Oh-kay, you want a long post war, fair enough.
No, actually I don’t.
This is really just a discussion as far as I am concerned.  But sure, I would do better to use a few smilies so that people don’t think I have an attitude when I post. Â
There is an ongoing theme in your reply here that I should address first.
Mr. Clean Slate?
You are clearly the epitome of human male evolution. All hail and all that.
I'm still trying to figure out whether you're writing this because you're actually upset at being considered "sexist", or whether you just appreciate the chance to assert that you are of course better than everyone else.
Incidentally, I can’t tell if you’re writing because you’re actually upset over the issue or if it’s because you have some pent-up personal rage against me.
You
actually think I think I am better than other people, huh?
Here we’re having quite the misunderstanding.  You’ve made a connection between me feeling that my character has been offended and the idea that that must imply that I must be looking down on others, because, after all, I’m offended at the thought of having my character compared with theirs, right?
Oh no, don’t think I am so naive as to presume your notion that I must feel superior is something completely new starting with this topic, but at least for now I’d like to just stick with the situation at hand.
Here is how it
really is.
All people, myself and you included, have certain outlooks on all other various types of people.  There are some kinds of people you don’t like, and some you do.  At this point, no one is superior just for having these outlooks.
Now, does it cross that line when you dislike a group so much that you are offended at having your character associated with theirs?  Well, we’re dancing at the border, but crossing the line depends on a few other factors.
Do I distance myself from those people at all costs? Â No. Â Many of them are my friends.
Do I treat them differently from how I would treat others? Â Not at first; I treat everyone exactly the same at first. Â Whether they turn out to be cool or duds is up to
them, and not some preconceived notion I use to characterize their social class.
Make no mistake—I group people together using generic subcultures, as all people do, but that has nothing to do with my respect for individual people.
So why would I get offended at being compared to this group of people?
Well, that’s exactly it, don’t you think?
#1: I wasn’t compared to an
individual person. Â I was assumed to be in a
group, and, naturally, that musters my feelings for that group as a whole, rather than any respected individuals from that group I may know.
#5: Extra offense because they
assumed to know me as being that type. Â All I did was play video games, and suddenly I am in a completely different social class. Â Ah, good going Sony. Â Of course, once you start playing video games, you have nothing but sex on the brain. Â Oh yeah, I should
laugh at that.
Just like this ad suggests that you're a furry, deceitful caffeine-addicted canine?
Reality check please.
Okay.  Firstly, that ad makes no attempt to assert that I myself am the dog.  If you wanted to summarize that ad with words, it would go something along the lines of, “Pepsi is so good, even dogs like it!â€.  How does
my character fit into this picture?
Secondly, if someone had a dog and he or she tried hard to teach that dog the sturdy values of a good diet, on top of honesty enough not to steal, could that person be offended at the suggestion that Pepsi wants to corrupt his or her dog’s values, and if so, would I presume to have the right to say whether or not that person is justified by being offended?
If I understand enough to know that different people were raised in different places, with different values and different standards of life, who would I be to go around dictating what constitutes over-sensitivity?
This is probably one of those times where I should be using those smilie thingies to indicate it’s just a civil discussion to me.
—>
<— This is the smilie I have used to ensure that all can see I have no attitude (arg, these things are so not-my-style
).
Thirdly,
I believe that the thing many people - including me - have issues with, is how these ads are apparently aimed at the lowest common denominator.
So why is it you so obviously cannot handle the current situation?
Again, there seems to be a misunderstanding.
This topic (though inadvertently), became a topic where it was relevant to discuss our viewpoints on Sony’s attitude.
I
handle my offense by simply getting over it and moving on with my day.  It’s not exactly as if I go around all day enraged at being offended and telling people about my rage, and/or actively boycotting their product, gathering rallies, etc.
But because I expressed my views, and explained my reasons for being offended, in what I had considered to be a calm and civil manner, in a topic where it was relevant to actually discuss it, it must mean I can’t handle it, huh?
To be perfectly honest, did I even mention your name in my last post, Mr. Clean Slate?
To be honest, I somehow expected this reply somewhere in your post when I posted last night.  I expected it at the beginning though, since wouldn’t think you would go all out writing an essay to crunch my character and then at the end say, “Oh, and my previous post
might not have been directed towards you in the first place.â€
So, last night, I had gathered all my reasons to explain why I would think your post was directed towards me. Â I thought about how I would mention that using
my numbering system as a platform for your post wouldn’t be the most intuitive way
not to direct your post towards me, and I thought about how no one else really showed signs of sensitivity, etc.
But now I’m not so sure that’s needed when you yourself acknowledge that most of the arguments are identical, so who is to know?
I’m not going to apologize for thinking your post was directed towards me when everyone on the board can see how fine the line is.
People who can’t take a joke?  You easily could mean me.  Especially since I’ve known for a long time how you really feel about me.
Explaining why the joke is funny because it’s true?  Well, I seem to have been the main one attacking the humor of the joke.  The guy who wrote the article simply mentions it in passing.
Discussing respect towards women? Â Again, who made a strong point about this besides me?
I would never treat my girlfriend like that, etc.  Wait, aren’t you now using the exact context of my post?  And now you dare to try to pose a question as to whether I should have considered myself the target of your post?  And you’re using that uncertainty as leverage for calling me “an example of people over-reacting to simple things�
Besides, it may not have come across that way, but my post was entirely calm and collected.
I wasn’t insulted by your post either way, whether it was directed towards me or not.
And being the target of your post wasn’t an issue either way.
I wanted to explain my viewpoint, here, where it is appropriate to do so. Â I wanted to clear up any confusion,
in case there was any.  I’m not a tree-hugging feminist.  Now you know.
If your post wasn’t directed towards me at all, great.  Then I didn’t need to spend so much time clarifying my viewpoint, so ignore it, yeah?
The first words I wrote when I typed my post were, “It isn’t really relevant for us to discuss this since we aren’t on the same page.â€
My only mistake was erasing that in favor of actually explaining why we aren’t on the same page, while not explicitly stating it.
But that’s all for the better, right?  Because now everyone knows you view me as nothing more than some elitist prick with but the soul purpose of showing off how superior I am over everyone else.
Good to get the out instead of keeping it pent up, right?
And don’t worry; I’m not offended, because I’m not one much for being over-sensitive, you know? Â
You say that like it's a bad thing
If it makes you happy, then that’s all that really matters.
L. Spiro