On Wed, Jan 14, 2004 at 03:10:46PM +1100, Matthew Joyce wrote: <snip>
> > A humble request: could everybody be more consciencous about dropping > > offensive terms like KKK. The cognitive processes preceding such an > > utterance disturb me. Being from the South, I am really > > sensitive about > > it, because people tend to conflate all Southerners with such > > behavior. > > The other day Greg Proops did a bit on the Comedy Channel about > > Southerners having gills, pointy heads, and needing to cross-breed. > > > > Just because *some* negative examples of a group of people exist does > > not mean its okay to name them in polite company. Negative > > examples can > > be constructed for any group. How about adding the children of the > > former awful people to the "sensitivity awareness" mechanism in your > > brain. > > I'm from the South (USA) as well, and I'm _not_ very sensitive about it. There _are_ inbred, pointy-headed biggots in the South. But only idiots think all people from the South act/think like that. Or people who have never been there and met/dealt with Southerners. I can't imagine why we should pay any attention to people who spout off about things of which they're completely ignorant. More importantly, crank down the sensitivity knob, bubba. One of the worst problems in America (and the rest of the "civilized" world) today is exactly this sort of "grievance mentality". The world is full of louts who don't pay much attention to the effects they create, or who like nothing better than to tweak people like you. You can either whine about it, or toughen up. Paul -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]