[QUOTE=Micromegas;7467702]
Originally Posted by
PTravel
"Assault" actually has a definition. If you will look it up you will find that it is not "annoying" but "violent attack".
I'm a lawyer. I know exactly what assault means (and it doesn't mean what you've quoted). However, the colloquial meaning is well understood. If you really want to get technical, "assault" means creating imminent apprehension of an unpermitted contact, and "unpermitted contact" is a "battery". However, "battery" doesn't carry the same colloquial import.
It is strange that someone who would brand me a "liar" who needs to "shut up" and demands monetary compensation for failing to properly comprehend your rhetoric would not hold themselves to the same linguistic standards that they seem to be demanding of others.
Someone who attributes to me things I never said is lying. Do you want to review that post?
Those two kicking incidents must have been very traumatic. I am so sorry.
They weren't traumatic. They were annoying.
If you did indeed refer to other (POS and seat grabber) incidents as "assaults" then I apologize. Your continued misuse of the term "assault", however, weakens your point and is (IMO) an insult to those who have been victims of assault as it is defined by Webster.
I prefer "COS," as it isn't also an acronym for a very different and insulting term. When a COS occupies someone else's seat, forcing them into a smaller space than alloted by the airline, or, as was described by another FTer in a thread last year, by literally sitting on them, it is an assault in the colloquial sense (and, potentially, a battery in the legal one). The same is true for seat-grabbers.
I am sorry that you are sad,
I'm not sad.
but you have nothing to fear from me. I think it is sad that someone who calls me a liar, tells me to shut up, and demands money thinks that it is I that am the product of an "entitlement demanding me generation".
Don't make things up and attribute them to me, and I won't call you a liar. I didn't "demand" money from you, I bet you $100 that you couldn't find anywhere what you attributed to me. And I told you to "put up or shut up." That's another colloquialism. I'm surprised you've never encountered it before. It doesn't mean, literally, that you should shut up.
That said, I appreciate this debate and I don't want you to go away. Your position (while extreme IMO) helps me to better understand my fellow passengers and might even make me a better parent and person. I know I will always have room for improvement. How about you?
I always enjoy a good discussion, particularly with those who hold views contrary to mine. When I take a position (at least an unqualified one), it's the result of having given it some thought. However, I'm always open to having my mind changed. As I said, "seat kicking by children," is, at least in my experience, far from epidemic, particularly when compared to other annoying conduct by some passengers. However, it's rarity doesn't mean that it should be tolerated when encountered. I'm still waiting to hear someone explain why it should be privileged if the passenger doing the kicking is a child.