This is quite off topic from most postings in this forum, but what do you guys think about the movements to demonize and remove certain words from society’s collective vocabulary? This specifically brings to mind “retard” and “fag” and “bitch” but there are others too. Do you use these words?
I use these words, but only in a personal setting with my like-minded comrades (including my gay roommate and my friend with a mentally handicapped sister). Although I realize that words are merely verbal symbols to represent ideas and have no inherently evil properties, I’m not going to risk offending a stranger in a public setting who has their own negative subjective meanings attached to them. I think most people realize this and are self-censoring. The best cure for hate speech is more free speech to smack it down. People don’t want to piss other people off for no reason 99.9% of the time (outside of the internet, of course, which is the harbor for sadistic trolls of all sorts).
However, when I do say one of these words around someone who I’m aware doesn’t “like” the word (usually accidentally) and they try to correct me, I admit that it really does piss me off. It’s ridiculous to take it upon yourself to put a pompous holier-than-thou spiel on me that I’m somehow morally wrong for uttering a forbidden configuration of syllables.
“But Willy, they aren’t just verbals symbols, this definition neglects to take into account the reality of the way words are used and the real impact they have on people!”
Yes, cliche nagging feminist I pictured in my head; words have meanings that societies have applied to them over many millenia through usage. This is true. No one is advocating yelling getting on a megaphone and yelling “RETARD” in a mentally handicapped person’s face. That is wrong and an act of aggression. However, it would still be wrong if someone yelled “SUBNORMAL INTELLIGENCE TEST SCORER” in someone’s face. The word is not the issue, it’s the context and application that makes the word hurtful. Much like how gun control is about the human behind the gun and not the gun itself.
So judge me for saying “retard” all you want, I’m not going to tell you it can’t be construed as insensitive. It most certainly can be. However, there are some issues with this absolutist attitude. If “retard” is black listed then so must “idiot”, “moron”, “ignoramus”, “fool”, “dolt”, “stupid”, “dumb”, and basically every word that we use to describe someone in a negative manner, not limited to intelligence. So basically this advocates destroying (rather, tip-toeing around) a huge part of our vernacular in the sole name of sensitivity. If these word fascists took their principles to their logical conclusion, most comedy simply wouldn’t be allowed because the nature of comedy is to lampoon culture and society. Good luck doing that without stepping on a single toe.
To me, this is something that can and should easily be controlled on an individual level, and I don’t know why people flock to these “movements” that have no means of changing a single thing. Might as well start a movement to encourage people to not wear denim or get tattoos–their method of how they can get their message across is essentially the same, by shaming people into thinking they are ignorant or small minded.
“Spread the word to end the word” literally makes no sense. You can’t end a word. We just come up with other forms of expression with the same negative connotation. Top-down censorship is a lot like every prohibition, ever: it just creates unintended (and often unseen) Frankenstein consequences that come back to bite you in your collectivist, well-intentioned but short-sighted ass later.
These PC crusades that rally around groupthink only result in giving these words more power and, quite frankly, are mentally handicapped.
