The verbal inclusivity effort, looked at from a distance, seems to be an unending exercise in neuroticism or a strange variant of compulsive obsessive disorder. Pity that Freud isn't alive today, he would skewer it in his characteristic witty style.
There isn't any chance of arriving at any stable "non-offensive" language if being offended is a virtue and some people must go out of their way to find a new outrage for their Twitter bubble everyday, if they want to stay relevant. Inclusivity is an effort to build a skyscraper on quicksand of ever shifting standards.
Not that standards were ever set in stone, but they tended to develop a lot slower. Nowadays their development is dictated by speed of a clicking tornado, which means that condoned language of 2015 is incredibly offensive and out of date by 2022.
I agree. Being offended cannot be the means to creating a more inclusive society. In fact it has the opposite effect, dividing society though the lazy mechanism of the “you are either with us or against us” gambit.
Rather, being offended is the means for the offended people to feel power over others, and to achieve catharsis through anger. No wonder it’s called “Outrage porn”, as indeed there is a certain orgasmic quality to expressing one’s anger.
Twitter, boxing, wars, medieval witch hunts, football, ... they are all various shades of the human craving for conflict.
There isn't any chance of arriving at any stable "non-offensive" language if being offended is a virtue and some people must go out of their way to find a new outrage for their Twitter bubble everyday, if they want to stay relevant. Inclusivity is an effort to build a skyscraper on quicksand of ever shifting standards.
Not that standards were ever set in stone, but they tended to develop a lot slower. Nowadays their development is dictated by speed of a clicking tornado, which means that condoned language of 2015 is incredibly offensive and out of date by 2022.