I believe that we should all be free to say whatever we want, whenever we want without regard to who might be offended by what we say. TMBR

Again your first section doesn't seem to have a solid point, the meaning of words comes from the society you live in and the history of that society.

Well I'll agree that a lot of words meanings come from "consensus". I mean that's the basis of language right? We all agree that a cup is a cup and a baseball bat is a baseball bat and on and on it goes. We wouldn't have language without this type of consent.

However we can't extend that to every word ever created and say that the meaning is unquestionable and without the possibility of misinterpretation. That's not at all what happens.

Your suggestion that we should simply choose not to be offended will not work either as simply different words will become offensive, as has always been the case.

Try it for yourself. It will be difficult at first but you can totally change what you find offensive and not. Just pick one word. Simply tell yourself that for the next week I will not be offended by this word. I simply won't. When I hear it, I'll choose to think loving thoughts about the speaker instead of defensive thoughts. Then really try it. It should be a word that you hear often and perhaps you do it for a month and just observe.

When you get offended and it feels uncontrollable - ask yourself why you're offended. What is the underlying issues that are coming up. Then address those issues directly, not the offensive word.

I've done this numerous times in my life and have completely removed certain words power from my life. People can call me these words and where I used to punch them in the fucking face for saying them, now I just smile and go on with my life.

If you've never done this - it seems impossible.

Once you've done this - you realize it's no where near impossible.

Furthermore, imagine you've been abused or significantly hurt in some way and that was particularly associated with certain words, those words are not something you can choose not to be offended by.

You're assumption is that this doesn't apply to me. You're wrong.

Society is much the same, there is a history of the words where they have been used offensively and considered offensive, how do you propose people forget about this history overnight?

Oh I'm not suggesting this happens overnight. Not sure where you got that idea from.

I'm never even addressed timelines for turning this around in society. I've done this with many words in my own life and some days they don't bother me at all. Other days, those old patterns come up but I try to move away from them and heal yet another layer. I'm getting better at this with time.

You can't just simply take the meaning away from words because it's all backed up by experiences and memories.

yes you can

Like I said, if you've never done this, you'll think what I'm suggesting is simply impossible and that I'm an idiot. Instead of that....do this. Assume I've been exactly where you are with certain words and turned them around and removed their power in my life. Then tell yourself that if I did it, you can to....even if it's difficult. Then go out and try it. Put my suggestions to the test. Really give it a go and do it repeatedly over time and shit.....after the tests, if you still want to have words that trigger you, be my guest. But if you're honest and work at it, you'll likely find, like I did, that there nothing is impossible, even highly offensive words can become impotent to you.

/r/TMBR Thread Parent