Label Me

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News Goffer
by News Goffer
03-Sep-2008
 

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.

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more from News Goffer
 
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AW, On my wedding day my

by skatermom (not verified) on

AW,
On my wedding day my husband wore a kilt and there were pipers a blaring. I feel your pain. No wait my husband feels your pain. He thinks I'm bat sh#t crazy. I know you've never been insulting about Iranians. I've read your posts. There is a double standard for sure. I make fun of his golf playing, republican, calm, quiet family every day. For the record if he ever mutters a disparaging word about Iranians or my family I'll lop off his tokhms.
I know it's not right. It is what it is:)


American Wife

skaterwife

by American Wife on

I guess that's something I have to get used to... the extremely defensive Iranian....lol.  I'm part Irish and NO ONE ever takes it personally when we discuss or argue.  Nothing is taken as an insult and believe me... tempers flare!  BYW... I've NEVER been insulting to OR about Iranians which is considerably more than I can say about others regarding, well, others.


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Thanks Ebi and AW, You know

by skatermom (not verified) on

Thanks Ebi and AW,
You know it's hard NOT to go for the throat when you're being insulted. We're Iranian for God's sake. Meegan bala cheshmemoon abroost behemoon bar meekhoreh:)


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Zio-nazi...

by najes (not verified) on

Zio-nazi was FEATURED just a couple of days ago as the supertitle of a newsfeed.

It is disgraceful. It should not be allowed to happen. But it did. And not for the first time either.

It happened. If not you then who featured it?


ebi amirhosseini

Dear Skatermom

by ebi amirhosseini on

Javaabe ablahaan Khamooshist dear.

Az sooze.......een harfhaa ro mizanan.

its all good

cheers


American Wife

skaterwife

by American Wife on

yes, i too got hit with a litte pearl from one of the enlightened on iranian.com... ignorant american... which i thought was amusing considering the source.  :-)

 


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Here's what I've been

by skatermom (not verified) on

Here's what I've been called:
Bigotmom
idiot
moron
baboon
left-wing commie pinko nut job
Not Iranian enough
Not American enough
politically exploitive (huh?)
An Iranian traitor
spoiled little rich girl whose daddy paid for her post grad (I wish!)
and the piece de resistance came last night when I was called irrelevant.
Thankfully these labels were given to me by only one person on this site. This person has a knack of pissing everybody off which is why these labels mean d#ck. As for all of the rest of my fellow hamvatanis I appreciate all of you. I especially appreciate those like Kaveh and Samsam that can provide differing views without making me feel like a "dumb ass".


Fred

Uniquely Islamist(TM)

by Fred on

 Islamists wedding photographers’ sense of “humor” is, well, uniquely Islamist.


Q

difference between slander and "adjectives"

by Q on

What "Fred" does from the safety of his fake-ass life of hatred is pure prosecutable slander. The "standards" that he uses to label people are laughable self-serving BS. Based on similar reasoning it would be justified to call him a warmonger, fascist and brownshirt vigilante theologically convinced of his own righteous pitchfork crusade to "expose" "enemies" throughout the land, McCarthy style.

However, unlike Fred, I stick to humerous and factual descriptions like Tehrangelesi Keyboardist Warriars for Freedom (TM). This describes Fred perfectly and it alludes to the absolute cowardice and hypocrisy of the said (fake) individual.


Fred

Loose change

by Fred on

Your admittedly quickly put together list has mixed apples and oranges with few kiwis as well. For instance: leftist, Islamist, extreme left winger (as opposed to extreme right winger), CASMII lobbyist are all legitimate identifiers.

 Most government use “Islamist” in referring to the adherents of the political ideology of Islamism, so goes with leftist and rightist. When the U.S. head of CASMII openly and unequivocally LOBBYIES for the Islamist regime, advocates its policies, whitewashes its crimes (as in there never was a brutal suppression of demonstrators) and invites people to go greet the Islamist installed president, it would be correct to call CASMII members lobbyists. When someone says he visits Iran twice a year, rewording it to the semi-annual Iran visitor should not raise anyone’s ire. 

True, the tone is less that cordial so is the situation and what the Islamist republic has confronted us with. Lastly, to put your mind at ease, you should visit any newspaper site or popular political blog an see what adjectives are the currency of the comments and at what large denominations something that makes Iranian.com’s look like loose change.


News Goffer

Dear Majid, Souri, Ebi, and Samsam

by News Goffer on

Thank you all for your kind participation in the discussion.  I think the topic remains open and any and all suggestions are welcome.

For all it's worth, I would like to reiterate my suggestion to JJ to consider banning comments which label other individuals.

JJ, please consider addressing this problem.  Labels and this new "lingo" are now showing up in the way some posters are super-titling news items, too.  This is ridiculous and unacceptable on any journalistic level.  Even though self-publishing and user contributions are welcome possibilities on this site, thank you, this should not mean mayhem.  I'm afraid the longer this goes on, the more it becomes entrenched in the site culture and it would be harder to remedy in the future.


samsam1111

lol..Believe it or not

by samsam1111 on

I even can forget !! sorry dude. I actualy remembered right after the comment.Once , you explanied it to me or another guy..cheers!...


ebi amirhosseini

Samsam Jaan,of all poeple....

by ebi amirhosseini on

I didn't expect my buddy,my die heart fan,to not know about my famous "Kolompehs "?!

" You broke my heart Fredo" !


samsam1111

Fair enough!!

by samsam1111 on

 

thx News Gopher..No sweat!! why did this go blue..uhmmm!!

Souri ..for VP in 2012..:)

Ebi jan colompeh chieh?

Majid! Very true pal!


Souri

Dear News Goffer, thank you

by Souri on

Your comment seems very logical to me. You are right, and I had forgotten this aspect of flagging the offensive comment.


Your scenario seems to me very well founded and I now take back what I had said as a personal view. Nevertheless, I may add here that this hypothesis came to my mind, because of the precedent incident that I've previously mentioned.
You might be right, but again (my own vision) even if someone had flagged that comment as offensive, JJ would not deleted it. As I believe I know JJ's vision and directive....But, again maybe I am wrong, and JJ approve the deletion of that comment, in which case I will get very surprised.


Majid

-آقا شما ایرانی هستید؟

Majid


-آقا شما ایرانی هستید؟

- بله دوست عزیز.

- سلطنت طلبید؟

- نه دوست من، به سلطنت عتقادی ندارم.

- خوب پس....از دار و دسته بختیاری.

-نه، متاسفانه اونوری هم نیستم.

-پس چی‌؟ مجاهدی؟

-نه جانم، اون‌ها رو که ولشون کن.

- اهان...فهمیدم ! توده آی، فدأی خلق ، مارکسیست لنینیستی چیزی هستی‌!!

- نه عزیزم چپ که دیگه مرد!

- پس حتما هوادار بهایی‌ها و جهود‌ها هستی‌ !

- ببین دوست من ، من وقت برای این چیز‌ها ندارم.

- پس مرتیکه چرا بیخودی میگی‌ من ایرانیم! 

 


News Goffer

Dear Samsam

by News Goffer on

(There's something wrong with the spacing here and I can't seem to fix it after 30 minutes!  So I post it as is, sorry for the presentation!)  1.  Though I disagree with you on many points, I like you, so I'm glad you reacted to my blog.  I hope you're not mad at me!  Like I said, I was just glancing through comments yesterday and writing down words which I wanted to use in my blog. 2.  I don't know anything about your deleted comment, so I can't help you there.  It was there when I was putting my blog together yesterday at lunch time. 3.  I don't know why your comment was deleted.  I can take a stab at guessing the reaon, but please don't get mad at me!  In my opinion, none of the words  in your comment were impolite.  However, the sum of all those words put together included and implied a defamatory personal attack on Ms. Sepahpour Ulrich, whether you were aware of doing it or not.  Contrary to what you think, I don't think any of what you say about the IRI is the problem with that comment!  A lot worse comments abut IRI are published routinely. Your comment accuses Soraya of: a.  supporting the IRI, and therefore b.  not being a [n Iranian] nationalist.    I would say that's the reason why your comment may have been first "flagged as offensive" by another user and then removed.  On a personal note and as I mentioned before, Soraya works with her real name and you are a fictitious and virtual character, no matter how seriously we take you!  All of us have to be careful with the language we use to express our anger and our concern.  This is precisely the kind of sensitivity we all need to develop. Thanks Samsam. Souri Khanoom.  You may know that anybody on the site can flag a comment as "offensive."  This informs JJ that there is a problem he needs to consider on a published comment.  Though I didn't do it this time, I have personally flagged offensive comments on numerous occasions.  It's the least I can do to help elevate the quality of discourse on the site.  I think you should leave Ms. Sepahpour Ulrich out of this because if she were the kind to remove offensive remarks from her blogs, her posts wouldn't be jampacked with them!

ebi amirhosseini

Dear News Goffer

by ebi amirhosseini on

Ebi gives you a kolompeh,but:

Tu dahan har kasi ke harf bad bezaneh felfel mirizeh!


Kaveh Nouraee

Great Post

by Kaveh Nouraee on

Here is what I've been called:

Zio-Nazi: I'm not, but I do enjoy watching reruns of Hogan's Heroes.

An Agent of AIPAC: I'm neither an agent of AIPAC or a fan of Tupac, but in my refrigerator, I have a Heineken six pack.

Hypocrite Expatriate Iranian: Should read: HIP Expatriate Iranian

A Member of The $75 Million Dollar Club: I am still waiting on my check.

Pro Israeli: I'm not even an Amateur Israeli. But I do have a Jewish doctor, a Jewish lawywer and a Jewish CPA (well, he looks Jewish...but then again I got a great refund on my taxes last year)

Wanna-Be Eye-Ranian Equivalent Living in the West: What would be the equivalent? A You-Rainian?

There's more that I've been called, but kids might see this.


samsam1111

Souri Jan!

by samsam1111 on

 

Mercie nazanin!! atleast something is better than nothing.. to be fair..I don,t even care if she had it deleted..my beef was that If there is a new policy on how to call the regime.. The only reason I did comment here was because News Gopher took a few of my tags outa context and presented it as personal name calling..which in essence was absolutly not..those were the name tags I gave to IRI and not Another person . Pan Ommatist : Isn,t this regime,s agenda to unite the Ommah across middle east? how can it be an insult!..Khallifate? Isn,t Valieh Faghih for all purposes a Khallifate? How can it be an insult!...

bazam merci Souri goleh bolbol....

 


Souri

dear Samsam

by Souri on

I had read your comment and Mammad's reply. Now that you said that comment has been deleted from Soraya's article, I went back to check. Actually, yes, you are right. I didn't see that comment. My take is :

You won't get any answer about that, here in this blog. Better you send an email to JJ, at jj@iranian.com and ask him about the case.

I don't believe (personal view) any moderator would delete such a comment which has been indeed, politely and wisely replied. And if they do it, they would remove the comment from the article, immediately after it is posted. The length of the time which it took for that post to be deleted, make me think that (with all due respect to Mrs Sepahpour) she is herself one of the moderator, and that's she, herself who deleted your post, after a while of reflection.

Of course this is my own vision. I would suggest (if I could) that the moderator shall not have power on their own contribution.

We have seen this happening, a while ago, and that became really a disaster for the site, with all those revelation and accusation, it was horrible.

Anyway, hope someone will give you an answer, but I doubt it , because this is an unrelated subject to this blog. Out of rules !


samsam1111

To News Gopher and Editors whom I just found out

by samsam1111 on

Deleted my comments about IRI in a civil dialogue with Mammad  on Soraya,s article. Are you telling me that me writing this on that comment is name calling..

quote"" Dear mammad ..nationalist? how can You call some one who supports a Pan-Ommatist, Khallifate of Qadesiyeh which has crushed any trace of Iranic identity for last 30 years a nationalist? Mammad As I see you are a Protege of Dr Ali shariati and He above anything else was an honest man( mind you He is far from my idea of a patriot)..So please be honest and retract Your claime about Ms Soraya.. Thank You & kind Regards!!""

Mammad answered in a polite civil way that He can,t verify for sure and gave me a logical responce and I was satisfied with his reply..

Now my question to You all is  ..What part of my comment was impolite? Did You delete my comment because I called the IRI a Pan-Ommatist Khallifate? which is a fact and I invite you to prove it other wise...ARE WE FROM NOW ON SUPPOSED TO CALL IRI in a way that doesn,t offend them? So If We call IRI a  Dictatorship.khallifate, Pan-Ommatist , should we expect to get our comment deleted? Is this the new policy?

Regards! & I need an answer please !


News Goffer

Left Lap Poodle

by News Goffer on

You are very funny!  I have seen your posted comments in other places and they have always been a breath of fresh air (exhaled through a chuckle)!  Thank you for providing my cheat-sheet for future use!  Humor is the only remaining way to look at things as they stand, it seems, because to take those guys seriously is just too demoralizing.

Souri Khanoom, what blog?!  Can Left Lap Poodle post blogs?  I thought unregistered users couldn't!  I hope LLP registers and blogs for us, we could use the refreshing sense of humor.  Thanks for your comments Souri!


Souri

left lap poodle

by Souri on

I love your humour. Was very funny. BTW, why did you delete you blog this morning. I'd just wrote a long comment on it (worked about 10mn) then couldn't post it...page not found !:P)


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Here are the meanings

by Left lap poodle (not verified) on

IRI Apologist = Anyone who is not anti-IRI "to the bone"

IRI Apologist Socialists = A Socialist who is not anti-IRI "to the bone"

Zio-Nazi = Neocons

Zio-Nazi’s and their lackeys = Zionists and their lazy (to think) supporters

Pan-Ommatist = Omar Sharif fan club

Pan-Arabist = Arab nationalist

Khallifate of Qadesiyeh = Imam Hussein

A Mr Shariati protégé = JJ

A Leftist = left handed

Extreme Left Winger = Ralph Nader

An agent of AIPAC = An AIPAC sympathizer

An Islamist = A terrorist

A CASMII Lobbyist = An IRI apologist

Secret IRI agents = IRI apologists

A bunch of pro-Israelis = Zionists

Islamist Fundies = Chocolate sundae

Hypocrite expatriate Iranians = old Iranians

Tehrangelesi keyboardist warriors for freedom (TM) = Bored Iranian living in LA

Wanna-be Iranian equivilant living in the West = Those who think they should loudly claim they "are not Arab"

Tehrangelesi human rights "fighter" = Parviz Sayad

Nazi sympathizers = dead people

The semi-annual Iran visitor = A guest

Staunch supporter of AIPAC, recruited by the CIA as part of their Psy-Op activities = Someone who is looking for a CIA job

A defender of Islam and a backer of the Islamic regime of Iran = Ahmadinejad

The regular "reformed" backers of the Islamic regime = Khatami


News Goffer

JJ

by News Goffer on

Thanks so very much for putting in an appearance!  Thanks for sharing the anecdote, too.  Funny enough, I think that's exactly how I grew out of the same cuss-at-everything-phase in my life!  I wanted to say more because I had more to say! 

JJ, I have a question for you:  Why are you so lenient?  Whereas you defend freedom of speech to the best of your abilities (at least that's my personal observation and opinion), why do you not work hard enough to protect the site writers and members from slander, libel, public humiliation, and insults, AFTER they have dared to express their opinions?

Contrary to what everyone else is saying these days, we don't need guidelines, at least not for this particular area of concern.  In fact I think without prior announcement or explanation, your site moderators must start deleting comments which contain such labels and defamatory remarks in them.  It is one area where you don't need to explain and you don't need to serve notice--proper conduct and language is a very basic assumption in the real world.  Just do it!  The sooner you start this, the sooner you can start reaping the benefits of civilized discourse on your site, where people can have real dialogues, trust me. 

Have you ever tried to keep up with the fast pace of comments arriving on a hot political post?  I have tried it only a few times and feeling exhausted and demoralized, I have left the post, not caring to follow the dialogue anymore.  It's always just the same few users who remain on those threads because they are equally capable of this virtual mudslinging and a vulgar language which appears political but it isn't.  I would never want to step into a dialogue with most of them, not because I have nothing to say but because I don't want to use their selected vocabulary of hate and labels. 

Have you ever wondered how many other users feel the same way?


News Goffer

Eeronman

by News Goffer on

Thank you.  You make a point which is understandable, but not condonable.  I agree that many of those words and labels are to show the commentators' anger and emotions, but does that justify their usage? 

Let me ask you this Eeroonman:

You can blog and comment on this site with a made-up name.  Let's assume for a minute that you felt particularly moved and emotional to use such labels on a user on the site who is a published author, a university lecturer, and a well-known analyst who uses his full formal name to publish here.  How many times can you name him an agent of IRI or Mosad or CIA before he decides to defend his name and reputation?  All the colorful but anonymous registered users on this site, including myself, stand a very unfair advantage over the real entities who are individuals with their real names.  Iranian.com is not an isolated island.  It is a website that sits on the internet.  These days when employers and colleagues and every Tom, Dick, and Harry "googles" everyone, every petty and cheap shot Iranian.com users have taken on this individual will show up for eternity.  Would you prescribe the same for yourself Eeronman?

Yes, of the tens of people daily attacked and labeled by other users on the site, none have felt the need to sue.  All it takes for the show to end is for one person who feels indignant and fed up enough to do it.  Without looking at Iranian.com's books I am sure there are no resources available to fight such a lawsuit. 

Furthermore, why can't we pronounce and spell out that rage and those emotions?  Why do we have to call someone a name which is just as easily replaced by your suggested word of "a....le?"  Why?  Do we lack the vocabulary?  It most certainly doesn't look that way!

I believe JJ has to ban usage of certain kinds of words from the site.  If anyone calls anyone a Zio-Nazi, their comments should be deleted.  It looked really hard when JJ started moderating the comments on the site, but in time things worked out to a great extent and we left the Wild Wild West.

Thanks again for your thoughts.


eroonman

They all have the same meaning

by eroonman on

Although there are levels of extremity, and some may seem more emotional, angry and sad, specific and vague, I believe the one word that they all basically point to as evidenced by their particularly common use, particular tone of anger, and level of frustration, and personal connotation, is the all unifying definition that we actually seem to use far less than we probably should for improved overall cathartic therapy, is  A**hole.

The terms you noted are merely creative variations on this all too recurring theme.

Once you take it that way, you're far less inclined to sue, which is probably why there aren't any lawsuits given the number of seemingly unending libelous accusations that are made here on an hourly basis.


Jahanshah Javid

Hmm

by Jahanshah Javid on

What I would like to know is whether News Goffer is an Islamo-Fascist or a Zio-Nazi.

I'm Kidding!

I was talking to an Iranian guy the other day. He's an artist with great command and knowledge of the Persian language. He was saying that when he was a child, he was very "bad-dahan" and cursed constantly. His father was that way too.

The man I was talking to is now in his late 20s. He said recently he has been pushing himself to express his views more precisely. "For instance," he said, "I don't feel satisfied anymore when I say this article or that painting is kiri or tokhmi. I need to EXPLAIN WHY it's kiri or tokhmi."

To the average reader, "Islamo-Fascist" or "Zio-Nazi" are just curse words. It's mud-slinging. Those who resort to name-calling are in fact displaying their intolerance of opposing views by rejecting them with sweeping generalizations, rather than simple reason.


Souri

good post

by Souri on

I do agree with it. thank you.