You guys should focus on posting to the joke thread more often.

Quoting Rifter:

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Actually, you are wrong.  It wasn't aimed just at Surfeur.  It was aimed at a group of people who, in their self-righteous indignation that anybody would dare to oppose their views, are trying to stifle one or two others through the use of intimidation and political correctness.  THAT is why I used the term I did, because that is exactly the sort of tactics that the state police used.  Maybe that's too damn subtle for some of you.

If that was what you intended, it did not come off that way.  Because you quoted Surfeur, it looked like it was aimed at him.  I am sure you can see how it might come off that way.

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In any case, don't sit there and try to tell me what I meant because you aren't me.  Surfeur can complain all he wants to about being attacked, but all he's done since the day he got here is whine about how the rules don't accommodate his preferences.  And, when he got called on that, he started attacking people himself.  A bunch of people responded in kind.

You are correct, bad choice of words.  I should have said that is how it came across.

Quoting Unicus69:

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Quoting Rifter:

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And you are now doing exactly the sort of thing I spoke about in my reply.  But I guess that's OK for you, since you are on the 'right' side of this argument, eh?  Political correctness is alive and well.

It is not political correctness.  It is common courtesy and a minimal respect for my fellow man.  If that is a vice, then color me immoral. 

Why do you waste your breath, Unicus? 

Quoting johnd:

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Quoting Rifter:

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And you are now doing exactly the sort of thing I spoke about in my reply.  But I guess that's OK for you, since you are on the 'right' side of this argument, eh?  Political correctness is alive and well.

It is not "political correctness" to treat somebody in a civil manner. Just as you try to hide behind the euphemism "artful insult" when you insult someone, you are now trying to use "political correctness" the same way: changing the meaning of words to bolster your argument.

As Inigo Montoya says, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Being rude is not being "politically incorrect", just as being civil is not being "politically correct".

If you think what I spoke to you about in that PM is just an attempt to hide, then you didn't understand a single thing I said, nor does civility have anything to do whatsoever with political correctness.  I see people on the news every day who are cordial and civil to the point of it being used as a weapon, and who reek of political correctness.

The fact of the matter is, I used a word that had a specific meaning in context, and people reacted like I'd pissed in the punch bowl.  No reason, ro attempt to say "why did he use that particular word" and "what is the meaning of this word in the context it is used."  In short, pure emotional reaction, and damn little critical thought.  You people are so paralyzed by your emotional baggage and fear of that word that you can't think clearly.  Are you so intellectually bankrupt that you can't handle it when a word comes up that may have more than one meaning?  If you can't discuss it in a rational manner, it will NEVER lose its ability to make you panic like you've done.

I will say what I have said before, none of us have clean hands around here, some are dirtier than others, I strongly suggest that instead of worrying about somebody else behaves that we all look to ourselves and worry about that. Maybe if we all started that it just might ripple through. Some of us have hands which are so dirty and greasy that their suggestions such as ignoring have the ring of foolishness.
We all can benefit from better behavior but it si not up to the one , or a dozen or more that people want to villify, it begins with each and every one of us.

Skip

Quoting Rifter:

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Are you so intellectually bankrupt that you can't handle it when a word comes up that may have more than one meaning?

"Gestapo" has one meaning, and one meaning only.

Just to shed some light on the organization you're referring to, it's actions and intentions (since obviously you don't know much about it, or would've stayed away from using it to begin with):

It's the acronym for "Geheime Staatspolizei", the political police organisation during the time of the Third Reich, subordinated to the Department of the Interior, headed by Heinrich Himmler and mainly used to spy on and weed out the political (every political view differing from that of the NSDAP) and ideological (for example homosexuals, gypsies, unemployed people unable to find a job) opposition since its foundation in 1933. During the time of the Third Reich, the methods used by the Gestapo to achieve its objectives increased in ways of brutality and peaked in serial executions of political adversaries in the last years of WW II.

The Gestapo gathered its information about suspects often by menas of brutal torture. Homosexuals arrested by the Gestapo were given the choice between castration and incarceration in a concentration camp. So called "antisocial elements" (mostyl unemployed people) were forced into "Workeducation Camps" (in short, slavery). Political enemies of the state the Gestapo arrested were sent to concentration camps, which in most cases ultimately led to the killing of the arrested.

During WW II, the Gestapo executed decisive functions regarding the hunting down, deprotation and elimination of jews. Members of the Gestapo did summary executions behind the front lines, and in Berlin the Gestapo coordinated the anti-jewish actions taken within the Reich from the so called "Jew-Referat" under Adolf Eichmann (sentenced to death by a court in Tel Aviv on Dec. 15 1961, hanged on June 1st 1962).

The deportation of Jews was organized by the Gestapo, as were the actual eliminations of the millions of Jews throughout the territory of the Third Reich. The Gestapo coordinated the largest genocide in the history of mankind and more often than not actually pulled the trigger.

In the trials of Nürnberg, the Gestapo was declared a criminal organization, high officials were tried and founf guilty of numerous crimes against humanity.


John, while I'm done arguing the improper usage of the word in the context you did, I'm actually shocked that even after pointing out a certain degree of misinformation on your part you obviously still don't feel the need to do some research and seemingly still believe to be able to justify your choice of words. I can't even put in words what type of person you remind me of in your attempts to lessen the impact the use of the word "Gestapo" has, and your attempts to blame it all on ill-willed political correctness is ridiculous if not outrageous.

You, John, have lost a lot of credibility with me and I don't think that you're actually as well informed on politics and it's history as you often claim to be. I think you've got a very firm set of ideas and political views and have succeeded in blocking out a significant part of opposing views or details that don't support your POV and your way of "discussion".

If in the future you try to provoke, either get your facts about the tool of provocation straight or even better, stay away from certain areas that add a notion to your character I'm not sure you're actually aiming for. If your choice of words does stem from this type of character though, I personally am surely through talking to you.

OK, I will concede I should have used a different word, if only to avoid all this controversy.  I will not, however, apologize for the point I was trying to make, because its a valid point.

Quoting richierich:

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about time this thread was locked

Either that, or Gerri will have a job and a half of editing all the posts here.