Advisory referendum

[Rory]

All due respect to the mods, who do a great job, but should any word be censored on H&V?

We are all intelligent men and women, surely we can accept that any word can be used in the proper context?

I respect other opinions on this, but for me, to argue otherwise is to deny the existence of certain forms of expression. The only way words can be offensive is in their context and intent.

But then I'm an English graduate, so may be a precious ******.

(I know however this poll goes, it's the prerogative of the mods to decide, as it should be.)

[Rory]

Like a Russian election, pretty definitive, I'd say...

[algy]

This feels like it’s a larger and more complex question than a simple yes/no answer.

In principle, no. I think any word can be used in a context where it shouldn’t be deemed offensive. For example, there’s a word typically associated with the slave trade in America that we’llsay is “nigella seeds” for the purposes of this discussion. So someone saying that great uncle barnaby had a favourite dog called Nigella Seeds. The context of that is such that, assuming the people hearing it are aware of the undertones of “nigella seeds”, I don’t think it’s particularly offensive.

However, the thing is that the context that you’d talk about Nigella seeds in that way appears so rarely - and in any case is so open to misinterpretation when it’s not a face-to-face discussion - that I can’t see why you’d risk allowing it on a football forum. Maybe you might be more relaxed about it on a forum focussed on dog names from 100 years ago, since that context would be appear far more often.

[Rory]

This feels like it’s a larger and more complex question than a simple yes/no answer.

In principle, no. I think any word can be used in a context where it shouldn’t be deemed offensive. For example, there’s a word typically associated with the slave trade in America that we’llsay is “nigella seeds” for the purposes of this discussion. So someone saying that great uncle barnaby had a favourite dog called Nigella Seeds. The context of that is such that, assuming the people hearing it are aware of the undertones of “nigella seeds”, I don’t think it’s particularly offensive.

However, the thing is that the context that you’d talk about Nigella seeds in that way appears so rarely - and in any case is so open to misinterpretation when it’s not a face-to-face discussion - that I can’t see why you’d risk allowing it on a football forum. Maybe you might be more relaxed about it on a forum focussed on dog names from 100 years ago, since that context would be appear far more often.

Got it! You mean 'nigger'.

[Stu]

Time for bed, Rory.