I've been just going with the flow, Robert. We heard recently, on this forum, that the term "ass" (as in "don't be an ass") is acceptable and has much less derogatory meaning, especially in the UK, than I expected. I also get PMs when people think it is ok to go further and call me "arshole." I assumed that a term for the 180 degrees from an arshole is ok then.
I am just blending in, you see. On the other hand, I didn't know that "pompous" is a prohibited word. Nor "retard" for a public figure.
Sad to hear about private messages with that tone, but at least they were private messages. So as far as that goes, it doesn't concern public forum etiquette (unless there is an interdiction about that as well in the forum rules) nor does it concern any of the rest of us.
I am not concerned with prohibited words as such. George Carlin already visited this. In the long run what people choose to write will only reflect on them. If you want to call someone pompous, go ahead, but "pompous prick" slides up pretty closely up against personal insult. You can do that, and the forum admins can allow it, up to you guys, but it may have the effect in the long run of driving people away from forum participation, which defeats the purpose of having forums.
Personally, I find the use of the word "retard" rather deliberately offensive, but as others point out that's your schtick. I assume you use it to piss off "liberals" and "lefties". That's not a political correctness argument, it's just bad taste, imo. Whatever point you were trying to get across about AOC by using the word was devalued by using the word. But you can do that if you want, no skin off my nose.
In another post above you raised concerns about how people speak about the current President. I understand why people would want some decorum there, in principle, but as I've said before, that ship sailed a long time ago. After referring to an entire country as rapists and drug dealers, tossing paper towels at a press conference re the hurricane in Puerto Rico and many many other other examples, requiring or even just hoping for decorum towards the guy just isn't going to happen. He set that tone and seems to revel in it, so be it. He has never been a subtle guy, so what's the point of insulting him in a subtle manner?
When people call your president names, it's often in the context of pointing out something he said or did, but not always. You have referred to AOC and her policies/beliefs in a derogatory manner a few times, but I don't remember (could easily have missed a thread) a discussion of them, so at least readers would have some context of why you think that. As it stands, you simply called her names. That doesn't bother me much, as you say, she's a public figure and it seems to go with that territory these days, but repeated name calling alone won't carry much weight.
