Yeah, I'm gonna agree with Cyril here. I've never--and I mean NEVER--seen someone label the words in that tweet as problematic. The only two words that I see a growing number of people pushing into the politically incorrect category are "gypsies" and "retard".
My grandmother, with pride, used to call herself a "gypsy". I was talking with a man, older than me, but not by much (so much younger than my grandmother) and after he noted his history, similar to mine, I said that and he looked at me and said something to the effect of "not something to be joked about son". I'm still not 100% certain to what he was referring, but he clearly took offense to the notion of "gypsy".
Back to the original topic, I would say that yes, my insults are mostly politically correct. I believe that insults should punch UP, not DOWN and be based more on belittling those who hold power (and often misuse it). Like insults towards the "dragon rich" who just hoard more wealth than they and their next of kin and their next of kin could ever need in their lifetimes while they could easily solve half the problems in society if they wanted. Racist, sexist, and homophobic/transphobic jokes are almost never funny to me, especially after having been on the Internet for so long. You can only read "i sElf iDeNtiFy aS an aPacHe aTTacK hEliCopTeR" so many times before it loses any and all potential humor. Now what I AM finding funnier and funnier is jokes ABOUT racists, sexists, and homophobes/transphobes. Like the #GamersRiseUp memes--which parody the excessive presence of off the wall racism that's weirdly prevalent in the gaming community--which I derive endless amusement from. And then there's Scottish insults, which are quite frankly an art form. There's something oddly poetic about "Yer da sells Avon" or "go and comb your baldy man" or "yer maw has a chin like Buzz Lightyear"
See, I disagree with this about as vehemently as I can. I can understand the personal benefit of that "punching up" but I see so much relativity, subjectiveness and judgment in punching in ANY direction that I can't get behind this even a little bit. When you couple in that a growing body of research shows that alienation is in part a contributor to racism, bigotry and -phobia, it's only throwing gas on a fire. (In other words, the "punching" - the ostracizing - of those people who have beliefs different than ours only reinforces those beliefs and makes the problem worse. "Common sense" to the rescue yet again!). I get subtlely accused of BEING racist or bigoted by seeming to side with these people, but that's just lazy and defensive. The plain fact is, we either want to get rid of racism/bigotry, or we want to assuage ourselves and exact our "revenge" so to speak on those that we believe are beneath us. But how does that separate us from those feelings we claim to despise?
But even taking all that into consideration, I tend to direct insults more as a form of ribbing/teasing towards close friends. It's more fun when you know they won't take it seriously and you can have some bants instead of a fist fight.
I think there's a difference between "insulting" someone on purpose and saying something carelessly yet innocently that ends up hurting someone. My college friends as a group can be BRUTAL (I can remember being in a bar once, watching basketball, and the girl I was
hitting on talking to paused and said "don't you think you should break that up before they start punching each other?" in reference to three of my friends that were getting especially rough with each other. I have several examples of things being said between us that I won't say here because there's no way that the intent, the context or the underlying sentiments can ever be effectively communicated, and it would only come off as "WTF?".)
I'm going to take some flack here, but I mean what I say to further conversation, not to be controversial or to imply that I'm 100% right with no room to discuss. I'm not entirely convinced that this trend to pick apart potential insults is entirely altruistic. We're moving to a - and I'm not married to this descriptor - victim society. There's a LOT of finger-pointing in our society. Some of it is just, no doubt, but some of it isn't, and some of it is an end in and of itself (anyone who's heard a story about a "courageous" person coming forward with their "story" and that story is simply an every-day inter-personal interaction that didn't work out to their satisfaction knows what I'm talking about here). The "punching up" referenced above falls into this too, if you ask me. The idea of the "dragon rich" is in some form scapegoating. Why does having money, or a certain threshold of money, impart any additional moral requirement? Why aren't we talking about moral requirements down the line? The degree may be different, but why doesn't everyone have that requirement, to the degree they can? Why does the stereotypical drug dealer - working out of the system, under the table - not have a commensurate moral obligation? Does some measure of "survival" obviate the need for moral clarity? Who decides what that line is?
Topic: Are your insults politically correct? (Read 4429 times)
