Microblog Memes

It’s not offensive to you, but it is offensive to others.

I acknowledge that. I may not have spelled it out but I also didn't say it wasn't. You just assumed. You also assume that it's offensive to some huge swath of people. How many? Who are they? Do you know them personally? Is there a percentage of the population at which we must stop saying certain things? Do people not members of the affected group get to decide this? I've literally encountered situations where people have told me not to use hand gestures common in my culture because it's offensive somewhere to someone even though those people were not there and I was not likely EVER to encounter them in my entire life. I've had people make a huge fuss over correcting people who misgendered me even though I never fucking asked for it or wanted it.

That's the extreme we are at now.

What this boils down to is people like yourself needing to control what other people are allowed to say and yes, even think. And I absolutely don't mind putting effort in to respecting people's wishes with regard to language when it's asked for or it's so obviously required. But that's not the case here - the language police are always self-appointed. Look at this whole discussion. Did I miss all the gay men saying how offended they were by this meme? Did all my friends just lie to me when they've made jokes like this? Again, what percentage are we going by here?

You say oh I'm "absolutely free to speak" as I will but that's not really what you mean. You mean to say "oh you are free to be an asshole by our sole definition and decree and never mind what you think".

What gives you that power?