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by selimthegrim 915 days ago
Maybe you read Tomb for Boris Davidovich or Anatomy Lesson?
1 comments

Nope. I see you're a fan of Kiš. I haven't read his stuff, apart from the essay you linked in another comment.

I'm still trying to figure out what you're trying to say, though.

If your point is that there was plenty of bigotry in old Yugoslavia, then yeah, I know that. It's still alive and well in the remnants of it. The casual bigotry and rampant nationalism are part of the reason why I'm still "rootless", because I wouldn't fit in with my compatriots anymore.

But none of that was really the point here. The point is that a phrase might be very well recognized by some people here and totally unknown to others who might stumble into using it by accident.

I mean, I don't actually know if Vektorceraptor was being deliberately antisemitic or not. Maybe Vektorceraptor did know it and its antisemitic connotations and used it like that on purpose. Or maybe not, maybe it meant what I read from it and described in my reply.

Yeah, it's fascinating to read the history of that expression, and to find out it's not a "Western", but a Soviet expression. But I'd like to offer a gentle reminder that the countries that comprised the Soviet Union are one set, and the countries that used to be in the Soviet sphere of influence is another set, and they're not the same set.

I don't know either: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38725778

The simpler, calmer point to make is: just don't non-ironically use the term "rootless cosmopolitan" on HN.

Yep. As I replied there, I appreciate both the clarification and the opportunity I've had to learn about a phrase to avoid.
I explained more here (it was a reply to a flagged dead comment so this relink helps visibility) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38727745