your (and any other Canadian’s) arguments and telling you to go home (thereby basically telling you your argument is wrong) by attacking your reasoning with the flaw of “anti-Americanism” instead of any actual evidence supported rebuttal, albeit in a thinly veiled “I’m not really referring to you, or maybe I am” sort of way.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/33 "2008-06-13T13:21:48Z")
Seems to be a personal attack, though there may have been more going on than simple jerkishness.
What provoked this poster may not have had all that much to do with the OP.
There are Canadian Dopers who make valuable and enjoyable contributions, and our neighbors to the north don’t appear to harbor more idiots per capita than other nations. I _have_ gotten the impression over the years that an unusually high percentage of your sanctimonious snot population is busily engaged in posting ill-informed anti-U.S. screeds on the Internet and in letters to the editors of U.S. newspapers.
Just curious - but do dopey Americans constantly send letters to the Toronto Star and such, reminding Canadians of just how much better Americans do things? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/34 "2008-06-13T14:30:50Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii]
Just curious - but do dopey Americans constantly send letters to the Toronto Star and such, reminding Canadians of just how much better Americans do things? 🙂
[/QUOTE]
Nah, we pick up the jingoism directly from the US TV networks.
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### Author:  [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/35 "2008-06-13T14:54:55Z")
[QUOTE=Patty O’Furniture]
I asked a similar question on this board before: If a poster identifies himself as a member of a particluar group of people (say for example, a Miracle Whip lovers) and then a subsequent poster expressly states that anyone who loves Miracle Whip is a mental deficient anit-American probable homosexual baby-murdering slime ball, has the first poster been personally insulted?
The overwhelming majority opinion was that no personal insult had ocurred. But it sounds like we’re coming to a different conclusion in this thread.
[/QUOTE]
A couple of thoughts as to what might make the two situations different.
Firstly, insulting lovers of Miracle Whip in such a manner is so over the top as to be absurd. The statment **featherlou** ask about is not as over the top.
Secondly, I think some of us may be blurring the lines between “Is it understandable that I am upset by this statement?” and “Was this a personal attack?”. People may have not blurred those lines when you asked the hypothetical question.
And thirdly, sometimes questions get different people reading them initialy, due to schedule, whim, and who posted the question, and based on the first few responses, things snowball in a particular direction, and those who roll their eyes at that response may choose not to participate a whole lot.
Finally (or fourthly), the way featherlou’s quote included the words "Just my view sorry if I have offended anyone 😉 " puts my back up in a way that the blunt statement before doesn’t. And I am not alone in this feeling.
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### Author:  [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/36 "2008-06-13T16:42:06Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou]
Nonono, it’s dam Muslims.
[/QUOTE]
There’s a beaver joke in here, but I can’t find it…
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2008, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/37 "2008-06-13T18:45:49Z")
[QUOTE=Eureka]
\Secondly, I think some of us may be blurring the lines between “Is it understandable that I am upset by this statement?” and “Was this a personal attack?”. People may have not blurred those lines when you asked the hypothetical question. \
[/quote]
Just for clarification purposes, I wasn’t upset by the quote in the OP (I’ve been playing here for eight years - it’ll take a lot more than that. 😃 ). I DID get my back up by the way the mods on that board are defending to the death that it wasn’t a personal attack.
> [@](#):
>
> Finally (or fourthly), the way featherlou’s quote included the words "Just my view sorry if I have offended anyone 😉 " puts my back up in a way that the blunt statement before doesn’t. And I am not alone in this feeling.
No, you surely aren’t.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2008, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/38 "2008-06-14T00:32:55Z")
It has been pointed out to me that the board in question is always recruiting - if anyone would like a link to join that board, please PM me and I’ll send you on your way. It’s supposed to be a poker board, but I just go there for the intellectual discussions.
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2008, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/39 "2008-06-14T15:10:23Z")
OH ANOTHER message board is it ?
I used to like you FL,I thought that we had something special between us that we were somehow MORE then just mutual posters,after your post about the economic consequences about Prussia taking its economy off of the gold standard in the seventeenth century I thought she’s the woman for me !
And it was confirmed in my eyes when you made a pertinant point about dialect variations in sub Saharan in west Africa!
Damn you to hell FL!
You used me,you used your feminine whiles to subvert my innocent character .
And all this time you’ve been posting on OTHER MBs
I just feel used and dirty now.
How can you live with yourself ?
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-stupid-question-is-this-a-personal-attack/452541/40 "2008-06-14T20:25:36Z")
I’m sorry, **Lustie** - I didn’t want you to find out this way. It’s just I need somebody to talk to when the nights get so lonely, and this board is always down…
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