Comment by peteforde | Hacker News Reader

Comment by peteforde | Hacker News Reader

Penn Jillette is correct: nobody has the "right to not be offended".

I think that it's deeply unfair to compare the BSD daemon logo to a swastika, unless you believe that open source is communism that robs pro-America operating systems like Windows.

The woman at the hotel speaks of abuse from seeing this symbol, but who apologizes for my abuse at the hands of the deeply irrational? It's not my fault that so many people choose to take their spiritual beliefs so far past zealotry that something so inconsequential as a logo would upset them, and yet it's somehow my problem because I'm apparently supposed to be constantly on the lookout for opportunities to not offend people who believe in bullshit.

These people would never extend me the same courtesy if I asked them to remove their Christian jewellery. I'd be laughed off if I phoned the front desk of a hotel freaking out that someone put a Gideon bible in my drawer.

I live in a relatively sane place and I consciously avoid going to places where it's socially acceptable to burden rationale behaviour with uncontested religious observance. They can believe what they believe and I'll continue to sleep through Sunday mornings. But the apologists who are smart enough to know better? Those folks should know better than to fall into such an obvious slippery slope.

TL;DR: I'm an atheist and I want a refund because someone put a Christian bible in my hotel room. Why are you laughing?

You are missing the point. Stupid customers have the right to be stupid.

If you tell the hotel that you are offended by the bible in your drawer they will most likely apologize, remove the offending item, then either put it back when you are gone or simply leave it under the counter in case another nutter wants it back.

If you deal with 20 customers who are representative of the US as a whole, you will deal with about 1 who has been severely mentally ill in the last 12 months. 1% of the adult US population is APD (Antisocial Personality Disorder, which includes psychopaths, and could otherwise be refereed to as Asshole Personality Disorder). About 1% are schizophrenic. About 1% are autistic. And about 18% have had an anxiety disorder in the last 12 months (probably more if you are in New York), and quite a few are religious.

You can't worry about treading on toes. People will complain, unless you are more boring than IBM. When customers complain, you politely agree, attempt to help them, then forget what they said.

They have the right to be offended. Fortunately, we have to right not to care.

"I'm an atheist and I want a refund because someone put a Christian bible in my hotel room. Why are you laughing?"

Zing. Very good example.

atheists generally don't give a damn to books or symbols otherwise they are idealists in fact

Terrible example because no-one actually gives a shit, where it's pretty clear some people - with money to spend - do give a shit about the devil.

The devil's in the detail, though..

and (as others stated all over these threads) no christian text says that the devil is a tiny red (arguably) cute comic figure. Even if you're a die-hard believer, it's about as hard to argue that this mascot is representing the devil as it is to argue that Harry Potter is about evil witchcraft or AD&D is about dark rituals and serving strange gods.

And yet people argue each of those every day.

To be fair Harry Potter is about evil witchcraft, it just doesn't promote it...or rather It's about the power of friendship (and good witchcraft) defeating evil witchcraft.

For those of you who, like me, would rather not have a book of Christian fables that have incited murderous instincts in people for thousands of years left in their hotel room I heartily recommend The Jupiter Hotel in Portland, OR.

They instead go with a recent issue of Dwell and a copy of Don Miguel Ruiz's The Four Agreements. I read it and did not feel like killing anyone!

> I think that it's deeply unfair to compare the BSD daemon logo to a swastika

where was this said? I didn't find it in the thread.

Search for swastika in this page (the HN thread not the linked thread).

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