PSA: Hate Speech

[robvalue]

Alright, I should make one qualification to explain myself.

If you were to say personal attacks aren’t allowed anymore, I’d say fine. But that’s not what’s happening. You’re allowed to do personal attacks, but only using certain words. That’s what I find ridiculous. And it seems you can’t even say those words when it’s not being used to attack anyone. The word itself is just "offensive", to someone, somehow. Honestly it's extremely patronising to anyone to tell them what they would find offensive on their behalf.

All you’re really doing is giving these words more power. "Offensive" is subjective. Now, I found it pretty offensive to have been burnt as a witch over a couple of posts and for mentioning a person not on the Approved Reading List™, resulting in even a staff member implying I’m now a brain dead disciple of some evil ideology. I found that all extremely offensive and I lost a lot of sleep over it. What’s the solution? Remove myself from the forum. Don’t interact with people like that anymore. Accept that the offence is ultimately mine, and that as long as people aren’t following me around harassing me, I don’t need to have any action taken. I just ignore it. I don’t want their speech censored.

Is calling someone a peanut puncher or whatever really more offensive than that? Is merely using that phrase more offensive? That is just stupid. Individual words are not magic. It’s the intended meaning that is important.