The other side:
What do you mean “useless”? I just learnt something Kapital!
Now who will redraw our little Adolph emoticons as the yellow-stained hysteric with a goatie who massacred even more people, and quietly died in his bed from advanced syphilis? Vladimir Ilyich rules!
See, it appears here the dictator is not Rich, but the Proletariate. However, comrade Rich has just been reeducated and made his public autocritic. We can write him the resolution for renewal of our confidence.
Let him be known as Oulianov not H***, so there can’t be more polititcheski korrektnyï of a Little Father of All People, since Dictators are for them no-good lewd capitalistic vipers. :roll:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
Hmm… let’s give it a try, shall we? 
Rich put those icons in there because he’s a closet Nazi.
Done. This thread is as good as dead now!
g
-The fuhrer smiley should go to hell. It trivializes the horrors
of one the biggest butchers of the 20th century. Put it on a poster we can pull down and piss on.
-Cranberry, I don’t think people (or me at least) are irritated by the winkie face due to sexual or gender issues, but because the wink is based on real or presumed familiarity. The familiarity of the wink can be irritating without established cred. We are a clique-ish species, prone to passing strangers through our in-group/out-group filters. We are also a savage lot, responding fearsomely to trespassers over the in/out group barrier.
-I use’em too.
Yah, but Glauber, you forgot:
Nevertheless, there is also a widely-recognized codicil that any intentional invocation of Godwin’s Law for its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful.
But we’ll see if you can disprove this codicil…
Wait a minute…think I just blew that. 
And no I’m not trying to get fresh with you…
Well, I didn’t ask what you’d do about them, I asked what you’d make of them. It sounds to me like you’d regard them as pretty sick. That was precisely my point.
You seem to be suggesting, though, that what makes them sick is their obsessiveness rather than the particular content of their obsession. I don’t accept that. I don’t see any harm in collecting model trains, or barbed wire (yes, people do) or whistles. I am not so happy about people obsessed with Nazi memorabillia. But I didn’t say I’d want to ban it or act against them. I might not shun them for that alone; I might be curious to know what was behind the obsession.
Since nobody here is using, let alone abusing, the emoticons in question, the issue of how you or I would treat them hasn’t yet arisen.
If you don’t want me butting in telling collectors of Nazi memorabillia they are sick, what business have you telling Jews and others offended by the emoticons that they are too thin skinned and prescribing a remedy? Also, if you don’t think that ethnic stereotyping and abuse could be part of the life of this board, check out a thread a couple of years ago on travellors, a clan from which I’m also descended. There have been other isolated incidents when Native Americans have been stereotyped and gratuitously insulted. You would also notice that all of us (who were targets by implication) replied with considerably more self control and restraint than those doing the stereotyping. So, I’m not saying that you might not have a point about strategies in the passage I quoted—I think you do—I’m just saying that you’re not being consistent.
In any event, you did take me somewhat out of context. I made it clear that I wasn’t advocating anything more than self censorship and that I accept that Rich makes the rules around here. I simply thought that several people were missing the point of Paul’s objection and I still do.
Bless you, Walden!
Amen, Wombat! It’s hard to realize that anyone doesn’t see that the Hitler emoticons seem to “honor” a man responsible for nearly decimating an entire race of people, plus countless others … simply because he could. IMO they are in extremely bad taste, inside joke or not.
~Judy
And I said I think obsession is unhealthy. I did go on to say some other things which, believe it or not, weren’t in direct response. In other words, I didn’t ask what you did or didn’t ask.
I do.
Collecting, no. Obsessing, yes. Watching a particular movie everyday or “filling one’s house” with a particular thing be it Nazi items or Disney items, I would call obsession, but that depends a lot on the value and importance placed on the object. Someone may “fill their house” with Nazi items because they think they agree with those philosophies, another may do it as a reminder of the atrocities. “Harm”? I guess for me that would depend on whether you mean harm to self or others. Obsessiveness tends to harm the obsessive.
I didn’t say you shouldn’t, I said they shouldn’t be stopped. Call them sick all you want. I was explaining how I prefer to handle communication that displeases or offends me.
I also didn’t say that.
I think you’re just not reading consistently. I made no pretense at being consistent or absolute, nor was I delivering a sermon. I’m merely expressing an opinion and verbalizing my thoughts on the issue, thus my excessive use of “I think”, “I believe”, etc. just to avoid bruising someone.
I apologize if I seemed to take you out of context. That wasn’t my intent. I agree on the “self censorship” point. I don’t oppose someone’s objection to someone else’s expression. Object away. Words are just words.
Parcour, that was completely uncalled for. Paul has apparently had the good sense to stop posting in this thread (and I hope also reading it), so what’s the use of making provocative statements like that? I’m not sure why I’m reading it, other than morbid curiosity as to how far some people will go…
Robin
I agree. It was completely out of line, and has nothing whatsoever to do with this thread.
Redwolf
Warning
The following is a joke, and not intended to be taken seriously
Even though I am one of the subjects of this thread, I am locking it in hopes that some cooling down will occur and, frankly, to buy some time. This is seriously complicated and I have known about it for about 30 minutes. I drove back from N.C. today (my daughter graduated from college yesterday) and I am just unable to deal with this issue tonight. I may not be able to deal with tomorrow either. Just trust me: It’s even more complicated than meets the eye.
Dale
P.S. I deleted the post by Parcour.