Thought For The Day
Just because something can be said does not mean it should be said. They have dictionaries and thesauruses available to those people who, for some reason, can’t seem to find the right word; a word that may be less offensive. You don’t refer to a child born outside of the bonds of marriage as a “bastard”, in this day and age, regardless of what Webster’s says. First, it’s a hold-over from the days when people chose hurtful words to label people as “not one of us”, “not worthy of the same rights”, like “the n-word” or “boy” to describe a black person; like “bitch” to describe a woman who “doesn’t know her place”.
If you are trying to run a blog that supposedly caters to all sides of any political or worldly argument, the above three words should not be any part of your communities vocabulary. That in no way will encourage the entire web community to participate (positively) on your blog and it’s a great way to alienate people who are offended when those words are used in the context, implied, above. That’s the kind of crap you expect to read on a hyper-religious blog, or a racist blog, or an misogynist blog; not a blog that claims to cater to men and women of all religious stripe (even areligious) racial, sexual, and political make-up.
To encourage people who are offended by such things to “just get over it” “because those words can be found in a dictionary” is to miss the point, entirely. We can debate actual issues without resorting to hurtful and hateful words. That’s what millions of grown-ups do, every day.
I’m not asking people to be overly or even overtly politically-correct. Is it too much to ask for people to be polite, in mixed company?
This is only MY opinion. YMMV.
