Subject: Re: wide array of death euphemisms- icebreaker?

[Mark A. Mandel]

Kara Everman writes:

>>>>>
  I had every intention to use the inappropriate and quite obviously
absent punctuation in this post. This was the first post I had ever
made on this list.  I guess you could say that my first post was a
test to see how the people in this group would respond. I know this
isn't a social group but a community of scholars. I assure you,
however, that the student is doing her job. I did not have any idea
that I would be burned at the stake for intentionally forgetting a
period. The first message I posted was an icebreaker to me of some
sort. I suppose that my idea of an "icebreaker" is the idea of
something crude, horrible, and disgusting to quite a few pompous
stiffs. I thought the idea of this list was to celebrate people who
are interested in linguistics and to share at least one common
denominator that I could call "word wit." Now instead of celebrating
the beauty and flexibility of the English language here I find myself
feeling degraded and, "picked out," as a middle schooler may feel when
they are the last person left standing that no one wants on their
team. I am a twenty-four year old student at a regular college. I
would like to address in this post that of words a statement had been
made: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never harm
me."
 <<<<<

Well, you've just had a lesson: social customs differ from one
subculture to another. What works as an icebreaker for you and your
peers doesn't work here. That's the way of the world. Know this: you
and your friends and colleagues and those you hang out with are not
typical of the world.

Neither are the participants of this list. Our way of getting along
with each other is not the same as everybody else's in the world. But
we know it, and you evidently don't. This is called parochialism, and
nobody is immune to it.

Ignorance is not in itself a sin, and neither is the particular type
of ignorance that constitutes parochialism. What IS a sin, or an
offense, or a kind of rudeness, is persistent refusal to learn. Please
learn this. You will be welcome on this list if you... well, instead
of repeating them I will just refer you to the comments that your
posts here so far have evoked from other people as well as myself.


>>>>>
I do believe that it is the intention of some scholars to master
the English language so that they can cruelly manipulate and subjugate
their peers and coeds. This psychological emotional sadistic
projection of emotion is probably an entirely different government
list. Semantics of the articulated phonetic sounds within the English
language have very little to do with the speakers, or communicators,
actual intentions. If a scholar wants to humiliate a layman, that
scholar will never come out and actually say, "I am trying to
humiliate you." The communicator can carefully manipulate the
semantics of his language to make his humiliation his coed seem
innocent and unintentional.  Oversensitivity to case sensitivity can
simply be an communicative emotional handicap.

Sincerely,
Kara Everman -
JuSt AnOtHeR nAmElEssS fAcElEsS nUmBeR iN tHe CrOwD oF mAnY

<<<<<

Forget it, kid, you ain't gonna guilt-trip us. We are not your
classroom bullies. Believe it or not, it's your choice. Read the above
and learn. If you don't believe us, I'm done wasting my time with
you. I give trolls one chance to reform, maybe more in some cases, but
I don't tell them in advance how far they can push me. Any more shit
from you and you're on my kill file.

-- Mark A. Mandel
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]