The problem has never been the words, but how they’re directed.
The right broadly has no concept of “punching down” and just see anyone different than themselves as threats that need to punched. But they do love to twist our words against us, to use our kindness and empathy to get us to reconsider our language, leaving us spinning in circles worried that the actual effective ammunition we have against them might hurt the wrong people.
Meanwhile they will carpet bomb entire populations with hateful policies and rhetoric without second thought. This is their strength, it’s why they are gaining numbers and have won so much ground.
I don’t think we should make a “movement” to be “allowed” to use slurs, but we definitely have to stop caring about and policing those who have no qualms about directing painful language upwards.
I’ve taken to saying that I’d call them that, but I wouldn’t want to disparage the mentally disabled
The problem has never been the words, but how they’re directed.
The right broadly has no concept of “punching down” and just see anyone different than themselves as threats that need to punched. But they do love to twist our words against us, to use our kindness and empathy to get us to reconsider our language, leaving us spinning in circles worried that the actual effective ammunition we have against them might hurt the wrong people.
Meanwhile they will carpet bomb entire populations with hateful policies and rhetoric without second thought. This is their strength, it’s why they are gaining numbers and have won so much ground.
I don’t think we should make a “movement” to be “allowed” to use slurs, but we definitely have to stop caring about and policing those who have no qualms about directing painful language upwards.