it was the closest he came to acknowledging that "bringing democracy" is a euphemism for "bomb them to the stone age"

if people want to insist on profiling terrorists, they should try and be as accurate as possible- being muslim is a terrible filter. where they are from is a much better indicator, especially if they're from a war zone (take your pick- just in pakistan hundreds of innocent children have been killed just by drones over a 5 year period).

i'm pretty sure lightning is still more of a threat than terrorism. in fact i just looked it up: 1 in 7 million for lightning over 9 years, 1 in 3.5 million americans killed by terrorism in 30 years vs 1 in 1.15 thousand iraqi civilians killed in 5 years.

i wonder what these terrorists guys are all butt hurt about? oh right, we declared war on them and have been actively bombing them for over a decade, so easy to forget!

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed. The title is basically a euphemism in itself.

I'll be in my bumble-bunk....

Sure, a comedian with a message has to work to be both a comic and convey a message. I think he failed in both cases here; it wasn't funny enough, and his message is a shambles.

I'm not saying he made a good point poorly; I'm saying that he made a really poor point poorly. He's wrong and his examples contradict him. Since part of the comedy of this skit is supposed to be 'It's funny because it's true,' it fails completely for me, since none of it rings true.

Further, I don't know what you think is strawman-ish about my argument - he literally says that 'learning disadvantage' is a PC euphemism for 'stupidity' even though we know that it's not. It's a different word with a different purpose and there was a reason for the development of additional terminology. I would say one or two of his examples are actually changes that were made to conceal unpleasant truths, but many were just made to be more accurate, useful and neutral. Calling it all a PC softening of the truth is just plain wrong.

If you want a strawman argument, on the other hand, I can point out that he sounds alarmingly like the people who fight for their right to call Caitlyn Jenner 'he,' or 'Bruce.' "These people think that just by changing the words they're called, they change their underlying condition. <fart> Doesn't happen!" That would be a strawman argument, since he doesn't actually get into those areas.

So many puns and euphemisms!

Let's ignore for the moment what led to this current mess within the Eurozone. You point out, correctly, that Greece is too poor to service its debt. And yes, for the German government to do whatever is required to get back their loans is to be expected. However, Greece was incapable of servicing its debt five years ago. Yet the subsequent programs, all supported or even demanded by the German government, reduced Greece's ability to pay back at least portions of its debt. At the end of the day, goods and services are what it's all about. And by dismantling the Greek economy, nevermind the Greek society, they actively undermined what they publicly claimed to be working for: a self-reliant Greek economy, capable of financing the needs of Greece. And capable of paying back what is owed.

The question inescapably poses itself: was it done intentionally or are they blinded by ideology?

One doesn't have to be as far left as I am to see that it didn't work, doesn't work, and never could have worked. Even the likes of Krugman and Stiglitz are perfectly clear about it.

Varoufakis, as you note, has been just as clear about this at least since late 2010, when he published the first draft of his Modest Proposal with Stuart Holland. There was a very good discussion about it in Austin in 10/2013 under the topic "Can the Eurozone be saved?" Participants included Varoufakis, Tsipras, Flassbeck, Holland and Galbraith, amongst others. I submitted a short clip back then.

His argument that Germany won't see a dime when Greece is shoved off a cliff, as correct as it is, never had any bite to begin with. The German government, and large parts of parliament, are operating in a parallel universe, economically. Over here, mercantilism is the road to success. Monetarism works. Surplus good, deficit bad. Saving good, spending bad. Everyone should have a current account surplus.

It's horseshit by the gallons, and it's the official economic policy of the largest economy in the EU.

And we're not even getting into the political aspects of it. Throwing a member of the EU into debt bondage, suspending its democracy to please the gods of the market... that's a travesty and a half. Yet it's also inevitable if they insist on going down the road of neoliberalism.

Worst of all, Greece is just the canary in the coal mine, as Varoufakis likes to point out. Greece had plenty of issues before they joined the EZ, but when they chose to adapt the same currency as a much larger economy hell bent on competitiveness, which is the favorite euphemism for Germany's beggar-thy-neighbour policies, they were doomed to be crushed. The rest of the PIIGS are next in line, unless this whole mess explodes beforehand. Maybe Rajoy's Franco-esque repression techniques fail, maybe le Pen wins in 2017, who knows. Maybe Schäuble finds the 100k of bribes that he conveniently forgot about back in the '90s and chokes on them.

Last but not least, 208 billion Euros – that's the projected current account surplus of Germany this year. That's 208 billion Euros of debt foreign economies have to accumulate, so that the German public and private sector can run a combined surplus of €208b. That's the elephant in the room. Systematic undercutting of the inflation target through suppression of unit labour costs and a dysfunctional focus on exports.

See, another example of some "i-can't-possibly-racial-insensitive-whatsoever-because-THIS-guy-agrees-with-completely-sheltered-rose-tinted-worldview" - *deep breath* - Bullshit!

[phew, these polite euphemisms for "racist" are getting out of hand now]

Unfortunately, the term "culture appropriation" is a misnomer.

The term coined should be Cultural MISappropriation and refers to shit like Blackface.

Something this was trendy, open mockery. Also, fairly lucrative.

This White Party video is a highly significant point of discussion and is important satire for all white folks to think about & discuss because..

THIS IS EXACTLY HOW MOST COLORED PEOPLE FEEL.
[I would know, cause this is exactly how i feel]

So yeah..

Tactless, suggestively snarky comments, with a Token to parrot and espouse believes that confirm your bias.. -_-

Is simply "mild" racism in action.
It's Denialism. It's Victim-blaming.

"Stop complaining. We're all equal see. Can't we all just learn spanish & twerk our butts, as one."

And let Americans sweep all that other extremely racist shit under the rug for another 150 years?!

Fuck no.

I use that as a euphemism for unprofessional or immature and extremely casual or unconcerned with society and civility and lacking consideration or respect for your elders or everyone in general.

It's very often used in place of a handshake, and in my boys' case, it's exclusively attempted to be used that way.

I read too much Dan Savage. I kept thinking that "pet the pony" was a euphemism for something that I might enjoy, but don't want to be harangued into.

I like how this portrays Youtube as an invisible, naturally occurring resource for the people, when it actually, like Facebook, is just a megacorporation that has profited immensely from copyright infringement, or whatever euphemism you want to slap on it.

"Why have 'em in prison anyway?"

Well, you seemed to have missed the word "corrections" in the name of the entity you retired from. I know it's basically a euphemism, but still. It's not named the Department of Punishment.

Ya know, the use of the term "rocket science" as a euphemism for something really complicated and hard isn't a coincidence. Read up on it sometime; it's not nearly as simple as it seems.

@bobknight33

At least have the courage to own it Bob... don't be a bigot AND a coward!... no one here is going to misinterpret your thinly veiled euphemism for anything other than the blatant bigotry you all to frequently display... just be brave enough to actually own it!...

Truly disgusting....

"Has a clam on his talon" sounds like some kind of weird euphemism for something dirty.

"recently rescued"

Is that a euphemism?

It should bother you. It bothers me, but it accurately reflects the content (in fact, the central point) of the video.

I could change it to "Irish are the n-words of europe", but that has always seemed intellectually dishonest to me. We're all grown ups, we should be able to discuss words (even offensive ones) without hiding behind euphemisms. There is a difference between using an epithet (especially in a hateful way) and discussing it.

Just to be clear, I am not trying to justify the use of the word as used by the Irish guy in the story, but it absolutely rings true about certain Irish attitudes to race.