Maiyannah BishopOftentimes I think that people make all the jokes they do about "discourse", all the while participating in the same toxic arguments they condemn, because it makes them feel better about it. It's a coping mechanism for knowing that you're just as much a part of the disease as the people you condemn.
It's easier to mock and demean, after all - that's the thought process you're used to. To quote Gabriel Morton from one of the LP things with Yahtzee Crowshaw: "Hate's easy, Yahtz. Compassion, compassion's where it's at."
So often we jump on communication using the Designated Bad Words as if those words have objective bad meanings, completely disregarding the context and meaning those words are meant to convey. When I self-depreceiatingly own the word "dyke" it has a much different meaning than when a homophobe uses it. But in the social media generation, we are being conditioned to give our unsolicited sound byte opinions on everything, regardless of context, and it has diminished our ability to actually meaningfully communicate, because people will insist their subjective interpretation of anything is sacrosanct and cannot be contravened.
The Mysterious Em@maiyannah The 'this word is bad' concept is so weird for me as a non-american. I have no issues with 'you don't call people ...', but that a word i itself is bad is just weird and foreign.
@themysteriousem Words have precisely the meaning we give to them, no more nor less. I think there's a certain amount of egocentrism involved in those who insist *their* meaning must be the One True Meaning.