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Comment by megaduck | Hacker News Reader

I know you meant it as a joke, and it is indeed clever. However, usage of 'gay' as a pejorative is kind of offensive to some of us. Please be careful with your puns.

Edit: Seriously, guys, I'm trying to be as civil as possible here. What's with the downvotes?

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Civility has nothing to do with it. It was a not-so-clever pun. I wasn't actually using it as a pejorative. That should be painfully obvious.

It was a pun on a pejorative use of the word - if you disagree, look up "pejorative".

At the risk of seeming "PC" to oversensitive folks, using social identities as pejoratives is inherently insulting; you're associating their racial/sexual/etc. identity with something undesirable, even if you don't think of it as a slur. "Gay" to mean stupid or annoying is of a piece with terms like "gyp", "indian-giver", or "nigger-rig".

EXCEPT THAT I WASN'T USING IT AS A PEJORATIVE. Jesus fucking christ, this isn't "PC" this is just stupid.

You weren't using it as a pejorative, but your pun was based on its use as a pejorative.

And? Some guy posted using the word "nigger". He may not be calling people "nigger", but he used a word that is racially insensitive! Booga booga!

Jesus.

This has less to do with political correctness, and more the idea that posts like yours are just kind of annoying. The tone makes the site seem a lot less civil. It didn't add anything to the thread. Now all we have is you acting very annoyed that we didn't like your joke.

Humor is encouraged on Hacker News, but only when it is actually funny. Your joke wasn't funny.

Yes, it was funny to no one. This is why the comment has +5.

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