This is kind of an interesting thread. Lazs' first couple responses made me spit soda on my monitor. You little ... bastard!
I think Moot brings up a good point. Why is it not OK to abbreviate the word Japanese to Jap (which btw, I had never thought of as being deragatory, learn something new every day), but it is perfectly fine to make fun of the French? I don't, as a general rule, attempt to belittle other people, but some less enlightened people have attempted to turn it into a spectator sport on Channel 1. Although I haven't flown lately, the first thing I've done every time I've flown for the past month or so is squelch 1.
I guess my question isn't really to FD, because I can understand his point of view perfectly well. My question is to all the people that came flying out of the woodwork in support of him, but ignored two screenshots of folks insulting/poking fun at Moots country of origin. Why is OK to belittle/insult/poke fun at the French (who by the way were on OUR side during the war- well, most of them were anyway; and who bled and died resisting the Nazi's)... but not ok to insult/belittle/poke fun (even unintentionally) at the Japanese- who were decidely NOT on our side and who comitted numerous and well documented atrocities against civilian populations in every country they occupied?
By the way FD, this is not a personal indictment of you- I realize you had absolutely nothing to do with World War Two, and I don't think you bear any responsibility at all for your relative's actions during the war. That isn't to say the Japanese should forget about them.. I think they should make very sure that the lessons learned in WW2 are never forgotten. But again, it would be foolish to hold THIS generation of Japanese personally responsible for the actions of the Japanese 60 years ago.
