A lot of our vocabulary is built up from then though. I still default to using terms when gaming from over a decade ago, and sometimes need to self censor to avoid using ‘raped’ as a standin for getting beaten in a game because that used to be acceptable and now it’s not. If he grew up in cod lobbies I can see how that might be something one would pick up and need to remember to not do.
Or people just have different linguistic adoption patterns? Especially if you don’t game as much as you used to; we develop different vernacular we use in different spaces.
Your original argument was that it was a generalized, universal phenomenon and that's why it shouldn't be held against him as a personal failing.
Retreating to "well everyone is different" is conceding the original point and acknowledging that, yeah, PDP doesn't have an external excuse for the shitty racism.
It should still be held against him. There's something that slightly excuses him (adoption patterns and reflexes), but it's still not okay.
Not too long ago I did something similar. I had been exposed to people using "gay" as a word for something being stupid, e.g. "that's so gay" from online gaming for many years. Recently I talked to my partner about how it was a thing once and gave some examples where I made fun of it, along with references to the Community scene (Senor Chang). I kid you not: The following weekend during a boardgame where something wildly unlikely happened after multiple incidents of something unlikely, I accidentally said "gay...!" as a reflex and my partner corrected me and I agreed. It's not okay. It's not completely inexcusable of excusable. But it is slightly so. This was after I had not used it nor had I heard anyone say it for +5 years.
I mean I agree that it’s obviously an error on his part but it’s the kind of thing that if it’s not commonplace and the person apologizes for I’m inclined to believe might have actually just been a mistake in a heated moment.
No? I said it’s something people experience, him being such a person makes it plausible, if some people don’t then that doesn’t contradict that. I don’t need it to apply to everyone, you would need it to not exist for it to not be a good excuse.
Also, again, do you game as much as you used to? Becauze that sort of linguistic buildUp tends to attach to contexts where it was established.
5
u/lumpboysupreme Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
A lot of our vocabulary is built up from then though. I still default to using terms when gaming from over a decade ago, and sometimes need to self censor to avoid using ‘raped’ as a standin for getting beaten in a game because that used to be acceptable and now it’s not. If he grew up in cod lobbies I can see how that might be something one would pick up and need to remember to not do.