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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (52754)	7/4/2004 10:31:15 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793708

That Ralph Nader, per se, has not been known to say this before, is not an excuse. If he had made a slur against any other ethnic group, he would not get a 'first time free' pass on it. Nadine, the question of the "first time" is not that you get one free slur. A slur is a slur. No free passes. My point about the first time is whether you choose to interpret something you hear or read as a slur or not. I submit that we should give everyone the benefit of the doubt on whether something that we consider a slur is meant as a slur. If it is not meant that way, then it isn't a slur even though it smarts like one. When I was a kid it was a compliment to tell someone his kids were fat and an insult to say they were thin. My parents were products of the Depression. That's not the case nowadays and hereabouts. The insult value of remarking on the girth on someone's kids varies by individual and by culture. Someone calling your kids "thin," implying that you've nourished them wisely, is different from the same language implying that you're not a competent bread-winner. If you perceive this statement as an insult you have to determine if the speaker meant it as an insult or said it knowing you'd take it as an insult. If either is the case, it's an insult. If neither is the case, then it isn't. He may be ignorant or insensitive but he's not a "girth-ist." Taking something not an insult as an insult is not constructive.