I keep seeing these debates about certain words being offensive or not and for the life of me, I can’t understand them. They usually start the same way: “people are still using ____ in 2020” or “please stop referring to ____ as ____” and personally I’m like “hm ok” and move on.

But then some guy is like “um how is that offensive” and there has to be some talk about it. And the answer is always, ALWAYS, the same. “This word has been used to dehumanize a marginalized group of people and it needs to stop”. That’s it. That’s the reason.

But that still isn’t enough for ppl and I don’t get the problem. First of all, why are people so attached to specific words? You could tell me any word, ANY word at all, was offensive and I’d drop it from my vocabulary instantly. “Butterscotch” “shoebox” whatever. It’s gone.

And the words being discussed aren’t common words like that. “Female” “tr*nny” and even the N-word continue to be brought up and it’s like, do you say these things so often that you can’t let them go? That you fight strangers online for them?

But it’s really not about letting the language go. If it was they’d just scroll past.

They’d read “I wish people would stop using _____” and think “Ha not gonna do that” and ignore.

But they need to fight for that lack of accountability.

All these debates center around the singular idea of “don’t you dare hold me accountable for what I say” and it is really the first step to the dissolution of society that we see especially in Americans.

Americans want to say whatever they want, and they can technically, but they want to offend, demean, and insult whoever they want without reprisal. They want to say hateful and hurtful things without disagreement and that is pretty despicable.

And asking them to stop is almost like taking away their identity. This identity, this core personality trait of making someone feel worse. They live to say things that cause pain. They are selfish and don’t want to consider anyone else.

And if they won’t adjust their language for anyone, they definitely won’t wear masks for anyone, they definitely won’t fight for civil rights for anyone, they definitely won’t vote for healthcare for anyone, they definitely won’t try to help anyone in any way.

These arguments about certain words are all about a lack of grace that lead to much bigger problems. Problems we are seeing right now, every day. Problems that can easily be solved if people actually cared about each other.

What’s the point in being patriotic if you don’t actually care about Americans?

But back to the original point. If someone says please don’t say a certain word, don’t argue why. Just say “I don’t care how you feel about it, I am selfish and I will say whatever I want” and let the conversation start from that refreshingly honest point of view. 12/12