I’m always bothered by the weaponization of words. I can’t recall the last time I heard someone called a racist or a bigot and took the accusation seriously. I’m not saying there aren’t people like that, it’s just that those words have become so overused as an attack, it’s not easy in a lot of caes to determine whether or not the allegation is true or not. Of course one reason is that it’s not possible to disagree with someone on any social subject without a charge coming out of the dialogue. This is precisely what many who are known as Social Justice Warriors do in an attempt to shut down whatever conversation there was.
Is there only one opinion possible or do we see people cherry-picking the facts to support their argument? I think the latter. I don’t know how many times, online, I’ve been referred to as a bigot simply for saying something that is politically incorrect in today’s environment. No one bothers to ask why I may think what I do, and thus create a dialogue where we might learn from one another; No it’s just throwing out an epithet and attempting to silence me. I see this with others as well and it doesn’t seem to make a difference who they are it’s always an attempt to accuse the other person of hate speech.
What’s hate speech. for one person is not necessarily what it is for someone else. Calling out bad behavior of a person or more especially, a group, will often earn that tag. This is why no one particularly pays attention to any of this anymore. It’s overused. It seems to be up to the interpretation of the individual casting the accusation as to what any of these words actually mean. We’ve seen it harshly enforced on social media. Dare to criticize anything that our overlords have predetermined as being wrong-think and earn a suspension or even a lifetime ban.
This kind of oversight only encourages false reporting. I’ve recently seen several people reported where Twitter sent them an email saying they have not found a violation. But rulings seem to be subjective and that of course can lead to someone being mobbed, even threatened.
In making an accusation of bigotry in any form, or just hate speech, isn’t that person guilty of the same? Consider that just making an accusation that they are turning their target into a non-person. They are delegitimizing the other person based on what they think the other person may be.
Maybe it’s time to take a step back before automatically accusing someone of something that is entirely in your mind. Let’s not assume someone’s character without having knowledge about that person.
Conservative Skeptic 
I disagree, Jim, that nobody pays much attention to those epithets anymore. Have a non-white person claim that a white elected official is a racist and watch as that official tries to protect their position, while others pile on to help destroy him or her.
White people will go to great lengths to prove they are not racists and only fail, because EVERYBODY knows that Whites are born that way.
No, people are still paying attention to those sorts of slurs.
But, maybe you are correct and maybe all will get tired of hearing them after a long while and after much damage has been done, the word will stop meaning much. HAHAHAHA!
Sorry…
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Well, of course if it’s reported on national news, there’s going to be a lot of defensive work done. I’m talking mainly about regular people that are so tired of being accused of some sort of bigotry because they happpen to hold a view that the progressive overlords think should be stamped out. Throw your epithets. I just laugh.
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National news, state news, local news, FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, in the PTA, on playgrounds, on the school bus, at work, in church, at the gym, in any government/public facility, about your daycare provider, school bus driver, teacher, pastor, vice principal, librarian, newspaper journalist, and hair stylist. A lie travels fast and does a lot of damage and the stain is difficult to remove.
To be labeled a racist is still the worst offense for anybody who has a public life.
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I try to focus on what someone says rather than slapping various labels on them. I believe that someone can say something racist without being a racist, and I think this is a fairly important distinction to keep in mind. Of course, not everybody agrees.
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Perceived racism or any other type of bigotry is not, in my view. IOW, who decides what is a bigoted statement? By saying, for instance, that black people can be racists, is taken as a racist remark.
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Yes, blacks consider that to call them racist means that you are racist.
My elderly Christian friend said to me yesterday that she would love me even I a turned black. She would deny that she is a racist. My late MIL once said of a man’s garden, that is was a nicely kept garden considering that he was black. That is an example of the “typical white person” that Obama figured his grandmother was.
I hear this sort of racism in my locale all the time from people 50 and older and is it racism or prejudice or speaking from limited experience? There is no hate in it and racism would be denied. And, you know, there are good fill-in-the-blank and bad fill-in-the-blank. Is that racism or bigotry? Or just people?
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Racism is in the eye of the beholder.
And everyone knows blacks are born hating whites.
…or is it a learned behavior.
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I think it’s a “learned behavior”. I grew up in the military, living on military bases where, as a child, my friends were black, browm , asain, white…you get it. I didn’t know what racism was until after my father retired in 1969. We moved to a small town in Texas, where several of his family members lived. In that town, the white people and hispanics lived in one part of town, and across this one road, not far from our house, was the area where the black people lived. I’d never seen anything like that in my life. I made friends with a few of the black kids that went to our high school. Guess what? I became a paraiah among many of the other white kids for associating with “those people”.
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It is not just learned. It is taught from the cradle on. Around the start of puberty, it is then taught by ones peers.
To acknowledge that racism is inherent in our genetic makeup and was a necessary evolutionary survival trait is, of course, considered a racist notion.
Reasonable people accept that racism is inherent and work against that human tendency, despite the cultural and familial support to allow racism to flourish.
I had experiences when I was growing up similar to Jim’s and I am still the “color-blind” person I was reared to be. But I live where many racial stereotypes exist, both white and black, and the facts “color” my outlook.
People, especially educators, who move to this area suffer culture shock and some cannot take it for long. I am sure we are not the only area in the US where this happens.
This fact is not a positive thing. It is just reality and it is not getting better, mostly due to Progressive agendas and the wonderful notion of victimhood.
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