> I know the r-word is coming back in vogue
This is so utterly fascinating to watch.
Three years ago this would have cost you your job. Now everybody's back at it again.
What is happening?
This is so utterly fascinating to watch.
Three years ago this would have cost you your job. Now everybody's back at it again.
What is happening?
They're not talking about a human. To me that makes it feel very different.
However, there's also a large component coming from the current political situation. People feel more confident to push back against things like the policing of word usage. They're less likely to get "cancelled" now. They feel more confident that the zeitgeist is on their side now. They're probably right.
I'm with you on this, also speaking as a strong leftist.
I do think that "banning" , or at least strongly condemning, the use of words when the specific group being slurred are clear that they consider it a slur and want it to stop is reasonable. But not when it's social justice warriors getting offended on behalf of other people.
However, I think it's absolutely ridiculous that even when discussing the banning of these words, we're not allowed to use them directly. We are supposed to say "n-word", "r-word" even when discussing in an academic sense. Utter nonsense, it's as if saying these words out loud would conjure a demon.
Crazy assholes will argue along the lines that it is an insignificant inconvenience and hence anyone who uses the old language must use it maliciously and on purpose, because they are ableist, racist or whatever.
This then gives assholes the justification to behave like a biggot towards the allegedly ableist person. The goal is to dress up your own abusive bullying as virtuous, even though deep down you don't actually care about disabled people.
However, most of them are well meaning. They're misguided rather than assholes. They really do want to take action for social improvement. It's just that real change is too hard and requires messy things like protesting on the street or getting involved in politics and law. So, they fall back on things like policing words, or calling out perceived bad actors, which they can do from the comfort of their homes via the internet.
To be fair, some genuinely bad people have been "cancelled". The "me too" movement didn't happen without reason. It's just that it went too far, and started ignoring pesky things like evidence, or innocent until proven otherwise.
I should not have laughed at this.
CBT therapy, especially the "B" part, was essentially created to help overcome phobias of things like words. There are some great books on CBT, and also research showing that working alone using a book can often be as effective as working with a therapist. The classic Feeling Good by David Burns, while the case studies are a bit dated, is still an amazing book.