Bill Maher 6/9/17

[Neo-Scholastic]

When you call someone a retard you are drawing a comparison between the person whom you are insulting and the mentally challenged.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

For clarification, go to any black neighborhood and call everyone a nigger. You will figure out on your own why you can't call them that.

You know what they say, hands on experience beats them all.

[Brian37]

When you call someone a retard you are drawing a comparison between the person whom you are insulting and the mentally challenged.

We have already explained to you why with that particular word you are wrong. Please stop ignoring our posts.

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I agree, in the context of saying "retard" to someone merely saying something that is bullshit and factless, it is saying you are resistant to facts, much like if you are fireman wearing flame resistant cloths, you are retarding the fire. We are not equating the person to being mentally challenged, we are saying your desire dreamy eyed delusion is causing one to retard facts in favor of naked assertions.

"retard" also has the definition of deflecting something, and that definition has nothing to do with stigmatizing the mentally challenged. 

Just like the word "fly" can refer to an insect, but also can mean "that person is sexy, or is wearing something amazing, or owns something amazing."

"I am going to kill that fly"

"That women is fly"

"That suit the guy is wearing is fly"

Just like the word "gay" can be used as a slur. Long before it was, it merely meant happy. And even today gay can be used as merely meaning happy, or it can also be used as a slur, or it also can be used to refer to someones sexuality.

CONTEXT matters. I really do get down on the all or nothing attitude. If you don't know how someone is using a word, ask, don't assume.

My dictionary does not say that fly can be about someone's "fly" clothing, and I think this makes you a hypocrite. "Nigger" to me has many meanings, and to me it isn't even necessarily referring to black people. Language has evolved and the word nigger can be used in many different ways, kind of like the word fuck. I use nigger as a term of endearment for my white best friend, so the word doesn't even necessarily mean "black person". It can just mean any person, and you can't tell me that I'm wrong about that definition because you brought slang into this with the word "fly". When I say "that's so gay" or "stop being such a fag", in slang that means "that's so lame" or "stop being so annoying". Why can you use the slang version of fly but I can't use the slang version of gay? Homosexuals do not own that word. Some words in the english language have over 400 definitions, so why can't the word gay have more than two definitions (homosexual and happy)? Language evolves, as you obviously understand with your use of the slang term fly.

And about the Hitler thing, Christians do not equate us to Hitler. They use Hitler and others as a response to our claim that religion causes a lot of death/ poisons everything. They are just making the point that atheists do bad things too. It's no different than if I were to point out that Hitler was a vegetarian. By doing that I wouldn't be trying to say that all vegetarians are as bad as Hitler.

Um I agree language evolves over time. I am not sure we are in complete disagreement here. I agree that "nigger" can be used in certain contexts, like discussing the history of the word, or between people as a term of endearment. That is why I don't say "never" but depends on context of usage.

But I really don't know your long term experience with Christians, but if you think many don't equate atheists to dictators, then you don't have the same long term sample rate I do. I myself have run into Christians especially older ones who DO equate Stalin and Hitler and Po Pot as being godless, and that does stem from the cold war era. Maybe most here you run into dont, or maybe you live in a more liberal part of the west, but there most certainly are those Christians who do flip out when you divulge your position. The more well intended will say, "godlessness leads to dictators", the bigots will flat out call you "commie".

I cannot tell you how many Christians in my 16 years on COUNTLESS pages HAVE said Stalin and Hitler and Po Pot were atheists and how many times I have had to argue that their populations were not. I've also had to argue with Christians about the religious makeup of Cuba which is a majority Catholic.

And even with Hitler, that is just absurd to say no Christian has ever claimed Hitler was an atheist, I have seen plenty claim that. 

Just the word "atheist" alone can cause fear in some theists, you don't even have to mention politics or economics. I've had a guy try to have me fired from my pizza delivery job because his son saw my atheist bumper sticker. I also once had another guy outside a laundry mat repeatedly scream at me "WHY DON'T YOU BELIEVE, WHY DON'T YOU BELIEVE"... I am quite sure others here can tell you even worse stories. 

I would suggest you hang out at conservative pages and see how long you last there if you think no Christian ever argues the things I know they do and they do.

[Neo-Scholastic]

You know what they say, hands on experience beats them all.

You used hands on and beat in the same sentence...he...he...he...

---

When you call someone a retard you are drawing a comparison between the person whom you are insulting and the mentally challenged.

We have already explained to you why with that particular word you are wrong. Please stop ignoring our posts.

I read your rationalization and I'm not buying it. I doubt very much that you are thinking of fire-retardant anything when you say retard.

[Brian37]

You know what they say, hands on experience beats them all.

You used hands on and beat in the same sentence...he...he...he...

---

We have already explained to you why with that particular word you are wrong. Please stop ignoring our posts.

I read your rationalization and I'm not buying it. I doubt very much that you are thinking of fire-retardant anything when you say retard.

I could give one shit less if you want to believe me, that is your baggage, not mine. You don't get to decide for me the thoughts in my head.

What you are doing is as fucking stupid as going over to England and insisting nobody say "fag". You'd be the idiot insisting they mean a gay slur when it means smoke.

Now ask me if I give a fuck what you think.

In this context as I used it has NOTHING to do with making fun of mentally challenged. Not going to let you get away with putting thoughts in my head that are not there.

[Neo-Scholastic]

That's good because I don't.

[Brian37]

That's good because I don't.

I thought you put me on ignore, but you know what, I can use mine. Had too much nonsense from you on other subjects with you anyway.

[paulpablo]

For clarification, go to any black neighborhood and call everyone a nigger. You will figure out on your own why you can't call them that.

You know what they say, hands on experience beats them all.

Seriously though pool there's different levels to this topic.

1) There's people who find me typing the word nigger right now in order to have this conversation to be offensive.  

2) There's the kind of person who thinks that calling anyone including themselves that word to be offensive even in the context of a joke.

3) This 3rd option is the one I take, which is that I know it offends people so I avoid using it but in the right circumstances I think it's genuinely funny. I also think it's illogical to be offended in the context of describing a racist situation that happened to be offended if the word nigger is mentioned. If I'm among adults and I want to say "Someone wrote shithead on that wall over there." I'm going to assume that everyone listening to me is going to be intelligent and emotionally stable enough to handle the word "shit" being mentioned and no one will think I'm calling them that word because I mentioned it in a sentence.

Your statement here adds up to nothing though.

You're basically saying those black people are violent so don't say anything that might offend them.

You could say the exact same thing about why you shouldn't be an atheist in Afghanistan.  It's not a moral or intellectual argument, it's just fear of a violent reprisal.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

I don't understand the obsession of whites to want to openly use that word. It was a word used by slave masters to refer to black slaves.
Why would you want to use it?

I mean, there are certain subtexts, right? When you call someone an asshole the subtext is "Your actions were shitty therefore you're an ass". When you use the N word, it's a reminder to everyone that just heard you use it that whites used to be the slave masters of blacks. Do you think any sane black person would want to be reminded that because his forefathers were born with black skin they were destined to be used as slaves for the purpose of white people? That's a clear disrespect to them and their forefathers. Times have changed. You just can't use the word, yeah, tough shit, deal with it.

[FFaith]

You know what they say, hands on experience beats them all.

You used hands on and beat in the same sentence...he...he...he...

---

We have already explained to you why with that particular word you are wrong. Please stop ignoring our posts.

I read your rationalization and I'm not buying it. I doubt very much that you are thinking of fire-retardant anything when you say retard.

Yeah, you're right about that. People using retard are not talking about "retarding" facts like one would a fire. If that's how Bryan says he is using it, I take him at his word and accept that, but I'm pretty sure most aren't using retarded like that. They don't mean it as an insult to mentally handicapped people either, but you are right to point out the hypocrisy. Do I think being mentally disabled is a negative? Yes, it is. I think it's undesirable and so what if I call an argument retarded or whatever or compare someone's argument to a mentally disabled person. That in no way implies that I dislike mentally disabled people and don't have compassion for them and their families. It just means that I'm acknowledging that retardation is a negative. It's like if I call someone's argument lame or crazy. That doesn't mean I hate all people that are physically lame or "crazy". I'm just using those terms as negatives because they are, and if I were to accept that offending any group of people is unacceptable, I'd be left with no other insult to use but "that's a bad argument", assuming no one is offended by the use of the word "bad".

---

When you call someone a retard you are drawing a comparison between the person whom you are insulting and the mentally challenged.

We have already explained to you why with that particular word you are wrong. Please stop ignoring our posts.

---

My dictionary does not say that fly can be about someone's "fly" clothing, and I think this makes you a hypocrite. "Nigger" to me has many meanings, and to me it isn't even necessarily referring to black people. Language has evolved and the word nigger can be used in many different ways, kind of like the word fuck. I use nigger as a term of endearment for my white best friend, so the word doesn't even necessarily mean "black person". It can just mean any person, and you can't tell me that I'm wrong about that definition because you brought slang into this with the word "fly". When I say "that's so gay" or "stop being such a fag", in slang that means "that's so lame" or "stop being so annoying". Why can you use the slang version of fly but I can't use the slang version of gay? Homosexuals do not own that word. Some words in the english language have over 400 definitions, so why can't the word gay have more than two definitions (homosexual and happy)? Language evolves, as you obviously understand with your use of the slang term fly.

And about the Hitler thing, Christians do not equate us to Hitler. They use Hitler and others as a response to our claim that religion causes a lot of death/ poisons everything. They are just making the point that atheists do bad things too. It's no different than if I were to point out that Hitler was a vegetarian. By doing that I wouldn't be trying to say that all vegetarians are as bad as Hitler.

Um I agree language evolves over time. I am not sure we are in complete disagreement here. I agree that "nigger" can be used in certain contexts, like discussing the history of the word, or between people as a term of endearment. That is why I don't say "never" but depends on context of usage.

But I really don't know your long term experience with Christians, but if you think many don't equate atheists to dictators, then you don't have the same long term sample rate I do. I myself have run into Christians especially older ones who DO equate Stalin and Hitler and Po Pot as being godless, and that does stem from the cold war era. Maybe most here you run into dont, or maybe you live in a more liberal part of the west, but there most certainly are those Christians who do flip out when you divulge your position. The more well intended will say, "godlessness leads to dictators", the bigots will flat out call you "commie".

I cannot tell you how many Christians in my 16 years on COUNTLESS pages HAVE said Stalin and Hitler and Po Pot were atheists and how many times I have had to argue that their populations were not. I've also had to argue with Christians about the religious makeup of Cuba which is a majority Catholic.

And even with Hitler, that is just absurd to say no Christian has ever claimed Hitler was an atheist, I have seen plenty claim that. 

Just the word "atheist" alone can cause fear in some theists, you don't even have to mention politics or economics. I've had a guy try to have me fired from my pizza delivery job because his son saw my atheist bumper sticker. I also once had another guy outside a laundry mat repeatedly scream at me "WHY DON'T YOU BELIEVE, WHY DON'T YOU BELIEVE"... I am quite sure others here can tell you even worse stories. 

I would suggest you hang out at conservative pages and see how long you last there if you think no Christian ever argues the things I know they do and they do.

I'm glad we seem to agree for the most part.

I have seen many Christians say that most atheists aren't moral people or that we don't have a moral compass. I know we are often stereotyped as being people who just hate God or that we're just a bunch of devil worshippers. I know that some bring up Hitler and say that this is what a lack of godliness can lead to, but that's not the same as equating us all to Hitler. Maybe at times they use Hitler and other dictators to be representatives for atheism, but we kind of do the same thing when we say stuff like "science builds skyscrapers and religion knocks them down". There are plenty of good religious people but we often choose to focus on the Bin Laden's or the molesting catholic priests. It doesn't bother me when Christians bring up Hitler being an atheist, but of course you are right to point out to them that Hitler did not kill anyone in the name of atheism like many have killed in the name of religion.

As far as the word atheist being offensive, I've never seen any atheist get offended by the use of the word. I know that Neil Degrasse Tyson doesn't like being called it, but that's because he doesn't like the baggage that comes with it, not about the word itself being offensive.