A few weeks ago commenter “permanganater” took time out of his busy schedule to mansplain to me why, how and what I “should be focusing on tackling” on my own blog. I mocked him for that (per #deathtosquirrels protocol), then Brony took him apart for completely misreading the very post he was complaining about. He floundered on, and I ignored him.
Also relevant: readers here will no doubt recall with great reverence and awe my brilliant new hashtag #muschniwogdowis, an acronym for Most US Citizens Have No Idea What Our Government Does Or Who It Serves.
Well here comes permanganater again on a #muschniwogdowis post to say this:
I was going to let #muschniwogdowis slide last time because it’s very clever, but seeing it’s come up again…As a ‘wog’, I would be grateful if you could change ‘What Our Government’ to What Your Government’ – it keeps the meaning intact and the acronym barely changes, but removes the slur. Just a thought.
Honestly, I had to google that: it turns out “wog” is a derogatory slur for a non-white person.
Now my personal policy is that whenever I am told or otherwise discover that I’ve been using a slur that punches down, I try to stop using it. Even when I don’t really get it. But in this case, since we already know that this permanganater d00d is an entitled comic buffoon who enjoys dictating to me what and how I ought to write on my own blog, I have to ask: what kind of Sooper Special Fucking Snowflake parses character strings for entirely unrelated ethnic slurs?
Because obviously then, we should also studiously avoid using words like leafage, tycoon and wristwatch, which contain homophobic, racist and misogynist slurs, respectively. Auspicious is out too; so is saltwater. Frankly, we must never use words (or even acronyms) that contains any of these letter combinations, nor the hundreds of everyday words that contain “ho,” such as who, how and thought. Aw, shit! There goes this blog network’s name and URL, too! Hey, permanganater himself used that very slur in his very own comment! STOP THAT PERMANGANATER. YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!
Oh wait, no. No, see, that would be totally fucking ridiculous.
So here’s my response:
No.
Permanganater is now blocked from further commenting here at Death to Squirrels, for the unforgivable sin of being way too fucking tedious to entertain.
Let the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth commence.
Ironically, he would’ve had a valid point about the Americo-centrism inherent in #muschniwogdowis since it specifically refers to US Citizens, when ignorance about one’s country’s foreign policy is probably a global phenomenon (see: every sucker that thinks Canada’s foreign policy is “nicer” than the USA). Instead he made it about a nested component of the acronym that’s a slur. Can’t type out Nigeria either, Iris. Look at the first five letters!!!
Yeesh.
Huh. I’d read that was a slur for southern Europeans. Some kind of expression about how they “start at Calais”? Maybe the meaning changed over time or my source was wrong.
But, but, but Iris, NO! I didn’t have time to pile on last time! I’ve been working on all sorts of new insults that are non-gendered, non-sexist and non-racist. I’ve been dyin’ to try them out.
Siobhan: point taken, but I really do have my hands full focusing on the US alone. All you ferriners can go invent your own acronyms for your terrible governments! Also, “Americo-centrism” in the sense you are using it disappears South and Central Americans, as well as Canadians… which is why I use(d) US instead. :p
Great American Satan: Makes sense that it either started there or was repurposed there from elsewhere since it essentially means the same thing, i.e. southern Europeans are traditionally darker-skinned than their northern neighbors. I don’t know whether it’s still the case, but even within Italy the lighter-skinned northern Italians looked down upon my darker Calabrian ancestors.
Raucous Indignation: Something tells me you’ll have plenty of opporunities to test your new splash damage-free insults soon enough.
I have been practicing!
This is known (in the UK at least) as “the Scunthorpe problem”.
That’s a pseudo-ironic expression of the British superiority complex – the implication being that the only ethnic distinction that really matters is between the British and everybody else, and that the difference between a Brit and a Frenchman is greater than that between a Frenchman and anyone else.
I believe the derivation of the term is from “Westernised Oriental Gentleman”, but as with all such things, it’s hard to know for certain.
weep.
wail.
gnash.
Just because of how much I care about commenters with explosive personalities, then pour some frosted flakes in a bowl.
gnash some more.
Ah, perfect.