OFF-TOPIC (slightly): How is this not racism?

Discussion in 'Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, & the former Soviet Repu' started by Shurik, Sep 30, 2003.

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  1. Zenit

    Zenit Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 3, 2000
    Above the Tear Line
    Club:
    Zenit St Petersburg
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I didn't say Shurik is Zealot. I find 99% of what Shurik writes to be witty, poignant, entertaining & (to say the very least) very well written. I probably would read S-E only 2-3 times a year if it wasn't for Shurik's contributions.

    However -- it is my opinion that Shurik is a talented enough journalist to recognize when something is a "mean spirited joke" (or, not so mean spirited), and when something is meant in earnest to be hurtful.

    Shurik -- last time I checked, Caple didn't refer to any one in his article as a "damned ch***aya zh**a", "*#*#*#*#*#*#ing zh*d," etc., etc. Big Difference! Yes, he referenced some very popular, and uneducated, stereotypes, and I did also think that the reference to the 900 Days was out of place -- but God blast it any way, don't tell me you've lost all sense of perception with regards to what is meant as tongue in cheek vs. what is meant as racism, in your never-ending quest to skewer a sport which you cannot stand.

    As you may or may not do, I read plenty of the Russian newspapers & periodicals online; Kommersant, Kom. Pravda, Izvestiya, Chas Pik,Ogonyok, etc. If I got offended everytime there was a negative American stereotype tossed about in any of those & others -- well, I guess I wouldn't be reading any of them very much longer. It is called being able to separate the wheat from the chaff, my friend.
     
  2. Zenit

    Zenit Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 3, 2000
    Above the Tear Line
    Club:
    Zenit St Petersburg
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Oh, yes...one more thing.



    Go Twins.
     
  3. Shurik

    Shurik New Member

    Nov 2, 1999
    Baltimore, MD
    In this country they fire people for much, much, much less. No matter in which particular part of their (or not their) body their tongue happened to reside at the moment of the utternace in question.

    Two more points to make about your buddy and his publication:

    1) Mr. Caple's hatred and prejudice has been demonstrated on more than one occasion. I seem to remember an article during last year's Winter Games in which he relates his seeing a couple of Russian women in line at the souvenir stand and wonders whether there is a piece of moldy bread at the end of the line.

    2) At about the same time ESPN's web site published an article by another columnist who produced such gems of wisdom as "All Russian men look like they are one screw-up away from schlepping minks in Siberia and all Russian women appear to be on the verge of making their first low-budget porn movie", "they've been whining ever since we saved their asses in World War II", and "I've been cracking bread-line jokes for two weeks straight".
    Unlike you, I do not read Russian heavily-biased political tabloids, but I don't think that even they stoop to this level.

    It is quite obvious to me that both ESPN and the two columnists in question are extremely anti-Russian, and whether Russians can be technically called a race or not, this is a severe case of bigotry and has no place in this country. And Mr. Caple can do whatever he wants with his tongue. As long as it's in the privacy of his man-brothel.
     
  4. classicalmusic

    classicalmusic New Member

    Sep 7, 2001


    Slowly ... as in baseball-type slowly.
     
  5. Zenit

    Zenit Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 3, 2000
    Above the Tear Line
    Club:
    Zenit St Petersburg
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Oh, horse*#*#*#*#*#, Shurik. Some of the junk written in the Russian press about Jews & Central Asians is simply horrific and blatantly racist, yet I've yet to see anyone get canned for it. Why don't you take up that crusade, while you are at it?

    You can continue to blather on ad infinitum about this subject, be it here or on the AFZ board. I could care less. Your hysteria at times knows no boundaries.
     
  6. Shurik

    Shurik New Member

    Nov 2, 1999
    Baltimore, MD
    If you want to hold your buddies to the standard of Russian ultra-nationalists, you may want to choose them more carefully.

    Pointing out blatant bigotry and obvious double standrads is not hysteria. If this were the case, every civil rights activist in this country, so famous for its civil rights movement, would be caccused of hysteria. Then again, a lot of people of your political affiliation do.

    As far as I can tell, there are only two differences between Mr. Caple and Mr. Anpilov:
    1) One of them is your friend.
    2) He is getting paid more.
     
  7. Zenit

    Zenit Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 3, 2000
    Above the Tear Line
    Club:
    Zenit St Petersburg
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You've reached a new low, comparing Viktor Anpilov to Jim Caple. I guess I'm not surprised, considering your penchant for treating Zhirinovskiy like some second-rate wacky stand-up comic.

    And the last time I checked, I didn't happen to notice too many brown-shirts writing articles in Kommersant & Chas Pik. Yet, the stereotypes still exist. Funny, I guess I should be offended, by your convoluted logic. Or it just could be the "price of doing business." I'm confused.

    Now that I think about it, the next damned cab driver in Piter that thinks that because I am American & I speak with an accent, I must be a millionaire (therefore willing to pay at least 10 times the going rate) -- I am going to fire off all kinds of blather & nonsense about racism, negative stereotypes, xenophobia, and the like. In fact, Valentina Matvienko, Putin's anointed successor to the SPb post, will be the governor by then...I'll just march the little SOB down to City Hall, declare my grievances & demand satisfaction. I'm sure she'll be fair & as indignant as I will be. I'll let you know how far I get.

    Or maybe not....perhaps this is also "the price of doing business."

    Continue if you must, if it comforts your aggrieved soul.
     
  8. Shurik

    Shurik New Member

    Nov 2, 1999
    Baltimore, MD
    Try all you want, your attempts at excusing a major American sporting network's horrendously racist and xenophobic attitudes are sounding a bit lame.
    If you are not offended by this bizzare article, it is your right. You are not Russian, after all. I confess that I am not often offended by anti-American articles either. But who the hell are you to tell me what I should feel when someone uses his position in the national media to proliferate Nazi garbage and spit on the graves of innocent victims?
    Comparing Caple and Anpilov? Why not? Both are ignorant bastards with the awareness of a gnat. Both are as tolerant as your avergae Hitlerjugend. The fact that one sticks his tongue behind his cheek and the other lets it hang down to his shoes makes very little difference to me.
    But if you think that something a Piter cabbie may or may not say to you in some unidentified point in the future excuses your firend's behavior, go ahead. Write him a thank-you letter for an informative and funny piece. Maybe next time he will do something with Babiy Yar and theater holdups.
     
  9. SankaCofie

    SankaCofie Member

    Aug 8, 2000
    Skorgolia
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Nat'l Team:
    Ecuador
    That monkey is a Senior Writer at ESPN?

    He writes like a Senior in high school.

    How the *#*#*#*# do idiots like that get hired when you can read stupid drivel like that in any pimply teens angst-filled blog.
     
  10. Zenit

    Zenit Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 3, 2000
    Above the Tear Line
    Club:
    Zenit St Petersburg
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Oh, now he's a Nazi? Good God, you have some issues...

    Who the hell am I? I'm the one with the God-given right to call you out when your sanctimonious meanderings deserve attention, and refutation.

    Hope you feel better, Shurik. Your polemics have bored me for the last time with regards to this subject. Grow up.
     
  11. Shurik

    Shurik New Member

    Nov 2, 1999
    Baltimore, MD
    You didn't seem to be so tolerant to tongue-and-cheekery when the user "patrickm", clumsily and amateurishly, did the very same thing Caple does in this article.
    I shall not regard your choosing to stick up for a mate as childish, nor your pitiful attempt to make this a baseball issue. You are defending the wrong case and you know it.
     
  12. Zenit

    Zenit Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 3, 2000
    Above the Tear Line
    Club:
    Zenit St Petersburg
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Funny, it seems to me you are the one defending the wrong case. But, then again, I am confused. if it wasn't for stereotypes, Shurik, you would have nothing to talk about and you would be a very boring, dull person. And you know it. You thrive on muckraking. If S-E ever have budget problems, be advised that your style of sensationalism and self-righteousness will be very welcome at the Weekly World News.

    I cannot believe I have wasted so much time on such a ridiculous line of your reasoning, if I can call it that. Take it to Politics or FFA if you wish to continue -- you will find plenty of folks there to contend whatever point you are trying to make.

    I have better things to do. Like watch the Cubs.
     
  13. Shurik

    Shurik New Member

    Nov 2, 1999
    Baltimore, MD
    I am not defending a case. I am disgusted by what you call humor and what I call bigotry.
    And what you call bigotry as well, when it's coming from a stupid kid from Albany and not your favorite reporter.

    Or, it seems, ESPN. Their muckrakery must pay better. Congratulate your mate on the set of golf clubs the 900 Days will buy him.
     
  14. ProfZodiac

    ProfZodiac Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jan 17, 2003
    Boston, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Don't make me try to get Buff or GPK all up in here.

    Don't think I won't do it.

    Grow up, guys.
     
  15. Zenit

    Zenit Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 3, 2000
    Above the Tear Line
    Club:
    Zenit St Petersburg
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I am done with this topic.
     
  16. Shurik

    Shurik New Member

    Nov 2, 1999
    Baltimore, MD
    Good. Despite the fact that I, unlike you, tried to restrain myself from making this personal, my patience with your argumentation technique (which boils down to ignoring whatever facts and reasons one is presented with and slapping everything down wholesale with unnecessarily snobbish use of vocabulary) was wearing thin.
    But, whatever obstentatiously incredulious frapaulations you accuse me of, I think that deep down inside you know you've been golfing with patrickm all this time. "Hitlerjugend" was your term, if I remember correctly.
     
  17. Zenit

    Zenit Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 3, 2000
    Above the Tear Line
    Club:
    Zenit St Petersburg
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well, your restraint is admirable. You may be the 1st BigSoccer member to be nominated for the Nobel Peace prize, because of it. Congrats.

    You are the model of calm reason & rationale. I hope my kids grow up to be just like you.
     

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