Re: Willow Palin's homophobic Facebook rant

Bravo!

Seriously, you said very well what I have long felt.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of pcg
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 7:54 AM
To: DADL (off topic)
Subject: Re: [DADL-OT] Willow Palin's homophobic Facebook rant

>> if she's anything like most modern teens, she very
>> likely uses these words without a moment's thought devoted to
>> homosexuality. It's a word, get over it.
>
> Guess you could say the same about the F-bomb.

Sure, and I would. When people say I'm f*cking dumb, is that a subtle
insult to anyone who has sex with a mute person? When people call me a
motherf*cker, are they insulting married fathers everywhere? Wikipedia
notes that "lame" is a universally offensive term, so be sure not to
insult that group of people next time you describe a bad movie. When I
call my computer "retarded," is it a subtle dig at with mental
disabilities? (Or is it "mental challenges?" Or, sorry, is it
"intellectual disabilities?" One gets confused when one doesn't keep
up.)

>> Louis CK's bit about this is not only hilarious, but insightful
>
> Yet there *is* the underlying understanding that being a "faggot" is
> bad because you're acting like a homosexual. (Is that Louis using an
> effeminate voice when acting out a "faggot"?)

Oh, I don't think so. I would describe that as a whiney, sniveling voice.

> And it reminds me of how
> some people want to use the word "nigger" and say it has nothing to do
> with blacks. Historically, they're wrong.

I'm not familiar with this phenomenon, but of course there is the
matter of black people using "nigger" to refer to themselves and each
other, just as gay people use words like "faggot" and "flamer" when
referring to each other. This lays bare the stupidity and
ineffectiveness of trying to police language. The only reason we can't
tell gay people to stop using "fag" is because we don't assume such
"authority" over them. Well, guess what: I don't give anyone that
authority over me, either.

My point is this: insults exist where they are intended. When they are
unintended, they do not exist except in the mind of the offended.

When I call the loudmouth at the bank "gay," I'm insulting a
loudmouth, not gay people. When I call a gay person "lame," I'm
insulting a gay person, not people who are wheelchair-bound. (Oops, I
mean "people who use a wheelchair.")

> In many cases, when communicating, it doesn't matter what you
> supposedly mean but how you know other people are going to take it. If
> I were negotiating with a foreign country, let's say peace talks,
> would I knowingly use a term that is offensive to them, even if the
> term is not offensive in my country?

Certainly not, but I wonder, were these people at whom Willow was
throwing insults homosexuals? Or is this a case of someone overhearing
a public conversation and butting their dictums in where they're
unasked?

--
-pcg
 [email protected]

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