Is using apeshit hyperbole to describe tiny cuts helpful? I would say no, it only invites scorn.
So does dismissing valid complaints.
The assertion that “ricer” might be offensive to some and we should be sensitive to that, is a valid complaint. Calling it “internet KKK” is not.
I couldn’t see any apeshit hyperbole from anyone except the OP, with many coming in to agree that it is hyperbole.
I’m talking about the OP.
OK. It would have been useful if you’d said so. By the time we hit 38 posts, a statement entirely on its own isn’t generally going to be taken as referring only to the first post in the thread.
I thought my first post implied this, but fair enough.
maybe put it in Z̴̨̳͉̦͈̥͙̀̀́̇͑͠ẳ̵̛̫̘̺̳͙̳̻̦̙͚̹͓̻̒͌͠͠͝ĺ̶̢͈͚̤̠̟̤͙͎̣͙̥̜͐͗͛͋͗̑͛̈͆͠ģ̸͚̞͛̍̏̉͝o̸̢͙͈̺͒͑͐̓̂̾͋͐̽͋̚ ̵̬̘͖͇͖̱̃͝͝t̸̡̧̡̢̰̗̺͎̞̤̜͈͍͙̲̞͔͗̏͆͒̑̓̑̓͗̄͆̌̈́̚͝e̴̝̯̼͔͈͉͕̲̙̲̜͖̘͂̌̓̈͆̆̽͒̔̏͗̓̌͝͝x̵̢̢̼̹̠̣͙̘͙̱̳̣͎̝́̉̊͋͜t̸̟̣̲͕͚͚͖̊̈́̔̀̀̐̇̌̀̃̉̆̄̆̓̾̾
Love it! 
Wait, what?
CMC
Learn to read, dipshit.
Honest to God, until this thread I thought “ricer” was actually “racer” (as in racing car) in a mock-Southern accent.
The terms I heard (in high school) for sporty Japanese vehicles were “rice burner” and “rice rocket” which were a little more explicitly derogatory.
Why is that “derogatory”? Because rice is associated with Asian countries where it’s grown? How is that any different from associating American things with hot dogs, apple pie, and Starbucks?
Hey, have you heard about the new African-American car, the watermelon wagon?
To be honest, I didn’t think the terms “rice rocket” and “rice burner” were particularly offensive when I first heard them.
I can’t think of a derogatory term that could be used with American food in general because American food is already derogated for its blandness which is different from being blinged-out-with-or-without-improved-functionality. There’s “maize” but if Germans called a tricked-out Ford a “Maizemobile” I’d be more inclined to laugh than to be offended.
As I remember living through it …
When the term(s) first came out in the late 60s / early '70s they were explicitly terms of derision coming from folks steeped in US musclehead cars and US HD motorcycles or the equivalent British / European sporty products.
Said with dripping sarcasm they referred to inferior cars & motorcycles from an inferior country on an inferior continent full of inferior-race people who relied on inferior food. Har har har.
Later, when the superior Japanese cars & motorcycles had destroyed the British motor industries and damn near destroyed the US motor industries, the shoe was rather on the other foot, but the term stuck. And, at least in the mouths of some, began to lose the pejorative tone.
In the last ~20 years it’s increasingly unstylish to even make a nod towards ethnicity, nationality, etc. Nicknames in general are out, much less those that can be interpreted to stigmatize.
In this era, ricer / rice rocket / etc., are wrong not because of what they mean or meant, but because of what they are: a label selected by one group and applied to another group. Nicknaming yourself is fine; nicknaming others is becoming taboo, regardless of your intent.
If you first heard the term from the mid 80s to the late 90s you hit the sweet spot of timing. And depending on where you were living, it may have been more about respect than derision. I happily rode a rice rocket throughout the 1980s, called it that, and laughed at the useless primitive leaky noisy slow junk made in Milwaukee. As did many of my fellow street racers.
Times have changed and nobody I know calls their Japanese motorcycle a rice rocket today. Though they still beat the tar out of Milwaukee’s product.
Yes, this. I became familiar with “rice rocket” via a big HD fan who resembled R. Lee Ermey.
So we should use one of these terms?