I agree Grillo, I might come off a bit strong, I definitely do not have anything against transpeople.
And Tzenmoroth I didn't mean anything ill towards anyone by that, I was just explaining my preference which is personal to me and which does not imply any ill will towards people outside of it. Kind of like "once you go black you never go back" hopefully isn't meant to spite everyone else.
I'm just worried about the future of culture and speech. I think we might be heading towards better and more socially progressive times, I don't think it is necessary to propel that progress by burning away large parts of our culture in the fueltank and normalising oppressive and dangerous language tools such as censorship and shunning people because of the questions they ask. That's playing right into the hands of the people who would uphold the circumstances in which homelessness and unemployment is rife, we are giving them tools and we are fighting eachother. We must be able to question and joke about every thing, good and bad least we forget why they were good or bad to begin with. I apologize if this seems unnecessarily lofty, but that's my perspective on these things.
I'll be the first person do defend freedom of speech in its entirety. There are a lot of areas like book banning where I would remove censorship in a
heartbeat. I firmly believe everyone should be able to say anything that isn't a threat to commit a crime without facing arrest. But that does mean we have the right to
vocally disagree and the right to choose who we listen to. With freedom of speech comes the freedom of others to choose not to listen to you. Let's at least keep that in mind, its something people tend to forget and the reason people get shunned. That has nothing to do with censorship, its one of the prices of freedom.
I'll also be the first person to speak out against people who feel the need to speak out against the very existence of groups of people they arbitrarily dislike. Let's be honest, saying you like your men "men" and your women "women" is like saying you like your humans
white. Regardless of your intentions, the meaning of that statement is that you don't want people who don't fit into whatever your
gender rolls are or whatever your specific idea of a preferable person is. It feels like you already dislike me for how I was born. The statement is deeply disturbing at its core.
If you meant something else by it, feel free to explain.
What I gathered from Wiki was that apple was a term used by one Native American in an attempt to disparage another Native American. Like calling a Black person an oreo or an Asian person a banana. And I think this meaning is pretty problematic because it implies that certain activities and thoughts are for white people (an ever changing and vaguely defined category) and that being nonwhite and still engaging in those activities or thoughts somehow makes you less acceptable.
Oh, its problematic, sure. But not the kind of thing that ruins a word. Minorities can't ruin words like the majority can. They're in no
position to. The meanings and connotations of words are by their very nature dictated by the majority. You don't see words like cracker getting ruined. If the majority says
apple is just an apple then its just an apple.