Trump and his minions are a prime example of Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.
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Reminds me of this guy:
When you have to explain, “Obama reneged on his promises, so he’s a reneger… get it?! #totallynotracist” maybe you should reexamine how you’re covering your message.
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Longtime mayor of Ft Wayne, Indiana. Many of the places that have been named after him are being renamed, because of his name.
Then there’s the Bong Recreation Area sign, one of the most stolen road signs in the US. The recreation area was named after Major Dick Bong.
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Maybe we should spray him with Brawndo? It’s got Electrolytes!
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No one crosses President Camacho. No one.
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To be fair, saying “grab her Canada’s ocean playground” is quite a bit less offensive than what That Man said. As euphemisms go, “ocean playground” is rather genteel.
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Surely that’s the least offensive thing you could put on a vanity plate. Anything else would have some meaning behind it that’s bound to offend someone.
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Here’s my “Cool Story, Bro” moment:
Many years ago I worked in advertising, and had to interface with many sales reps from various radio stations across the country. There was one station here on the west coast (where I worked) that was called KPIG. We use the letter K in front of the station codes on the west half of the US.
The fact that the station was names KPIG was bad enough (and funny to us city slickers who worked in the Bay Area) - but the station sales rep’s name was Richard (Dick) Little. Yes, I kid you not - the sales rep for KPIG was named Dick Little.
We always got a chuckle from this because many radio stations would send swag, usually in the form of coffee mugs and other chotchkies with the station name and logo. Well, I had a KPIG coffee mug with Dick Little’s name on it as the contact person.
We knew no matter how this name was lengthened or shortened - it was still embarrassing. Dick Little. Even reversing the name (like an email address with last name/first name) and stretching it out didn’t help (Little, Richard or Little, Dick). He was Little Richard (the singer) or Rich Little (comedian). There was no escape.
Now I’m going to see if I still have that mug somewhere.
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I kind of agree. But there really is no reason to use the word anymore. There are many, many perfectly serviceable ways to convey the same idea, and they run the gamut from colloquial to egghead: penny-pinching, stingy, penurious, cheap, tight-fisted, miserly, ungenerous, selfish, parsimonious, skinflint…
I think everyone who uses “the other n-word” knows it’s likely to be misheard or misunderstood. So while they might not be intending to provoke someone or sneakily slip a taboo word past someone, I do think they’re getting something out of it beyond the thrill of using a little-known word.
I think English will survive just fine without it.
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It’s been used in countless old texts and documents and speeches, so what are you supposed to do if you have to read one of them out loud? Bowdlerize it like that edition of Huckleberry Finn or an R-rated movie shown on broadcast TV?
Not using it in ordinary conversation is all well and good, but trying to excise it from the language is likely to result giving more offense when a lot more young people don’t understand it, and angrily picket their 19th Century Literature professors.
I suppose we could start pronouncing it differently. “Ni-GARD-lee” or something.
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All I said was there’s no reason to use it anymore. I’m not on a crusade to eliminate it from English literature and history.
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One of the nice things about making an effort to read critically is knowing that what one reads can be interpreted in different ways, and that one can think about it without jumping to conclusions.
That useful skill can eliminate nearly all potential offense people derive from license plates. It’s almost like it’s just easier for people to try eliminating context instead.
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This guy had legit no idea what his license plate spelled:
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It quite obviously means “Chemical/Nuclear Lungs.”
I can’t see why anyone would read another meaning into that abbreviation.
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While I’m not picking sides here, and I believe it is heavy handed but probably appropriate to deny the license plate these days, to my mind it must be denied because of trump otherwise there is no other context in which grab her was as offensive at the beginning of 2016 as it is in 2017 so I don’t have any reason to believe he’s been using this vanity license plate for years to express the same thing trump did or in solidarity with him prior to that statement being publicly known.
Unless somebody wants to step in and legally change this guys last name, I’m perfectly fine with and old white guy from Canada who might be sexist thinking his own name is cute, even if it was for stupid reasons.
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Maybe because it doesn’t legitimately spell anything. If you spell something from it, you do so through inference, which is based upon your own contexts and theory of mind.
Not unlike how GRABHER can (and does) mean something different to Louis, Trump, a firefighter, and me. If I reflexively give the most offensive possible meaning primacy, that act of inference becomes my responsibility. If people don’t take as much responsibility for creating meaning through the act of reading as others do through writing - then there is no communication, just simple button-pushing. And I prefer for people I respect to not have their buttons pushed.
What is the ugliest
part of your body?
What is the ugliest
part of your body?
Some say your toes
Some say your nose
But I think it’s your mind!
I think it’s your mind!
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This is how modern readers deal with “Shub-Niggurath,” a Lovecraft deity whose racist connotation was intended by the author. “Nagoooorath”
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Sorta like astronomers saying “OO-ra-nus” instead of “your anus.”
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