Originally Posted by chicagofrog
did i say "more beautiful"? that's exactly my point, it's just like any of other words.
if A says to B to "****** off" that's offensive. if A speaks to himself cuz something slipped from his hand and says "******", i don't see the offence in the word. some people though would say "******" is an offensive word, full stop. not mentioning what contxt it becomes offensive in.
i don't now that i have to justify an opinion about such obvious a thing, especially since adidass said himself he was sorry if he hurt the feelings of anyone.
Yes, he did apologize and nobody seems to have a gripe with him, but you chimed in at that point to suggest that we americans (and since I was the one american who'd reacted to his choice of words, I'm thinking that meant me) were too dull to understand his meaning. This was not the case, as he clearly stated that his usage of the word "elitist" was "bad" when he said it.
if you read a book about, let's say, an ancient Japanese traditional martial art school that has a very elitist selection or a very elitist final test to get the black belt, i don't see any offence in the word itself. it just means it'll be hard to get the black belt, maybe even too hard and the sensei/teacher should be "more cool", but why would you see so much hate and all kinda negative feelings behind what is just a word?
"Hate"? You are overblowing the whole thing, in a very transparent attempt to paint the reaction as irrational. I certainly don't hate adidasss. I found his description to be not only inaccurate, but insulting to people who have been nice to him. I'm glad to see that he simply chose the wrong word, and that he is aware that people have welcomed him here. It is you who chose to be rude, and it's very clear that you're doing so under the guise of not liking americans.
The definition of "elite" is as you have given it, a non-judgemental term. But the definition of "elitist" is as follows, per
www.dictionary.com:
eˇlitˇism or éˇlitˇism ( P ) Pronunciation Key (-ltzm, -l-)
n.
The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.
The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.
Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class.
So, not only is the standard definition of the word insulting, but he knew his usage of the word would be.
Don't try and change it around now, it's all clearly visable upthread.
like i said, if you want to directly insult me for a post about an opinion i wrote about without having attacked anyone in particular, come on and drop the bomb onto me like your president has a cute penchant to do when people are not with him, they're against him.
Utter crap. This is, ironically, exactly what you are doing.
elitist to me doesn't mean you think you are better, it means you want a system/school/government/anything that want people to want to improve. in the example given above, it would be those martial artists that are not the best yet (and don't think the are either) but are trying their best to become it, with the exclusion of those who are lazy and are not trying to improve. i try to improve my skills in languages, music, martial arts, etc... whatever i dedicate myself to. if my wanting to improve myself and the reality check that i'll do better WITH people who have the same goal appears to you as a synonym for considering oneself superior to others, then yes, words don't mean anything anymore.
plus there's a huge step between knowing you're better at something than someone and believing you're superior to that person in everything (this last way of thinking being completely unrealistic and stupid).
That's great. You implied that others don't.
the svastika is a symbol for the nazis in Germany like it is for buddhism in India and for paganism in the baltic countries and Euskadi. words are the same, you may offend some people with them, while they mean an entirely different thing elsewhere. but since people move nowadays a lil bit more often (and faster) than 300 years ago, it wouldn't be totally useless in my humble opinion to open the mind of people teaching them that symbols, pictures, words, can mean different things, can be offensive or not depending on the place, the people they come from/are used by, the context...
gosh, poor directors that make a movie that's considered offensive. at least they get some money for it at the end, and publicity.
Your rudeness has nothing to do with the Germans or "offensive" directors. Don't try and pull all these people in with you.