PP, //Violet Elizabeth Bott wrote only yesterday:
I wasn't aware that the term is offensive. The dictionary definition is //A ruthless moneylender; a loan shark.// and that's exactly my interpretation of it. Yes, it emanates from Shakespeare but not once have I ever considered ruthless moneylenders and loan sharks to be necessarily Jewish. I would suggest that anyone who does has a serious problem.//
No she didn’t. I wrote that … but then you knew that.
The term ‘Shylock’ has come to mean a ruthless moneylender or a loan shark, in the same way that ‘Machiavellian’ has come to mean cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, a ‘Judas’ a traitor, and Violet Elizabeth Bott a petulant child. No one in their right mind would consider all Jews to be loan sharks or traitors any more than anyone would consider all Italians to be cunning, scheming and unscrupulous, or all little girls with lisps petulant. No one balks at the term ‘Judas’ or ‘Machiavellian’, so why suddenly Shylock? Get your snow gear on. Snowflakes abound.
Leave me out of your loony ramblings, PP…. if you can bear to. You’re boring.