I use a lot of hateful speech in my regular vernacular and while these words are used to "offend", they are never used as personal attacks towards people who are reres or flamers. I'm not saying this makes my use of the words acceptable. HOWEVER, people need to stop being so uptight.
When did this all happen? Oh wait, I already know. When all the oppressed tumblr brats with depression and anxiety and OCD and anime body pillows came to EM and got TRIGGERED.
RIP in peace this website. The mods are IDIOTS (i'm surprised this isn't censored)
“It hurts and scares me when I am the only person with intellectual disabilities on the bus and young people start making “” jokes or references. Please put yourself on that bus and fill the bus with people who are different from you. Imagine that they start making jokes using a term that describes you. It hurts and it is scary.” – Joseph Franklin Stephens, Special Olympics Virginia athlete and Global Messenger
“Because the word has become a casual description of anything negative or flawed, ‘’ is no longer considered an appropriate way to describe people with intellectual disabilities. And any use of the word, even when used as slang and not intended to be offensive, is hurtful - because it will always be associated with people who have disabilities.” – Sara Mitton, Board Member, Treasure Valley Down Syndrome Association
Also, you've all played EM. You all know what the general vibe is in lobbies. Relaxed, crude, just want to play some mafia etc etc.
Where's the line drawn for slurs/insults/cuss words? Is " you" going to get 'banned' in game too? Another point is calling someone a "" and saying something is "" are two completely different things. I don't want this to turn into some game made for children, completely censored. I love the rawness of it.
Maybe instead make a SFW mode you can turn on. For example replaces "sh t" with "shoot" etc etc. Saying a word is one thing. Doing it repeatedly in a harassing way is a vio. Lest we turn into DanganMafia, where you'll be banned for saying "crazy" or "psycho".
“When you say the "R" word it makes people feel bad and it hurts my feelings and I don't want to hear you guys say it. Instead, you can call me a leader, a hero, or a human being, but please don't call me the "R" word.” – Dony Knight, Special Olympics Oregon athlete
“The word is considered hate speech because it offends people with intellectual and developmental disabilities as well as the people that care for and support them. It alienates and excludes them. It also emphasizes the negative stereotypes surrounding people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; the common belief that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities should be segregated, hidden away from society, which, in my opinion, is really old fashioned.” – Karleigh Jones, Special Olympics New Zealand athlete
When saying the R-word, “What we mean is that he is as stupid as someone who is mentally handicapped, and we mean that in the most derogatory sense. The implication is that the only characteristic of mentally handicapped individuals is their stupidity.” – Crystal, Stanford, CA
“What’s wrong with ""? I can only tell you what it means to me and people like me when we hear it. It means that the rest of you are excluding us from your group. We are something that is not like you and something that none of you would ever want to be. We are something outside the "in" group. We are someone that is not your kind. I want you to know that it hurts to be left out here, alone.” – Joseph Franklin Stephens, Special Olympics Virginia athlete and Global Messenger
deletedover 9 years
ok here's the tl;dr version complete w/ bullet points
-if you use the r-word regularly you're probably either a bad person or old enough for the word to be culturally assimilated into your vocabulary, which isn't a real excuse but we've all seen time and time again how much perspective old people lack
-the r-word doesn't delegitimize mental illness in the same way that calling someone a cripple doesn't delegitimize cancer, and if anything the insinuation that you can lump downs syndrome and depression under the same umbrella is doing just as much damage to the cause of mental illness as the people that say "well why don't you just cheer up?". you'd be better off directing this vitriol at guys that refer to their exes as "crazy" because this is something that's actually delegitimizing mental illness
-it is not and has never been a term of directed hate speech and the use of it shouldn't make you go "oh i can't believe he's oppressing the poor mentally challenged" and the only reason to do that is if you're trying to pick up the banners of a cause in which the targeted group doesn't even know there's an issue. this issue specifically is just another "affluent white people trying to save everyone" situation and saying that the r-word undermines the legitimacy of the mentally challengeds' societal position is like getting offended on behalf of babies when someone calls them parasites
-it shouldn't be a hateful comments vio because it's not a hateful comment, just a stupid and embarrassing one, and it shouldn't be an autoharassment vio because no one within the subset of people of which it's an archaic descriptor is being slurred with it and therefore the only justification for filing a report based on it is to try and get someone into internet trouble.
The word is a slur and like any slur it's a means of derision/exclusion. I think whether it's a real moral transgression to use it sparingly and with a sense of irony is up for debate. Mere use of the word doesn't meet the written criteria for either the hateful comments violation or the harassment violation.
I still think the one of the funniest things I've ever heard is someone seriously asking why there is a black history month but not a white history month
deletedover 9 years
i should respond to this topic seriously anyway
except not the racism part because we're like maximum 3 pages away from someone unironically asking why there's no white entertainment television
