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The Words We Use Don't Matter, The Context and Meaning Behind Them Do

2K views 28 replies 15 participants last post by  ROH AmericanDragon 
#1 ·
So I did a youtube video about how it is acceptable to use certain slang words given proper context. It seems to me that most people these days have a filter, as soon as they hear a dirty word they instantly jump on the person for using the word and not the context around it. For example a year ago when Jonah Hill was being harassed by the paparazzi he turned around and said 'suck my dick you fa**ot' People instantly jumped on him about using an offensive word and not the person harassing him.

They jump into huge arguments about how these words have been used to oppress people in the past, but it's irrelevant because the context is what matters. It's not like he was going up to a gay person calling him names and discriminating against him. The fact is he was being harassed by someone calling him sexy and he told him off. Making it out to be a big issue where he attacked gay rights, is absolutely ridiculous.

Do you think it's ok to use racial slurs given the proper context?

If you're interested can check out the video here. If not can just comment on what I wrote here.
 
#2 ·
No, because there isn't a way you can call someone a ****** with love.

If you call someone a ******, it's an offensive word.

Telling someone to suck your dick is offensive.

Calling someone a ...... is offensive.

Calling someone a fat fuck is offensive. Calling someone a queer is offensive. Telling someone they stink like shit is offensive. Calling someone a cunt is offensive. Calling someone a terrorist is offensive.

People can justify it all they want. People can say they were just messing around with friends. It's still offensive.

Would you call your new boss a fat ...... ****** cunt? No? Because it's offensive.

Some people might choose to not be upset by it, but it's still offensive, regardless of context or intent.
 
#7 ·
Whether people will freak out over a word or not is irrelevant. The fact is there are acceptable uses of profanity and racial slurs. It's playing it safe to just ban the word on a forum because it keeps the people who are going to make a big stink about it at bay. It is often used to denigrate people, but just because there are instances where words are 'bad' doesn't mean it's right to 'ban' the word all together in every incarnation.

It may be smart business to water down your product to be the most inclusive to everyone, but the more you water things down the worse the product is. Hence why everyone complains about the PG era of wrestling, they try their best not to offend anyone that it stops them from doing ANYTHING.

Incidents as those described in the video gives examples of cases where it should be acceptable. It's ignoring one issue to propagate another one.
 
#8 ·
I understand your argument and agree with you in certain aspects, however, I don't think you used a good example.

Jonah Hill aggressively calling someone a ****** is offensive. It implies that being a '******' (commonly considered to mean homosexual) is a bad thing. Like he is criticizing the guy for being homosexual. That is an insult to all gays.

I'm a big fan of Jonah Hill and love that he went on to make an extremely heartfelt apology for it.
 
#9 ·
Well the paparazzi was referring him to as 'sexy' and other sexual sayings. Much like if the westboro baptist church was yelling at you saying you're going to hell cause you're an atheist and you turn around and say 'Fuck off you religious psycho'. In the same way jonah hill was being sexually harassed. Jonah understandably knew the guy was saying it to get a rise out of him. So the sexual calls eventually got to him. Seeing the person was sexually harassing him he mockingly 'embraced' the sexual suggestions by what he said.

I don't feel his apology was genuine, he's a comedian. The characters he plays are in no way PC. I feel it was simply a Public Relations tactic to smooth over the issue. I have no direct evidence of that though.

If you watched the video I talked about another example. When I was in 6th grade I was being harassed by a group of about 10 8th graders. Every day they would tease me by coming up behind me and lifting me up and tossing me, calling me names, criticizing anything I wore, criticizing me for being quiet, they'd hit me, they'd shove me. I went to the teachers, they did nothing. One day one of them came up behind me at recess and punched me from behind, knocking me to the ground, then he proceeded to kick me in the stomach over and over. I was just walking outside, didn't have anything to do with him, and he did that.

So yeah one day after months of this going on and nothing happening, I said to one of them who was black "why can't you leave me alone you fucking n-word" and I don't regret it. I was tormented by these assholes and yeah I tried other options but I had no other choice, because once I said that, the kid left me alone. But apparently it hurt him so much he went to the principal who was also black and yeah the issue was I used the 'n-word' and not that these kids would attack me, torment me etc.

So with Jonah Hill, yeah he's constantly harassed by the paparazzi and I can understand yelling at these people. Granted my situation was probably worse simply because it was physical attacks, but harassment is harassment.
 
#19 ·
I don't need anyone's forgiveness. I didn't do anything wrong, and neither did a lot of people who are attacked for it. Granted what .... ..... said was racist after reading the transcript. But no where near as bad as people were making it out to be.

There is no such thing as a bad word, only ever a bad intention (thanks punk lol, but my english teacher also used to say this to us because we would read literature with swearing or words now deemed to be inappropriate). That being said, racial slurs and bigoted vocabulary really set me on edge, i've never found it comfortable to hear those words being spoke or see them written. Y'all use a lot of this vocab at times, and it really makes me cringe.

just saying.
What words make you cringe that people use?

The problem with it is that it has negative effects on the whole group. If I call someone is being an asshole to me and I call them a n-gger and then they stop it might be justifiable as far as me and the asshole are concerned, but what about the other black guy who hears you doing it and gets upset by it? What about the people the asshole tells about what happened?

There are no absolutes in ethics, there are always situations where certain actions are justifiable - I do think in society we have a problem with this, context is everything but there are certain actions you can take which will make you a hate figure almost regardless of it - you have to understand the reason why certain things are seen as worse though.
The fact of the matter is people are only paying attention to certain issues and ignoring others. People ignored that they were beating me up, but I say a dirty word and everyone loses their mind. Reminds me of that batman meme with the joker, except the quote would be 'You can have a quiet kid harassed every day, no one bats an eye... then the quiet kid calls the bully a dirty word and everyone loses their mind."

Could there be larger ramifications for calling him a n-word, yeah there could. But there could also be ramifications for anything you do or don't do. The other day my gf was talking to a friend and she asked how her relationship was going with this guy she had been seeing, and she just started crying. yeah theres un-intentional potential ramifications for anything you say. Yeah you could say well you knew he was black and would offend him. But when it came to that point of harassment I don't care if I hurt his feelings or the feelings of a whole race, when I'm the one getting beaten up and tormented, all that matters is I get them to stop. Any negative side effects are negligible.
 
#16 ·
There is no such thing as a bad word, only ever a bad intention (thanks punk lol, but my english teacher also used to say this to us because we would read literature with swearing or words now deemed to be inappropriate). That being said, racial slurs and bigoted vocabulary really set me on edge, i've never found it comfortable to hear those words being spoke or see them written. Y'all use a lot of this vocab at times, and it really makes me cringe.

just saying.
 
#17 ·
The problem with it is that it has negative effects on the whole group. If I call someone is being an asshole to me and I call them a n-gger and then they stop it might be justifiable as far as me and the asshole are concerned, but what about the other black guy who hears you doing it and gets upset by it? What about the people the asshole tells about what happened?

There are no absolutes in ethics, there are always situations where certain actions are justifiable - I do think in society we have a problem with this, context is everything but there are certain actions you can take which will make you a hate figure almost regardless of it - you have to understand the reason why certain things are seen as worse though.
 
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#23 ·
I hate *******! Yeah, I said it!

 
#24 ·
In fact, the context and meaning behind the words means they do matter. After all, people say these words in order to garner a response. If I call someone a stupid, lazy motherfucker, those words obviously mattered as I specifically used those words.

What I find interesting is the double-standard. I have never been able to understand that. To me, for example, blacks using the n-word are every bit as ignorant as whites using that word. Why can one group use a word and the other can't? I understand blacks took the word and incorporated it to take away the power from racist whites to hurt them. Now, it's time to just stop using that word altogether as far as I'm concerned if it is that hurtful.
 
#25 ·
Words are determined by their meanings and/or their interpretation of use within situations, if all context is removed from a word it nullifies its effect and conveniently fulfills the speakers justifications for using the words. (aka excusing their action or reaction to lessen its effects during reprimand)
For a clearer picture of what this means - during a heated argument you insult someone by your pov of their societal status or visually mock them, when you do this you don't attempt to retract the insult or excuse it - such as seeing a group of Gays having a clique joke at you and you retaliate by saying what Jonah Hill said; during the retaliation he doesn't add ''take a joke damn'' or says ''you're Gay so why can't I call you that'' because first off the retaliation is meant to be offensive otherwise the angry defensive reply loses all of its intents & purposes and secondly the retaliations didn't include ''take a joke'' etc because there is no aim to play down the insult or justify it.

Words are tools aimed at causing upset thats why angry or defensive people use them, they aren't said without intending their context because all words are always used due to their meanings so as to garner reactions.

There is no 'nice' way to call strangers/non-friendship a word considered offensive it only can apply if its said/done in a social/friendship circle which explains why a group of Afro-Americans can say n-word to themselves but a passing stranger who repeats it to them is considered offensive because he/she doesn't know who they are to be on terms enough to validate using an offensive word in passing.
 
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