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I'm Middle Eastern, and I think this is hilarious. Anyone who is offended by this, can you please unplug your internet cables so the rest of us can stop being a

I'm Middle Eastern, and I think this is hilarious. Anyone who is offended by this, can you please unplug your internet cables so the rest of us can stop being all touchy? In Turkish there is a very fitting proverb which loosely translates to "Whoever has a scar will take offense" meaning if you say something, and someone overreacts to it, it's not your fault and probably just because they have some hidden problem or feeling of inadequacy (the "scar"). If everyone can take themselves a little less seriously, we'd all be a little less pissed. Thank you for listening. </rant> Edit: Okay, here comes Pandora's Box again. The way I see it, what is so offensive about racist speech (or any generalization for that matter) is the presumption that all members of that group are equally <insert derogatory adjective here>. Once you realize how absurd, dumb and wrong that is, I don't see how anyone could possibly take racism seriously and be offended by it. At most, you should conclude that the person who is making the remarks is probably not intelligent, and not worth your time. Heck, perhaps I have some sort of emotional deficiency or something, but I don't even see how people can get so angry about words. For example, I have seen people taunting each other with stuff like "your mother was amazing in bed last night", and the other person getting gradually angrier up to the point that they start physically fighting. I think it's a very curious thing about the human psyche that I can make up something absurd, blabber about it, and get another human to the point of total lack of self control. I think it's all just a dumb made up social convention that we're better off without.

dreyfiz 16y ago
"Lighten up, will ya? Why can’t we all enjoy a little racist caricature?" Everyone deserves a presumption of respect and dignity. I don’t make bigoted caricatures at the expense of others just to make some point about trust and certificates, and I don’t expect other people to enjoy and defend it when someone is ignorant enough to resort to racist caricature. It’s the whole Ruby sexism debate all over again, I guess. link for Ruby sexism debate reference: http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2009/04/gender-and-sex-at-gogaruco/ http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2009/04/gender-and-sex-...
- JonnieCache 16y ago
  >It’s the whole Ruby sexism debate all over again, I guess. I must've missed that one. Sounds like a barrel of laughs.
- Confusion 16y ago
  Yes, you know who also deserves respect and dignity and the benefit of any doubt you can come up with? The author of the OP.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
jessedhillon 16y ago
Scars come from being injured, not being inadequate.
- T_S_ 16y ago
  It's a proverb. That means it's old, from back when losing a leg was a downgrade, not an upgrade.
- StavrosK 16y ago
  Then you won't like the Greek version of that proverb, which makes little to no sense: "Whoever has the fly gets flied."
narrator 16y ago
It's as if every politically correct statement should be prefixed with the pre-amble: "Since I know that you are all racist/sexist/homophobes and think that Straight White American Males are superior to all other beings, I am going to use one as the person in this narrative who commits a negative act in order to avoid further reinforcing your beliefs!" Since you are from the middle east and do not believe that Straight White American Males are superior to all other beings, the political correctness seems ridiculous, as it does to most people from non white-majority countries. In fact, it seems that the white people who have the strongest underlying beliefs that they are superior to other races and that they should constantly remind themselves to feel guilty about it are the strongest advocates of political correctness.
- derleth 16y ago
  > "Since I know that you are all racist/sexist/homophobes and think that Straight White American Males are superior to all other beings, I am going to use one as the person in this narrative who commits a negative act in order to avoid further reinforcing your beliefs!" The dumb thing is, if you point out how racist this is you're the evil racist one.
bct 16y ago
You don't need to get all philosophical about it, it's simple: Racist speech is A Bad Thing* because people actually do make that absurd, dumb and wrong presumption, and racist speech reinforces those racist attitudes. (* let's forget the word "offensive" because this is not the same territory as yo' momma jokes and curse words - racism affects the real world)
- dreyfiz 16y ago
  Exactly, thank you. I was starting to lose patience with all the esoteric non-arguments. Racism is a dangerous toy to play with. Just because you’re a good person who didn’t become a racist after reading that doesn’t mean it’s a mistake to cry foul against racist caricature. The caricature is still wrong. It communicated nothing but the writer’s lazy prejudice. The (general, de-stupidified) point being made by the caricaturist can be correct, and the racist caricature foul and despicable...all at the same time!
  - anamax 16y ago
    > doesn’t mean it’s wrong to cry foul against racist caricature. It’s still wrong. Throwing around false accusations of racism is also wrong. Of course, not all accusations are false, but most are these days. And then there's the whole "cry wolf" thing.
    - jessedhillon 16y ago
      How do you know "most" are false? Who are you to determine whether someone is legitimately offended?
      - JanezStupar 16y ago
        What does legitimately offended mean? Take a look at my hypothetical scenario. If I'm a Foo and Foo's have always owned, sold and even killed Baz's on a whim. And their whole history, culture and law reinforces and even encourages them to do so. And now someone tells me that my progenitors were assholes to do so. Do I have right to be legitimately offended? And if so - does this make racism ok?
JanezStupar 16y ago
On a side note - are there any other people that find politically correct modern (US? Western?) pop culture where every group of people has to contain all the notable minorities - offensive and racist? I remember watching the Flyboys - and contemplating if the same movie could be made about any other WW1 squadron where there were no black pilots.

dreyfiz 16y ago

"Lighten up, will ya? Why can’t we all enjoy a little racist caricature?" Everyone deserves a presumption of respect and dignity. I don’t make bigoted caricatures at the expense of others just to make some point about trust and certificates, and I don’t expect other people to enjoy and defend it when someone is ignorant enough to resort to racist caricature. It’s the whole Ruby sexism debate all over again, I guess. link for Ruby sexism debate reference: http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2009/04/gender-and-sex-at-gogaruco/ http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2009/04/gender-and-sex-...

JonnieCache 16y ago
>It’s the whole Ruby sexism debate all over again, I guess. I must've missed that one. Sounds like a barrel of laughs.
Confusion 16y ago
Yes, you know who also deserves respect and dignity and the benefit of any doubt you can come up with? The author of the OP.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

jessedhillon 16y ago

Scars come from being injured, not being inadequate.

T_S_ 16y ago
It's a proverb. That means it's old, from back when losing a leg was a downgrade, not an upgrade.
StavrosK 16y ago
Then you won't like the Greek version of that proverb, which makes little to no sense: "Whoever has the fly gets flied."

narrator 16y ago

It's as if every politically correct statement should be prefixed with the pre-amble: "Since I know that you are all racist/sexist/homophobes and think that Straight White American Males are superior to all other beings, I am going to use one as the person in this narrative who commits a negative act in order to avoid further reinforcing your beliefs!" Since you are from the middle east and do not believe that Straight White American Males are superior to all other beings, the political correctness seems ridiculous, as it does to most people from non white-majority countries. In fact, it seems that the white people who have the strongest underlying beliefs that they are superior to other races and that they should constantly remind themselves to feel guilty about it are the strongest advocates of political correctness.

derleth 16y ago
> "Since I know that you are all racist/sexist/homophobes and think that Straight White American Males are superior to all other beings, I am going to use one as the person in this narrative who commits a negative act in order to avoid further reinforcing your beliefs!" The dumb thing is, if you point out how racist this is you're the evil racist one.

bct 16y ago

You don't need to get all philosophical about it, it's simple: Racist speech is A Bad Thing* because people actually do make that absurd, dumb and wrong presumption, and racist speech reinforces those racist attitudes. (* let's forget the word "offensive" because this is not the same territory as yo' momma jokes and curse words - racism affects the real world)

dreyfiz 16y ago
Exactly, thank you. I was starting to lose patience with all the esoteric non-arguments. Racism is a dangerous toy to play with. Just because you’re a good person who didn’t become a racist after reading that doesn’t mean it’s a mistake to cry foul against racist caricature. The caricature is still wrong. It communicated nothing but the writer’s lazy prejudice. The (general, de-stupidified) point being made by the caricaturist can be correct, and the racist caricature foul and despicable...all at the same time!
- anamax 16y ago
  > doesn’t mean it’s wrong to cry foul against racist caricature. It’s still wrong. Throwing around false accusations of racism is also wrong. Of course, not all accusations are false, but most are these days. And then there's the whole "cry wolf" thing.
  - jessedhillon 16y ago
    How do you know "most" are false? Who are you to determine whether someone is legitimately offended?
    - JanezStupar 16y ago
      What does legitimately offended mean? Take a look at my hypothetical scenario. If I'm a Foo and Foo's have always owned, sold and even killed Baz's on a whim. And their whole history, culture and law reinforces and even encourages them to do so. And now someone tells me that my progenitors were assholes to do so. Do I have right to be legitimately offended? And if so - does this make racism ok?

JanezStupar 16y ago

On a side note - are there any other people that find politically correct modern (US? Western?) pop culture where every group of people has to contain all the notable minorities - offensive and racist? I remember watching the Flyboys - and contemplating if the same movie could be made about any other WW1 squadron where there were no black pilots.