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Let's Rename Swine Flu As "Colbert Flu"
Bruce Perens writes "The World Health Organization will no longer refer to Virus A(H1N1) as 'Swine Flu,' citing ethnic reactions to 'swine,' for example among middle-eastern cultures who feel that swine are unclean. Or, is it because meat packers are concerned that people might stop eating pork in fear of the virus? WHO suggests that the public select a new name for the virus. I suggest that we all start calling it The Colbert Flu, after the comedian and fake pundit who asked his audience to stuff a NASA poll so that a Space Station module would be named after him. What can we do to make the name stick?"
Call it the Colbert flu? I don't think so. Colbert was just being funny, which is his job. It's why people watch him, and why they'll go so far as to stuff a poll. Plus, it was good publicity for the space station, led to an astronaut on his show, and even the naming of some widget or other after him. Treadmill? Whatever.
Anyway, Colbert is generally a positive influence. His "fake punditry" is pungent social comment, with the intent of nudging the his audience to think about these issues. While being funny, which keeps them coming back. All in all, a good thing. So I don't think naming a killer flu after him is appropriate. Entirely the wrong set of connotations, you see.
Flus are annoying, they show up wether you want them to or not, right in the middle of something else you were doing. Vaguely similar to your suggestion we name a nasty flu after a cool guy showing up on slashdot.
So in honor of your annoying and inappropriate post, I'm simply going to counter-suggest that we name H1N1 after you instead: The "Perens Flu." Does that seem fair to you?
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Who is Colbert? // not American // Swine Flu is worldwide.
Lets make it obvious where this came from, to give people a good idea not to go there!
It was good enough for the spanish flu, why must we be so damn politically correct.
Oh, and why the hell haven't we closed our borders? Horse out of the barn? That's insane! Even if that was a valid reason, we should still keep the borders closed to keep them from overloading our hospitals!
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Let's call it "H1N1" flu. You know, like, what it is actually called BY SCIENCE!
crazy dynamite monkey
it has a certain realism to it
+1 vote for Bacon Lung. That's awesome.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
How about we stop giving stupid suggestions their own Slashdot articles?
I came here for a good argument
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It came from Swine.
Also, the Spanish Flu did not originate in Spain, it originated in the far east.
"Oh, and why the hell haven't we closed our borders? Horse out of the barn? "
No, it would be pointless at this time. 3 weeks ago it would ahve made sense.
"we should still keep the borders closed to keep them from overloading our hospitals!"
ah, you're a bigot. No wonder there was no thought put into your post. It's just an excuse for your hate.
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Unfortunately, that situation is also a case of too late. If there were any traction for cooler heads in Egypt, they wouldn't have come out with a plan to slaughter uninfected pigs, so some wily Westerners trying to deflect attention away from pigs now isn't all that likely to matter.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
> ethnic reactions to 'swine,' for example among middle-eastern cultures who feel
Actually, they do not "feel" this at all, it has been force-hammered into their heads from early childhood, when they minds could not defend themselves, because several hundreds of years ago, their self-appointed religious founders had no refrigerators (but forgot to leave a "or any later version" in their GPLs.. err... holy scriptures).
So basically a secular, neutral, international health organisationen now forces a disease renaming onto the whole planet because a few backwards theocracies, who happen to have stuck themselves into a religion without a feasible upgrade path (hehehehehe), threaten to let their people die en masse in order to avoid pronouncing the word "swine" loudly. (I'm writing this, but still cant grasp that they rally mean this seriously. Jeez.)
How about Pussification Flu? Anyone who is offended by that name, well, they probably deserve to be.
In other words, get a fucking grip. It's the flu. Get over it already. A pig by any other name.
Oh, and just another small observation for those who are still offended by the "dirty" reference, any animal that still stands on four legs and eats slop with its mouth because it happens to lack opposable thumbs, logical thinking and an IQ under 50 is very well likely to be DIRTY.. For further reference on this fact, please refer to the guide of Common Sense under the No Shit, Sherlock section.
So, let me get this straight:
Egyptian majority generally persecutes Egyptian minority.
Swine Flu hits and the Egyptian majority uses that as an excuse to further persecute that minority.
Changing the name of the flu is going to stop one demographic - who actively searches for ways to persecute the other - from persecuting a second demographic? How?
I mean, I understand the linkage between the poor choice of name and the current mechanism of persecution, but it seems like you're implying that changing the name would make all persecution stop... which is something I don't agree with.
Either that, or you're hoping that you'll be able to convince the Egyptian Islamic community to slaughter Colbert... ;-)
Oh god, that woman is John Romero!
This might sound like flamebait but it is an honest question...So what if in English it's the Swine flu? "Swine" probably isn't even a word in these cultures that are reacting to the use of the word. And isn't it their problem if they have literally translated it into their language. Why don't they come up with their own name for the flu and use that? It's not as if they don't have their own words for everything else. The WHO and their own local media could then use the appropriate word for the appropriate culture when discussing the flu with people from that culture.
Let's not name a possible pandemic after some local celebrity of yours. It was funny (to you) when it was some NASA space station, but really, nobody knows (nor cares) who Colbert is ouside of US and Canada.
--
Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
> now the one we have isn't really satisfying for anyone.
What isn't satisfying is the monty-pythonian reasoning behind the renaming (the officials didnt come up first with a name) and the fact that its an respectable and serious scientific organisation that simply plays along ald lets dumb theocracies put pressure on worldwide policies.
Whats next then? Obligatory renaming AIDS in "gay flu"?
Is modding this funny libelous or just insensitive?
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do not post dumb things here anymore thanks.
So, you feel that:
A) The issue here was caused by the name 'swine flu', and not by the fact that Egyptian officials are actively persecuting a minority.
B) The government officials really were dumb enough to ignore all expert advice and instead chose to go with just the name.
and C) Changing the name now will prevent other government's officials from harassing minority groups.
No. The name may have given them a convenient excuse, but the problem in Egypt has nothing to do with the name of the disease. I'd wager that they would have done their best to slaughter the pigs even if the flu was being referred to as the Mexican flu, the Colbert flu, or whatever the hell else you want to call it.
I must admit I don't see the appeal of Colbert. I guess it's a bit like the English obsession with Cross Dressing.
"Heehee look! It's a man... but..heehee... he's wearing a dress... heeheehee...snort"
"Heehee look! He's a liberal... but he's talking like Rush Limbaugh...heehee..grunt"
There's something wrong with the world when you can make several seasons of a comedy show from the above scenarios.
Disclaimer:
I'm from Ireland where a large section of the population still think a redneck farmer type with a thick accent is the funniest thing ever.
OisÃn
Well, in that case, the problem seems to be you. Have you considered that possibly you are just a humorless twit?
More likely, the memes you cherish just aren't that funny.
Oh look, another In Soviet Russia joke. More hot grits. Another set of Profit!!! steps. Hey, there's that same Beowulf cluster joke again.
You're right, the problem is that the humor is all too rich for us.
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Actually, they do not "feel" this at all, it has been force-hammered into their heads from early childhood, when they minds could not defend themselves,
As opposed to having it hammered into their heads that something which is religious is necessarily backwards and wrong? I find it interesting that one who condemns religions for their backwardness is himself so intolerant of the beliefs of others.
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I see I was correct. There are a lot of humorless twits on slashdot. Now, you may not be humorless, and you may not be a twit, but I think you're way off base, for the following reasons:
1. You chose to lump all humor in with meme humor. If you look at the majority of +5, Funny posts on slashdot, you'll see that fewer than half are meme-related. Yes, there are a lot of meme-joke attempts, but most of those are either un-moderated, or down-moderated. That's the beauty of a moderated system. If you choose to browse at a threshold lower than 3, that's your choice -- but don't bitch when you see a lot of lame joke attempts.
2. It was a poor choice for me to use memes as the first in an incomplete list of things contributing to understanding of cultural humor on slashdot, BUT the other factors are also important. Relating to memes and jkoes that have come before: One of the great things about some of the humor on slashdot is the repartee -- the metajokes that play on memes or previous jokes. Failing to appreciate those jokes, is in my opinion, a sign of humorlessness (or of inability to understand them, which is even worse). Those are the rich jokes that exist on slashdot but nowhere else, IMO.
3. You still miss the point of the entire thread, which is that cultural awareness is important in undertanding humor. Even the non-meme humor requires cultural understanding.
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