Let's Stop Using the Slang Word For Carabiner

Andrew Krajnik wrote:

Is that accusation because he said, "y'***"?

Dude you can't say y**** here, it's not okay

Jesus Christ how do I un-follow this thread, I've contracted 3 types of cancer already... help I just got here a few days ago....

Cris Garcia wrote: Jesus Christ how do I un-follow this thread, I've contracted 3 types of cancer already... help I just got here a few days ago....

Windmills, not internet threads, cause cancer.

Tim Lutz wrote:

stand in front of a backwards-spinning windmill to reverse cancers

This is pseudo-science. You need crystals to reverse cancers, and essential oils to prevent them from coming back.

Andrew Krajnik wrote:

This is pseudo-science. You need crystals to reverse cancers, and essential oils to prevent them from coming back.

My dead aunt believed she could drink her way out of cancer, and she almost beat it. The cancer technically died with her so it was a tie...

Buck Rio wrote:

My dead aunt believed she could drink her way out of cancer, and she almost beat it. The cancer technically died with her so it was a tie...

Isn't it always a tie in a battle with Cancer? Norm MacDonald had a bit about how it was ridiculous to say that someone "lost their battle with cancer". At best, it's a draw.

Can we get double digits out of this topic?

Anonymous wrote: I like compromise. That said, I'd consider giving up biner when describing carabiners in exchange for Mexicans giving up gringo when describing Americans. Do we have a deal?

Except in general gringo is not considered to be derogatory it simply means foreigner. Further, the term is used by people throughout Latin American not just Mexico. For instance, whilst in Costa Rica while checking in to hotel the proprietor wrote down "two gringos" we thought that funny especially as the proprietor was Chinese.

Free Chollo wrote:
Spaniard with family roots 350 years deep in the US.
Is it ok for me to keep using "Chollo"?

Is it cholo or chollo ?

Free Chollo wrote: It's a regional thing Allen. Properly it is cholo.
In the 4 corners area it is typically Chollo as the regional inflection is chol lo, not the old school cho lo.

Thanks ...

Allen Sanderson wrote:

Except in general gringo is not considered to be derogatory it simply means foreigner. 

Who decides if a word is derogatory?

Free Chollo wrote:

Frankenchollo does

Makes sense. 

I always wondered who decided that "oriental" was derogatory. Now I know that it was the wisdom of Frankenchollo.

Carabiner is just sooo many syllables... 

Briggs Lazalde wrote:

Actually gringo comes from the Mexican American war. The frontline battlions wore green on thr american side. On the mexican side they would hear the battalion leaders shout out "green go! Green go!" Thus the mexicans believed greengoes were coming....now we have gringo.. 

If this isn't true I like the way it sounds

Anything I say should be taken to mean the most despicable thing you can imagine. That's what my wife does...

True story, happened this AM. I am standing on the train platform, waiting for my train, and a recorded message comes over the PA and says "Smoking is not allowed on train platforms". A person standing about 20 feet away starts getting VERY offended and indignant, giving the speaker the middle finger, saying "I am the only black person here".

So she took the no smoking message as directed at her as a black person. She wouldn't listen to me when I told her that message would play if there was no-one on the platform. She continued to rant about racism in the Metro Transit system etc...

So lets just settle down, not everything is some form of racism or "white privilege" whatever that is.

Tim Lutz wrote:

you first

Dude, I am the definition of "chill"...unless somebody is getting hurt or killed, it isn't a big deal. And by "hurt" I mean maimed, not the emotional kind.

After you have seen your friends get blown up and shot, everything else takes on new meaning.

Taking offense on behalf of other people is pretty damn patronizing

Matt Wilson wrote: Taking offense on behalf of other people is pretty damn patronizing

That is what social justice warriors do. 

Briggs Lazalde wrote:

Actually gringo comes from the Mexican American war. The frontline battlions wore green on thr american side. On the mexican side they would hear the battalion leaders shout out "green go! Green go!" Thus the mexicans believed greengoes were coming....now we have gringo.. 

Yeah, that's not true.  I had to tell a Mexican dude the same thing years ago in Potrero.

As I recall, the origins of the term are Spanish, not Mexican, and have some connection to "Greek" ("Griego").

FrankPS wrote:

That is what social justice warriors do. 

Perhaps a social justice warrior would first check-in with the potentially offended party to see if their is an issue. Otherwise, a presumed offense is patronizing.

The article in the OP even makes the argument that this a fabricated issue: "If you search on the Internet for this word, the first 5-10 results would reference the term to describe a piece of standard climbing gear." Because "biner" is just that - a piece of climbing gear spelled and used in context completely different than the slur. I just searched on Google "Is biner a racial slur" and got this: "Did you mean: is beaner a racial slur"