• thantik@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Hah, gay.

    Honestly, I grew up in a time where gay just meant “dumb”. I still say it from time to time on accident, knowing that it’s unacceptable say it today.

    Like, I’ve called so many things “gay” through the decades that it’s lost any connection to LGBT stuff in my head. But strangely, I’ve never used it as an insult to a person. I have no idea why.

    I’m a living example of that south park episode with the bikers…

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Mostly the same for “f@g”. My gay friends called each other that back in the 90’s. LOL, they called me that. It simply wasn’t a big deal, no harm, no foul.

      Same for “retard”. I got a warning from a reddit mod I liked, on a really reasonable sub, for talking about “retarding the action” on a mechanical device. Yeah.

      While we’re at it, I didn’t know “negro” had somehow turned into a pejorative until Oceans 11 came out. I thought it was a polite, though archaic, word. “Colored” had been out for some time, but again, I thought it was just an old word and nobody cared. And “Eskimo”, and “Oriental”, and so on. Never heard those words used in a derogatory context. (Gods please, don’t try to educate me. I truly get it now. Just relating my experiences and thoughts for context.)

      This kinda thing is what conservatives are on about. No, they’re not sad that they can’t throw n****r around any longer. FFS, that word has been anathema since I was a child in the 70s. It’s just that language is changing at an historic rate, and fuck you if you don’t keep up with every nuance. Anyone remember when “African-American” was a big thing, and even black people were laughing at it?

      I have no desire to hurt anyone’s feelings, always trying to learn, but on a single decade’s timeline, language is a minefield. Now do 50-years. (OK, don’t care about conservatives or Russians, but you get my drift.)

      Go ahead, beat me up.

      • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Same for “retard”. I got a warning from a reddit mod I liked, on a really reasonable sub, for talking about “retarding the action” on a mechanical device. Yeah.

        I had some limited entertainment hassling mods on reddit about their stupid automated bots that couldn’t understand that words like “retard” or “abort” have meanings outside of insults and politics.

      • thantik@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        It’s so fucking hilarious that there’s a pink floyd poster on the wall of that gif too…

        But yeah, I’m the same - I have no desire to hurt anyone’s feelings. I support the existence of LGBT people, I’m not exactly going to pride events or anything, but my daughters are somewhere along that spectrum of sexuality and I don’t give them shit for it; I’ve always supported them.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Loved a reddit sub about historical pics. There was a poster constantly uploading “Eskimo” pics, and describing them as such.

          OMFG, the comments. Every time. Funny thing is, the poster claimed they were of Far-Northern-North-American-Descent-Before-Whites-Came-Along. Of course we can’t use “Inuit”, because they’re not all Inuits. Fair enough.

    • kamenLady.@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Same - i still have to be careful, because it’s so natural for me to call something gay, because i think it’s just stupid.

    • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Nothing has replaced gay. It still remains the most useful word to describe something. Nothing else quite fits.

      Like you say it doesn’t mean homosexual it has so much use.