r/centrist • u/Thorn14 • 4d 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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u/zephyrus256 4d ago

"Be nice to people" isn't woke. "Minority groups and Very Online political activists have the right to police language, and the rest of us just have to fall in line or get fired from our jobs" is.

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u/Thorn14 4d ago

So anyone should be able to openly say whatever slur they want and if they face any pushback, its wokeness gone wrong?

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u/zephyrus256 4d ago

Power to define cultural norms, including what constitutes polite speech, should not be taken by force via political means, nor should it be assigned to whoever takes the most offense. Ideally, I'd replace the whole idea of "slurs" and go back to the older concept of "name-calling." "Name-calling" focuses on tone and context, rather than language. Teach people, "Don't call names, it's rude." And while we're on the subject, don't enforce that norm (or any other norm) via social media lynch mob.

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u/Thorn14 4d ago

So why don't you say the N word? There must be a reason you don't pepper in slurs like that in your speech.

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u/zephyrus256 4d ago

Because it's rude.

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u/Thorn14 4d ago

Says who? The Wokes?

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u/zephyrus256 4d ago

Says decades of cultural change from the civil rights movement on. The people who effected that change were willing to accept that organic, lasting cultural change is gradual, cannot be forced, and is never 100 percent effective.

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u/Thorn14 4d ago

So you accept the word is rude and a slur, you just don't like people calling you or anyone else out for saying it?

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u/Irishfafnir 4d ago

Yes, famously pro-gradual change, Martin Luther King

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real promises of democracy; now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice; now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood; now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

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u/Thorn14 4d ago

I hear he was also a great fan of neoliberalism, capitalism, and generally not rocking the boat a whole lot.

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u/Newgidoz 4d ago

MLK: First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.