# Protesting the Warning I was given **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 29, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981 "2012-08-29T00:26:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/61 "2012-08-29T21:56:58Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > The Maritimes? I would have guessed Quebec. Different variety of abuse. The Maritimes get the “Southern” style attempts at humor while Quebec gets the sort of abuse heaped on Texas. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/62 "2012-08-29T21:59:22Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Different variety of abuse. The Maritimes get the “Southern” style attempts at humor while Quebec gets the sort of abuse heaped on Texas. Secession talk? ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/63 "2012-08-29T22:13:59Z")
Pft, I was thinking Calgary! ---
**Author:** ![pojimba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@pojimba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pojimba)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/64 "2012-08-29T22:28:12Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > The Maritimes, in general, of course, but I heard LOT of Newfie jokes when I was associating with Canadians in school. The term “Newfie” is quite offensive to many people from Newfoundland and Labrador. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/65 "2012-08-29T22:31:45Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > You still don’t seem to get it. You got a warning for the gratuitous and inappropriate use of an offensive term. If you had made your remark but used a non-offensive term you would have received a note rather than a warning. The posters in this thread did not use any offensive terms. Bear with me because I’m trying to understand. Example #1: If I say, “You Polish people are so dumb, you XXXX” that’s a mod note. Example #2: If I say, “You Pollocks are so dumb, you XXXX” that’s a mod warning. Fair enough. That makes a little bit of sense because those words are directed at those people, and the slurs hurt worse. But a retort doesn’t rise to that: Poster #1: You Mexicans are lazy. Poster #2: Yes, just like Polish people are dumb. (Mod note) Poster #1: You Mexicans are lazy. Poster #2: Yes, just like Pollocks are dumb (Mod warning) See, the retort, like my retort, wasn’t meant to insult someone. In Examples 1 and 2 above, no matter the language, the message was to insult. In the retort examples, the language, either way, was meant for hyperbole, and yes, shock value to respond to the earlier post. Neither one of the retort examples, in any way, were meant as an insult to Polish people, whereas BOTH in examples one and two were insults to Polish people. Why the emphasis on form over substance? And **Loach** , we make fun of Jersey for no self-serve gasoline or left hand turns. When we start poking fun at you for sticking your dick in your sister, then we can compare war stories. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/66 "2012-08-29T23:09:12Z")
Pumping your own gas uncivilized. Same as is pumping your sister. See its the same. You are deluding your self if you think that’s all the jokes are about. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/67 "2012-08-29T23:13:22Z")
You’re still not getting it. It wasn’t because it was an insult, a retort, directed at an individual, directed at a group, or whatever. _You received a warning for inappropriate language in GQ._ You introduced a highly offensive term to a discussion were it wasn’t germane. That’s what merited the warning. The rest of it doesn’t matter. I don’t think there’s much more I can say about the issue. It’s really pretty simple, although you seem to want to make it complicated. Don’t toss around highly offensive terms in GQ when they are not specifically pertinent to the discussion. If you do so, you will be liable for a warning. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/68 "2012-08-29T23:49:48Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > I accept your statements, but I really don’t see a lot of difference between those claims and the ones that I have experienced and had relayed to me by other Northerners in the South. Nor do I see much difference, except for one: I don’t hear those comments nearly as much. Mainly because I hang out with liberal Southerners (and others) most of the time, and liberals in general seem to get that anti-Yankee jokes are obnoxious. Liberals don’t, in general, get that anti-Southern jokes are obnoxious, and suffer from one of three flaws. An example: recently, in a discussion of gay rights in the South, a friend on Facebook commented, “Everyone who has a soul has already moved out of the South,” and suggested “we” abandon it. I’ve got plenty of gay friends in the south, ranging from the apolitical to the spearheading-an-ACLU-lawsuit to the organizing-a-major-civil-disobedience-campaign. Either my FB friend was: 1. Calling these people, who are doing far more for the cause of justice than he ever will, soulless (along with calling me soulless, natch); or 2. Declaring that they’re not real Southerners, because No True Southerner sugars his porridge or some such; or 3. Implicitly suggesting that when he talks about soulless southerners, he’s referring to straight white southerners, in some sort of bullshit heteronormative white-is-the-default-race way. None of those are acceptable. All of those are idiotic. (I know this is an off-board example; I use it because it illustrates the problem so well, but any lefty Southerner can tell similar stories). When I brought up the problem with his comment, other lefty friends, rather than recognize the ugliness of what he said, piled on: how dare a straight dude like me ever question a gay guy? It was ridiculous. But getting back to your point, on the rare occasion when I hear anti-Northern comments here in the South, I yell at those people, too :). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/69 "2012-08-29T23:53:27Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Seems to me that **Ravenman** was not so much expressing an opinion about the posts themselves but requesting that a moderator take action on them. That should be handled by reporting the posts. Are you supposed to report a post in a thread when the moderators are active in the thread? I understand the whole “mods don’t see anything, so if there’s something offensive, report it.”, but in this case, there were two mods and an admin active in the thread before **Ravenman** had posted, and, in fact, the post just before his was yours. So mods had seen those posts, and decided they didn’t deserve moderator action, right? ---
**Author:** ![cynyc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@cynyc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cynyc)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/70 "2012-08-29T23:54:45Z")
Aww, don’t take it personal. Hell, they banned Robin Williams for less. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/71 "2012-08-30T00:19:40Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Seems to me that **Ravenman** was not so much expressing an opinion about the posts themselves but requesting that a moderator take action on them. That should be handled by reporting the posts. Only if he believed that the moderators would agree with him that said posts were in violation of the rules. (Which, given the OP of this thread seems to be a reasonable assumption not to make.) Otherwise, it should be handled exactly as he did: by raising the issue in ATMB. That’s what the forum is for. If you don’t want to answer questions regarding moderation, just ignore the post and let another mod handle it. Don’t stifle discussion with false accusations of junior modding. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/72 "2012-08-30T00:47:48Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > Originally I was kind of with the OP this one. Ultimately I’m not so sure. I’m offended by the posts that triggered the OP post. I think the casualness with which the OP threw around “nigger” bothers me a bit more. ‘Blacks’ could have been used to exactly the same effect without the inflamitory nature. > > And as been noted, around these parts you should report regardless of your schoolyard history. The OP did NOT use the word “nigger” casually; the word was used deliberately to underscore the nasty little bigotry in the referenced thread. I’m not from West Virginia; I don’t think I even know anyone from West Virginia; but those posts really pissed me off, as a progressive and a liberal. Damn, I just got mad all over again. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/73 "2012-08-30T01:14:06Z")
> [@j666](#): > > The OP did NOT use the word “nigger” casually; the word was used deliberately to underscore the nasty little bigotry in the referenced thread. Agreed–but also I agree with the moderators that the usage was inappropriate. After my lengthy rant(s) above, nobody would say I’m okay with that sort of nasty little bigotry. But anti-black racism is so much worse that it’s not in the same ballpark. Hell, it’s a different game entirely. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/74 "2012-08-30T01:33:04Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > You’re still not getting it. It wasn’t because it was an insult, a retort, directed at an individual, directed at a group, or whatever. _You received a warning for inappropriate language in GQ._ You introduced a highly offensive term to a discussion were it wasn’t germane. That’s what merited the warning. The rest of it doesn’t matter. > > I don’t think there’s much more I can say about the issue. It’s really pretty simple, although you seem to want to make it complicated. Don’t toss around highly offensive terms in GQ when they are not specifically pertinent to the discussion. If you do so, you will be liable for a warning. Again, form over substance. In GQ, posters can say that West Virginians fuck their mothers and get a mod note, but if they have a specific term for West Virginians who fuck their mothers, they get a mod warning (as I understand your rule). It’s a meaningless distinction. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/75 "2012-08-30T01:44:54Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Again, form over substance. In GQ, posters can say that West Virginians fuck their mothers and get a mod note, but if they have a specific term for West Virginians who fuck their mothers, they get a mod warning (as I understand your rule). > > It’s a meaningless distinction. As they say, I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.😉 ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/76 "2012-08-30T02:08:42Z")
> [@pojimba](#): > > The term “Newfie” is quite offensive to many people from Newfoundland and Labrador. Which was the point I was making. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/77 "2012-08-30T02:19:40Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Again, form over substance. In GQ, posters can say that West Virginians fuck their mothers and get a mod note, but if they have a specific term for West Virginians who fuck their mothers, they get a mod warning (as I understand your rule). > > It’s a meaningless distinction. That would be a meaningless distinction. The distinction between anti-West-Virginia bigotry and anti-black bigotry is not meaningless. One is an obnoxious sign of mostly-liberal snobbery; the other has a centuries-old murderous history and still leads to a tremendous amount of real suffering. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/78 "2012-08-30T03:07:54Z")
So if this word is a slur, shouldn’t we ban it from dictionaries? And we should ban Huckleberry Finn from libraries too. Seriously, sometimes you have to use a word to criticize the meaning behind it. As in satire. I don’t know if that’s something the rules here are designed to accomodate that, but they ought to. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/79 "2012-08-30T03:08:54Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > That would be a meaningless distinction. The distinction between anti-West-Virginia bigotry and anti-black bigotry is not meaningless. One is an obnoxious sign of mostly-liberal snobbery; the other has a centuries-old murderous history and still leads to a tremendous amount of real suffering. It’s not meaningless if you’re from West Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981/80 "2012-08-30T03:10:38Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Agreed–but also I agree with the moderators that the usage was inappropriate. After my lengthy rant(s) above, nobody would say I’m okay with that sort of nasty little bigotry. But anti-black racism is so much worse that it’s not in the same ballpark. Hell, it’s a different game entirely. So we all just need to be much more mean and nasty toward a chosen group and that will get them some respect? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protesting-the-warning-i-was-given/632981.md?page=5)