Quote:
Originally Posted by GoodLife
I knew that thugs is verboten, didn't get the memo on "they"
How do we refer to groups of people now?
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I agree with your sentiment. I sometimes just have shake my head in wonder at how words that have there origin in some other language and have been adopted to describe actions or feeling or some other generic group or place or ... whatever, is suddenly decided by someone to be a racial, gender, etc, epithet.
What I learned many years ago was that the term thug, Sanskrit/Indian, refers to a member of the thuggee, a rather brutal and organized group of thieves and murderers. The term was used later to describe the brutal behavior of individuals or gangsters, totally irrespective of race or culture.
So, who is it that gets to randomly decide which words constitute a racial or cultural epithet? Now we are picking on those, they, them? Some see beauty when others see ugliness. Some see light when others can only see darkness. Some see joy while others see sorrow. Glass is half full or glass is half empty. Where did this silliness come from? Did some antisocial mastermind decide that labelling random common words as racist is a tool to intimidate others and force them to adopt new meanings, just because you have nothing constructive to bring to the table. Is it lack of education or feelings of some kind inadequacy causing the misinterpretation, misreading between the lines that is causing this.
Once we are convinced that all words are now verboten, then we will no longer be able to have any dialogue at all.
Remember "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me".
We need to stop nit-pickin, whining, and re-writing the dictionary so we use it as a weapon.
GOOD NIGHT!