Many many years ago what finished someone off in all social discourse was when someone called you a racial epithet. You’d think you were in polite company, talking shop, when someone would turn around and call someone any number of ethnic slurs, and that someone was cut out of the game. What the hell can you say to someone when he’s just called you a nigger, kike, spic, jap, etc? It was UGLY and CRUEL.
We must be careful not to do the same thing in reverse here. Today calling someone a racist is about as threatening. I think we know now that calling someone a child abuser, even if he is not, finishes him off socially, maybe forever. We are not far from that by calling someone a racist. We need evidence before we call people child abusers. We should definitely ask for clear evidence of harm to a race before we cry racist. Doing so without evidence is UGLY and CRUEL.
It may be the exact same type of people doing both kinds of pejorative behavior.
Society is ugly and cruel today, Yaelle.