Current Events > I cringe when people say "midget"

(+) Yeah! (+)

CiIantro posted...

UncleBourbon33 posted...

Little Person is cringe because it sounds like you're trying too hard not be offensive.

People probably said the same thing when the term "African American" caught on.

or "Asian" ("Oriental" was still accepted/normal when I was a kid)
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CiIantro posted...

UncleBourbon33 posted...

Little Person is cringe because it sounds like you're trying too hard not be offensive.

People probably said the same thing when the term "African American" caught on.

Well most of them aren't even African soooo...
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CiIantro posted...

_Squirtle_ posted...

sticks and stones bruh

Call someone the N-word, then follow up with that. See what happens.

I'm not saying they won't get upset

rather that they choose to get upset when they don't have to. Same for any mean word, F-word, c-word, whatever else-word

toughen up
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Infinite 2003 posted...

You're a little person! Yes you are!

yeah this is the type of condescending tone that "little person" makes me think of, midget is similar with how the word basically sounds

personally I would avoid using any of the common "terms"

Second_Chances posted...

Infinite 2003 posted...

You're a little person! Yes you are!

yeah this is the type of condescending tone that "little person" makes me think of, midget is similar with how the word basically sounds

personally I would avoid using any of the common "terms"

You can never go wrong with "person with dwarfism".

_Squirtle_ posted...

CiIantro posted...

_Squirtle_ posted...

sticks and stones bruh

Call someone the N-word, then follow up with that. See what happens.

I'm not saying they won't get upset

rather that they choose to get upset when they don't have to. Same for any mean word, F-word, c-word, whatever else-word

toughen up

Those words also don't have the same meanings and really have nothing in common outside of the fact that they can be offensive depending on context. Any argument that implies that they are equivalents or should be treated the same is going to be a bad argument.
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CiIantro posted...

People probably said the same thing when the term "African American" caught on.

But that really is, especially when they use that term for black people that are not even American.
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KILBOTz posted...

so i can kind of answer this based on how i used to think. i was super anti-pc and my dad still is. I loved rush limbaugh at 14.

my dad is 6'2", former concrete layer and built like a brick shithouse, like he could military press ~300 pounds at 50. im 6'6" and a former athlete still in good shape. So basically nothing someone can call you can offend you. So you assume other people are just being sensitive little bitches if they get offended by a name, not really understanding if someone treats you subhuman for years that shit can wear on you. Like someone talks shit to me, its just whatevs, I know they are just a small little t*** (can you believe that is totally censored?! so anti-british) and who gives a fuck about their opinion? I think that is often where it comes from.

Hell even without the huge frame when you're a tall white middle class male there's just not really a lot that anyone can say that can put you down in a serious way. I hate to quote Louis CK these days but he was right when he said (paraphrasing) "I'm a white male, you can't even hurt my feelings. What are you going to call me, cracker? Yeah, really takes me back to owning land and people, what a drag".

Took me a long time to appreciate that just "stop being a sensitive bitch" is putting the onus on the wrong person in the situation.

_Squirtle_ posted...

pinky0926 posted...

When you use racial slurs for example, you're actually injuring a people and contributing to the environment and factors that have systematically injured those people for a long time.

this type of thinking is supremely over exaggerated

sticks and stones bruh

"Sticks and stones" has to be the singlemost wrong idiom in the english language. Words have power, that's why we use them. The pen is mightier than the sword, how about that one?
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ImTheMacheteGuy posted...

CiIantro posted...

UncleBourbon33 posted...

Little Person is cringe because it sounds like you're trying too hard not be offensive.

People probably said the same thing when the term "African American" caught on.

or "Asian" ("Oriental" was still accepted/normal when I was a kid)

Oriental is a term for objects from the area, not people.
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ImTheMacheteGuy posted...

CiIantro posted...

UncleBourbon33 posted...

Little Person is cringe because it sounds like you're trying too hard not be offensive.

People probably said the same thing when the term "African American" caught on.

or "Asian" ("Oriental" was still accepted/normal when I was a kid)

Oriental is probably the most offensive old timey word for a people. Negro is pretty bad too but that was at least the name for the color black in spanish

pinky0926 posted...

Words have power

only as much as we give them

and for whatever reason people like you like to give the n-word or "midget" (or any "non pc" word these days) lots of power when there isn't really any reason to anymore.
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little person sounds demeaning
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pinky0926 posted...

Hell even without the huge frame when you're a tall white middle class male there's just not really a lot that anyone can say that can put you down in a serious way. I hate to quote Louis CK these days but he was right when he said (paraphrasing) "I'm a white male, you can't even hurt my feelings. What are you going to call me, cracker? Yeah, really takes me back to owning land and people, what a drag".

Took me a long time to appreciate that just "stop being a sensitive bitch" is putting the onus on the wrong person in the situation.

yep. like i think in many regards "privilege" is inflated. but i cant deny i had privilege and saw people with privilege while thinking it was something inherent to them, not the situation they were born into, that are a bit blind to it.

someone calls me stupid, i get angry. but nothing based on how people see me can offend me. and that is something a lot of people that don't get PC seem to miss in my experience.
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Axiom posted...

Oriental is probably the most offensive old timey word for a people

is there any analogous term to oriental? honestly i don't get the offense behind the term. like it sounds ignorant to me, not offensive.
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CarlGrimes posted...

Oriental is a term for objects from the area, not people.

As of about 25-30 years ago. It had been used to refer to people and that definition is why it became derogatory and why Asian became the accepted term.
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_Squirtle_ posted...

pinky0926 posted...

Words have power

only as much as we give them

and for whatever reason people like you like to give the n-word or "midget" (or any "non pc" word these days) lots of power when there isn't really any reason to anymore.

So go into harlem and say all your favourite words for black people in front of an audience, but just assure them you don't mean it and they shouldn't take any offense to it, let me know how it works out

If you were never the target of a word like that you don't really get to be the arbiter of what it means or should mean to people. Or to put it another way, maybe accept that if you have not experienced something then it would serve you well to listen to the shared experiences of people who have.
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pinky0926 posted...

So go into harlem and say all your favourite words for black people in front of an audience, but just assure them you don't mean it and they shouldn't take any offense to jt, let me know how it works out

If you were never the target of a word like that you don't really get to be the arbiter of what it means or should mean to people. Or to put it another way, maybe accept that if you have not experienced something tjen it would serve you well to listen to the shared experiences of people who have.

not sure why you so desperately want people to get offended by words when they don't have you

like what benefit does your attitude have on people those words do apply to? "hey it's okay to go into a fury if somebody says [x] because that word should be banned."

you're not helping when you do that even though you think you are
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What if I'm playing Borderlands?
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Guess i'm gonna start calling Pluto and other dwarf planets Little People Planets now
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I don't push political correctness on anyone, but yeah, calling people midgets is pretty cringy. I'm sure persistently saying 'little person' could come off as cringy too. I don't understand the need to point out the fact that a person has dwarfism when I'm casually referring to this person in a conversation. Why not refer to them the same way as you do everybody else?

SuperNamekGod posted...

Guess i'm gonna start calling Pluto and other dwarf planets Little People Planets now

dwarf planet is fine, midget planet is not.
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Technically, it is the correct term for a certain level of semi-professional sports leagues.

_Squirtle_ posted...

pinky0926 posted...

So go into harlem and say all your favourite words for black people in front of an audience, but just assure them you don't mean it and they shouldn't take any offense to jt, let me know how it works out

If you were never the target of a word like that you don't really get to be the arbiter of what it means or should mean to people. Or to put it another way, maybe accept that if you have not experienced something tjen it would serve you well to listen to the shared experiences of people who have.

not sure why you so desperately want people to get offended by words when they don't have you

like what benefit does your attitude have on people those words do apply to? "hey it's okay to go into a fury if somebody says [x] because that word should be banned."

you're not helping when you do that even though you think you are

That's not what I'm getting at at all. My message is just this: imagine how frustrating it would be to go through your life dealing with a problem, and then have people who simply have never dealt with that problem dismiss it entirely or even start telling you how to handle it?

I'm not a black person in America. I have no idea how that experience feels. All i can do to try and understand it is listen to people who are black and try to get a sense for how they feel and the experiences they share that are specific to being black.

Nor am I little person. How could i begin to understand that experience?

We're not talking about one or two crazy SJWs bitching out of the blue. An entire people rally together to say they don't like it, so why would you ignore that?
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pinky0926 posted...

We're not talking about one or two crazy SJWs b****ing out of the blue. An entire people rally together to say they don't like it, so why would you ignore that?

They continue to hate it because you keep giving it so much power. "oh you can't use that word anymore"

That fucking mentality gives the n-word 10x more power. Without it, would it still be a shitty thing to say and would it be painful to hear? Probably. But you are not helping the situation here. You think if a little 10 year old black kid got called the n-word it would hurt because of years of systematic oppression and slavery? Fuck no, it's because society tells that kid that the word is banned and if anybody uses it, it's equivalent of physical assault.

the same thing happened with the r-word. People gave it so much power, you can't even use it in the correct context.
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_Squirtle_ posted...

pinky0926 posted...

We're not talking about one or two crazy SJWs b****ing out of the blue. An entire people rally together to say they don't like it, so why would you ignore that?

They continue to hate it because you keep giving it so much power. "oh you can't use that word anymore"

That fucking mentality gives the n-word 10x more power. Without it, would it still be a shitty thing to say and would it be painful to hear? Probably. But you are not helping the situation here. You think if a little 10 year old black kid got called the n-word it would hurt because of years of systematic oppression and slavery? Fuck no, it's because society tells that kid that the word is banned and if anybody uses it, it's equivalent of physical assault.

the same thing happened with the r-word. People gave it so much power, you can't even use it in the correct context.

"If we ignore the deep rooted structural issues in society, they will go away"

Those words should have power. The worst thing about racial slurs isn't when they become powerful but when they become commonplace and ordinary.
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pinky0926 posted...

"If we ignore the deep rooted structural issues in society, they will go away"

if that's what you got out of that then you're not ready for a conversation
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CiIantro posted...

The word midget was created as a label used to refer to people of short stature who were on public display for curiosity and sport.

I'm cool with them trying to spread this message, but I also feel like they should understand that most people don't know the origins of the term. People say "midget" because it's the word they think people with dwarfism are called, not because they're trying to say that person should be on display.
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What I'm getting out of this conversation is that despite overwhelming shared consensus from black people on the subject of what black people find damaging to black people, you're just going to carry on with your own postulating on the topic regardless.

It wouldn't hurt to listen to people who know more about a thing than you and I do, rather than tell them how to feel about it.
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pinky0926 posted...

Those words should have power. The worst thing about racial slurs isn't when they become powerful but when they become commonplace and ordinary.

Why do you want them to have that much power though?

Why have them be so powerful they either disappear from society or people get beaten

vs

"hey that word personally doesn't apply to my life anymore since that was [x years ago] but you shouldn't use it anymore or you're kind of a dick"

seems like you're arguing for option 1

Comfy_Pillow posted...

pinky0926 posted...

Those words should have power. The worst thing about racial slurs isn't when they become powerful but when they become commonplace and ordinary.

Why do you want them to have that much power though?

Why have them be so powerful they either disappear from society or people get beaten

vs

"hey that word personally doesn't apply to my life anymore since that was [x years ago] but you shouldn't use it anymore or you're kind of a dick"

seems like you're arguing for option 1

I think its dishonest to frame this argument like the reasons for the word being so damaging in the first place are no longer relevant or important.

But tell you what, maybe we can agree at least on this - when black people all come together one day and tell you its no big deal anymore to throw racial slurs at them, then everything will be fine.
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pinky0926 posted...

But tell you what, maybe we can agree at least on this - when black people all come together one day and tell you its no big deal anymore to throw racial slurs at them, then everything will be fine.

that will never happen with your attitude though

People like you and cilantro are why stupid soccer moms are trying to get huckleberry finn banned from schools for using the n-word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPFSaCf9U9E
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Comfy_Pillow posted...

pinky0926 posted...

But tell you what, maybe we can agree at least on this - when black people all come together one day and tell you its no big deal anymore to throw racial slurs at them, then everything will be fine.

that will never happen with your attitude though

People like you and cilantro are why stupid soccer moms are trying to get huckleberry finn banned from schools for using the n-word.

I seriously hate that so much. How the hell are the newer generations going to learn about how society was during older periods of time. You can't just learn everything through a goddamn textbook that explains things lightly or through a google search. The whole point of reading books, especially stories like Huck Finn, is to immerse yourself in them and to learn from the details that have been written to entertain and teach you. Censoring literature because some mother who thinks everything is offensive turns our world into the setting of Fahrenheit 451.

Teach the god damn kids that the usage of the word is shitty, but neglect to teach them about it because their feelings will get hurt.

It's like they want to cultivate a society of weak fucks.
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Comfy_Pillow posted...

pinky0926 posted...

But tell you what, maybe we can agree at least on this - when black people all come together one day and tell you its no big deal anymore to throw racial slurs at them, then everything will be fine.

that will never happen with your attitude though

People like you and cilantro are why stupid soccer moms are trying to get huckleberry finn banned from schools for using the n-word.

Imagine arguing that whitewashing history is the same thing as asking people not to say hurtful things in social conversations.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En77hctRa8g
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pinky0926 posted...

Imagine arguing that whitewashing history is the same thing as asking people not to say hurtful things in social conversations.

yeah the whole campaign to ban those books just came out of fucking nowhere and isn't related at all to people's fetish for banning words these days

Comfy_Pillow posted...

pinky0926 posted...

Those words should have power. The worst thing about racial slurs isn't when they become powerful but when they become commonplace and ordinary.

Why do you want them to have that much power though?

Why have them be so powerful they either disappear from society or people get beaten

vs

"hey that word personally doesn't apply to my life anymore since that was [x years ago] but you shouldn't use it anymore or you're kind of a dick"

seems like you're arguing for option 1

I don't think it is an individual that determines the power of a word. It is society. At the end of the day I believe that people should have the ability to debate on equal grounds so the best argument wins. If you treat people like less than human, calling them the n-word or whatever your preferred slur is, you can't really debate on equal grounds because you are using words to tear them down before hearing their argument. using slurs just isn't conducive to any form of productive discussion.
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I call them halflings
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Comfy_Pillow posted...

pinky0926 posted...

Imagine arguing that whitewashing history is the same thing as asking people not to say hurtful things in social conversations.

yeah the whole campaign to ban those books just came out of fucking nowhere and isn't related at all to people's fetish for banning words these days

"Won't someone think of the children???" is an unfortunate hysteria much older than any recent sjw PC wave.

I'm not saying ban these words, by the way. My argument from the start was just that it takes a special kind of narcissist to continue using hate speech long after being given a myriad of reasons why its an assholish thing to do.
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pinky0926 posted...

"Won't someone think of the children???" is an unfortunate hysteria much older than any recent sjw PC wave.

the campaigns to ban huck finn or to kill a mockingbird were definitely newer after people started the word ban campaigns.

don't even try to spin it as "oh it's just 50 year old hysteria." That's dishonest as fuck.

Comfy_Pillow posted...

pinky0926 posted...

"Won't someone think of the children???" is an unfortunate hysteria much older than any recent sjw PC wave.

the campaigns to ban huck finn or to kill a mockingbird were definitely newer after people started the word ban campaigns.

don't even try to spin it as "oh it's just 50 year old hysteria." That's dishonest as fuck.

Are you really going to act like certain books being banned from school is a recent phenomenon we should be especially concerned about? I mean, that really is hundreds of years old hysteria. Literally every generation does this. It's always over some modern idea of whatever is considered acceptable and it's always bogus.

Like I said, I don't support any banning of words in any legal sense or any sense that restricts artistic freedom. But if you want to just say racial slurs because it's your right then you're basically just a prick.
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Mister_Spyker posted...

Did anyone watch In Bruges?
Super funny movie.

That's exactly what came to mind when I read the topic title.
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pinky0926 posted...

Are you really going to act like certain books being banned from school is a recent phenomenon

the trend of those two books in threat of being banned in US schools for using the n-word is definitely a newer thing. yes that's why I'm saying.

you'd be incorrect to disagree with that.

Comfy_Pillow posted...

pinky0926 posted...

Are you really going to act like certain books being banned from school is a recent phenomenon

the trend of those two books in threat of being banned in US schools for using the n-word is definitely a newer thing. yes that's why I'm saying.

you'd be incorrect to disagree with that.

my school got rid of n-word jim Huck finn in like 1996. And all my neighbors were famers in hick country, USA. I don't think it was that new.
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Comfy_Pillow posted...

pinky0926 posted...

Are you really going to act like certain books being banned from school is a recent phenomenon

the trend of those two books in threat of being banned in US schools for using the n-word is definitely a newer thing. yes that's why I'm saying.

you'd be incorrect to disagree with that.

I'm not disagreeing with it but I also think it's irrelevant to this conversation. Books have always been under threat of being banned from schools in every generation because of helicopter parents, that did not start or end with PC SJWs 2017. It's a symptom of how people feel about social issues of the day, and thankfully sense usually wins out.

Remember the dog's name in Dambusters? An iconic historical movie that was edited in the 90s because the dog's name was a slur for black people.
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well hopefully sense does win out and people stop trying to ban words

I would totally grow a long bad ass beard if I were a [gamefaqs appropriate PC term].
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In terms of banning stuff...

I live in a very liberal area and my elementary school was extremely PC. They banned Tintin comics and the library got rid of them all when I was in like probably 6th grade (94 or 95) and Tintin portrayed black and even most middle eastern people in literal blackface, I'm sure Asian characters had all the expected racist stereotypes (don't recall), and had characters (mostly this one dude Captain Haddock) getting drunk off their asses on a regular basis. I was reading these as a 8-11 year old and I really enjoyed them. Only reason I was annoyed they were banned (as opposed to PISSED that they were banned) was because I had already read every one of them by then. They are among my fondest childhood memories.
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