WARNING: UNPOPULAR OPINION
so i have to ask. what makes calling someone the n word or a f****** somehow "different" than calling someone retard/stupid/downie/autistic/any other insult? shouldnt they all be treated the same?
so i have to ask. what makes calling someone the n word or a f****** somehow "different" than calling someone retard/stupid/downie/autistic/any other insult? shouldnt they all be treated the same?
actually you are taking the easy position, not the unpopular. You are going to get up-votes (well not from me) for this topic. There is a difference between stupid and retard, one is a condition or illness and the other a person willingly not using their brain.
They are not the same and should not be treated the same either. Things that are derogatory about who a person is, should be 0 tolerance (with strangers).
Here is a real unpopular statement.
When people are stupid they should be called out on it. When people are cruel they should called on it. When people troll they should be called on it. They should be pulled into the light of day, instead of getting away with it and getting to hide. (Yes name and shame).
The difference between these and other things (that you listed) are intentional not a state of being.
edit the feels when the thread went from +2 into the negatives.... and said the OP was taking the easy position.
In this country saying the words Niger and fuck are taboo. But calling someone a piece of shit, mental retarded autistic downie, or showing a guy decapitate another person and then chew his eyeballs is Okay.
So, I agree that both should be treated the same way.
But I fear that you would advocate for "n-gger" or "f-ggot" to be treated with less severity. IMHO, it should be the opposite, it's the more "common" insults that should be treated equally hard as the more taboo topics.
The only one that is significantly different in your cited examples is "stupid".
And the difference is the following. In the instance of "stupid", you are attacking only an individual. In all the other stated instances, you are by association attacking an entire group of individuals by insinuating that these things are bad.
i.e. If you're insulting someone by calling him an (N word), you are by extension insinuating that being black is a bad thing. Therefore you are insulting both the individual and an entire community.
Simply because "autist, retard, down syndrome..." are actually not insults.