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Originally Posted by nostatic
So for the peanut gallery:
a) is being somewhat disturbed/annoyed by this an over-reaction?
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Not at all. Beating the coworker senseless would be an over-reaction. Or making things crappy at work because he doesn't share your sensitivities on the subject would be as well. He has the right to be a close-minded buffoon. But I'm guessing he's just goofing off. Nothing malevolent. He should read "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", that would've been a better event to reenact.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nostatic
b) is this a teachable moment to bring it up to him - I was going to post a link to a google image search of tiananmen square massacre so he could see part of what the meme actually means.
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It certainly is a teachable moment. The degree of it's success depends on the student's willingness to learn. As you know, trying to instill empathy is extremely difficult at best.
I grew up in East Tennessee and when that happened I was in the Navy. Some folks have a negative perception of people from the south. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes not. I was on the phone with my Mom while it was going on and she was in tears. I'll never forget that. Here's this lady on the other side of the planet, in the hills of Tenn, and she was genuinely saddened, and crying for the protesters. She would've loved to have met your wife. I can almost hear her words...
"Mrs Nostatic, Darlin', I'm so sad you had to go through that. Must've been just awful. Do you want to tell me anything about your experience?" and she'd hold her hand and listen.