@surreality @GreenFlashlight
Nope! This was a real life occurrence with a hobby group I'm involved in. Hence this going in the "RL Anger" thread.
A shitty thing happened. And it has now spurred something of a debate re: whether it's ever acceptable name something after a town whose name was also the name of nearby camp. At least when that thing is clearly meant to reference the town, especially if it's not one that people automatically recognize and are like "Oh, wow! You named it Auschwitz? That's incredibly tasteless and hurtful."
And I'm on the "holy shit you guys, unless you're talking about, like, Warshaw, which is a major city that people might associate with a hundred other things, then no, it is never okay" side of the debate. The instigating event was very much one where it was done on purpose, but even if it's done accidentally.... dude, just pick the next cool-sounding town name over. The one that doesn't have the brutal murder of 11 million people associated with it? Like, just maybe? If it was an accident, I guarantee the person will rename it, probably after being quietly mortified at their mistake. That was generally my experience with the guy who accidentally made a reference to a common bit of Irish heraldry, but which is also associated with a small and fairly obscure terrorist group that most Americans have never heard of when an Irish member of the group was like "Hey, could you maybe not? Thanks." If they're like, "NO! It must absolutely be Janowska and I will never change it and you are oppressing meeeeeee <fratic panting> FREE SPEECH!", then that person is probably a neo-Nazi fuckhead that is just having a tantrum because they got caught in their clever subterfuge. That person can piss all the way off.