A Black Dog Named "Digger"?

This ‘I choose to be offended’ stuff is abdicating responsibility.

I think it can be, but not necessarily.

At it’s heart it’s largely true for simple cases. If someone described me as, oh I don’t know, “skinny” say; they could mean it perfectly innocently as a descriptive term, whereas I might be particularly sensitive about my weight and take offence. In that situation, the other person isn’t being offensive, I’m choosing to be offended. It’s the same sort of casual indignation so beloved of the Daily Mail readership, usually on behalf of someone else who they’ve never met.

The problem is that, whilst I believe that the statement “you choose to take offence” is largely true, it breaks under reductio ad absurdum. You couldn’t call me a mothereffing cee and then go “ah, yes, but you’re -choosing- to take offence.” Well, yes, I am, but that neatly sidesteps the fact that you’re also choosing to be offensive. Just because people “taking offence” is an action by the potential offendee doesn’t give the hard of thinking carte blanche to treat people like pondlife.

And, we’re back to context and intent again.

reductio ad absurdum

Oooh get you with the Harry Potter spells.

And, we’re back to context and intent again.

As is always the case!

And isn’t always clear…

reductio ad absurdum

Oooh get you with the Harry Potter spells.

LMAO

Oooh get you with the Harry Potter spells.

:D

So you’re saying the preferred terms are (sorry) black and white?

Nope. Nothing I said went even near prescribing preferred terms, so..

I don’t agree. I was chastised for saying “black” and told to say “coloured” instead. So I did, and someone else told me off for saying “coloured” so I used “brown” instead, and got told off again for being facetious. “Asian” seems safe, but confuses Americans who think I mean Chinese. Pakistani is less ambiguous, but coming from a white man it sounds a little too close to someone who really wants to say “****” instead, and in any case is inappropriate to describe those who were born in this country and are British. So now we’re into things like “person of Pakistani descent” which is a bit like saying “person with Y chromosome” when you mean “man.”

etc.

Just read my son a good night story book called ‘The Very Noisy Digger’.

Now I am someone prone to unintentional spoonerisms so I have to be very careful with this one. Bit like a radio 4 presenter introducing a cabinet minister with the surname Hunt.

My ex’s sister had a black cat called “blackie” which was all very well until she moved to a more multicultural part of the country. I certainly wasn’t going to go around shouting for it…