Path: casaba.srv.cs.cmu.edu!stress.sensor.ri.cmu.edu!user From: corwin+@cmu.edu (Scott A. Safier) Newsgroups: soc.culture.bulgaria,soc.motss Subject: Re: Bulgarians/Homophobia Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 11:18:12 -0500 Organization: Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon Univ Lines: 51 Message-ID: References: <4ikt9b$itf@netnews.upenn.edu> <31505C47.6225@acc.fau.edu> <4iqldn$6ss@news.nyu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: u.gp.cs.cmu.edu X-Newsreader: Yet Another NewsWatcher 2.0.2 Xref: u.gp.cs.cmu.edu soc.culture.bulgaria:29101 soc.motss:367666 In article ,Kroum Stoev wrote: ! I always thought that Murphy's law applied only to a person and not to a ! nation. I guess I was wrong. THe cool guys from the fraternities and the ! hot girls from the sororities call themselves Greek. I haven't heard a ! Greek being offended. This is at least the third time I have seen this totally illogical argument. On s.c.b, our friend Ivan wrote: In article <314DDF24.601B@mindspring.com>, Crazy wrote: ! The word "nigger" was also used in the 20's and the 30's to indicate ! black Americans and it also had historical significance. But it had to go ! away because it was found to be offensive to the large majority of blacks. ! The fact that the slave-owners disliked the idea and the fact that few ! racists here and there continue to use it, does not make it less improper. ! ! One can argue that "nigger'" comes from "negro" and "negro" is a ! proper and accepted term to designate Afro-Americans, but no one does so! ! Similarly, all the bullshit about the history and the supposed meaning of the ! word "Bulgarian", "bougre", "bugger" and Bogomils is totally irrelevant ! (apart from being simplistic and giving convinient, but wrong answers.) Three statements are being compared: gays called Bulgarians frats called Greeks negroes called niggers Each of these are obviously of the form (A relation B) where: the relation is "called", the As are "gays", "frats" and "negroes", and the Bs are "Bulgarians", "Greeks" and "niggers". Both Ivan and Kroum mix their analogies. Kroum says he has never heard of a person of Greek descent being upset that fraternities are called "Greeks", yet he is upset because another group is called "Bulgarians". Ivan's analogy is that being called Bulgarians is like being called "nigger" (a strange argument for a Bulgarian to make). It has also been argued that the "called" relationship is invertable. This is obviously false -- ethnic Greeks are not called "frats" for example. Scott, hoping logic is not based on ethnicity also -- Scott Safier Robotics Institute internet: corwin+@cmu.edu Carnegie Mellon Univ. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/scotts/www/