(June 10, 2017 at 11:44 pm)Lutrinae Wrote: I have stated this plenty of times before, yet it needs repeating.
Words only have power to insult if one allows those words to have control over one's sensibilities.
Someone can call me a faggot and I will simply ignore it. It will not bother me.
I have been called a faggot and I merely ignored it.
If an individual reacts to being referred by a derogatory term, that individual is giving personal power away and toward the offender.
Claiming personal power over a term among one and one's own kind is not doing anything to empower one's self or community. In fact, it is doing quite the opposite, ensuring that the word will still affect them when used against them.
I have grown past other's petty insults, because in the end I realize that they are immature.
I have become mature by realizing that I refuse to give power to my offender by reacting to his name calling. And thus I become stronger by not using the term myself.
Yes and no.
Context of situation matters. If you are isolated in a closed situation, say school or work, places you really have no choice to be in, and words or actions that are unwanted and repeated, you cant simply say "let it roll off of your back". Same with any minority worldwide. It is far easier for a majority of any group to sluff something off, but much harder for someone who doesn't fit into that majority.
Gays atheists and non Muslims in parts of the east don't have the luxury of "it's just words", mobs and state law can harm them in a real physical sense. But even in America, even today those words you say cant harm people do harm people.
I'd only say letting it roll off your back only works in an equal situation where both parties have the equal opportunity to leave that situation. Nobody has the right to be free from being offended, but I think your post is an oversimplification of reality. Bullies do exist, from a schoolyard level to even a political ideological leader level.
It depends on the context of the situation.
