3/24/09 Forum Flaming?

[bluntpencil2001]

To refer to characters by their ancestral national names raises the following issues:

1) It is illogical. An insult must have emotional appeal to the intended target. One may reasonably expect to cause offence by calling a British citizen a 'stupid Brit', 'whingeing Pommy' and so on.

But calling him a 'Stupid Anglo-Saxon' is not likely to have the same impact. If it doesnt have impact it wouldnt get used.
2) There is a second, more disturbing trend here.

To start dropping the use of 'future' names such as Bretonia and Kusari - in favour of current names like 'Jap' and 'Brit' is to push the edges of acceptable conduct.

Using current insults gives them immediacy to the PLAYER - not the CHARACTER. This is why we dont allow current swear words to be typed in chat - though an archaic or made up words like, 'what the frel was that?' or 'Thou art naught but a bulls pizzle!' you could reasonably expect to get away with.

I for one would like an admin ruling on this.

It's more like calling an American a 'Yank' nowadays, even though it only applied to a certain group in the historical context.

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