Banned Twitch streamers defend slurs, but say language has evolved

[Blue_Adept]

What a bunch of morons. But a damn fine article in talking about language evolution and linguists dealing with the rapidness of it online, and the power of words.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/13/17566068/banned-twitch-streamers-youtube-slurs-language

Twitch streamers and YouTubers have a habit of using certain terms in lieu of “stupid” while talking to their friends. “Gay” and “fag” are two of the most popular.

Twitch took action against a couple of streamers in recent weeks for their use of the term “fag” during a stream, which prompted a conversation over how people use the word. Two streamers, m0E and Destiny, received lengthy bans, and defended their actions in followup statements. Destiny pointed to a couple of other reasons for the ban, while M0E argued that using the word “fag” is passable because he didn’t use it with any homophobic intention.

“My intent was never hate filled,” m0E said on Twitter. “If you know me at all you would know that homophobia is one word that has never been associated with me before.”

M0E’s apology was called out by a number of people and outlets, including Kotaku, but others argued that terms like “gay” and “fag” evolved online. People claim that because the terms are used so often online, and supposedly without any malice, then our own understanding of how these words should be able to change. This argues kids who grow up on the internet, and see words like “gay” and “fag” slung around as casual supplements for words like stupid, frustrating, or annoying, wouldn’t think twice about using a slur because it’s not how the word was introduced into their vocabulary.

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Homophobia is very vogue, as is straightsplain',

I am not at all surprised by the "defense" set forth by these assholes, frankly, I have seen similar arguments on left of center sites, including this one. Some seem to think they can "force" language to change or that because they think they have changed it, it is OK. Yes, language evolves, but this evolution has been turning away from bigoted tropes, not toward them, except of course, with certain uses hurled at the "correct" targets, then homophobia is OK.

[Blue_Adept]

2. Yeah, I've seen it here as well over the years, more forcefully in the last couple of years

There are areas like you said where language evolves, and the article with the linguist digs into that, but that's almost always with words that don't have pre-loaded issues in them.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

“The challenge here is that we aren’t talking about language in a vacuum,” Knight told Polygon. “Language is situated culturally, historically, etc. The language is deeply imbricated in power relations. The words are harmful because they refer to wider systems of power imbalances, violence, and so forth. So one can’t make a compelling argument for an evolution of the words until we have an evolution of the power arrangements that the words invoke.”