Comment by kaitai
5 years ago
It seems to me, though, that this is social cooling just as insidious. "I can't complain about the work 'sexy' on this corporate release because someone will think I'm a SJW." "I can't push back on using 'retard' here because someone will think I'm a special snowflake." It's exactly what the linked post is talking about.
Isn't the aim to have a robust and productive discourse? That means I get to say, "Hey, I don't think this is the right context for the descriptor 'sexy'" and you get to say, "Well, I think it is because (reasons)..." In some ways I sort of agree with you that "At some point there is a line beyond which if someone is "offended", the problem is with them and them alone." If you are "offended" because I say I don't like you using the word "idiot", that's your problem, is it not?
The point is to talk about whether "idiot" is accurate and well-suited to the situation, rather than shifting the conversation immediately to your hurt feelings at having your wording critiqued.
This is precisely it. An immediate shut-down of a conversation is almost always wrong, whether it's "you used a word that I don't like, and so now you don't get to talk" _or_ "you're criticizing my word-choice, so clearly you're unreasonable".