I agree with you in princinple, and I don't support censorship either. I just don't think it would be a bad thing if more people decided to be respectful toward others in their use of language.
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Ongoing campaign to ban the R-word
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I agree with you in princinple, and I don't support censorship either. I just don't think it would be a bad thing if more people decided to be respectful toward others in their use of language.
You might not, but plenty of other people do.
I'm not saying a word can't do something. I'm saying a word can do lots of things; it can even do nothing. A word doesn't equal a thought. They're just tools to try and communicate thoughts.
If you set a computer to randomly message combinations of letters to people, and after a while it messaged somebody "nigger," is the computer racist? Is the word itself racist, even without any thought or intent behind it? Who is doing the hating, if there isn't even a person?
Racism has a very particular meaning, and I'm not trying to get pedantic here but a word cannot be racist by itself. People who use particular words are not automatically racist. An advertisement cannot be racist. People are racist when they hate others based on race. That's it.
Using certain words is likely a good indicator of racism, but you sometimes have to delve deeper to find out the truth. Devolution just used the word nigger, and I'm fairly certain she's not racist. The word isn't racist either; it's just lines, it can't hate anything.
IrrelevantNotch
Banned
Is there a positive way to say retarded?
Devolution
Member
So please tell me how nigger and faggot are anything but pejoratives, which none of you has demonstrated thus far.
I guess I don't see why people get so pissy when they're told other people are offended by their words. Maybe it's just a growing up thing?
I used to constantly use the word "retarded." I've made an effort to stop using it, and have done pretty good at it. I can't think of the last time it crossed my lips, honestly. And you know what? I don't see how stopping to use the word has impacted my life one iota. I've also tried to avoid using the word "lame," but that one still slips from time to time. Most importantly, I'm trying to use "Ben Gibbard" instead of using "pussy" as a pejorative.
I guess what I'm saying is your life isn't over if you can't call your friends a bunch of retards. There are hundreds of words out there that aren't going to offend people. Use them.
I used to constantly use the word "retarded." I've made an effort to stop using it, and have done pretty good at it. I can't think of the last time it crossed my lips, honestly. And you know what? I don't see how stopping to use the word has impacted my life one iota. I've also tried to avoid using the word "lame," but that one still slips from time to time. Most importantly, I'm trying to use "Ben Gibbard" instead of using "pussy" as a pejorative.
I guess what I'm saying is your life isn't over if you can't call your friends a bunch of retards. There are hundreds of words out there that aren't going to offend people. Use them.
Off topic, but I think this is a myth. Or at least, Wikipedia says its a myth.
Not positive, but I've heard people use retarded as "ridiculous" ie: "Whoa did you see that move? That was retarded!"
You've never heard of someone calling their friend as "my nigger" as in "my friend/brother?"
see:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=my%20nigger
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
See, my question for you is whether or not you're just going to cut the word "retard" out of your vocabulary, or the actual intent. Are you just going say "haha what a moron" or "haha he's so dumb" instead of "haha what a retard"? If that's the case, why bother?
It doesn't have to be used as an insult.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_retardation
http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-french/retard
IrrelevantNotch
Banned
Uhh... Ridiculous good or ridiculous bad?
Not sure, I would say neither? Mostly used identically in place of "ridiculous"
ThisWreckage
Banned
Retarded is technically the correct terminology for a mentally deficient person considering "retard" means "slow".
"Nigger" or various derivatives of it can be used as an inclusive and neutral word between black people. "Nigger" could be interchangeable with numerous other labels between numerous other groups.
They are pejoratives now. How do you think definitions and connotations change? Faggot has already taken on different connotations for some people.
IrrelevantNotch
Banned
Would people feel better if I started replacing the r word with "stunted"?
Devolution
Member
Just cut it out of my vocabulary since it's offensive to people who have certain ailments. Not difficult really. I stopped using other words offhand like "that's so gay" and "fag" when I was younger after I was told how it can hurt homosexuals. I stopped uttering rape jokes after a friend informed me she was raped. The people who are affected by these things aren't too sensitive, the people who refuse to realize that their language or word usage can be abrasive and hostile are too insensitive. Language is a powerful tool and it never ceases to amaze me how the people who call them "just words" can't deal with giving them up, they're just words right? Sides I give props to people who can be more colorful and witty in their language, and I think we should all strive for that.
TheExplodingHead
Banned
I guess it's official in my lifetime, we now call them "handi-capable"!
People love this one when they get called out on calling something "gay." The implication is that gay = bad, and even if you just mean "oh to me gay is stupid!" it's associating the two, which is not fucking cool at all.
Describe the context and tell me what is different.
let's just hope you never have a boyfriend who speaks only French and you have to tell him some bad news
"Pierre! Ma période est en retard!!"
les papillons sexuels
Banned
someone who drives a bmw through a red light when you're trying to turn on a yellow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7C0vd-L5lg
Devolution
Member
Fuck those frog eaters.
(I kid).
By the way though I let my boyfriends use pejoratives in the context of the bedroom =p. So suck on that.
TheExplodingHead
Banned
I must be pretty slow on the vocab uptake, because I could have swore we've been referring to them as "physically/mentally disabled" for a while now.
To be honest the only people I ever refer to as retards, are people who should know better.
To be honest the only people I ever refer to as retards, are people who should know better.
I would say it's different in the sense that "idiot" and "dumb" are different from their old connotations.
la flama blanca
Banned
nah fuck that, that's my fuckin wordd
For probably the first 16 years of my life, I equated faggot with someone who was being annoying or some other less-than-positive connotation. Every cohort that I knew used faggot in the same way with absolutely no malice towards gays. It was honestly a revelation to discover that it was an anti-gay slur in some contexts. Here I am a few years later and faggot still has the original intent to me, but in my little corner of the world, that's what it meant. In fact, this isn't a recent phenomenon. It has been around for decades.
Here are some comedic takes on it:
Watch South Park (Season 13, Episode 12)
Louis CK
les papillons sexuels
Banned
Patrick Bateman
Member
Really? I didn't know that.
I want you to describe a situation to me. Tell me how you can call someone a faggot (or fag) and have the insult be unrelated to its status as a slur for gay men.
And then I want to know how I would know whether you meant "you're being stupid" faggot or "I hate gay people" faggot when I heard you saying it either to me or overheard you saying it to one of your friends.
I have never, ever thought "fag" when that's happened to me. And fuck that South Park episode. It's a childish and shallow examination of this that made people who have never in their lives had to give this a moment's thought suddenly feel as though they were experts.
Why do you think that everybody who feels like words are "just words" also uses words inconsiderately? You've taken the same mental shortcut in labeling and stereotyping that is behind racism, sexism etc.
la flama blanca
Banned
fucking love Louis CK <3
Quick question - a gay person who's had a tough life is around, would you use the word faggot freely - regardless of how this person feels?
everything but that last bit where you think you'll someday understand the need to ban words I completely agree with.
I've been called everything that you could call an overweight (more so in my younger years), kinda lazy, bisexual, mexican. I've heard it all and I've said it all. Of course as the years have passed I've learned tact and having a bit of respect for those around me, but I could never agree that banning a word because a few people get upset when they hear it in any connotation is ever, ever the right choice.
It's just down right stupid.
la flama blanca
Banned
Not unless they were being a F---...probly not.
If I valued this person's friendship and they asked me personally to do so -- yes, of course. It would come with a tirade about language, meaning, and context -- but, yes. I would.
TheExplodingHead
Banned
lol
LOL
My and my old friend group just got one-upped. We used to call it getting melted or glued to the floor. But "getting retarded" to describe getting stupidly high is sort of weak. We once made a bong at a hotel party you couldn't light on the same floor...that's retarded.
Raonak
Banned
Oh my... The irony is aaaamazing.
"Michelle Bachmann is a fucking faggot"
Seriously though, faggot carries a lot of charge, so I agree it's best not to use the word at all in public.
If you didn't value that persons friendship however? If that person was someone you didn't like, was being a big dick, and was just overall annoying the fuck out of you - would you say to him "You're such a faggot"?
DeathbyVolcano
Banned
Ehhhh. I'm split on this. I used to use the word retarded to describe someone who was just being stupid. But now I have a 8 month old nephew who is seriously, truly mentally retarded. And it hurts to see my older sister and her husband have to go through the things they have to go through in order to try and help this child. Retarded has a very negative connotation these days, much like faggot does. It just sort of makes me uncomfortable when I say it.
However, people in situations different from mine don't have personal connections with someone who could be labeled mentally retarded or homosexual, so they don't properly realize that meaning of those words for certain demographics. And most people, when they use them, don't truly mean to say "hey wow, you're being truly Down's Syndrome right now," or "jesus, could you BE even more of a gay penis lover?"
It's just common words that happen to have different meanings for different people. It's just an issue with linguistics that's hard to draw certain lines for.
However, people in situations different from mine don't have personal connections with someone who could be labeled mentally retarded or homosexual, so they don't properly realize that meaning of those words for certain demographics. And most people, when they use them, don't truly mean to say "hey wow, you're being truly Down's Syndrome right now," or "jesus, could you BE even more of a gay penis lover?"
It's just common words that happen to have different meanings for different people. It's just an issue with linguistics that's hard to draw certain lines for.
Heh, well. If that person was gay, I would have to understand that "faggot" means something inherently different to him than it does to me. And since I'm judging him for being a dick and annoying -- not for being gay -- I'd probably utilize other words for the sake of clarity and to avoid miscommunication.
la flama blanca
Banned
Absolutely. But only due a natural reaction of what I tend to call assholes to their faces. Could be asshole, but could also be faggot.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I think I used 'retarded' in a thread just yesterday as an insult. It's not something I thought about, but I really should. I'll be more careful in the future.
Yeah, no point using a word like that, with all it's baggage, if you have to spend another ten minutes explaining yourself. Easier just to be smart and use a different word so that no one makes any assumptions about your intent.
Dumb is an innocuous word. Retard is not. I'm not seeing your point.
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