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Originally Posted by ratbastid
I believe it derives from the phrase "black as the ace of spades".
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While we're on the subject, many don't realize that the phrase "he jipped me" actually is spelled "gypped" and stems from the stereotype of the cheating Gypsies.
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Look, if I'm communicating with you and you don't get what I'm saying, it's not productive for me to blame YOU for that.
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And it's not productive for you to blame yourself either. Unless you plan to start writing your posts with only pictures, you have to take it on faith that people have at least a halfway decent vocabulary. You should also be able to take it on faith that if someone hears or sees a word they're not familiar with, they'll look it up instead of going off half cocked about it.
Your argument would have merit if you insisted on speaking Swahili even though you know I don't know that language. But you're speaking english, and that happens to be my primary language as well. I'll grant you that perhaps you know some words that I don't and vice versa, but it's up to each of us to find out the definition of words we don't know.
In this situation, the main objection is not that people don't know what "niggardly" means - although I still say it's pathetic that they don't. It's not like it's an ultra rare word like "phrontistery" or something - It's that when they were made aware of the definition they still insisted on demonizing this guy because it SOUNDS like nigger. Goes back to my original point that duck SOUNDS an awful lot like fuck, so by the logic of this situation we should fine TV stations when they use any word ending in "uck."
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What works is to take responsibility that my communication didn't leave you with what I meant to leave you with. There was something missing or (more likely) something added in my communication that had you not get the intent of my communication.
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And it's silly to blame yourself for that. If I don't get your communication, restate it - define the word if I think it's offensive. If I still think a benign word is offensive after you've defined it for me, then the fault lies squarely with me.
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You can "object to the acceptance of stupidity" all you want--when it comes down to it, you still have to talk to actual people in the actual world. All your idealism about how smart people should be means precisely squat when it meets the real world.
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Well perhaps it is idealism to expect people to not want to wallow in the Swamp of Dumbass, but if it is I'll remain idealistic, thank you. Our society loves to make fun of the egghead, loves to make fun of the smart guys, while glorifying the stupid. That's absurd and counterproductive.
If you're genuinely mentally challenged, have a low IQ or what have you, I'm not going to have a problem with you. But if you're of normal "intelligence" and yet insist on being a total moron, then you're right, I'm going to put a lot of blame on your shoulders.
As I said, I'll grant that you might not know what niggardly means. But once you find out the definition, if you insist on continuing the "that's racist!" charge, or you fire the guy who said it, you're a very special kind of stupid, and you'd better damn well believe it I'm gonna go after you with guns blazing.