Yes, I will happily continue to misuse slurs. But thanks for the history lesson. I also call myself an “idiot” and “moron” with some frequency, so if that’s indeed how language works then I suppose I may have some claim to the slur…
However, I don’t think linguistics works like that. Perhaps you learned nothing from the endless cycle of prescriptive rebranding, but many others have. I find much personal utility in these sorts of words, with very directed usage and now even my explicitly declared intent.
If you or anyone else was offended or personally hurt by an (obviously understandable) misunderstanding, then I wish to make it very clear that I sincerely apologize for any undue harm, as my intended target was not you and I wasn’t using the same word you’re thinking of. But if you wish to stubbornly continue to take something else from them other than what I mean, and after I’ve elaborated on what I meant,… then that’s not really my problem anymore. After that, you’re not really “calling me out” so much as just being wrong
Okay then say the n word. By your rationale if your intent is not to disparage a racial minority and instead to utilize a personal utility that continues to define it as a disparagement but wink wink doesn’t count as a slur then it’s fine, right?
The point is you can describe your “intent” all you want but that doesn’t change the fact that these words are regularly used as pejorative slurs to disparage an entire class. Prescriptive rebranding takes generations to shift and doesn’t even work all the time (eg mongoloid) unless you do mental gymnastics to ignore the harm you’re doing, like you are
Yes, I will happily continue to misuse slurs. But thanks for the history lesson. I also call myself an “idiot” and “moron” with some frequency, so if that’s indeed how language works then I suppose I may have some claim to the slur…
However, I don’t think linguistics works like that. Perhaps you learned nothing from the endless cycle of prescriptive rebranding, but many others have. I find much personal utility in these sorts of words, with very directed usage and now even my explicitly declared intent.
If you or anyone else was offended or personally hurt by an (obviously understandable) misunderstanding, then I wish to make it very clear that I sincerely apologize for any undue harm, as my intended target was not you and I wasn’t using the same word you’re thinking of. But if you wish to stubbornly continue to take something else from them other than what I mean, and after I’ve elaborated on what I meant,… then that’s not really my problem anymore. After that, you’re not really “calling me out” so much as just being wrong
Okay then say the n word. By your rationale if your intent is not to disparage a racial minority and instead to utilize a personal utility that continues to define it as a disparagement but wink wink doesn’t count as a slur then it’s fine, right?
The point is you can describe your “intent” all you want but that doesn’t change the fact that these words are regularly used as pejorative slurs to disparage an entire class. Prescriptive rebranding takes generations to shift and doesn’t even work all the time (eg mongoloid) unless you do mental gymnastics to ignore the harm you’re doing, like you are