No offense, but...

On the escalation of slurs and the Politically Correct's argument against their usage...

First the Euphemism Treadmill Phenomena: 

The process by which a pejorative term is replaced by a more politically correct term, only to over time be corrupted and used pejoratively itself until a new term is introduced, upon which the cycle repeats itself.

So named because walking on a treadmill gives you the illusion of going somewhere, when actually not making any progress. Basically a form of political correctness masturbation. (emphasis mine)

The best example of a euphemism treadmill is the word "retarded", which was originally adopted as a more apt and kinder alternative to previous medical terms such as "moron", "imbecile", and "idiot".

"Retarded" is currently considered a pejorative insult, so new terms have been invented such as "special needs" and "intellectualy disabled", which will in time become pejorative insults themselves.

Posted on Urban Dictionary by Frank Marlowe May 12, 2016

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You are only offended by words because you allow yourself to be - or you are a child. 

It breaks down to this binary. Either you are looking to pick a fight and claim the moral high ground - on the defensive to the disuse of the chosen word... or you are still in a childhood conditioned mindset where you know some words are for adults that you can't use. 

If one is an adult and makes the choice to use these offensive words, they take those societal consequences on themselves and you can trust - if you do believe you are speaking adult-to-adult that the use of the word comes with understanding of context and history of the word. 

Even if you can confidently self define as a slur, nigger, cunt, dumb fucker, faggot... (Breathe) you have no right to retort.

One's options when confronted with slurs may be two: 
1. Throw a punch to discourage the behavior 
2. Walk away and stop future interaction with this asshole
3. Discuss and convince

You can't be cyber bullied without your consent. Your cultural past gives word's context, but you're still personally responsible for any response.

Let me simply invent a new slur...! but how would I give it meaning or power without historical context...? History which is in the past - which we may hope to improve from and not regress to. Do we give English words death sentences by unspeaking them, or by defusing and forgiving them as part of an old definition with current use?

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On the other hand, former-slurs maybe given strength by the satirical or absurd usage of the words. While intent may be ambiguous from one party, it may enable the concretely bigotted to less fearfully use it with malice. 

It comes down to forgiveness real quick. Of both sides. Them for their transgressions and you for yours. Whatever they may be. I don't care if you stole the declaration of their Independence or tripped them in public. 

Okay sorry if you were startled there

Some offense I guess haha

The Orchestra

A director asks an orchestral member a question he already knows the answer to: “now tell me we're you rushing OR DRAGGING!”

He knows this answer, but only by his virtue of his job, he is has the job of music judge. He is comparing, and thereby judging the members' recital of their dexterous memorization; read: song.

This quip illustrates the operation of the director in action:

“I was in a very accomplished symphonic band in high school. We got yelled at. A lot. But when the director stopped yelling, it usually meant something profound was coming out. He said that we needed to practice our music until we got it right. Once we got it right, we needed to practice doing it right until right was the only way we were capable of doing it.” - Dracofaerie2

and further:

“Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they don't get it wrong.” - registraciya

The music judge is comparing the individual recital to the collective recital, and further to the director's perfect recital - which exists only in the expectation part of one's brain. 

Don't fall into the trap of creating your own inner judge to spin comparison's of your life's achievements against perfection.

Your Name Here

In response to my friend's post about the fragile and nigh-broken world that expectant parents are bringing their children into:

One idea:

It comes down to understanding, personally setting, and performing personal kaizen (continuous improvement) on your “trigger” state. We can all take lessons from the serenity prayer, summarized here:

change the things we can, 

let go the things we can't, 

and the wisdom to know the difference

Though there is less violence in the world than there has ever been (citation needed), our access to the (any amount of) violent minority is greater, and magnified by the lens of global media. Violent minority are what sells because it can triggers so many people's overly-low trigger state (read: fight or flight mechanism). Weathered by this phenomenon one's everyday lives can be affected by the fear. 

Even politically the vocal minority stand out. This affects the political system itself which forces it into the minds of those with vulnerably leveled trigger points, digging further and further until all but the fortified few are driven mad.

Literally setting one's trigger state for a definable future event is a necessity in self-care these days. Unless one's trigger state involves less than daily or (at least) weekly time/kaizen dedication then one may be in for a rough, emotional, anxiatic life. If you experience time-consuming thoughts - and perform no followup action directed to your trigger - then they are wasted. 

If you are physically engaged in something, that should be your mind's focus, never another. You may have too much free time on your hands if you are worried without physical engagement. You may need a hobby.

Here's a meditation; 

consider the circles of influence you have; expanding from a literal radius centered on your heart; 

First

1 square foot: 

you have ultimate control over your body, and your reactions to external stimuli are your personal responsibility.

Second

2,000 square feet (the room/house you occupy [family]): 

You have reasonable control of the items, organization, and culture – and you have a certain amount of influence over the people in that shared room. Your destinies are intimately connected for good or ill. You can determine economic class reasonably accurately by zipcode - you are in that class.

The building you occupy in which you trade your labor for money: 

These people will likely have similar power balance compared to yourself and therefore semi-similar goals. These people will experience cascading perils if another is subject to them, therefore they may also receive positive feedback by helping an adjacent other.

Your destinies are very connected during a catastrophe, sometimes connected for a boon. 

Third

1,000 square feet (the community within a short walk of you): 

These people will likely have similar power balance compared to yourself and therefore semi-similar goals. These people are worth protecting for these reasons and because you would want them to have your back - community cooperation and action should not be impossible. 

Your destinies are somewhat connected dependent on the level and reach of catastrophe, extremely rarely connected for a boon. 

Fifth 

50,000 square feet (those within a short drive of you): The vast overwhelming majority of these people are strangers to you and you are only connected by randomness. Your destinies are only connected for vast catastrophe and never for a boon.

sixth the Earth, The vast overwhelming majority of these people will never be within driving distance, much less occupy the same room as you. 

Your destinies are somewhat connected dependent on the level and reach of catastrophe, and extremely rarely for a boon.

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Exceptions on the fourth, fifth, and sixth circle of influence are made for family or corporatism, which can override destiny level. Family, for this reason, wherever they may be, can be considered always (at least in spirit) in the second circle. 

They are family if you would prioritize, and to a greater extent, plan to be in the same room with them.

One should strongly reconsider any mental energy granted to anyone you don't see in a room - this is a finite mental resource.

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This is not to excuse one's responsibility to the global community, and you are wrong if you are taking this piece in that way. But you can't take care of anyone else if you can't take care of yourself first. Realign first your responsibility to yourself and when you have built up your drive beyond your own envelope, then you can consider improving the destinies of the 2^nd and 3^rd tier of your circle of influence. Consider spending the first reserves of your mental energy and time-reserves first on oneself to shore up your own quality, value, stability, and sanity.

Healthy triggers may include; death, disease, starvation, mental breakdown, bankruptcy, famine, etc. These all are appropriate and low hanging fruit, depending on one's personal circumstance.

Healthy reactions may include; talking to literally almost anyone about it in your current room (or failing that finding a room with someone in it to listen to you, ie. a counselor), attending public meetings regarding the issue, getting politically active, etc.

Unhealthy triggers may include;
(citation needed)

Unhealthy reactions may include;

(citation needed)

In conclusion, take care of yourself, Ross

Life is the choice for second chances or no second chances for a do-over of you - yesterday.

Are you going to make today any different? Different is unknown, and the unknown is scary. A known punishing characteristic or assumed characteristic is less scary to one than the foreign unknown. 

Are you going to make today any different? Different is unknown, and the unknown is scary. A known punishing characteristic or assumed characteristic is less scary to one than the foreign unknown. 

This influences your every day decision making:

If you soul search and decide if the punishing characteristics of your current routine are overwhelming then you are faced with the choice to say "no more second chances."

If life is a comedy, and in comedy we use the phrase “yes, and” then we are also encouraged by that undercurrent. And anyone whose ever laughed at a joke is included in that definition – this means you too, Dennis. (I don't know a Dennis)

However if we are both aware of the painful known characteristics but also are unable to make ideal changes then we may be faced with an episode of depression and/or anxiety. We may be ourselves unable, or unable to get to the “core ideal” which is only attainable in our minds. Reality can get and does get in the way of this ideal and veils it from our true understanding. 

Ideals and characteristics of our lives are also heavily influenced by our selfish ideals but also our collective (and therefore impossible to define) goals. Collective goals can be extremely difficult to attain if they are not socially or economically definable, realistic, and lucrative. 

To that end, maybe one selfish mitigation measure is get an idol to aspire to, or otherwise find your inspiration ~ though idols and people are defined by action, so it may be easier to improve your behavior by mirroring another.

Moreover, life is an unknown - figure out how define it for yourself

The Crisis to Fear Death

I was going to post the other day but when I finished it and tried to do some html it crashed.... I couldn't recover the thought as well as I had put it....

The thought problem:

Death is literally apart of life. Whenever you say the word "life" or think about life of any kind in general you should have death as part of your universal emotional and rational attachment to that life. 

The outcome of holding too high a fear of death:

In many cases it is a mistake to dwell on death or consider that you owe your life to a cause as a result of holding this belief. 

A healthy fear of death:

Keeping yourself safe. Buying life/health insurance. Going to the doctor. Caring for your physical and psychological needs. Talking about it with your family when appropriate. etc

Conclusion/extrapolation:
This is a one way road. You started at birth/self consciousness and you will end with death/no consciousness. To fret or fear or fuss about the future unknown is common and understandable - extrapolated to "the end" of your consciousness is just another unknown.

If we can agree that before you were born you were "not alive" is the exact description of death... then what is the argument that post-life will be any different than pre-life?