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Comment by mint2 | Hacker News Reader

Here’s the thing, it’s not less bad than whatever others you’re thinking of. You’re just confusing your own familiarity with acceptability.

Just because you’ve heard the word and are used to it, and maybe used it without your bubble caring, doesn’t mean it’s less hurtful than other words. As the other words fell out of general acceptance, many people who were familiar with the words said many of the same arguments you’re making now. Are you sure you’re not acting like a 50’s white person complaining about how you can’t say certain words anymore?

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> Just because you’ve heard the word and are used to it, and maybe used it without your bubble caring, doesn’t mean it’s less hurtful than other words.

This is not accurate about how much I’ve heard and am familiar, or used it, or my bubble. It’s kind of astoundingly wrong to the point that it makes me wonder why you would assume that about a stranger.

Also weird how you think to know how hurtful some words are vs others like you have some clue into how to quantify the pain caused by words.

I wish I could achieve such knowledge and confidence as you express here, with some certainty that I wasn’t an idiot.

Also, I wasn’t around in the 50s so not sure how 50s white (or non-white as well I suppose) complained about not being able to say certain words. It seems to me that people in the 50s didn’t limit their speech too much and one of the improvements we’ve made is that there’s less callous and hurtful speech spoken.

> This is not accurate about how much I’ve heard and am familiar, or used it, or my bubble. It’s kind of astoundingly wrong to the point that it makes me wonder why you would assume that about a stranger.

Because your posts are saying/implying the r word is less hurtful or offensive than other now taboo words. That is the reason I infer you are more familiar and comfortable with the word than the other taboo words. Is that really a strange conclusion?

And you say “also weird how you think think you know how some words are vs others”. Isn’t that the core of your argument as well? So you get to judge whether the word is offensive, but I don’t?

And one doesn’t have to be alive during the civil rights movement to know many average Americans found it objectionable they couldn’t use whatever language they grew up using, as if that prior use made terminologies that should never have been acceptable, acceptable

Since when is retard taboo? Stupid, idiot, etc. reference the same thing and aren't taboo. Are those offensive? And if so, how does one insult others by implying that his mental faculties are lesser? I refuse to relegate my vocabulary to such a pathetic, anodyne, bowdlerized version that I cannot insult someone.

Are you dead set in your ways or are you open minded enough to be willing to research a few different perspectives. Please at least research a few more opinions on the term by both groups okay and opposed to it.

Here’s one to start you off: https://www.specialolympics.org/stories/impact/why-the-r-wor...

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