If you label me you negate me”–Søren Kierkegaar*
Over the past year, reading the comments on many posts I have become increasingly confused about the language people are using for addressing each other on this site.
Thankfully, with the moderation system catching most of the profanities thrown at authors and other commentators, it is a lot easier to read and understand the meaning each commentator is trying to convey.
However, it seems that some users of the site have developed a different lingo for conveying their contempt for each other or each other’s points of view.
I guess we all know that profanities are not cool, but neither are labels, if that’s what these words are. I mean, yes, right, you won’t (more like can’t) call someone a *&$@#%, but can you call them a “paid employee of Mossad, or CIA, or IRI?” Unless I’m grossly mistaken, I believe some of those words in this developing lingo might be dangerously pushing the limits of civil and legal discourse.
I confess I don’t even understand many of the labels myself. What do they mean? Why are they used? Are they fair? Aren’t they libelous (meaning illegal to use with unfavorable legal consequences)? Should they be accepted and tolerated by the moderators and readers? To what end, freedom of speech and expression? Is freedom of expression sufficient grounds for gravely defamatory remarks and name-calling?
Below are some of the ones I could pick just by glancing through today’s comments at my lunch break. They truly do baffle me. Can anybody help by telling me what they mean? I would be grateful.
I have nothing to offer you as a reward for this help, except my hope that the site would get better as a result of the improved discourse. If you insist on a reward I can ask Ebi to give each of you a Kolompeh.
Here’s the list I have been putting together:
IRI Apologist
IRI Apologist Socialists
Zio-Nazi
Zio-Nazi’s and their lackeys
Pan-Ommatist
Pan-Arabist
Khallifate of Qadesiyeh
A Mr Shariati protégé
A Leftist
Extreme Left Winger
An agent of AIPAC
An Islamist
A CASMII Lobbyist
Secret IRI agents
A bunch of pro-Israelis
Islamist Fundies
Hypocrite expatriate Iranians
Tehrangelesi keyboardist warriors for freedom (TM)
Wanna-be Iranian equivilant living in the West
Tehrangelesi human rights “fighter”
Nazi sympathizers
The semi-annual Iran visitor
Staunch supporter of AIPAC, recruited by the CIA as part of their Psy-Op activities
A defender of Islam and a backer of the Islamic regime of Iran
The regular “reformed” backers of the Islamic regime
…
…
*Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, considered to be a founder of existentialist thought.
