Everybody is missing the point here.
As a society, over the last 20 years we have implicitly agree to make “the n-word” taboo, not to be uttered other than by members of privileged groups.
When we did so, we made a huge mistake, imo. We accepted the premise that certain words and actions should be taboo. Even though they don’t do physical harm to anyone.
All the leftists are trying to do now is to add additional words and actions to the taboo list. Once you’ve got such a list, it’s pretty difficult to come up with a principled reason why additional offensive words and actions shouldn’t be included.
Blazing Saddles couldn’t be made today. What does that tell us?
You make an excellent point.
“When we did so, we made a huge mistake, imo. We accepted the premise that certain words and actions should be taboo. Even though they don’t do physical harm to anyone.”
Not a mistake. Calculated. Desired. Just as we have a direct attack on freedom of association, by requiring that private shops and businesses *must* hire quotas of certain groups.
The “N” word = ?
Thug = ?
As for CNN, and the left’s efforts to control the language.
The next form of Bigotry that will be ascribed to Conservatives, will be that in which we call out the “Uneducated”, “Ignorant”, “Morons” and those that are incapable of forming a complete sentence.
So far the left hasn’t, as far as I know, found the word for this type of bigotry, but they will very soon.