Phryxis:
Because it's literally amazing to think about how prominent the 419 scam is in Nigerian economy. If you choose to get defensive about it, that's your call.
It's also literally amazing (can something be figuratively amazing?) how many Americans can't locate Iraq on the map, or how many American teenagers think oral sex can produce pregnancies, but I'm betting that if someone used that as evidence for the US as a whole being "pitiable," you'd read that--rightly--as rather unfair anti-Americanism.
It's easy to imagine that what you're saying is a harmless comment when you're not in the group being maligned.
You seem to think I'm demonizing them, suggesting they're "scum." Generally pity isn't directed those one views as evil.
No, I said you were drawing conclusions based on the activities of scum, which you are doing. As for pity, it is frankly only a few notches less offensive than demonisation. Pity is something you give inferiors, not equals. Picture this: your friend has a bad fall and breaks their hip. You see them in hospital. They're miserable. What do you say: "I'm so sorry this happened" or "I pity you?" "That sucks" or "You're pitiable?"
The fact that the American flag immediately makes you think of scum, as opposed to the positive things America does, suggest that your perspective has a negative bias.
When did I say it did? You're overreading terribly. I said I wasn't about to take the cheap shots that immediately present themselves because I know that it would be unjust and essentialist. You, as an American, aren't diminished by the fact that someone in your country lied to the UN, abetted by others of high office, just as Chinua Achebe isn't diminished by the fact that one "James Daku" scams people on the internet. The US isn't "dishonest" and Nigeria isn't "pathetic." The people who do those things are.
When the "action of their scum" are one of the primary sources of income to the nation, that isn't just a commentary on the "scum" but on the lack of other sources of income, scummy or otherwise, and thus the unfortunate state of their entire nation.
How big-hearted of you to notice. Let's have another look at what you really said:
So, chew on that for a second. This scam is one of their MOST IMPORTANT EXPORTS.
This is a country so totally pitiable that one of its most productive export is TRANSPARENT DECEPTION. How would you characterise this response? Were you drawing attention to Nigeria's problems in the hopes of spurring people to action? Were you making a dispassionate comment, as one might make in the Economist? I don't believe you were. Reading these lines, I see two things: condescension and mockery. You're absolutely right; Nigeria has plenty of problems and it's unfortunate for the people who suffer because of it. It's only natural, then, that we should. . . play it for laughs? :S
akira5665:
I think it particularly funny that yiou should feel the need to point out Phryxis's post for "National slurring' TC.
I notice you yourself are a great poster, with insightful and useful knowledge about the 40k/Gaming world.
What I cannot abide is 'correcting' people for the sake of it.
And in this very post, you're doing. . . what, exactly?
Of course, you'll say that there's a good reason for correcting me, and that you're certainly not doing it "for the sake of it." We all think we have good reasons for saying what we do.
Wasn't it you who had a go at me about 'Sexism' and a 3 page dialog about scaring girls away from 40k?
Then I read your 'quoted' sig from Wherkind.
I'm sure there's a point to these sentences. Let's have it, then.
Stop correcting people mate, you don't have the right or ability, for you Sir, live in a Glass house youself.
Assertions are great. . . for the person making them. For everyone else, something called an "argument" is needed.
HAPPINESS IS MANDATORY 
