Hatred and aspects of hate.

[Deleted]

(I realize the title might attract potential trolls, so to save those time and effort: This is not a ranting thread. It's intended as an actual discussion. The post reflects solely on observations made by the poster. Nothing can or should be used as direct facts).

Dear MMO-champion Forum participant.

For a long time, now, i've been quietly watching and observing certain behavior of members of both the WoW community in general and several forums including MMO-champion.

I am well aware that we live in a tabu society where certain things are simply unethical to mention as it might upset one or more members of a community or occasionally an entire populace. Among examples, one can mention such topics as overweight, racism and elitism. But what is it really, that drives us to be so scared of offending our fellow man, that often messages come across so scrambled that their main value is diminished in attempts not to psychologically harm a group or individual?

First things first. I'll clarify my own personal appearance and oppinions so you get a general idea of who is posting this, incase you begin wondering through the thread as I progress through various topics.
I'm a 21 year old guy who is socially active and dating. I'm small for a boy, 1.71m and unhealthy underweight, 44kg. I usually spend alot of time studying and taking extra classes as I can be described as very nerdy when it comes to knowladge and understanding certain things. Especially human functions interrests me, when it comes to emotions and behavior.

So that's me. Your average over-achieving, light skinned, skinny short guy.

Among the topics I wish to discuss is a certain -ism I am sure we are all more or less familiar with. Racism.
I am sure we can all agree that expressing discontent towards another individual or group based on appearance is a negatively enforced value which does not really belong in a modern society. But when you also turn the table, there seem to be a general idea that pretty much anything can be considered racist in one or more ways. Have we reached a point in fear of racism, where we are too affraid to use previously common terms like "African american" or "Colored" person, simply because these are now also on the list of terms that can be considered offensive? Usually when reading comments like what I boldly stated above, people will proclaim "I am not racist, I have loads of colored friends/My best friends are colored" or something of the sort, but I'll be frank and admitt that is not the case for me.

I have very few friends who are of diffrent skin color than myself, but not because I have anything against another individual who carry a diffrent pigment to their skin than myself. It's because-- See? I now have to justify myself in over five lines or someone will feel violated by my statement, or raise concern that someone else might find it offensive? I could have just stated "I don't have any black friends" but that would be considered strongly inappropriate, although not diminishing the truth of the base statement.

In our modern society, there are plenty of comments and words we are simply not allowed to use to describe our fellow human beings, such as "Black" "Fat" or "Small". Although those terms are rightfully correct, they can be seen as offensive by certain viewers who chose to imply negative impact upon the words used. But is'nt that taking it a bit too far? Sure, we can also change "Black" to "Dark brown/Light brown" But is that not more racist than the previous statement, as it illustrates a diffrence between those with a diffrent pigment rather than creating a unity towards the subject? Sure, we can use "Overweight/Obese/Slightly overweight" but again it implies that the diffrence between the recievers of the message are alienated from eachother, were a common description would alot easier create a unity towards the subject.

I'm small, and although technically not under the terms of "Dwarf" I'd honestly prefer to be called that, rather than "Mildly physically handicapped" as I don't see myself as such. But that is technically the correct 'polite' term to use. Heck, even "Little person" is more socially acceptable, but honestly? Is'nt that even more demeaning towards my appearance to call me little? It does'nt really matter to me, but i've noticed that an increasing amount of people over the past five years since I worked with it as studies, finds that such titles are more offensive than the original intent.

Let's progress further into obesidy. Weight issues is a large issue among the modern society, and there is a grand majority of people with weight issues, both over and underweight who feels heavilly discriminated by certain statements. As an underweight, I understand I have no apparent right to complain, because it would seem my issue is rather luxury rather than an actual issue. But nonetheless. The term "Overweight" generally aims for the group of people who's weight is considered above standards for what is socially considered appropriate. Don't get me wrong, this is hardly as critical as racism, but there will still be a good fair share of people who will find that statement offensive. But what, then? Would it be better to be classified into certain collumns of aspects to allow easier classification of the certain individual, breaking the general unity of the subject, rather than enforcing unity by simply adding it into a common group?

Anyways, what's your take on all this? Have we become so scared of using various words in daily use, in fear of offending someone or sparking direct hatred, that we have to constantly reconsider our verbal statements before we make them? Are we too easilly offended by general statements, when we would apparently rather be recognized as handicapped individuals, to make us feel less discriminated against?

- Kasperio.

P.S: This post is in NO way intended to create any mental harm upon anyone and the contents are not aimed to stir offensive feelings or to attempt to make anyone feel offended. It's simple trails of thoughts and I apologize if anyone takes offense to anything posted in this thread. If you feel discriminated against, please motion to have the thread closed, as it was never the intentions by this debate. Thank you.

[Grimbold21]

Ah words that are meant to purposely divide society into groups...

People give way too much meaning to such words. But yes, people are people and the meaning given to such words depends on the person...what are you gonna do?

You're black, im white, they're just colours. You're fat, does that make you upset? Do something about it. If a person becomes so upset when called fat, then the fact that they're fat disturbs them, so change it. If it doesnt disturb you, then "yes im fat, so?"

[haxartus]

Trying really hard to avoid racism actually creates racism.

[Deleted]

Trying really hard to avoid racism actually creates racism.

That is exactly the way I see it aswell. By adding more negative implied words to a subject, uninentional in most cases, it will be like adding wood to the bonfire. In a simple text based schematic, it can be seen as a domino effect in a pyramid shape.

Example:

Person A tells person B: "You're black"
Person B becomes offended by this statement.
Person C, D and E notices this and says "No, you're colored"
Person B accepts this, but person F and G finds THAT offensive.
Person H, I, J, K, L, M and N then says "You're african american"
Person F and G accepts this, but person O, P, Q, R, S, T and U takes offense from THAT.

And thus the snowball will continue to roll as we slowly rule out most commonly used terms to describe something as basically innocent as the pigment of your skin. We live in a modern society, where anyone with a computer and inernet access can sit down and get instant communication with someone the other side of the globe if they want to. But we can't define our neighbor the same way as that person, even if they look identical, in fear of offending the person.

That's atleast my view on that.

P.S
Thank you for the nice comments so far, although short and without much debate, I am glad to see some creative and knowladgeable responses to this topic rather than random trolling

[Haven]

I'd sign under that. While I myself don't generally run into these issues on a more general level (myself being an average fella, 180 cm and 70 kg), there are similar things on a slightly deeper psychological level, for example when people learn that my parents are divorced. It's like people try to show concern and treat me like a landmine of emotional instability that's about to explode with a drama - but that couldn't be further from truth. I have no forbidden topics in regard to my personal life and I'll gladly share any details of it along with my opinion of it and the lessons I learned from it, and I try to spread this attitude to everyone I come in contact with. No one is special, everyone is flawed, so what? Accept the truth, don't fuck your mind with it, and don't fuck the minds of others with your "fragility" - and if more people live by these standarts, the world will be a better place. Fuck the political correctness.

[Deleted]

It sounds like what's being talked about is political correctness - avoiding all language and concepts that could be even remotely construed as offensive by anyone whatsoever. I find it rather immature and clumsy myself...the vast, vast, vast majority of people are rational and intelligent and more than capable of seeing the difference between prejudice and an honest attempt at communication.

[Skelington]

It was once that people lived in fear of disease, barbarians, enemy tribes, their gods...

Now it is fear of "what will that guy think of me?"