[Stymie]

Can someone help me understand why it's okay to fight for a nickname that clearly offends people?

Virtually any nickname that has any collective significance will offend somebody.  Here in 2014 I could argue that Stanford would be more attractive (to me) if they were called the "Nerds" (rather than some indistinguishable color) or even the "Trees," but the former would offend anybody who ever tried to understand the beauty of calculus and the latter would offend Prince Charles, who spends most of his time waiting for his mother to die and, in the interim, speaks to his plants.

If there is such a thing as a "slippery slope," adios Yale Bulldogs (offends PETA) and Purdue Boilermakers (offends right wing republicans)  and Georgetown Hoyas (offends whatever the hell a "Hoya" is).

Written from a Motel 6 in the homeland of the Lakota people of South Dakota.

Stymie

[Stymie]

Can someone help me understand why it's okay to fight for a nickname that clearly offends people?

Virtually any nickname that has any collective significance will offend somebody.  Here in 2014 I could argue that Stanford would be more attractive (to me) if they were called the "Nerds" (rather than some indistinguishable color) or even the "Trees," but the former would offend anybody who ever tried to understand the beauty of calculus and the latter would offend Prince Charles, who spends most of his time waiting for his mother to die and, in the interim, speaks to his plants.

If there is such a thing as a "slippery slope," adios Yale Bulldogs (offends PETA) and Purdue Boilermakers (offends right wing republicans)  and Georgetown Hoyas (offends whatever the hell a "Hoya" is).

Written from a Motel 6 in the homeland of the Lakota people of South Dakota.

Stymie