Re: Remember?

"It's a matter of respect. "

John,

EUREKA! Bravo! Encore!! You will pardon me if I pass on running down
the street naked and dripping wet, aside from winning myself a sojurn
in the local nut house, it would land me in the hospital I think! Its
about -15 wind chill here in northern Mass!

I think that you have "got it"!

When we start to insultingly label groups it is an inherent measure of
disrespect; an attempt to make them a little bit less "human". "They"
are different from "us", therefore they deserve some demeaning label.
Can you think of a few? How many of those would be entertained in a
discussion in this forum to the same degree that "Fundie" was tossed
around? How is it that "Fundie" is OK but *** or wop would be
improper and of couse the "N-word" would never fly without everyone
jumping to the defense! Is it a principle of respect for fellow humans
that would be defended or does that only apply to "special" groups?

While its entirely true that such monikers dont directly hurt the group
its targeted at, the lack of respect and insult inherent to, and
intended in, those kinds of labels all too often ends up being the root
cause of far uglier events.

I really do hope that we dont have any "church burners" reading and
contributing to these discussions here but. . . the rhetoric in some
of the archives certainly fits.

Regards
bk

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