Getting upset over words accomplishes nothing. As long as there's no real threat to anyone then get over it.

why dont we just say brutally violated then

demo is brutally violated

we need more yaugs in this community

Because some of us don't hate the English language.

rofl oh god

i pretty much never say "faggot," because I hate it sometimes and I know other people hate it sometimes and i don't want to accidentally be a dick to someone.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ken-schneck-phd/why-i-try-and-fail-to-support-the-day-of-silence_b_3081283.html

Good article as to why I find this day of silence to be a bit problematic. Non-disclosure is NOT the way to go about social integration - especially when the group of people at hand (the gay community) has been told to sit down, shut up, and act straight for the longest time.

Staying silent does nothing but extend the torturous double-lives that people have to live when they are gay and are placed into a straight world.

I would just love to be in a world where it is accepted as another healthy permutation of humanity - and nothing more/less.

I participated in the Day of Silence at my school. #127's point was definitely noticeable. There were people who couldn't figure out why I wasn't talking. I had a card with me that sort of explained it but a lot of people really didn't get it. Some thought it was some kind of competition to see who could stay quiet the longest. It was really frustrating to hear it so misinterpreted when I was completely unable to correct them because I wasn't speaking. And if I broke my silence to explain, they'd all freak out and make fun of me for not being able to stay silent. :|

I fully support it but it's not the best way to handle the issue IMO.

Hm.. weird...
I only saw one person in my whole school participate (who was a homosexual)
But the thing is, we're really pro-LGBT.

not everybody cares to go to the extreme and do something so silly to make a point, I think.

In my opinion, the National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is far more positive than the National Day of Silence. Those that are "kept silent" need to be able to talk. It's the first step that a gay man takes towards integration with the general human population.

Personally, I wish that there wasn't such a "wall" established between the gay community and community-at-large. "Separate but equal" has never worked in modern American history - and it's not going to work in regards to LGBT rights.

It's an open condemnation because the suggested methodology (that's already been pursued by a number of people) is to call people out when they use it and to have a hissy fit in stream chats when someone uses a word in a situation that they think couldn't possibly offend anyone. At the very least it's obnoxious, and it serves as a sort of disincentive by no one wanting to deal with whining children getting mad at words. You are fundamentally attached to the idea that faggot hurts people by default when the evidence in this thread clearly suggests that isn't the case and society as a whole throws it around without much care or association with homophobia.

My point about mesr is that there's still a small cadre of people who agree with him because he's mesr, and I can never be sure if people genuinely care about removing language like faggot/rape when they seem to only care about those words. I would once again bring up how people that are vocal opponents of such language are somehow fine with me making chromosome jokes or unironically believe that "nigga" is an acceptable non-offensive permutation of "nigger." I have and will continue to state that this is not a genuine movement until you apply equal attention to other words that are "potentially offensive." For what it's worth, having a day of silence in your primarily white upper middle class suburban school, probably means literally nothing to the thousands of gay high-schoolers that would be faced with actual violence if they were to be discovered in their rural southern town.

Your example is still wrong, just because people ARE OFFENDED doesn't mean anything, and it doesn't change someone else's perspective that the words they used aren't intended with any sort of connotation related to oppression of a minority. A lot of people grew up with faggot as a generic insult and never did and still don't associate it with homophobia. I refuse to accept that somehow faggot has a magic ability to offend people when plenty of people were repeatedly called something in school regardless of minority status and have managed to trivialize and get over it. Cunt means something a lot different to you than it does to the aussies the same way that a joke I make about down syndrome is evidently fine with the politically correct crowd but if I drop faggot suddenly I'm offensive.

Also "completely ignoring that people's reactions to words are not choices", do I even need to dignify this with a response? If that wasn't the case then language never would change at all and denotation would be the end all be all for all time of definition. If interpretation of responses is even possible this can't be true, and the case that was brought up previously was cases of trauma to which I DID respond by saying that learning to make jokes was actually a legitimate method of dealing with it and not to be condemned as "potentially offensive." If someone dying of cancer can make jokes about it, and a holocaust survivor can make jokes about that, then I'm sorry, but you're just being an intellectual child if you can't get over kids calling you names in school.

You can contend that "offense" is a legitimate reaction and form of expression but that doesn't make it special or more legitimate than anyone else's form of expression. If someone is offended by my language and brings it up with me, I'll explain to them that I don't intend it in anyway that oppresses them and if they can't accept that then they can take their business elsewhere. At the end of the day I'm in the same boat as mesr in that I'm going to keep saying it and if it hurts your feelings then I suggest you get them under control.

Cont.

As for your individual points, of course words have an effect beyond what people can intend them to mean. However, there is no way to anticipate this and people should not be expected to when someone else's reaction is certainly within the purview of their control. Secondly, using "rampant homosexual suicide" as a reason for why these words clearly have an impact is ridiculous. If that's the case we should stop any sort of insulting in the community because plenty of heterosexual kids are bullied into killing themselves and they might never be called anything other than "loser." Thirdly, sure words pass out of common vernacular, but trying to artificially force a word out of language when its meaning has already changed for a vast majority of people is silly. Finally, white knighting is obnoxious, people don't want to have others commenting on their choice of language when their intent is clearly being misinterpreted. If you pay attention to the news, there were plenty of pro-rights, liberal, politically correct people who told that woman at pycon who was offended by an overheard dick joke that she could have just gone somewhere else or that she had make dick jokes on her twitter earlier as well. What use is "being offended" if it apparently can change with someone's mood?

normally I'd use the fact that people are arguing about this so ridiculously hard as evidence that people are being overly defensive about which words they use, but june is a ~debate kid~ so I'm pretty sure it's just because he finds it entertaining

still, it's pretty funny that this argument started on the actual day of silence and is still going now

You talk about not wanting a wall. Why does a gay man have to take steps to "integrate" into the "general" population? WTF does that mean? You're implying that if you're LGBT you don't get to be a human unless you "come out." NCOD is also offensive to me. It should not be a big deal that they're LGBT, that's the whole point. Calling attention to the "announcement" of their sexuality makes it a big deal for them to be different and builds a wall between "humans" as you define them and anyone who doesn't understand why you seem to think you have a right to know everyone's sexuality.

The Day of Silence isn't about being quiet. It's about annoying everyone who wants to talk to you by not responding. It points out that there are tons of people out there who you would want to talk to just as much but who don't talk to you because they don't feel comfortable or accepted. My friends told me they were upset I wouldn't talk for one day, when really they should be upset that many people friendlier than me don't talk at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M475eCCa3Lg&feature=player_detailpage#t=15s

I'm sorry, I didn't realize that the universe consisted only of people from your school.
I concede all my previous statements to your irrefutable logic. We might as well close the thread now.

yo this gay day thing was yesterday, today is national day of toking up on fat marijuana cigarettes
blaze it faggot

mcdonald's was so busy today

I melt copies of the great debaters and mainline them into my eyes.

Excellent strawman, care to wager being older than me as your argument as well?

I LIKE USING WORDS OTHER PEOPLE USE ON X-BOX LIVE TO CONVEY MY DEEP FEELINGS ABOUT PIXEL PEOPLE ON ESPORTS

i suppose hanbrolo wants us all to check our privilege at the door too

now do you understand how gay people feel?

Anally violated... but in a good way.

in conclusion, people are too soft. the word faggot when not used in "traditional" sense is not a huge deal. if all these people are really this sensitive to a word, then the real world is gonna rape you faggots

how the fuck is people who are ok with lgbt rights shutting up going to make the people who ARENT ok with them change their minds?

this is a stupid fucking idea

"dude thank good that gay guy shut up this is by far my favorite one of these holidays"

shut up please you sound like an ass.

so im assuming your protest of silence opened the eyes of everybody who disagreed with you?

how is stopping talking to ignorant/homophobic people really going to get them to change?

please explain how in any situation besides a middle school this works