Board Thread:General Wiki Discussion/@comment-24011918-20131214001227/@comment-24486926-20131216155133

The Bitter Cold wrote: CalasanX: I don't see calling something you don't like "That user named The Bitter Cold" is on par with referring to an inanimate object or a concept as "retarded." Enough with the analogies. They don't seem to be getting us anywhere. As for rape jokes, I don't think anyone is trying to defend their usage, just the right to apply the word "rape" to other things. In fact, an archaic usage of the word literally meant "to seize by force"!

Silverspots: I don't understand your analogies, nor do you understand mine. Both you and Calasan keep making up examples in which the word is either indirectly or directly targeted towards a person. For instance, in Calasan's example of pointing a gun with blanks at another person, the insult is being directed towards another human being. I tried to give analogies which the insults aren't being directed towards another person, but neither of you seem to understand them.

As for your objection to the filter, I know what you're talking about. After playing RuneScape for some six years, people will continually try get around the censor. However, this could not be done very well, and whenever someone managed to succeed, the word just looked silly after all the spaces and dollar signs. The moral of the story is you can evade a filter, but not to the extent where it would have the same effect as the original word.

ImGonnaBeThatGuy: Thank you for your well-written post which concisely summarizes what I have been trying to say this entire time.

I'm saying that equating your name to any bad thing, regardless of animation or sapiency, would eventually come back to bite you in the butt. The concept of a person who is "retarded" thinks of this the same way. It's offensive to them; pure and simple. As far as rape, "to seize by force," like you said, is the archaic definition. I think you know what's being referred to when we use the word rape.

You don't see an army saying they raped a city anymore, because the old definition is outdated. We're talking the modern definition of the word.