Comment by Cthulhu_
10 hours ago
The question is, is it just a word, or is there an emotion underneath? Your last sentence sounds "just" cynical / condescending on its own, but when you add "fucking", it comes across like you're actually angry. And emotional language is the easiest way to make an online discussion go from reasonable, rational and constructive to a digital shouting match. It's no longer about the subject matter, it's about how they make someone feel.
I can describe to you how we would murder someone and it’s down to intent whether we just conspired to commit murder or whether it’s just the sort of conversation a forensics investigator would have.
You should feel creeped out if I actually sound like a psychopath rather than a true crimes reader.
To wit:
You’re a fucking idiot.
Versus
It’s a fucking word.
Versus
You’re an idiot.
Versus
It’s a word.
“You’re an idiot” is still fighting words with or without the swear. If you automatically assume everyone swearing online is angry then you’re letting magic words affect you.
Yeah kind of ironic to make a comment about controlling your emotions while cursing at a stranger because you disagreed with their reasonable perspective.
You are assuming that hinkley intended to control their emotions and that cursing wasn't just a rhetorical thing in this instance.
There clearly is a link between words and emotions. But this link - and even more so the link between emotions and actions - is very complex.
Too many fears are based on the assumption of a rather more reductionist and mechanistic sort of link where no one has any control over anything. That's not realistic and our legal system contradicts this assumption.
I agree, it's rhetorical. It was meant to be pointed. It's just too ironic in this scenario.
It loses meaning instead of accentuating it, and predictably so. It probably wasn't the best device to get this specific point across and certainly left the expected counter argument as low hanging fruit.