On Wednesday, 19 March 2014 at 17:43:03 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> Same here. I do remember that wasn't the peak of it. That happened when I tried to explain something as a "cultural difference". Probably it was taken as "cultural inferiority/superiority".
>
> Andrei

Talk about projection...

On Wednesday, 19 March 2014 at 17:43:03 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> Same here. I do remember that wasn't the peak of it. That happened when I tried to explain something as a "cultural difference". Probably it was taken as "cultural inferiority/superiority".
>
> Andrei

More like feigned idiocy on Ramon's part. There was the whole "windoze" debacle with him as well. I was never sure if he was here to discuss D or just subtly troll.

On 3/19/2014 12:43 PM, Meta wrote:
> There was the whole "windoze" debacle
> with him as well.

The "windoze" thing was tired and old in 1990. So was Micro$oft.

On 19 March 2014 19:43, Meta <jared771@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday, 19 March 2014 at 17:43:03 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>
>> Same here. I do remember that wasn't the peak of it. That happened when I tried to explain something as a "cultural difference". Probably it was taken as "cultural inferiority/superiority".
>>
>> Andrei
>
>
> More like feigned idiocy on Ramon's part. There was the whole "windoze" debacle with him as well. I was never sure if he was here to discuss D or just subtly troll.

Oh, *that* Ramon.  I was trying to remember who he was. :-)

I seem to recall people being rather unfairly direct towards him on that, which in turn made the quality of his responses drop tenfold. Though I'm biased, I think my initial response to him was subtle, fair and justified.  If he continues to blindly ignore expressed wishes on netiquette, then simply don't response - or *do* respond, but save it in your drafts. ;-)

On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 10:41:26PM +0000, Iain Buclaw wrote:
> On 19 March 2014 19:43, Meta <jared771@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Wednesday, 19 March 2014 at 17:43:03 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> >>
> >> Same here. I do remember that wasn't the peak of it. That happened when I tried to explain something as a "cultural difference". Probably it was taken as "cultural inferiority/superiority".
> >>
> >> Andrei
> >
> >
> > More like feigned idiocy on Ramon's part. There was the whole "windoze" debacle with him as well. I was never sure if he was here to discuss D or just subtly troll.
> 
> Oh, *that* Ramon.  I was trying to remember who he was. :-)
> 
> I seem to recall people being rather unfairly direct towards him on that, which in turn made the quality of his responses drop tenfold. Though I'm biased, I think my initial response to him was subtle, fair and justified.  If he continues to blindly ignore expressed wishes on netiquette, then simply don't response - or *do* respond, but save it in your drafts. ;-)

I had quite a few responses to him that sat in the =postponed file that eventually I deleted, because I realized that it would only set him off even more. Sometimes, the only way to win is to not play.


T

-- 
Try to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out. -- theboz

On Wednesday, 19 March 2014 at 23:18:55 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:

>Sometimes, the only way to win is to not play.
>
>
> T

+1. You should add this to your list of quotes.

On Wednesday, 19 March 2014 at 07:51:06 UTC, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> I find that interesting. This is the first I've ever heard of "caucasian" being even potentially offensive.

Well, I am not offended by the term, I dislike it. I am offended by having to provide racial information. I am not sure what other norwegians feel about that, though. After 2WW where we lost over 1/3 of our jewish population (which was small already, jews were barred from entry until 1851) laws were established that banned registration of race, sexuality etc (unless where it has a very clear function of necessity). So my main objection is to having race and sexuality registered.

But there is a bias in terms like "nordic" to race, even though it formally isn't a racial expression. And when we talk about north Europe, east Europe, southern Europe we refer to culture, but there is also a bias towards genetic traits if the context is about what people look like. Like, "americans" is more likely to evoke stereotypical images of middle class white americans than multi cultural america or the native americans.

I think talking about "white norwegians", or "white swedes" is somewhat weird and makes me a bit uneasy, either because it is too close or because the labels "norwegian" and "swede" already have a white bias, so making it explicit makes it overly racial? But talking about "white americans", "the whites in Africa" etc is no problem at all and is politically correct. Perhaps because the usual context for those expressions is to talk about unfair treatment of minorities and lack of distribution of wealth.

> So that uncertainty leads americans to use "caucasion" (apparently derived from the extremely academic term "caucasoid", or so I've been told) just out of paranoia, since it's seen as far too pedantic and technical to possibly be offensive.

And this technical focus is what I object to since the nazis did take a rather "scientific" approach to this by measuring skulls etc to identify "pure genes".

Besides, how many third generation non-white american in the US have an actual ethnicity that makes sense? Like 1/4 african, 1/8 german, etc…

> But that said, I still find both examples as completely insufficient justification for bans on nudity. Fact of the matter is, I like to use both as shining examples of "Just because you don't want to see something doesn't mean it should be banned".

:-) Well, we are all coloured by the taboos that we were taught as kids. Getting over those is a challenge. I would personally not be offended by any cussing in a foreign language, I think. Though there probably are some vulgar cussing in norwegian that I'd rather not be affiliated with.

> part of the country.) I've heard of a court case (IANAL, of course) in San Fransisco where non-disruptive, non-sexualized public nudity was ruled legal. And it's either there or maybe Portland that has an annual non-clothed bicycling event. And I've heard that some court case in New York City ruled non-disruptive toplessness legal. Something similar in Canada too, IIRC. It's still nothing like certain other parts of the world, but still, baby steps.

In the 80s the feminist movement made a big point of top less sun bathing, so you would find it everywhere (also in parks sometimes). But then it became less common outside beaches. Not sure why, probably partially because of breast cancer news reports and a lack of interest after the point had been made? I think it is difficult to uphold in cold region where you have to wear lots of cloths most of the year. I think it sends signals of being self-indulgent if you do it "in your face" in a park these days, but if you find your own spot then it is no problem.

Of course, the population density of my country is low and the water front is accessible to the public even on private land (by law), so if you want to be nude you can always find your own spot somewhere.

On Thu, 20 Mar 2014 05:35:53 -0400, Chris <wendlec@tcd.ie> wrote:

> On Wednesday, 19 March 2014 at 23:18:55 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:
>
>> Sometimes, the only way to win is to not play.
>>
>>
>> T
>
> +1. You should add this to your list of quotes.

-WOPR, War Games

I just want to point out that somehow the thread about how we need to maintain a professional attitude in the forums deteriorated into discussing in depth racism.

We literally couldn't have picked a better thread to highjack.  =P

On Sunday, 23 March 2014 at 18:08:09 UTC, 1100110 wrote:
> I just want to point out that somehow the thread about how we need to maintain a professional attitude in the forums deteriorated into discussing in depth racism.

Actually, racism was not discussed. What was discussed was cultural bias in what is appropriate using racial terms as an example.

However, I do question the public slandering of Ramon in a thread about appropriateness of posts. I don't think there is any cultural bias in that.