The people who most ardently seek to control language are usually the bullies of that particular community.

DU has certainly done nothing to disabuse me of that opinion.

And yes, it is exactly about control. When you control acceptable thought, you control ideology and you control people. It's about controlling who stays and who is exiled. It's about policing everyone with self-appointed authority.

No, thank you.

Every web community has rules about what language is allowed and what language is not allowed.

Otherwise, they turn into stormfront or 4chan.

Can you find, anywhere at all, where I said rape threats, bigotry, or hate speech are ok? We're talking about offense. What people find offensive. Usually in mundane vocabulary.

But seriously, you read my post and got "Rape threats are ok!" out of that? Seriously? That doesn't sound like you're about to make a good faith argument.

same thing with hate speech. if a site allows hate speech, that's controlling language, which makes restrictions on hate speech a form of bullying according to your very clearly written and easy to understand post

Getting rid of hate speech is fine. Ban all the slurs. Threats are right out, obviously.

But you and I both know, the Offended Theater that takes place on message boards, including DU, usually surrounds more pointless words and issues, the daily nonsense, the mundane, the picking apart of common idioms and expressions to declare that "This is the Worst. Phrase. I've. Ever. Read! Arrrr!" and then we get several dozen posts and threads about the egregiousness of it all.

In those cases? Yup. Those are the ones seeking to control everyone else most of the time. Might as well bathe in neon spray paint and announce that there shall be no quarter given to these Worst People Ever who do not agree that a nothing issue isn't the centerpiece of their entire day.

Meh. Online Activism. So much keyboard pounding to be done for the Greater Good and whatnot.

They're the petulant toddlers of the online world, constantly saying variations of "You're not the boss of me!"
And THEIR behavior is much more about control than the reasonable requests to avoid racist, sexist, homophobic, and other loaded language.

Your mileage obviously varies.

You then believe any and all language should be acceptable on DU? Or are there specific terms you'd like to see not used on a progressive board (thus, making you a bully, according to your twenty years of online experience)?

The admins have their rules, and we agree to abide by them. If juries don't like something, they may vote to hide it.

I'd say the Big Slurs are probably fine for banning in the interest of civilized discourse. But the secret codes and "We know what was really meant!" and haranguing that requires vast amounts of mind-reading capability, yeah, that's the province of bullies usually. I generally don't vote to hide that stuff.

I spend more time at Reddit than DU, where far coarser language is used. If I don't like something or someone, I don't read it.

Outside of the major offensive slurs, I'd say most arguments about language arise simply because they're easy things to complain about, require no intelligence, do not require the construction or use of any logic systems, and rest solely in the realm of personal feeling, which is all that matters to a certain breed of internet commentator. "Arguments? Discourse? Bah! I have feelings! And they must be kowtowed to no matter what!"

It's a kind of insular, adolescent selfish approach that makes DU suck very much.

But admittedly, I read here less and less (today's the first time in nearly a week), because this site is becoming less about reasoned argument and debate and more about watching maladjusted people vomit up their gallopingly unrestrained personal id disorders.

But your mileage may vary.

My pearls are well worth clutching and my prissiness is JUSTIFIED.

I'm a GOD DAMNED pearl clutching prissy WARRIOR!

_{(Disclaimer: All pearl clutching prissiness experiences are not the same. Your mileage may vary.)}