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Filed: Citizen (apr) Country: Egypt
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Posted
Say what you mean

Written by Jordan Gray - Argonaut

Thursday, 07 May 2009

I like words. Running across new words to pop into a conversation is always a joy for me. For example, take a run to the dictionary, and look up “defenestration.”

But words suffer a lot of abuse in the hands of lazy idiots. A hated instance is the use of the word “gay.” For people who’ve bothered to look it up, this either means “happy” — if one is using the older definition — or “homosexual,” if one is going for the updated version. It does not, in any instance or on any occasion, mean “stupid.”

And yet, that usage is heard all the time. “That’s so gay” has almost become a catchphrase. It annoys me greatly to the point where I’ve started interjecting myself into conversations with a confused-sounding, “That’s so ‘happy’?”

People misuse words like this all the time. In most cases, it isn’t meant to be malicious — it’s just an unconscious vocabulary reflex. President Barack Obama referred to his bowling game as being like the Special Olympics on “The Tonight Show.” He didn’t mean it as an insult, but a scant number of hours after the show, he issued an apology because it had hurt people in the mentally disabled community to be referenced like that.

The question becomes whether people are overreacting to throwaway comments like these. The answer is more complicated than just a simple “yes” or “no.”

On some level, these comments are mostly throwaway ones, little lines of conversation that are rarely thought about before they are added to a discussion. People use words like these without any thought to greater connotations or how they could offend others.

And sometimes these offhand comments really do hurt people’s feelings. Sure, the day and age means we’re either oversensitized, or we don’t care at all. That doesn’t excuse its relevancy. People still care when their sexual orientation is used as an insult. People still care when their mental disability is used as joke. And their friends are likely going to care about what words are being bandied about.

It’s not that hard to run a sentence past a verbal filter before it flies out of your mouth. I’m not encouraging self-censoring on every level, just a higher degree of awareness of what is said.

So, next time words like that pop in your head, watch your tongue. Or pull out a dictionary, and make sure you say what you really mean. Who knows — you may find a new word to use that actually conveys it better.

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Thailand
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Posted
that was fvckin gay

And yet, that usage is heard all the time. “That’s so gay” has almost become a catchphrase. It annoys me greatly to the point where I’ve started interjecting myself into conversations with a confused-sounding, “That’s so ‘happy’?”

Flower - I have it on good authority that Randomizer knows full well what he was writing and did so intentionally to get a rise out of people.... I think u fell into his trap ;)

 

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