Can not the word mean, “you are lesser than me”? When I hear someone call a black person as a “nigger” it does not imply that all black people are lesser than the speaker. In some contexts the word can be used to imply that all black people are lesser beings, which would be hate speech, but not all insulting uses of “nigger” imply that all black people are “niggers”.
The same goes for “bitch”. As an insult, it does not necessarily mean all women are mean or overbearing, although it can be used in such a way (“they’re all bitches”).
I agree with you to the extent that it is “just rationalization”. But I disagree to the extent that you consider it meaningless rationalization. Mostly because, as can be demonstrated, these insults are often used in a gender agnostic way, e.g.:
“Pierce Morgan is a cunt”.
Is anybody confused about his gender or who the insult is aimed at what what it conveys?
I agree that the words are offensive. We are talking about curse or swear words here. If you are arguing that we should teach children not to curse, I agree with you. There really isn’t a pressing need to use such hateful words. Doing so is bound to offend someone, which is impolite and hurts feelings. I imagine most people will agree.
But the million dollar question is, why shouldn’t these highly offensive words be allowed in the Pit, that place where you go when you want to read/write a profanity laced, no-holds-barred rant?
Interesting. Those two individuals were two of the worst in history. Grese was hung for crimes against humanity and Mussolini lead his country into a brutal war and was executed by his own countrymen. For the worst of the worst I agree. But for a modern Western politician or a celebrity or another poster here Im not so sure.
No. You are objectively incorrect in your understanding of the semantic content of the word. It inherently asserts the negative qualities of an entire class of people, carrying with it an immense subtext of historical oppression, and disparages an individual only by assigning them to that class.
Because our community (or a large segment of it) would like to draw a line. Words that are particularly offensive to women or African Americans, for example, cross that line.
Obviously because we want the Pit to be a place where we are free to rant at specific individuals for what they say or do, but not where we are free to express hateful bigotry toward entire classes of people.
Are you claiming that insufficient vocabulary exists in the English language to achieve the former without the collateral damage of the latter?
Because we have limits even in the Pit – they’re much less strict than the rest of the board, but they’re still there. I think it’s appropriate that hateful slurs be on the disallowed side of those limits, to demonstrate that gender/ethnic/racial/etc. hatefulness is beyond the pale on this board, period.
The question about my vocabulary notwithstanding, I do not dismiss your argument, or the one made by** iiandyiiii**.
I have to weigh the claimed impact of certain speech and the perceived injury, by what I consider to be essentially nothing more than colorful phrase, the way in which it is used and by whom, all in context of my personal experience and interactions with various people in my life.
Seems to me that women or Jews would be in a better position to relate how they feel about those words and their relationship to each other than a white guy.
This is an oft-toted red herring. I’m a Brit. It has a much larger range of meaning, and can be used informally between men as mildly as a term of endearment. But when used toward a female, the range of meaning encompasses the severity of U.S. usage. Many (most?) Brits know that it’s a much more problematic word in U.S. culture, and would have little problem adapting to U.S. cultural norms on a majority-U.S. board. It’s not as though the same word is used in the U.K. to mean “pumpkin”.
As I’ve already clearly said, ethnic, disability, sexual identity, misogynistic slurs are a line not to be crossed for any reason.
My argument is that the words I’m talking about don’t neatly fall into the above categories. And while there remains, I think, a time and place for them on the SDMB community, I’m not arguing for imposing no limits. I am questioning whether they need to be removed entirely and why.
FWIW, they’re both pretty awful, but to me kike is categorically worse. Most of my family was slaughtered under the ideas that kike represents. I think I’ve been more de-sensitized to cunt, especially with the colloquial usage in the UK. There are no circumstances that kike is used with affection.
Cunt is extremely nasty. Kike is unvarnished hate. For me, at least.