Underground parking?
Something tells me that if I accused you of being a fatuous bore, it wouldn’t be your first time.
I’m genuinely trying, but you’re not making it easy for me. Maybe if you made less stupid arguments it would help?
I’m trying to be sensitive to my target audience. There’s only so much I can do.
I think the fact that you’re this wound up over the idea of examining American culture with a critical eye is really telling.
Who the hell is Noone?
Tell me again how this board would suffer without these voices?
Wait… you think I’m too afraid to cast a critical eye at American culture and explore the role my ancestors may have played in the history of black slavery and oppression?
I have no idea, I don’t really remember interacting with you outside of this one thread and that’s not a conclusion I’d jump to. I’m just noting my confusion at the fact that you are so opposed to a discussion about why American writers, when picking a phrase meant to not be insulting but to evoke other more vulgar phrases in a humorous way, settled on a phrase whose roots lie in slavery. I think figuring out why this is, or noticing instances of that sort of behavior, is interesting, and may tell us some subtle things about race relations in America.
We would be missing their valuable perspective that discussion is a dumb waste of time and introspection is for wimps?
You have people here choosing to post and read an international board knowing full well that they may come across language, words, terms etc. that cause offense in one culture or context but not in another.
Expecting people using an inoffensive term to change how they use their language seems arrogant.
Thanks @DemonTree. I don’t completely follow the joke, but I’m choosing to parse it as you speaking up for me.
@QuickSilver I’m not suggesting anyone has to do anything. The discussion was about what are safe words to use and I explained why “cotton”-whatever may cause offense in some cases and is best avoided.
Think of it like the word “oriental”. I grew up saying and hearing “oriental”. In the UK it was the standard way to refer to people from (South) East Asia, as “Asian” was typically shorthand for people from the Indian subcontinent. It had no negative connotations that I was aware of.
However, I subsequently learned it is an offensive term in the US. At that point I didn’t “have” to switch to saying “East Asian”, but I did, because I prefer to err on the side of not offending people.
No one is expecting people to not know. Where hoping people would give a damn when they find out.
Anecdote: I once got dinged by a poster for using the phrase “woolly-headed”, until others pointed out that the phrase refers to wool in the head (i.e. “woolly thinking”), not on it.
Are you fatuous-shaming?
No. You asserted, like @Babale below:
… that it is an offensive term.
Neither of you have provided any evidence for these assertions. You are simply putting them forward as self-evident facts and recommending that people should avoid their use.
I suppose you consider “wool-headed” to be right out too.
Ninja’d by @Gyrate
Oh, so now you are lying about what I said, too?
Hint:
I never said it was offensive, not did I say that you should avoid using the phrase.
I said it is interesting how, when coming up with a silly phrase that is not insulting but has the structure of an insult, the writers settled on a phrase with roots in slavery.
Just for another perspective: I never saw that movie, and didn’t recognize the quote. I thought @QuickSilver was intentionally picking an even more offensive term as some kind of joke. I have since realized I was wrong. But I read “cotton headed ninny” and immediately thought “cotton picking pickaninny”, and was honestly a little shocked to see if here.
I don’t get it, either.
Who’s objected to the term ‘moron’ in the past 30 years? Or ‘idiot’ for that matter?
Don’t you fucking play that game with me. I fucking quoted what you said, separately from what Mijin said. But I’m addressing you both in a single post.
Allow me do so again in full:
Not, ‘may be rooted in slavery’. It’s an unambiguous, “…settled on a phrase whose roots lie in slavery”.
I linked to a video above (You’re Offended? So What?), in which Hitchens elaborates a more robust anecdote on the subject of people finding ways to feel offended.
The irony of you sharing that video in the middle of a temper tantrum has not been lost.