LogFAQs > #888647668

Kyuubi4269 posted...

When you want someone to suffer, you'll push all their buttons, being off-limits makes them extra tempting.

wwinterj25 posted...

Calling someone a offensive word doesn't mean they are racist, homophobic or any other label you want to attach to them It just means they know a offensive word. If he went on a big ol' racist rant on a regular bases then you may have a point. He didn't so you don't.

Pretty much this. We all live with certain cultural understandings when it comes to the relative harshness and harm within insults, so somebody just trying to go for the most harmful thing they can think of can reach for a racial slur simply because they know it will cause the most possible hurt. Of course, it's a problem exacerbated by people who elevate these words to a near-sacred level and create the taboos. Words themselves contain no special power other than what the speaker and listener assign them. The n-word is the greatest example because it simply just meant black but, thanks to a long history of well-intentioned efforts and attempts for whites to distance themselves from other whites, it's developed a life of its own. And, because it has that special life, it's an immediately understood insult with a well-known scope of harm.
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