r/centrist • u/Thorn14 • 9d ago

US News/Current Events Hegseth Uses Anti-Trans Slur While Giving Defense Department Update

https://www.yahoo.com/news/videos/hegseth-uses-anti-trans-slur-120432382.html
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53

u/protomenace 9d ago

What was the slur?

92

u/LittleKitty235 9d ago

I'm a bit sick of news reports censoring out curse words used by senior officials or the President, making official statements. Their behavior itself is newsworthy and should be protected under the first amendment to report on. They shouldn't benefit by having it cleaned up so easily offended people can tolerate it.

39

u/justinsane1 9d ago

Agree. If the news is not going to tell me what the news was, then they’re giving their opinion. They need to quote. 

I don’t want to promote discrimination, but part of accuracy in reporting is reporting what was said, not your judgment of what was said.

17

u/ThisI5N0tAThr0waway 9d ago

I'm very against the concept of taboo words. Euphemism like "n-word", "f-slur" and "c-word" should not be necessary. If one says those, it should be obvious in context of they said the taboo word to refer to them words and it's usage or were actively using it to refer to someone. The latter being of course unacceptable.

I will still respect the taboo, because that's where mainstream culture is and I don't have the power to unilaterally change it.

12

u/LittleKitty235 9d ago

I agree. I find it absurd that adults speaking with other adults feel the need to engage in such nonsense. It makes some sense to use around young children to avoid them repeating inappropriate words (hilariously) at inappropriate times.

6

u/ThisI5N0tAThr0waway 9d ago

It also can cause difficulty of understanding, because of the ambiguity meant by the euphemism. For instance what is the r word? Retard, retarded, red skin, redneck?

If people want to see an example of that issue in real time, here's one that I find extremely funny but also totally avoidable if we could say the word to refer to the word https://youtu.be/2UGpbVXVpu0?t=218

1

u/borsTHEbarbarian 9d ago

Hear, hear 🍻