(11-11-2021, 04:54 AM)Baggers date Wrote:Criticism of any one individual should, IMHO, never stoop to using a racist term for said individual. But rather words or phrases that express disdain for that individual alone, irrespective of race, gender, sexual preference, religion and so on. As far as the leader of the CCP goes, I'd probably use words like, 'cold-hearted, manipulative, evil, dangerous pr1ck'... effectively separating him from the Chinese people as a whole.

(11-11-2021, 05:05 AM)LP link Wrote:Yep, I understand [member=827]capcom[/member]‍ and his explanation, but it's a dangerous turn of phrase that can easily be mistaken for a more sinister and general perspective. There are plenty of ways to sledge Xi and criticise his politics without going down that path!

You'll probably align with this, but in my younger days spending time in RSLs I was sometimes taken aback by the comraderies on display around dates like today and Anzac Day. The RSL's I attended had diverse memberships, English, Italian, German, Greek, Pacific Islander, Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Japanese. All would come together and reminisce to decry war, probably across all venues you might find all nations. While some retained an underlying hatred that did surface occasionally, most enjoyed an understanding that war was war, the enemy was not the people now standing besides you having a beer but some abstract political or social concept.

I have a lot of close friends who now live in SE Asian or on the Asian Peninsula regions having fought in the Vietnam or Korean war, they don't associate the people with the conflict, and they embrace those cultures. I realise not all find peace in this regard.

Quote:In November 1995, McNamara returned to Vietnam, this time visiting Hanoi. Despite his role as one of the architects of Operation Rolling Thunder, McNamara met with a surprisingly warm reception, even from those who survived the bombing raids, and was often asked to autograph pirate editions of In Retrospect which had been illegally translated and published in Vietnam. During his visit, McNamara met his opposite number during the war, General Võ Nguyên Giáp who served as North Vietnam's Defense Minister. The American historian Charles Neu who was present at the McNamara-Giáp meeting observed the differences in the style of the two men with McNamara repeatedly interrupting Giáp to ask questions, usually related to something numerical, while Giáp gave a long leisurely monologue, quoting various Vietnamese cultural figures such as poets, that began with Vietnamese revolts against China during the years 111 BC-938 AD when Vietnam was a Chinese province. Neu wrote his impression was that McNamara was a figure who thought in the short term while Giáp thought in the long term.