>"Terrified" is a bit much, I think most people just want to get along and are happy to use whatever term is acceptable to those it describes.
I'm supposing some people might be more anxious about it than others, and in different contexts. If you see a lot of stuff in the news about people saying things you might have said and getting hounded for it that might make you super anxious - you don't know the etiquette anymore!!
I mean people get anxious about getting robbed when they read a robbery happened, why shouldn't they get anxious about having their life destroyed for something they said if they read someone got their life destroyed in that way.
Yeah that's something where you'd hope people could step back and realise that the news is often sensationalised and seeks out salacious stories of people being "cancelled" because they get people riled up and engaged. I still think that if you're open-minded, conscientious and not looking for conflict you can navigate a conversation with even the most extremely over-sensitive of people without having any issues.
I think you can too, when you’re in person and in a calm situation. And when there’s trust between you. And when you have some skills at conflict resolution.
I’m comparatively good at this stuff, and even I find it very tiring even in best case scenarios. I dated someone who was very woke about a decade ago. She and I eventually decided to just never talk about politics. She would get really worked up over small disagreements that avoiding the subject entirely was the only strategy we found to keep the peace. And that was despite agreeing on about 95% of our political opinions.
I'm supposing some people might be more anxious about it than others, and in different contexts. If you see a lot of stuff in the news about people saying things you might have said and getting hounded for it that might make you super anxious - you don't know the etiquette anymore!!
I mean people get anxious about getting robbed when they read a robbery happened, why shouldn't they get anxious about having their life destroyed for something they said if they read someone got their life destroyed in that way.