The words to hurt an opponent or a perceived enemy are a refection of the culture, its ethnicity, and the class and country of origin of the speaker. Sometimes a word, meant to hurt, becomes a word that is adopted as an expresion of pride, like the word you cannot say or properly spell in your post when used in lyrics of Black musicians, or in the case of the gay scene, the word queen. The history of offense and separation is much wider and deeper than one post can dig up, tbut hanks for the effort. The current broohahah about the "Young" Republicans' language when they think they are unobserved is only the top of the iceberg. In a country that is intent on dividing its society and separating its people into classes and ethnic types from the top down, using slurs and hate words and its indications of economic stratification, very prevalent in the US, is used by individuals to make themselves feel better about their own situation. Compared to the UK for example, where stratification is the culture and acknowledged, and a souce of pride for some, it lacks the pretense of "freedom and equality for all" of the US. A laughable claim. And Sad.
You wrote: "In a country that is intent on dividing its society and separating its people into classes and ethnic types from the top down, using slurs and hate words and its indications of economic stratification is very prevalent in the US used by individuals to make themselves feel better about their own situation."
It never works, does it? Cruelty is simply insecurity dressed up as strength. Deep down, bigots know that all the venom in the world can't fill the hollow where their self-respect should be. And no amount of hate will ever get them there. The virtue of real strength is that it is secure and unshakable, and it doesn't need a victim.
Thank you for this excellent article; I hadn’t noticed this language shift and am appreciating this new understanding and insight. I’m disgusted… but not surprised.
Your points are well taken, and the trend has risen markedly with the advent of Trump and Trumpism.
Yes, unfortunately. It has certainly been more out in the open, enabled by Trump’s solidarity with racist GOP voters.
So much cultural work to be done. Thanks for sharing these stories.
The words to hurt an opponent or a perceived enemy are a refection of the culture, its ethnicity, and the class and country of origin of the speaker. Sometimes a word, meant to hurt, becomes a word that is adopted as an expresion of pride, like the word you cannot say or properly spell in your post when used in lyrics of Black musicians, or in the case of the gay scene, the word queen. The history of offense and separation is much wider and deeper than one post can dig up, tbut hanks for the effort. The current broohahah about the "Young" Republicans' language when they think they are unobserved is only the top of the iceberg. In a country that is intent on dividing its society and separating its people into classes and ethnic types from the top down, using slurs and hate words and its indications of economic stratification, very prevalent in the US, is used by individuals to make themselves feel better about their own situation. Compared to the UK for example, where stratification is the culture and acknowledged, and a souce of pride for some, it lacks the pretense of "freedom and equality for all" of the US. A laughable claim. And Sad.
You wrote: "In a country that is intent on dividing its society and separating its people into classes and ethnic types from the top down, using slurs and hate words and its indications of economic stratification is very prevalent in the US used by individuals to make themselves feel better about their own situation."
It never works, does it? Cruelty is simply insecurity dressed up as strength. Deep down, bigots know that all the venom in the world can't fill the hollow where their self-respect should be. And no amount of hate will ever get them there. The virtue of real strength is that it is secure and unshakable, and it doesn't need a victim.
Thank you for this excellent article; I hadn’t noticed this language shift and am appreciating this new understanding and insight. I’m disgusted… but not surprised.