(continued)"Douchebag" isn't the only word to be stupidly insulting. There's a bunch of them:
- cunt - synonym for vagina; makes no sense to attribute it to a personality. All women have cunts.
- fucker - someone who has sex-- the most common reproductive method in the animal kingdom. Everyone is a fucker.
- shit - feces, the substance that comes out of everyone's asshole on earth (except those with ostomies due to cancer). Everyone shits.
- asshole - one of two ends of the digestive tract, found in the overwhelming majority of animals. About as insulting as calling someone a mouth. If one guy is an asshole, the person who lets that be insulting could arguably be worse (ie, the asshole wouldn't be an asshole if it weren't for the activities of the mouth). Thus, mouth should be more insulting because it allows asshole to exist.
- cocksucker - someone who sucks penises. Women will at some point in their life suck a penis, combined with men who are forced to suck a penis in prison, combined with homosexual males, it seems like a clear majority of the population has sucked a penis. That makes most people cocksuckers. "non-cocksucker," then, should be more offensive.
- faggot - Americanized form of "a gay person." Literally synonymous with, "a homosexual," "a person who is attracted to his/her same sex," differentiated solely by offensive level and not by definition-- unless you're me, who uses "fag" and "faggot" to describe the queeny gay people who steal, cheat, lie, and generally make my life a living hell.
- nigger - Americanized form of "a black person." Literally synonymous with "African American," (though honestly this one should be more offensive, because how many black people were born in Africa?) "a person with higher levels of melanin in his/her skin than more albinistic members of society," and "negro," differentiated solely by offensive level and not by definition-- unless you've heard Chris Rock's stand-up about "Black people v. Niggers," which is greatness. :P
Perhaps the only reason why these words are still offensive is for the same reason that "nigger" is still offensive outside the black community: everyone thinks the word is offensive outside the black community. The government won't allow you to say it on broadcast media, and if you even consider saying it on stage or in passing, you will be crucified in the press. So, arguably, the reason why the word is still offensive is because people aren't allowed to say it.
Consider the lifecycle of "bitch." It's still a marginally offensive word, but as of a few years ago, you can now say it on broadcast media without a fine. "He's / She's my bitch" can now actually be a compliment. It loses its offensive weight on a daily basis. Why? It's commonplace. Even "fuck" doesn't hold the same weight it used to. Think back ot the 1950s, when people said "fudge" to replace "fuck" in complete Beaver Cleaver style. Nowadays, people from big cities use "fuck" and "fuckin" as commas. Why? Because it's become commonplace, and therefore less offensive.
When society ostracises individuals for using "bad words," particularly those that aren't inherently offensive or weren't previously offensive, they're actually prolonging the offensive life of the word. If we didn't openly forbid the use of offensive words, the offensiveness of the word would deteriorate at a geometric rate (see also: bitch). This is called desensitizing. So, if black people don't like the word, "nigger," then they should desensitize it by allowing everyone to use it, but with the usual stigma of any slang word.
And see, the same thing could be said of "faggot," which might arguably be a nastier word. "Nigger" brings back to black people allusions to slavery and discrimination. "Faggot," on the other hand, reminds gay people of pink triangles, concentration camps, lynching, and the limitless history of homophobic sentiment in America-- right up to today. Moreover, you can't take offense to the word "faggot," because doing so would be an admission of homosexuality. Black people don't need to admit their blackness, because it's clear to any non-blind person that they're black and would take offense to "nigger."
That said, I could easily see "faggot" taking the same route as "bitch" due to its overuse by 13 year old boys without reaction or recourse. That is, while the word itself is as equally (if not more) offensive as its analogous brother, "nigger," the very fact that nobody overreacts to it would dictate a short lifespan on the word's offensiveness.
In short, if people want to avoid offensive words, outlawing them simply adds gas to the already burning fire. Look at other communication mediums: the most popular, most immortalized books, movies, and video games have been banned from at least one school or library, if not entire cities, states, or nations. It seems as though the only way to ban offensive things is to
unban them so that they naturally become unoffensive and therefore inert.
Douchebag.
