Innocent Words That Offend Some People

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   Jodahposted 2 years ago

   Check out this interesting article by Rupert Taylor.
   
   https://hubpages.com/literature/Innocen … ome-People
   
   It seems some people are just not happy unless they are being offended. I enjoyed the read Rupert.

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      MizBejabbersposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      That really is a great article by Rupert Taylor. This story of offense really happened when I was working as a legal editor at the State Capitol. The Reverend Mike Huckabee was offended by the legal term that is in most insurance policies, many laws, etc. When he became Governor of Arkansas, he immediately tried to ramrod a bill through the state legislature to change the term in Arkansas law to something else. I don't remember now what it was. All I can say is thank God for checks and balances. He didn't get his wish.

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         MizBejabbersposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         I'm so sorry, I left out the term that offended the Rev. Governor Huckabee. The term was "Act of God", which is the legal description of such things as tornadoes, hurricanes, high winds, and other natural causes of disasters.

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   Vanita Thakkarposted 2 years ago

   Interesting and informative.
   Conclusion perhaps is that - “Complexities of minds are deep-rooted and have to be dealt with internally as well as externally ….”

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      alancaster149posted 2 years agoin reply to this

      It's not just complexities of minds, it's the understanding of 'current' English. What with the 'woke' culture that's spreading around the English speaking world, and the politically correct movement that goes hand-in-hand with it, plus 'minority' understanding (LGBT) as with the words "Coming out" etc meaning the realisation that certain types of personal orientation have caught up with some of us. You have to tread lightly these days. It ain't as easy in the world of comedy either. What we found uproariously funny in the "Carry On..." films, double meanings and such, or "Steptoe & Son" where father and son are often at loggerheads and the outcome was side-splitting laughter. It all depended on your understanding of the language. English people who have been in the USA laugh at totally different things to those around them and vice versa. We say "Lay the table" and Americans think we're joking, because they say "Set the table". It's got certain connotations for them and vice versa. We'll say someone's "Gone west" and mean they've deteriorated. We'll say someone's physical features have "Gone south", meaning they've become flabby. Some people are literal-minded and can't see the funny side of what they've said (the gist of comedy), so they become irate when those around them fall about laughing.
      Understanding is key, but unless you grow up in a certain society or region you won't be familiar. In England those in the West Country (Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Cornwall) would never see the funny side of a joke told by a comedian from Halifax or Leeds in Yorkshire because they don't know the regional 'mindset'. Londoners laugh at things people in Edinburgh have never heard of. Unless people travel around even a small group of countries that is the United Kingdom, and know what's funny and what isn't funny there, they're likely to feel insulted by English, Scottish, Wels or Northern Irish wits who'll come up to them in the street and greet them with, "Have ye heard this one ...?" and get into a fight. It used to be more common, with various labouring communities mixing for the first time in industrial areas or where the railways were being built by Irish and Scots 'navvies' ('inland navigators' who originally came to build the canals).

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   Rupert Taylorposted 2 years ago

   Thanks John. I am deeply offended that some people are offended.

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   MariaMontgomeryposted 2 years ago

   Rupert, I enjoyed reading this article. Keep up the great work.

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   Peggy Wposted 2 years ago

   Good work, Rupert!  It is amazing how the interpretation of certain words has changed over time.  Thanks John for sharing his work with us.  It amazes me how some take this to extraordinary lengths!  The greeting "hello" meaning hell, fire, and brimstone to some?  Crazy, in my opinion!

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   Brenda Arledgeposted 2 years ago

   This is an interesting article.
   
   I'll never be able to say Hello again without thinking about this article.

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   Vladimir Karasposted 2 years ago

   Rupert -- Of course you heard about that saying: "To a man whose only tool is a hammer, sooner or later everything looks like a nail"; likewise, to someone who experiences everything through their religious indoctrination, so much may look offensive, as they are measuring everything with the "apothecary scale" of their religiousness.

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   Rupert Taylorposted 2 years ago

   Thank you everybody for your kind words, so here's the interesting back story.
   
   Originally, I wrote this article in the dark days before the niche sites appeared and it was not deemed worthy of promotion. It languished on HubPages for a while until about a month ago when I took it down.
   
   I tweaked it a tiny bit and re-submitted it and, within three days, it was given a new home on Soapboxie.

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   celeste inscribedposted 2 years ago

   Rupert, I just did the same thing with an old article about volunteering. It sat on Hubpages for years. I revamped the article and it landed on Soapboxie today. I used to delete under performing articles but will tweak them instead these days.
   I really love your article. It's exhausting to be super aware of the words that come out of my mouth. I understand that we must be respectful though.

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    laugherposted 2 years ago

    That's a terrific article. The imposition of political correctness, which strangely enough happens in the name of inclusivity, only leads to more exclusion. It hinders public debate about key public issues. More energy is spent on saying things in an agreeable manner, and this evades nuance and overlooks the complexity of several pressing issues of critical public interest.
    
    A personal anecdote (though this isn't really a matter of public concern; just an example of policing, a mild but annoying one at that): A few years ago I had a professor who threw a fit when I used "and/or" in my thesis draft. Sure, the use of "and/or" is discouraged by several style guides, but style guides are just guides. There are plenty of situations in which and/or can be justifiably used, even in formal writing. To insist on never using it is akin to treating style guides like scriptures, at which point they stop being "guides."

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       MizBejabbersposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       I agree with you, but when I was a legal editor for our state law books (for 30 years), it was forbidden to use "and/or" in any bill introduced into the legislature. The reason was that it was ambiguous, and being non-specific, would give lawyers fodder for useless argument in court. We were told by the "lawyers that be" that "and" would cover the "or". I can see some instances in which it would not. Concerning style guides, I've noticed that the most popular ones are all based on the Chicago Manual of Style, which is considered the "Bible" of written style. Since they all pretty much agree, I think many of them are on the market just to make money.

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