ESPN Fires Employee For Jeremy Lin Headline

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I'm not comfortable saying either and I don't say either, everyone here has been typing it out just like it was typed in the article so I did too.

I mean come on, really? ******, if that makes anyone feel better. Winning!

Some people here feel comfortable using the c word here, and that would be cunt. That would be typing out the whole word. That word offends me, and I find that interesting too.
 
It's not just about you, though, it's that I've seen that plenty of places elsewhere.


I understand, that was the whole point of the SNL sketch that I posted. I brought that up, no one seemed interested in talking about it. Not saying it's about me. But until there's an Interference policy about words that might be deemed offensive and whether we should fully type them out here...Like I said, other words are typed out in FYM and elsewhere here and it's not an issue somehow. I should have typed out c word instead of typing it out. I mean the armor word, not the other c word. I don't feel comfortable typing out the n word or the c word or the other c word. Don't use them in my everyday life, don't want to type any of them. I think the n word has been typed out fully plenty of times in FYM during discussions.
 
I dont think anyone is suggesting that you type out 'the c word'. quite the opposite.

No one seemed interested about talking about the skit because it was taken down about 15 minutes after you posted it. Nobody can watch it
 
Then they can say "a racial slur" instead of sounding like a 5 year old telling on their older brother
 
I feel like I'm listening to my kindergarten teacher when I hear newscasters say "the n word"



while i agree that talking about "the n-word" is better than avoiding it, i am not at all bothered by people not saying it or saying "the n-word." not to pull out a trump card, but i'm going to by saying that you might have to be United Statsian to really get at how horrible that word is (granted, Canuckistanians are pretty close) and how connected to the worst crime in American history it is and continues to be.

i remember the first time i heard that word used in a conversation by a white person who was using it in it's, erm, traditional meaning. i literally felt sick to my stomach, and deeply uncomfortable. and at the time i was a privileged white suburban teenager who really didn't know many black people at all.

there's something about it, when spoken in this country, that is so unsettling, that is so connected to terrible violence, that it really has nothing to do at all with what's become known as "political correctness."

i have a whole other lecture on political correctness, and how it's a good thing. but that's for another post. dinner's ready.
 
The problem is that most of the news stories would be just as informative and lose nothing if they just say "racial slur". Apart from it sounding immature (in my opinion), I feel like they're also capitalizing on the sensational aspect of someone 'saying the n word'. If someone swears on national television and it makes it's way onto the news, you never hear the anchor say "the f word". They'll refer to the "use of profanity" or something along those lines.

I do agree with you about the almost visceral nature of the word though. Even putting the historical impact aside for a second, it is a very aggressive sounding word. Much in the same way that cunt is and I think that alone gives it at least some of it's heft.

At the same time, I've always felt that words are only a product of their actions, not vice versa. The word ****** has never killed anyone. It's just a word and the more it's protected, the more power it has for the scumbags who try to throw it around in a hurtful manner. I'm not suggesting it become part of everyday conversation, but masking it with terms like 'n-word' only make it taboo and more powerful when it is used in an offensive way
 
The word ****** has never killed anyone.

Yes, but historically when a black person heard that word from a white person, the possiblity that death would soon follow, was very real.

It has everything to do with history.
 
your whole angry man thing here is touching. we are all very concerned about dying soldiers, and how we treat them is outrageous.

that said, it has absofuckinglutely nothing to do with this conversation.

you see no way that ESPN could have done this on purpose.

apparently you pay no attention to sports or pop culture whatsoever, so you were not aware that every single headline revolving around Jeremy Lin for the past two weeks has included an incredibly lame pun that included his name.

so your argument? yea, a little incomplete if you truly have no clue about all the ridiculous Lin puns.

because I find it pretty damned impossible that this happened...

ESPN Web Guy: Ya know... I think it's time all these Lin pun headlines stopped. I'm going to break the trend and simply pick a random sports cliche' for when things go wrong!


but yea... Whitney Houston.. grrrr. angry.

First off, thank you for looking all that shit up, no i didnt read/watch your links. I dont care to. I clearly stated that i quit watching ESPN, that includes online, and this was after the super bowl. I dont watch late night tv like Leno/Letterman or whatever because im usually already in bed. I go to work at 4am most mornings, so i get up early and i go to bed early. When im at work i dont surf the Internet, im too busy doing my job. I have many interests outside of sports...typically i give it a break until the basketball playoffs (thunder) heat up and then im back in it...but the regular season NCAA and NFL take a lot out of me. Feb - Apr is the time frame i usually do a lot of work around the house, etc.

Now, to the topic at hand, first off i apologize if i seemed angry yesterday. In fact this does piss me off, but my apologies if that seemed to be directed to anyone here, including you. That said, it works both ways, there can be some pretty sarcastic to downright rude people here when things get heated. But i will be the first to say "im sorry". And then im going to utilize the ignore list.

So why does this piss me off? Because there are a lot of really fucked up things going on in the world today. Violence in Syria, Egypt, tensions in Iran, Israel, North Korea, and those are just the headlines (that i pay attention to). How about at home...gas is $4 per gallon in FEBRUARY (wait till Memorial Day!), unemployment still above 8% nationally, protesters in every city, etc. etc. etc.

Once in a while a good story comes through like the guy named Lin, sleeping on a couch one week and the next week he has a sudden meteoric rise to fame. Yes I've caught that much on the nightly news. SO ESPN fucks up, on purpose, not on purpose, whatever...i dont know. Im not even going to argue one way or the other, it happened. Lets leave it at that. Is this the worst thing going on in the world today? No. Does it really deserve all of this outrage and attention? No. People are getting blown up all over the world...and select people are more concerned about if the Chinese guy was offended by those remarks. If nothing else...these were my points.

Making such an issue over Lin (yes, im now guilty of doing the same thing) is akin to Rick Santorum wanting to have a national discussion about abortion, birth control, & religion INSTEAD of the ECONOMY, FOREIGN POLICY, etc. Does this make more sense now? If not, please read no further...

I assure you that im not putting on any act, whatever you want to call it. I do care about the troops, wherever they are. Im more concerned about them getting blown up and not having the proper equipment, rations, rules of engagement, command support, exit strategy, etc....much more concerned about this than what some ESPN headline was or is. I might not be active duty any longer but my heart is still out there. If you can't understand that and where im coming from then im done here.

This country cares more about their "pop culture" and keeping up with the Kardashians or whatever than it does our own troops. We shower these "celebs" with money and fame and worship, while the REAL HEROES are the ones who would take a bullet to protect their families, freedom, or walk into a burning building to save a baby or puppy, or chase down a criminal with a loaded gun into a dark alley. These people are heroes. They are superstars in my book. They dont make millions of dollars, they dont have reality shows or do interviews with networks and have their names on the back of jerseys. They dont ask for much in return for what they do. I guess that's why most people take them for granted and move on, because those people aren't going to OD the night before the Grammies and they aren't going to get married for 72 hours just to see how many new followers they can get on twitter. THEY JUST DO THEIR JOB.

Again, im sorry if im being a little bit too "touchy" with my angry man stuff. One more thing, next time the number 1 automaker in the world decides to give a $75k car to the super bowl MPV (who had a great game btw), i wish they would think twice about it and give it to some young soldier who's saved someones life overseas, or maybe give it to the widow of someone who didn't make it home, or maybe someone else who's really made a difference in saving lives and not just a paid athlete who won a game. That's the direction id like to see this country go in, recognizing whats real and whats entertainment. Im not against wealth or success by any means for anyone, but we've got to have our priorities.
 
while i agree that talking about "the n-word" is better than avoiding it, i am not at all bothered by people not saying it or saying "the n-word." not to pull out a trump card, but i'm going to by saying that you might have to be United Statsian to really get at how horrible that word is (granted, Canuckistanians are pretty close) and how connected to the worst crime in American history it is and continues to be.

I fully agree.

I can't bring myself to say that word. I don't feel at all comfortable using it. I don't use any of the slurs that are directed at specific ethnicities/races-I've just never thought to, nor wanted to. I often forget they exist until someone says them, actually.

I must say, though, the slur for white people, "honky"? Not exactly the worst insult in the world to me. It actually cracks me up and makes me feel like making a honking noise or something in response :p.

The "c" word MrsSpringsteen mentioned doesn't actually bother me one way or another. I know it's a common insult in other countries-not that that justifies the word, but it's funny how the offensiveness/definitions of words change from place to place.

My least favorite words for women involve "slut" and "whore". It bugs the hell out of me to hear women getting putdowns about their sexual activity, or presumed sexual activity.
 
I totally say "nigga" when I'm blasting hip-hop in my car.

And then duck down if somebody catches me.

It just becomes a rhythmic batch of phonemes in that context.
 
there's a clear distinction between "nigga" and "******." and context matters.

quite honestly, i'd rather it weren't used in hip-hop.

and, for me, "cunt" is probably the 2nd most offensive and evocative of violence.

"bitch," however, seems to have been totally de-genderized. i think now it can refer to a man as well as a woman.
 
Yes, but historically when a black person heard that word from a white person, the possiblity that death would soon follow, was very real.

It has everything to do with history.

Oh, I totally get that, man. But if it didn't exist as a word, the violence would still exist. I understand the sensitivity, I just think it would be more worthwhile to take the gunpowder out of it and give them one less putdown (which is getting away a bit from my original point about 'n word' on tv, but anyway... and putdown not being nearly a strong enough word).

I have to admit though, it's the only word I know that doesn't roll off my tongue easily. Any other word it the world? No problem. It's not that I'm running around yelling racial slurs all over the place, but in conversation about racial slurs, it's the only one that I can't say comfortably (But I still will out of principle), so the political correctness has even eaten through my ear canal and nested somewhere in my brain, if even just a little bit
 
I don't associate "cunt" with violence so much as slovenly soccer hooligans I wouldn't want to emulate. It's a word I never, ever say.

For the record, I would absolutely fire the editor responsible for the "chink" comment. It's funny as hell, to me, but coming from a journalistic background I can't deny how irresponsible it was for him to let that through. It's not so much a sign of racial insensitivity as it is incompetence.
 
"bitch," however, seems to have been totally de-genderized. i think now it can refer to a man as well as a woman.

I've never bought into the offensiveness for genderizing of swear words. When was the last time a woman was called a dickhead? Or even an asshole? We have separate words for men in women in every other aspect of life. Expletives should be no different
 
First off, thank you for looking all that shit up, no i didnt read/watch your links. I dont care to. I clearly stated that i quit watching ESPN, that includes online, and this was after the super bowl. I dont watch late night tv like Leno/Letterman or whatever because im usually already in bed. I go to work at 4am most mornings, so i get up early and i go to bed early. When im at work i dont surf the Internet, im too busy doing my job. I have many interests outside of sports...typically i give it a break until the basketball playoffs (thunder) heat up and then im back in it...but the regular season NCAA and NFL take a lot out of me. Feb - Apr is the time frame i usually do a lot of work around the house, etc.

Now, to the topic at hand, first off i apologize if i seemed angry yesterday. In fact this does piss me off, but my apologies if that seemed to be directed to anyone here, including you. That said, it works both ways, there can be some pretty sarcastic to downright rude people here when things get heated. But i will be the first to say "im sorry". And then im going to utilize the ignore list.

So why does this piss me off? Because there are a lot of really fucked up things going on in the world today. Violence in Syria, Egypt, tensions in Iran, Israel, North Korea, and those are just the headlines (that i pay attention to). How about at home...gas is $4 per gallon in FEBRUARY (wait till Memorial Day!), unemployment still above 8% nationally, protesters in every city, etc. etc. etc.

Once in a while a good story comes through like the guy named Lin, sleeping on a couch one week and the next week he has a sudden meteoric rise to fame. Yes I've caught that much on the nightly news. SO ESPN fucks up, on purpose, not on purpose, whatever...i dont know. Im not even going to argue one way or the other, it happened. Lets leave it at that. Is this the worst thing going on in the world today? No. Does it really deserve all of this outrage and attention? No. People are getting blown up all over the world...and select people are more concerned about if the Chinese guy was offended by those remarks. If nothing else...these were my points.

Making such an issue over Lin (yes, im now guilty of doing the same thing) is akin to Rick Santorum wanting to have a national discussion about abortion, birth control, & religion INSTEAD of the ECONOMY, FOREIGN POLICY, etc. Does this make more sense now? If not, please read no further...

I assure you that im not putting on any act, whatever you want to call it. I do care about the troops, wherever they are. Im more concerned about them getting blown up and not having the proper equipment, rations, rules of engagement, command support, exit strategy, etc....much more concerned about this than what some ESPN headline was or is. I might not be active duty any longer but my heart is still out there. If you can't understand that and where im coming from then im done here.

This country cares more about their "pop culture" and keeping up with the Kardashians or whatever than it does our own troops. We shower these "celebs" with money and fame and worship, while the REAL HEROES are the ones who would take a bullet to protect their families, freedom, or walk into a burning building to save a baby or puppy, or chase down a criminal with a loaded gun into a dark alley. These people are heroes. They are superstars in my book. They dont make millions of dollars, they dont have reality shows or do interviews with networks and have their names on the back of jerseys. They dont ask for much in return for what they do. I guess that's why most people take them for granted and move on, because those people aren't going to OD the night before the Grammies and they aren't going to get married for 72 hours just to see how many new followers they can get on twitter. THEY JUST DO THEIR JOB.

Again, im sorry if im being a little bit too "touchy" with my angry man stuff. One more thing, next time the number 1 automaker in the world decides to give a $75k car to the super bowl MPV (who had a great game btw), i wish they would think twice about it and give it to some young soldier who's saved someones life overseas, or maybe give it to the widow of someone who didn't make it home, or maybe someone else who's really made a difference in saving lives and not just a paid athlete who won a game. That's the direction id like to see this country go in, recognizing whats real and whats entertainment. Im not against wealth or success by any means for anyone, but we've got to have our priorities.
Your heart is in the right place on a lot of these issues, but at the end of the day, there's a reason people follow this stuff. Why do you follow football? For many of the same reasons people follow other aspects of pop culture. It's good for people to have something to pay attention to that isn't so fucking miserable all the time. If everyone just constantly thought about all the fucked up shit, we'd all go insane. The trick, of course, is figuring out how to balance your time. You seem to have a pretty good feel for how to balance yours out. Many others have too.

Ultimately, my point is this: you could brush off almost any issue as less serious than people getting killed overseas. That doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about other things.
 
and, for me, "cunt" is probably the 2nd most offensive and evocative of violence.

See, I barely ever even hear that word to begin with, so I had no idea how strongly people felt about it. It wasn't until I saw some thing on TV once discussing the word where I found out just how offensive it is to women. But I don't know anything about its origin or whatever. I feel like I probably should, though.

"bitch," however, seems to have been totally de-genderized. i think now it can refer to a man as well as a woman.

It depends on the context for me. If it's used to describe a woman who's simply daring to speak her mind and go for something (be "aggressive"), and it's meant as a slam on her behaving like that, it's insulting.

But if it's being used to describe a woman who is truly actually being a rude, cruel person, abusive to people around her and whatnot, then I must confess I'm likely to think/find it an appropriate description.

Honestly, though, I hardly ever use that word myself, and when I do, I prefer something like "Bee-yotch" instead, 'cause it's less offensive in that case and it just sounds funnier. I swear a lot more online than I do offline, honestly.
 
I've never bought into the offensiveness for genderizing of swear words. When was the last time a woman was called a dickhead? Or even an asshole? We have separate words for men in women in every other aspect of life. Expletives should be no different
It's happening more frequently with people my age. At first, it's girls being ironic or something. Then they actually seriously call each other "asshole" in the same way men do.
 
I've been trying to switch from using "bitch" and "dick" to "asshole" when feeling the urge to swear about a woman.

There's something really satisfying about calling a woman an "asshole."

I'm a horrible person. :lol:
 
It's happening more frequently with people my age. At first, it's girls being ironic or something. Then they actually seriously call each other "asshole" in the same way men do.

Well that sounds delightful to me. Seriously. Like the first time i heard a man call another man a bitch. I actually remember that

But some people get all uppity about the fact that there are certain words that refer only to women. I don't get it
 
Oh, I totally get that, man. But if it didn't exist as a word, the violence would still exist. I understand the sensitivity, I just think it would be more worthwhile to take the gunpowder out of it and give them one less putdown (which is getting away a bit from my original point about 'n word' on tv, but anyway... and putdown not being nearly a strong enough word).

I have to admit though, it's the only word I know that doesn't roll off my tongue easily. Any other word it the world? No problem. It's not that I'm running around yelling racial slurs all over the place, but in conversation about racial slurs, it's the only one that I can't say comfortably (But I still will out of principle), so the political correctness has even eaten through my ear canal and nested somewhere in my brain, if even just a little bit

I don't think that's political correctness, though, man. I think that's just your human decency.

I understand your argument about reducing the power of the word BTW. To be honest, I don't think I've made up my mind about that. I can see both sides.
 
I never thought of "asshole" as a gendered insult; I think it's more that "bitch" was just always the default curse word to direct toward a female. Now, as our knowledge of worldly things expands, we realize that "asshole" can easily apply to everyone.

Even babies!
 
I've been trying to switch from using "bitch" and "dick" to "asshole" when feeling the urge to swear about a woman.

There's something really satisfying about calling a woman an "asshole."

I'm a horrible person. :lol:

It's the novelty of it and you know they weren't expecting it ;) And it's probably refreshing for you
 
Well, let's face it - I don't call anyone assholes to their faces, usually in response to some politician or celebrity who's done or said something incredibly assholish. That's the only time I swear at someone, really. (Although I have had people yelling at me on the phone at work and had some choice words to mutter about them after hanging up.)

So I don't ever get to know if they expect it or not. I guess it could be more satisfying.

Who wants to volunteer to be my first real-life curse-out?

(Although now you'll be expecting it, so forget it.)
 
I've really been hitting "shithead" heavily lately when it comes to the insults. Before that it was just "ass" as opposed to jackass or asshole.
 
See, dudes calling other dudes "bitch" just makes sense to me. It's like calling someone a pansy, but more aggressively so.

The idea of calling a baby an asshole for, say, shitting themselves makes a lot of sense.

This is a great conversation. We're really freeing our minds of the constraints of good taste here.
 
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