I changed my mind, I'm not a Zionist

[Mycroft]

Hey, it's been a week since I've started a good Israeli/Palestinian thread, so let's start this off with a bang.

I found this definition of "zionist" in the "Urban Dictionary".

A racist individual who uses Judaism and his/her goal in supporting Israel as an excuse to occupy, control, and subdue an entire group of people. Zionists do not believe in the true teachings of Judaism, rather they abuse it much like Bin Laden abuses the Muslim religion. They believe the Jewish race is a superior race, and that every other race/people should serve them."Israel is a Zionist State, in which people of Jewish roots are privilaged over everyone else"

It seems the Urban Dictionary is something where anyone can put in their definition, then the one that gets the most votes is placed on top. This one won by a whopping 2,293 to 292.

So, okay, if this is what a Zionist is, then I'm not.

Anybody disagree?

 

[The Fool]

Hey, it's been a week since I've started a good Israeli/Palestinian thread, so let's start this off with a bang.

I found this definition of "zionist" in the "Urban Dictionary".

A racist individual who uses Judaism and his/her goal in supporting Israel as an excuse to occupy, control, and subdue an entire group of people. Zionists do not believe in the true teachings of Judaism, rather they abuse it much like Bin Laden abuses the Muslim religion. They believe the Jewish race is a superior race, and that every other race/people should serve them."Israel is a Zionist State, in which people of Jewish roots are privilaged over everyone else"

It seems the Urban Dictionary is something where anyone can put in their definition, then the one that gets the most votes is placed on top. This one won by a whopping 2,293 to 292.

So, okay, if this is what a Zionist is, then I'm not.

Anybody disagree?

It probably goes close to describing Zionist extremist views. I have no doubt there are people who call themselves "zionist" who subscribe to those views......

Seems to me to be too radical to describe the majority of people who consider themselves "Zionists".

 

[BPSCG]

So, okay, if this is what a Zionist is, then I'm not.

Anybody disagree?

No. But you're still a racist and fascist, right?

 

[Dr Adequate]

It seems the Urban Dictionary is something where anyone can put in their definition, then the one that gets the most votes is placed on top. This one won by a whopping 2,293 to 292.

Well, "anyone" can put in their defintion and vote for it. Did you? Of course not. Nor did I, and nor will I. This is clearly an enclave for lunatic paranoid nutters. Alert us all when this sort of **** gets on wikipedia, and we'll all help.

This is a bunch of racist scum living in their own crazy little world making up their own definition of "Zionism". It is interesting that they have to include "racism" in the definition. It reminds me of how the fundies make up their own definition of "evolution" and then complain that "evolution is a religion", as though that was the worst thing a bunch of religious fanatics could say about it.

 

[Mycroft]

Well, "anyone" can put in their defintion and vote for it. Did you?

I don't think "Urban Dictionary" itself is a significant site, but I disagree that as a whole it's an enclave for lunatic paranoid nutters. I think that this thing got 2,293 thumbs up and only 292 thumbs down is a powerful indication of the prevailing attitudes. 2,293 is a lot, especially when you compare it to the attention other definitions got.

 

[Earthborn]

2,293 is a lot, especially when you compare it to the attention other definitions got.

It is not so much if you compare it to the number of people on the Internet. It tells us very little about what the prevailing attitude is, because the people who vote on these things are not a representative selection of the population. It may even be a single person who wrote a script to vote a few thousand times.

The definitions don't seem to be made by particularly clever representatives of the human species.

Related definitions:
Zionists

Canadians from Canada
Take off eh,you muslims

Zionist opressor

According to Palestine (and most Europeans), an unarmed pregnant Israeli woman with her 4 children.

The Palestinian freedom fighters came one step closer to their freedom by shooting down an unarmed 10 year old girl who was obviously oppressing them.

Also note: Zion and Zionism.

I did my bit to vote 'down' on a number of silly definitions. Did you?

 

[Darat]

I don't think "Urban Dictionary" itself is a significant site, but I disagree that as a whole it's an enclave for lunatic paranoid nutters. I think that this thing got 2,293 thumbs up and only 292 thumbs down is a powerful indication of the prevailing attitudes. 2,293 is a lot, especially when you compare it to the attention other definitions got.

I had a look at the number one definition for "racist" on that site:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=racist
1. racist
Me. I was a racist, I was in the KKK. It has been 2 years since I left and found religion. I had said many hateful things that I had not known what they meant to the person they went to.

I am sorry to African Americans.
I am sorry to Jewish people.
I am sorry to Spansih people.

All races deserve respect. No race is above another.
Being racist brings about nothing but hatred and hurt to those around you and yourself.

There is no way that can be substituted for the word “racist” in the “Zionist” definition therefore as far as I am concerned the site can’t be used to try and understand the meaning of particular words.

Indeed as the site appears I don’t see that any conclusion can be reached as to what it means that a particular "definition" is more popular then another.

Looking at what the site says about itself:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/tos.php
...snip...

Urban Dictionary, with web site at urbandictionary.com ("Site"), allows its users to create definitions for slang words and phrases and submit them for publication. The Site provides a range of features associated with operation of the Site and its content.

...snip...

So it is apparently meant to be about slang, perhaps the site therefore leans more towards what is meant when a word is used as an insult rather then its more mainstream use? (Look at the definitions for words such as "terrorist" or "atheist" for examples of that.) But without a breakdown of who is contributing and so on I would even be dubious of accepting that these definitions are “urban definitions”.