As slurs go, it seems even dumber than most. I mean, who’s calling who spooky?
Respectfully, old bean, you’re quite mistaken. To use an especially apt term of art from the sailing world, you’ve failed to fetch the mark.
You should know that I have always privileged the written word over the spoken word. This makes me odd, but Covid-19 did not greatly curtail my communication. It also means that I value the content printed by authors I do not know and will never meet,
It occurs to me that “being called on” word choice is an interjectory form not unlike mansplaining in order to put the presenter of content on edge.
BS. In this very thread, I got called out on word choice; I acknowledged I made a mistake; I fixed it. No problems. I wasn’t being mansplained to or anything similar.
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Great? What does that have to do with anything?
It occurs to me that this makes you sound like you think you’re entitled to say whatever you want without ever having to consider the emotional impact of your words on others.
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I am only sovereign over my own mind, the ocean of other people’s imaginations is too vast to conquer,. It has a long fetch, I cannot delude myself into thinking that I can predict the waves that may form.
The thing that gets me, is that terms can be pretty local, and BBS can be VERY US-centric. The N word is pretty generally understood as racist in the whole English speaking world; sp*** as a racial pejorative is purely USian. A few months back I got corrected on the BBS for using the word “thug” which is absolutely is not racialized here in Canada, so far as I know, but evidently is elsewhere? It works both ways as well-- there are words that are totally innocuous in the US that are problematic elsewhere. And there are a range of very unacceptable words in Canada that a USAian would not understand.
Having worked internationally a good part of my life, I think that the best solution is to assume good intentions of speakers you do not know, particularly if you have any indication that they aren’t from your own little neck of the woods. And when an error is made, it can be correctly gently and with good humor and humility, instead of leaping straight away to condemnation and outrage.
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It’s also the name of an Irish doppelganger. .
Conceivably this could mean that “fetch” would be obsolete, unless the Germans and the Irish each had their own folklore.
I am, frankly, amazed and disappointed by the callous disregard for decency some of the posters in this topic have expressed.
This is literally a post about “Hey, don’t use this word, you may not realize it but it has really bad connotations for a portion of the population”, and for some posters, the only thing they can muster is a response of “yeah, that’s too bad, but hey, this might mess with my ability to say what I want and I’m not ok with that!”
Like seriously, go take a long look in the mirror and realize you are basically saying "Racism and bigotry are bad, but not bad enough to change my own behaviour for.
Because in the real world, outside of topics like this? People aren’t kvetching over not being able to use slurs against people, they’re either using them to be bigots, or their doing their best to be respectful. And in my experience? It’s really obvious to those being affected by these slurs when you are trying to not be a dick.
The lack of empathy and self-absorption of some of these responses, mixed with the pearl-clutching over the possibility that the meanings of words may change and you may have to lift a finger of effort to change your own behaviour on behalf of exterminating bigotry around the world makes me weep for our future.
I do however, take small comfort in that fact that this topic will remain a record of these behaviours. To those of you who have chosen these responses to bigotry:
We see you.
