Quote:
Originally Posted by Trumbull
They can if they want, especially if the expressed intent is to offend someone. Of course, this deviates from the rest of the discussion because the intent is clearly irrelevant in your side's argument.
I'm a German descendant (my mother was from there) and I don't care.
But keep in mind that you're not comparing apples with apples.
Someone trying to name a team Nazi under your terms would be using it under the intent to offend Germans. This was not the intent with the Redskins. Redskin isn't exactly a common word in the US. Even in discussions I've had with people from the DC area, neither myself, nor anyone I've talked to, has actually heard someone use the word Redskin in a derogatory fashion. I kinda think in a rational world, one takes something as derogatory when that's the expressed intent of that used word. The will to tell others what words they can and can't use, and to define things for other people, has always existed too. So läuft der Hase.
But anyways, it was an interesting discussion.
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How do you know that's my intent? It's not like Nazi has always been a derogatory word. What if I just really admired how fierce of an opponent they were? My intent is to honour the German people by using a word that recognizes when they were military powerhouse.
EDIT: There are a number reasons why it's not an apt analogy, but intent isn't one of them.