Was it a bit much, calling anti-abortionists “Nazi“?
If it were, I would not necessarily find that out. A looks over, turns away slightly, then walks off, B following going “What?
“What?” though A is silent. Here, I only have the benefit of words, not looks, and silence could be awestruck admiration.
Perhaps you thought it spot-on. There was that line which went about a few months ago- if you were really “Pro-life”, you would not be so keen on the Death Penalty, invading other countries, etc. It is a brilliant line, I wish I had come up with it, but what I lacked in originality I made up with in invective and anger.
No, those against abortion are not Nazi. I had a friend who did some voluntary work for that cause, and she was lovely. Case proved.
Is it some other anger and bitterness which manifests itself in this outburst? Was it just a misjudgment, to start a post on The Producers and have nowhere else to go with it?
I came across a blog which said that Christians should not praise, celebrate or mourn Nelson Mandela. So I commented, asking “Did he do any good at all?” and got back the answer no. The Left says the Right should not appropriate him, and some question whether a torturer should escape prison just because he confessed his acts, or whether apartheid is completely dead when white South Africans have so much more wealth than black South Africans. Who needs a law to enforce that a poor man cannot go to an expensive restaurant?
Channel 4 News dug out Terry Dicks, who said Mandela was a “terrorist”. But right-wingers who wore “Hang Nelson Mandela” tshirts in the 1980s are entitled to praise his adroitly avoiding civil war in the 1990s, if not to appropriate it. Everyone was Dreyfusard by 1910, but those who had been wrong about Dreyfus had moved on to be wrong about other things.
Even when the whole world is indulging in warm fuzzies over Madiba, there are angry people about, being angry. President Obama shook hands with President Castro, and Terry Dicks talks of execution.
I have this view of myself as irenic and accepting, and I can do that, and I get angry and sarky (Br.Eng- US.Eng is “snarky”, I understand) about Homophobic Bigots, and yesterday about those who imagine themselves pro-life.
I didn’t think you called anti-abortionists Nazi, rather that you were drawing parallels between extremes of thought, polarisation, black and white viewpoints etc etc. But I’m hardly likely to get wound up about any criticism of anti-abortionists who maybe should be renamed Denial of Choice Activists.
I’ve often thought about the irony of being anti-abortion under the guise of ‘pro-life’ and the invasion of other countries (‘justified’ by lies and deception) and the death penalty, but I guess it all depends on your perspective. If you ie one does believe in those three principles there will be nothing illogical about it. In fact there is a neat theme running through all three. It’s called anti-choice, anti-freedom of the individual, and ‘I know better’ – to the extent of imposing those views on other people and other countries. Look at it that way and it all makes perfect sense.
I’m not good on American English/Americanese. I sort of understood snarky to be more like cranky or peevish but that may be because I don’t associate sarcasm, irony or a dry sense of humour with America.
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I think it is onomatopoeic, from the sound of a snorting laugh given at a sarcastic mal mot. Perhaps we should ask an American. Several drop by here.
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Surely that would be snorty?
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Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
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I like you 😉 You are so … well, there. You rock.
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You say the nicest things, dear.
I don’t know how much time you, as an American in Paris, spend in England, but can you say whether snarky means sarky (or vice versa)?
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I’m from New York … though I live full-time now in Paris. I do use the word and I say “sarky.” I’ve never heard anyone say snarky (which sounds like Lewis Carroll’s (Jabberwocky). We use it as short-hand for sarcastic … so snarky wouldn’t really work. Sorry … didn’t mean to write War and Peace !
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Guerre et paix always welcome. This logophile pronounces that snarky equals sarky, though there is snark but no sarc.
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Ha! I love it. The vicissitudes of pronunciation in Britain always flummoxed me. My first partner (from the age of 18) was English .. we met at university. I was forever complaining that, for example, if Keighly was pronounced Keef-lee, then shouldn’t Brighton be pronounced Brif-tonne. He was not amused.
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I have heard that in Milngavie
the people are reserved and shy
in every house there is a slavie
taught to call the place Milngavie
On an 18th century map it is written Mulguy. Enough! Although how would you say Slough?
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I know to pronounce it as something like Slay-ow … but I’d want to say … well, as you aptly put it. Enough! Very funny. 😉
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