The cultural context of slurs -- the bigotry, the violence against minority, the active legislature campaigning to have minorities killed -- has not faded, therefore, the cultural weight of the words cannot fade. It's okay for you to not be offended by them personally. I am not demanding you rearrange your brain to find words offensive. I am actively happy you have on less thing in your life that brings you grief. But not being okay with being treated like shit is not an indicator of mental fragility it's an indicator that you respect yourself and expect more for yourself oh my god.
I emphatically am begging you to stop saying "just ignore words and they'll go away". That's not how this works. At all. You can ignore words. You have the absolute right to ignore words. But your reality is not everyone else's and their own experience with slurs may be different to yours such as, again, my experience with slurs literally going hand in hand with violence against me. AAAAAAAAh.
I'm gonna get my balls kicked in for this but here's, from my personal experience, here's what I think:
You can't stop this problem by simply banning it. Nothing lasts forever. Now, I'm gonna bring up examples that will DEFINITELY paint me in a very, very bad picture but bear with me here.
The same thing happens with guns, and crime. When you take away the right to bear firearms, you'll just end up with a greater influx of desire for guns. People who acquired their guns illegally end up being in a power scale much steeper than those unable to defend themselves. As with crime; say child marriage, the effect that it causes to Western society is akin to a tirade of uproars and controversial as opposed to the Middle East.
Now, CHILD MARRAIGE is definitely bad, that's a definite, but what I'm trying to bring up is an example: barring people from the usage of one thing just makes the thing even more dangerous and trying to police it lawfully, even worse. Excluding extreme cases like homicide, cannibalism, pedophillia (those can suck an STD-ridden cock for all I care), history has always shown that trying to burn something easily acquired and/or valuable just makes the craving and desire for it even higher. We definitely have no shortage of emperors burning books in feudal China only to end up with folks educating themselves in private in an even larger scale.
Now, things like ivory tusks and capybara semen; physical objects that can easily be detained and barred from the general public are exceptions to the rule. No matter how much a select elite crave it, as long as the officials aren't corrupt fucks, we can still curb the acquisition of it.
But slurs? This is a heavy subject.
The fact of the matter is that there are absolute fucks out there who genuinely believe the termination of one group of people (from both 4 sides of the political spectrum) isn't terrible, and that by doing so will end up with a better world to live in. In other words, the ever so prominent -cists and -phobics. Here's one thing: these guys will never stop coming. They are always there, and they will always be there. The world is so fucking huge that there will always be that one group of people against another, and if your group is a tiny minority taking less than 10% of the world population that's recently come into the public eye, you're definitely fucked in terms of acceptance, whether you like it or not.
Now, in small communities like SHF, this is definitely manageable. There's not much incentive in raising hell here. The most you'd get is a bunch of disapproving looks and a perma ban. They're not gonna get much out of the equivalent of a sizzling porta potty.
But in general terms? This yields a prospect much worse. See, racists/homophobes/etc.etc. aren't going away. In a sense, they are an unstoppable force. Using law against them wouldn't work either, because it's a slippery slope that leads to a dystopia of acceptance and purging whatever the hell that even indicates such a threat, whether intentional or not. We might keep ourselves from crossing the line, but as our governments have proven time and time again, unless we live in an fascist state with absolute loyalty and no compromise, having a system run by a bunch of dudes with differing opinions within a heirarchy is never effective. We're either gonna end up with a mini Big Brother scenario or another version of Obamacare.
Now I'm gonna thread of mighty thin ice here. I might get banned (again) for this but consider the trans suicide rate that has recently gone up to 50%. We might have all these hotlines and safe spaces in the internet for them but the reality of the situations is that it's always an uphill battle, and I say this with great shame. I say we need them to get thicker skins, and not in favour of the undesirable group. Simply telling they're accepted and shaming the bigots doesn't work at all. In time, erosion would've set in and when met with a constant barrage and exposure, sooner or later it's get to them. Banning away the language just makes the language even stronger. We can strengthen that wall, whilst removing the opposition. Society will always be filled with transphobes and opposing sides. It's an unstoppable force. The best action to take is to become the unmovable object. Instead of constantly telling them they're accepted and loved, they should be taught about the reality of their situation: yes, people do want you dead and convince you that you aren't who you are. But they can't do shit about it, and if they do, fight back with great force. Don't build stronger walls; train stronger men (and women and enbies, whatever the hell they call themselves these days).
Yes, the cultural impact and history and significance these slurs lead still very much exist and persist, but holding onto those histories would only serve to add more gunpowder to the opposition's cannons. Bringing up slavery and the history of racism whenever someone says a slur doesn't help to curb it; you'd only salt the wounds it creates. These fucks don't care, and bringing up the significance only makes it better for them. I say this not with moral authority, but with pessimism from personal experience. Too many times I've seen people break over an endless fight, only to lose sense and tip over the edge in the end. At the end, the good men become another casualty, and the mindless mobs trudge on to another victim.
Unironically speaking, the kids on Twitter who spam those "do you fart" fancams have the right idea; just the wrong target. Unreasonable force can only be met with their own medicine. A group looking to rile and aggravate will always look to net extreme reactions. Just don't give them that. And if they keep pushing, persist. Sooner or later, they will gravitate away to another target; rinse and repeat.
i understand that what I've typed above is an extreme view and I definitely have no issue if you disagree with me. But this is just an opinion from what I've seen. Acting smug and disapproving to the abyss only leads to the abyss eating you up. Spike yourself and deter the abyss. Humans aren't creatures of eternal endurance. All you could do is numb yourself to the screams and lower the significance of their words for the price of history and culture. The world is unfair; we can't act like it isn't, or that it should. Hoping for the best just doesn't cut it anymore, all you could do is prepare for the worst and expect disappointment from every turn.
I mean, I can relate. It happens to be a SHF forum rule, so in theory it's not supposed to be discussed. However, I also like talking about these things and I've had my own threads locked in NUF for being too political too. XD That said, I like Tony a lot and I know he wants the best for the site. I can understand if he wants to ban controversial topics if it causes more people to join or make the environment look more welcoming. At the end of the day, most websites are businesses, so it makes sense if he chooses to make certain business decisions.