While playing HALO this evening I encountered someone who was not a team player. He insisted on running me over with the truck and standing in front of me while I was making sniper shots. Kind of a jerk, right? I launched into a tirade "well drive you're own damned truck you jerk. God, you're such an ass. Seriously, have you nothing better to do? You bloody wanker!". My brother, observing this, says "You're not agressive enough. You should call him a fucking jewbag." My response to this delightful insight is to snap at my brother. "Jew", "Nigger", "Fag", etc. Use of these terms as insults bothers me on a number of levels. For one, I know folks in all of those categories, and I'm happy to say that none of them live up to the racial, religious, or social stereotypes applied to them. For another thing they're bad insults. You're Gay is about as insulting as "You're blue! You're so damned blue!". It's not really an insult, unless you think there is something wrong with being gay. Compare.
"You gay fag!"
With
"You two bit double crossing half cocked dirt sucking wanker! Do you want to fail? Are you trying to lose? Is this some kind of damned exposition of half-assery? Do you want a medal for worst player? The enemy is in front of you, you dumb wank! You're supposed to be shooting him, not hopping around like a jackrabbit on heroin! Kill something, you deviant snotling!"
I prefer the latter. For one thing, I feel it has a more personal touch, and it shows care and concern for damaging the morale of the targeted individual. Calling someone Gay with the intent of doing damage to their psyche isn't terribly effective. I'd be surprised if most gamers even notice. But if you take the time to get creative, insult their lineage, and maybe use some multisyllable words they take notice. And what is amazing is that they get angry. I don't understand it myself, but it works.
Eitherway, I yelled at my bro because he uses 'Jew' as an insult, and I find that inappropriate and ignorant. And I'm vocal about it. My family actually baits me with it because I'm so quick to take them up on the matter. Their persistence in using such terms or making blatantly ethnocentric assertions on a regular basis influences my willingness to rise to their bait.
I suppose it probably doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, but I would feel better if they'd stop.
"You gay fag!"
With
"You two bit double crossing half cocked dirt sucking wanker! Do you want to fail? Are you trying to lose? Is this some kind of damned exposition of half-assery? Do you want a medal for worst player? The enemy is in front of you, you dumb wank! You're supposed to be shooting him, not hopping around like a jackrabbit on heroin! Kill something, you deviant snotling!"
I prefer the latter. For one thing, I feel it has a more personal touch, and it shows care and concern for damaging the morale of the targeted individual. Calling someone Gay with the intent of doing damage to their psyche isn't terribly effective. I'd be surprised if most gamers even notice. But if you take the time to get creative, insult their lineage, and maybe use some multisyllable words they take notice. And what is amazing is that they get angry. I don't understand it myself, but it works.
Eitherway, I yelled at my bro because he uses 'Jew' as an insult, and I find that inappropriate and ignorant. And I'm vocal about it. My family actually baits me with it because I'm so quick to take them up on the matter. Their persistence in using such terms or making blatantly ethnocentric assertions on a regular basis influences my willingness to rise to their bait.
I suppose it probably doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, but I would feel better if they'd stop.