Be Excellent To Each Other

Or Brian C*nt?

Or indeed Immanuel Kant?

There's no such word as....

It's to placate the people who think that the word itself is offensive, as apposed to the meaning.

Malc

Plus it might help those who have their web surfing filtered if certain words are censored - although that shouldn't be a problem on this board and Grim's codehammering.

This is basically what I've been trying to write for the past 7 pages, thank you Sinister Agent.

Yes, but "c*nt" doesn't just suggest the meaning of "cunt", it implies the word itself, which is why I can't see how it's less offensive.

Yes there is - he died for your sins!

True, but there is, of course, a difference between someone getting offended by hearing the use of a word somewhere in their vicinity, and someone getting offended by that word being directed at them. The latter being entirely reasonable.

because it's not those 4 letters. It's something else.

DO YOU NOT SEE?

Malc

I didn't do it to be any less offensive, it's just my choice.

If other people do not care who they swear at and whether anyone likes being on the receiving end of it then I am not of a mind to think that my choosing not to type it is sufficient to upset anyone.

or

It's all about decorum. Someone's behaviour, including use of language, will be different in the changing room to their actions at their nonogenarian granny's birthday party. In turn, they will behave differently when greeting the Queen (the accepted protocol for which, I am relibably informed, is the moon). Knowing when, where, and how to say things is what matters.*


* Which is why I'm rubbish at weddings and funerals.

I once drunkenly told someone to fuck off at a wedding. I think my gran heard. She was not amused. Ah, well.

"Do you scarysheep take..."

"Ah fuck off ya cunt"

What about if I was talking to a mate of mine, and I said "some silly nigger pulled out in front of me this morning" - do you think a passing black chap has no right to be offended?

He shouldn't really be ear-wigging of course.
EDIT: But to answer your question from my point of view, if I overheard a black person say 'I almost ran some stupid honkey over this morning', I wouldn't be offended, I'd just think he was a twat.

If he lives near such open racists then yes he should.

Well of course. Unless I looked at him and started the sentence off with "Oh yeah; that reminds me..."

Out of interest, why? So he can run off to the police and go 'Some mean man said a bad word?'. I should point out at this stage that I certainly don't condone racist language, we're only using this as an example, obv.

No. To keep clear of them. If I overheard my neighbour calling white people honkies then I would stear clear of them from that point on.

Is an open racist one who's allowed to be prejudiced even in peak times?

Fair enough. I wasn't having a pop at you, by the way (though reading it back, it could seem that way - sorry), just wondering about the point of the whole */u thing.

Oh, i didn't think you were having a go at me Nik I could se you didn't understand, though, and maybe I do not, either, really, but it's just the way I feel more comfortable, so I don't think there really has to be a reason. i wouldn't use the 'c*nt' form in any other writing than if we were talking about the word itself. i wouldn't, for instance, write 'ah, he's a c*nt' in a letter to anyone, because I don't think that implying I think that of anyone and changing the spelling is any different from just coming out and saying it, but as we are actually discussing this particular word and I am referring to it it is a way of me pointing out which word I mean without actually using it.

Sorry, maybe I do not explain myself properly at the best of times, and tonight I feel super duper tired .

Firstly, 'nigger' and cunt aren't remotely comparable, as 'nigger' refers to a person and 'cunt' is just a generic swear word, and is another word for a vadge. If someone thinks that using the word cunt is somehow attacking women, they're implicitly trying to say that women are nothing but a vagina, and so doing far more to denigrate women than someone who just wanted to make a satisfying sound.

I realise you were making a different argument, but I've seen people use the 'nigger' thing as an analogy once or twice on here, and it simply doesn't hold up.

Secondly, I think you would search the world in vain for a passing black man who is so unable to accept the fact that some people are racist that they would get offended every time they happen to hear a racist term.

He'd be an idiot to be offended, just as I would if I got upset every time I heard a couple of australians slagging off "some pom", or a couple of Portuguese blokes badmouthing some gringo or other. Why shouldn't two people who presumably have no problem with the word use it in a private conversation? They're not attacking anyone on that occasion, and it's not like you're going to stop them from talking like that in private if they want to.

The most any sane man would do is frown, roll their eyes at what dicks some people are, and get on with his day.

I like the sound of your world, and wish to move there.

I agree.

The BNP were handing out leaflets outside my (Indian owned) local corner shop a few weeks ago. I hope we can all agree they are cunts.

Dude, they're entitled to their point of view. It's culturalist imperialism of the worst sort to suggest that they're not entitled to their own beliefs and anyone who's offended by them can fuck off.

Oh, wait, the other one.

Oh, I know. That's why I asked for one of their leaflets, told them "everyone is entitled to free speech... here's mine", and tore it up.

awesome.

I then blew the guy a kiss and walked off. On relating this story to MyFinger, he asked when I'd grown a pair of balls.

When your finger says this to you, you know things must have been pretty bad before.

We used to have fun whenever the Christian nut-jobs put leaflets through our door. We'd pick them straight up and post them back through the lounge window (the leaflets that is).

Why were they nut jobs?

Because they were Christians, mainly.

Anyone who wanders round door to door expecting to convert people on their doorstep is a bit mentally touched, like.

See - the thing is, Christians (and any other religious types) who come around and try to get you to convert are a pain in the backside, BUT they obviously think that what they believe is right, and they truly think that they are doing you a favour by trying to 'save' you and enrich your life. They are trying in their own way to do their best for their fellow man. I think this is quite different from the people that preach hatred on the streets.

The people who come around and say 'join us, it's lovely over here' may be misguided, but I think they do what they do for a love of other humans. I am never rude nor mocking of these people. I will just say sorry, but I am not interested, but I am cheery with them nonetheless.

Those of us who think we are 'enlightened' by our atheism could probably do well to convince others that they are wasting their time celebrating a deity that is pure fiction, but on the most part we don't bother, but I do always reserve a part of me that appreciates that these people feel that they have found enlightenment and want to share that with me, no mater how misguided I feel their thinking might be.

All of which is lovely but doesn't stop them being nutjobs.

I don't have a problem with Christians knocking on my door, but The Fine Young Cannibals can fuck right off.

Do they drive you crazy?

They're not interested in 'saving' you anyway, they just think God will give them a posher set of wings once they reach heaven for converting x amount of heathens.

They're just grinding then?

Converted 1 heathen! +5 Smug points!

Hmmm, maybe. I'd hope that wasn't the case, though.

"Iron foot" achievement unlocked!

If a religious person is kind to you, you know they're actually only doing it for their own benefit. If an atheist is kind to you, then that actually means something, because they don't believe they'll be rewarded by some all seeing deity. Which raises all sorts of questions, like if there was actually a God after all, wouldn't he look upon the people who were just kind because they were nice people more favourably than those who were expecting a reward?

I don't believe that at all. Religious people are not only good because their religion dictates that they perhaps should be - many of those people would be kind and compassionate without religion and the promise of a fantastic afterlife as a goal.

That's to say that all religious people are by nature bad people but only act in a charitable or giving way through fear of conseuence or promise of reward. I knew a very religious girl when I was at university and she was lovely, but I think she would have been whether she was a Christian or not, she was just a nice person.

I know people like this

I'm sure there are plenty of religious types who are genuinely nice people, but they've always got that fear in the back of their minds that if they're not careful they'll end up in the big fiery pit. There must be an element of 'See what I just did, God?' whenever they do a good deed. Perhaps there isn't, but with an atheist you can be sure they're not concerned about where they're going when they pop their clogs. Anyway, we were talking about the reasons they try to convert people. If they know that we don't believe what they believe they should respect that and mind their own bloody business.