Current Events > I'm glad "gay" and homophobic words aren't used as insults now.

(+) Yeah! (+)

ZannoL posted...

It's being used and less and less now for sure.

It's really only morons who still use it.

Imma be honest. Anyone who says it's being used 'less and less' is entirely disconnected from younger people.

I work with a pretty much revolving door of younger folk and I hear it CONSTANTLY. The only word, arguably, I don't hear is the F-word. The R word, gay, etc is something I hear regularly.

I've even heard it from customers, which I found funny given the context that it's used. Imagine getting heated over a pizza.

The only people that I don't hear it from are the ones that are older, like...60s and 70s older. We have a couple of seniors that work as drivers.

Regardless, from a more observational standpoint, there is absolutely no malicious intent behind it, so I don't see any reason for anyone to get too mad. And you bet your ass if I saw someone saying words like that with malicious intent, they'd be getting a write-up/kicked the fuck out of any store I worked at.
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WhereTwoFeom posted...

You strike me as someone who lives in a right wing neighbourhood.

Extremely left-wing, actually. It's weird, one employee at my store was saying how offensive it is to stereotype, but he's one of the top people saying stuff is gay and r-word.

Regardless, we all used to talk about how Trump sucks a bad of dicks.
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I call my gay sister gay all the time

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I mean, we still use gay for jokes here. It's just when something is gay-apparent, instead of just bad.

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I still say offensive things to people that are cool with it. Not to people that aren't. I ain't out to offend people

I got modded for saying this one time. Warned in fact. Probably happen again

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That's interesting, I haven't seen a significant decreased usage of those words around here.

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WhereTwoFeom posted...

Where do you live? In any case, he might be gay himself and thinks it gives him a pass.

California, So-Cal.

He's don't think he's gay, not to my knowledge anyway, and iirc he has a girlfriend.
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WhereTwoFeom posted...

He could be bi.

Why are you trying to headcanon a reason for my coworker to use the word gay?

Wtf?
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Bass_X0 posted...

There used to be a time when teenagers and young adults would say something is 'gay' to refer to something or someone they disliked.

Yea. This was commonplace when I grew up. I never thought anything of it growing up

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WhereTwoFeom posted...

Just thinking of possibilities. Why?

Yes, why is a very legitimate question. Why are you doing that? I don't really care if he's gay or not, I tend to not speculate or pry or care about people's orientations.

Idk why you are.
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WhereTwoFeom posted...

Just pondering why a guy who wishes people to not stereotype uses bigoted language. This is a discussion thread. Not sure why you're getting so defensive.

Because I'm not particularly interested in having a discussion on my coworker's sexual preferences?
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WhereTwoFeom posted...

You were fine telling about how he liked using politically incorrect language while otherwise being progressive though.

Yes. I was. So?
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WhereTwoFeom posted...

There's no reason for you to be so defensive about pondering the reasoning behind it. We're all just faceless strangers after all. And you didn't care enough about his privacy to talk about the stuff he did.

I'm not defensive about it, I don't care about this privacy in this specific instance, I legitimately just don't want to talk about his sexual preferences. How is that such a difficult concept to grasp?
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ModLogic posted...

That is the best ice cream ever invented and I will fight anyone to the death on that.

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WhereTwoFeom posted...

Being this squeamish is pretty weird. It's not like we're talking about his orientation for the sake of it. It's for a possible explanation for his stance.

Squeamish? The hell are you talking about? I just don't like to discuss my fellow co-workers sexual orientation. Leave it alone, bro.
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Just gonna say, I liked the gay joke in the first Raimi Spider-Man movie. The way I see it is if the comedian isn't homophobic, he might have a good joke. Kind of how like racist jokes that mock the comedian's own race might be good. Nobody wants to hear some worthless racist talk shit about PoC. But a self-depreciating racist joke or a homophobic joke in good nature is decent.

I genuinely have no friends that use gay as a synonym for lame or dumb. Everyone grew out of it years ago.

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WhereTwoFeom posted...

Weird.

Your idea of weird is other people's idea of normal.
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WhereTwoFeom posted...

I don't think most people believe "I have no problem talking about a nameless coworker of mine's weird behaviour anonymously online but talking about their sexual preferences is uncomfortable"

I would think most people would, yes. Tell me about your co-worker's sexual preferences?
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How do you feel about gay people who refer to something dumb as gay

And something "feminine" as fruity?

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Bass_X0 posted...

There used to be a time when teenagers and young adults would say something is 'gay' to refer to something or someone they disliked.

They're still used like that all the time now. Or is this being sarcastic?

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I remeber when jabroni got banned in middle school

At first I was like "what's the big deal?" but I listened to reason and agree that it shouldn't be a part of my vocabulary.

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WhereTwoFeom posted...

The whole point about sexual orientation is having people know your preferences. Meanwhile having people know about instances of your hypocrisy would be more likely to be embarrassing. The majority of my coworkers are straight but I have some gay and bi coworkers.

Alright, now tell me what justifies bothering me for an entire page of posts on whether one of my coworkers is gay or not despite me actively wanting to not talk about it?
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WhereTwoFeom posted...

I was first just wondering a possible explanation for their behaviour. Then I was surprised at your defensiveness. But at this point it's pretty clear you have a personal problem with it.

Yes. I have a personal issue trying to delve into a coworker's sexual orientation to some guy on the internet that is hounding me for it non-stop, despite me saying no multiple times, just to prove his theory on it.
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People still say the words

But at least gay has been mostly transformed into just a synonym for stupid. 99/100 you'll hear it used that way.

I can't even remember the ladt time I heard somebody use it to disparage a person that's actually gay.

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WhereTwoFeom posted...

Which is incredibly weird. Nobody rational makes such a big deal about some nameless hypothetical coworker. I'm starting to have a feeling it's not a "coworker".

He's not a hypothetical coworker, he's an actual person. If he was hypothetical, I wouldn't give a shit lol.

Do you actively ask your co-workers about their sexual orientation? If so, why? How is that any of your business? Why do you need to know? Why are you so obsessed with it? Why are you obsessed with other people's coworker's sexual orientation? Why can't you keep your weird theory in your head.
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WhereTwoFeom posted...

If it was relevant to the conversation like it is here yes. If I saw a coworker making gay jokes I would ask them if they're gay themselves. And again, you have no problems telling about your coworker's behaviour here when no one asked even though you wouldn't randomly ask someone if they use gay as a synonym for stupid ether.

You're correctly describing what I did. Saying something a coworker said and actively speculating if they are gay or not are two entirely different things.
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Woah y'all still on bout this I'm impressed

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Smackems posted...

Woah y'all still on bout this I'm impressed

Yes. I don't know why he's so interested in my coworker's sexuality, but idk why he can't leave it alone.
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Slayer_22 posted...

Yes. I don't know why he's so interested in my coworker's sexuality, but idk why he can't leave it alone.

Why don't you then lol

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Smackems posted...

Why don't you then lol

Good point. The guy's just trying to accuse me of some shit given his posts and being creepy and invasive. I'll do just that.
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joe40001 posted...

I'm mixed. I can understand why people were against it, but in some ways it felt like gypped where it's usage had grown pretty detached from it's origin.

I feel like there were ways it worked as a not hurtful joke like Chang in community or the Shaun of the Dead joke, but at the same time I can understand why we moved away from it.

Same thing goes for the r-word, probably moreso. It was convenient to have a word for "profoundly and humorously dumb" and it was clear that nobody was ever actually referring to mentally disabled people with that word.

Conan used to say it all the time. And I don't think of Conan as being evil or insensitive.

I understand moving away from some of these things, and maybe it's because I didn't see any hurt caused by them up close, but I still get kinda sentimental for what seemed like playful harmless uses of them.

I'm trying to think if there's an equivalent for something that is relevant to me and how I relate to it. I don't mind fat jokes, nerd jokes, or even jokes about depression or even a person killing themselves, despite me losing my brother to that.

This one simpsons joke did feel like a bit much to me, particularly when it happened relatively soon after my brother, but also because I don't think it works that well as a joke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foNFATjbf8k

Yeah I've never let it bother me or even the more crude "cock sucker"

I try to always take context into consideration.

Words evolve. Gay orginally meant happy. We probably here it used as a insult less these days more because it's not as big of a insult as it used to be with more gay people being open and more people being accepting of gay people.

Like I could probably go through a heavily progressive city and call everybody I pass gay and I feel most would just politely correct me if they even responded. Down here in the rural south id rustle some jimmies perhaps get punched.

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