Re: Willow Palin's homophobic Facebook rant

> The problem is...when you (generic) use a word like
> retarded or faggot?  You  ARE insulting those groups-intended
> or not.

That's nonsense, of course. Every time you use the word "f*ck," are
you referring to sex, whether you intend it or not? Everytime someone
says "gay," are they referring to happiness? Until we call someone or
something "homosexual," we're speaking in euphemisms, period. If
someone voluntarily applies that euphemism to themselves, isn't that
their problem?

If, out of spite, I poop on a raccoon that I hate, and you come
running over, grab the raccoon and rub it all over your stomach, can
you reasonably complain that I've pooped on you? (Hey, I thought I'd
liven up the analogies.)

And how far are you willing to take this conviction? Every time you
write the word "God," you're offending a lot of people, and in a very
personal way. Are you going to stop for their sakes? As a Christian, I
find the use of "Jesus" as an exclamation or expression of disgust
grievously offensive. Do you believe that everyone should have to stop
using it, simply because I take it personally? After all, it's not
just a generic exclamation, right? They're *specifically* using His
name. I'd challenge you to find even five people who have no stake in
it to agree.

>  Why do people struggle against this fact so much?
> Why are their insults so damn precious?

You are again phrasing this question as if it's the insult that's
precious, rather than the rigth to be the owner of one's own
expression. I could go the rest of my life without calling my computer
"gay," but I shouldn't *have* to, because until I start aiming my
words at another person, it's nothing to do with them.

> This idea that it doesn't matter because it wasn't my
> intention?  My words may have unintended victims.
>  That matters to me.

And you're welcome to that sensitivity. Just don't come knocking on my
door and saying that it must also matter to me.

Stephen Fry had a little rant that I've heard Christopher Hitchens
echo, almost word for word. Fry's version went like this:

"It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by
that,' as if that gives them certain rights, when it's actually quite
simply a whine. It's no more than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It
has no meaning, it has no purpose, it has no reason to be respected as
a phrase. 'I am offended by that" -- well, so fucking what?"

-- 
-pcg
 [email protected]

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