• Cethin@lemmy.zip
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    5 days ago

    OK, I’ll explain this to you. Using the word as an insult means that it’s a bad thing to be. For example, the word sinister refers to left-handed people (though so far removed that most don’t know this). It was used to say something is evil, and in turn to call people who are left-handed evil. It was insulting to left-handed people by association.

    If, for example, I were to use blonde to refer negatively to someone, it’d imply that it’s wrong to be blonde and blondes should be ashamed of who they are, right? Consider how you’d feel if we used a part of who you are as an insult. You wouldn’t enjoy seeing it used probably, right? Hopefully you’d have some empathy and stop, but maybe that’s too much to ask for.

    Acting like you’re actually the one being oppressed is honestly hilarious while you insult a group of people.

            • SacredPony@sh.itjust.works
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              4 days ago

              The vast majority of people are mature enough and intelligent enough to be capable of telling the basic ass difference between when a word is targeted towards them and when it is being used as nothing more than a simple word. Especially when that word is only ever used in reference to an animal literally incapable of even comprehending our social structure, let alone be offended by it. If you are offended by a word that is neither directed at you nor even contextually relevant to you, then you alone are choosing to bring that harm to yourself. It is not my responsibility or anyone else’s to protect you from your own immaturity and choices.

              Being scared to say certain words just because in some contexts it is used to harm is fucking stupid and it does not solve a single, real problem. It creates a bunch of problems by annihilating productive conversations and distracting from real issues, such as when the word is actually weaponized and used to harm. I will die on my much more logical hill that I have NEVER used any of these scary words to cause any harm other than the harm that people like you invent to feel like you are fighting some injustice in the world. Grow the fuck up and put your energy toward solving legitimate problems like actual racism, or our disintegrating climate, or our rapidly diminishing civil rights, or maybe anything other than trying to policing the use of a word whose meaning will literally change in the next few years anyway.