This is not the internet, this is the UTMC.RevCBL wrote:@GG: I agree with George Carlin, actually. It's all about context. Unfortunately, on the internet, we have less context than we do face to face, so people have to judge us based on that.
Really? 'Cause it kinda sounds like passive-aggressive manipulation: an attempt to shame people into modifying their behavior.And once again, I'm not calling for a ban on anything or, really, asking anyone to do anything at all. Just stating an opinion. It's your choice whether to think about it.
But only kinda.
Thank you, fuckface, sometimes I wonder if I'm just typing to myself.Cocksucker.
Depends on the context, doesn't it?Edit: Also,
...
how many of those terms would you drop into casual conversation?
Oh fuck, here comes another long, boring bullshit screed from fuckin' hillbilly Chomsky...
Let's take "okie", for instance. That's a word with some subtext and history. (Ever read any Steinbeck?) During the dust bowl, lots of okies fled to California in search of work. The locals would often spit the word out as if we were the most vile, contemptible thing imaginable, yet today many of us self-identify as okies, even wear it like a badge of honor. Sorta like being Irish. Life was real fuckin' hard here for a long time, so people had to toughen up, get stoic and either get religion or a very keen sense of humor. I once bought my mom (Rev. Belshe) a t-shirt that read I'M AN OKLAHOMA GIRL AND I'LL KICK YOUR ASS. She got a good laugh out of it. In Oklahoma, "okie" has many connotations but chances are slim that you'll offend an okie by calling him such... unless you're from Texas, and then you'd better smile when you say it.
"Nigger" is a word that I heard my dad, uncle, brother and grampa say a lot when I was growing up, and they didn't mean it in the nice way, either. These men were straight up racist. Sexist and homophobic, too. My great grand uncle was the federal marshal in Cement, Oklahoma a hundred years ago, and he was some sort of regional official in the KKK. Even though I was exposed to these attitudes as a kid, it didn't stick to me. I didn't have anything against black people, still don't. I was even called "nigger lover" in school because I simply didn't feel negatively toward a person or group of people based on the color of their skin. I worked on my dad for years, talking to him about this stuff and he eventually changed (see? passive-aggressive manipulation). I knew he didn't really feel that way about people, and he came to realize it as well. I've actually been surprised at the degree of empathy he regularly exhibits.
So no, I don't say "nigger" unless it's used ironically in a conversation with someone I know, someone who shares the same frame of reference with me and understands exactly the subtext that goes along with my utterance of such a heavily charged word. Put it this way: My white guilt is sufficiently developed that I hesitate to refer to a person by their ethnicity if I have to describe them physically.
It's much the same with the word "gay". Both words bear an enormous emotional burden, and are thus very powerful words that can hurt people if used improperly. "Nigger" and "faggot" are labels that've been used to differentiate groups of people as somehow different from "normal people".
The etymology of "nigger" is still debated (last I heard), but "gay" just meant happy and carefree for centuries. Are we to now accept that "gay" only means "homosexual"?
I'll have to pick this up later, I'm fading fast here.
If I've offended any niggers, faggots, nigger faggots, okies, Irish, Irish niggers, okie faggots, happy people, etymologists or passive-agressive manipulators, I am heartily sorry.
That makes me feel bad 
