Interesting rumor about Venom from Bnet

[BigGrim]

shutting up whenever you're about to say anything mildly confrontational just because you don't want to offend people is not a virtue

You'll have to prove this to me. Knowing when to hold your tongue and choosing your words is very important in our society. It shows good communication skills, and as any anthropologist will tell, human brain development reflects our need for complex social interactions. While attending a wedding ceremony in progress, you notice someone who just recently stole your girlfriend. Are you going to cause a scene and say something to the guy during the ceremony and offend the wedding party and numerous guests? Shutting up, in this case, is socially conscious. To do otherwise would be selfish. The same goes with saying the N-word when there are other viable choices that have less potential to be offensive. There are other socially conscious choices, using the N-word is selfish.

personally, I'd say that there are a ton of people out there who need to be offended a bit more often.

I disagree. Exposing them to the offensive word may cause them psychological stress. All it does is force them to deal with it, it does nothing to alleviate the offensiveness of the word. That's one reason why people are forced to play private games on Diablo. Griefer activity follows this reasoning. "I can PK you, deal with it". Many of us consider that inconsiderate and socially irresponsible behavior. The actions are harmful to someone else, and the actor in this case shows no remorse about harming that individual.

I would say that there are a ton of people out there who need to be educated on the nature of the things they find offensive in the hopes that they will learn to tolerate, if not accept, such behavior. Homosexuality, premarital sex, crossdressing, racism, sexism, ageism...a bit of education can go a long way.

there's also pretty major difference between the words n*gger and nigga.

Words evolve. The latin root for n*gger is niger for black. Ever used niger ink? The English language evolves. I attribute the change from n*gger to n*gga with the modern act of dropping the last constanant in the pronunciation of colloquial speech. Hanging turns to hangin', proper turns to propa, motherf***er turns to motherf***a, and thus n*gger turns to n*gga. To some people, it's simply a pronunciation difference, or does motherf***a have a different connotation as well?

you're not going to hear young black kids call each other "n*gger" to cultivate their thug-image, even though they're both basically the same word.

You contradict the preceding sentence with this one. "Major difference" versus "basically the same word". Welcome to the strange case of the N-word.

I'm sorry, I can't tell if you or Ignatz are African-American. I've heard other ethnicities say it to black people that are their close friends and to friends of other ethnicities as well. I'm fairly accepting of the colloquial usage of the word. Where I don't want to hear it is in an environment where you are unaware of whether or not people are going to get offended. This is a forum. We can't tell what kind of people are behind the keyboard. Are you going to hop up on a podium in front of an audience of unknown factors and say something potentially offensive? Not a Richard Pryor stand up routine audience either...they're ready for it...but a random sampling of the populace...are you really going to hop up there if you're not of African descent and say "N*ggas triangulate"?

"nigga" simply carries less luggage.

It still carries luggage. Does calling a homosexual person a "fairy" make it any less offensive than calling him a "f*g"? It carries less luggage!

and for what it's worth, I thought "niggas triangulate" was kind of funny.

Good for you, now respect the people who don't, and respect the rules of this forum.

-Grim-