twitchcraft galore

Choosing your words is an important part of expression and dialogue. I feel, however, that the emphasis should be on choosing words that most accurately and eloquently express the thoughts you are aiming to portray, as opposed to choosing words based on whether or not they will offend someone. That is not to say that I think everyone should go around saying whatever they want and offending people left and right. What I’m really interested in here is the crazy notion that people stop being so offended all the time!

I don’t think this idea is outrageous in the least. Think about it. If you stop letting yourself get so up in arms about a person’s choice of words, a few things happen:

1. Your vocabulary of acceptable language grows, and that can’t be a bad thing!
2. You more easily open yourself up to someone else’s point of view, leading to the possibility of great a conversation.
3. You stop focusing on the surface and are therefore more able to comprehend what is really being said.
4. The less you allow yourself to be offended, the lower your stress level, and the higher your overall contentedness.

While there are some situations which warrant a careful dialogue, such as in a professional setting, I believe that overall we could benefit from easing up on the damn sensitivity. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just say what we mean without fear of someone pouting because you hurt their feelings in a very indirect way? Personally, I think it would lead to more clear-cut communication, and would lessen the chances for a misunderstanding. Besides, a lot of those politically correct terms are so convoluted that their meaning ends up being incorrect (if translated literally, such as using the term “African-American” to refer to any black person), their meaning is vague, it just sounds stupid, or it takes a lot longer to say than the original “offensive” term.

So how about this? Chill the fuck out. :P