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<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 8528239" data-attributes="member: 85555">I don't think this is true actually. Strong and accurate language, probably. But language that is strong, while also being exaggerated, misleading or just not quite accurate, I think that causes people to take notice at first, then stop paying attention to what you say after they realize you are saying something different than they initially thought. Especially with the phrase &quot;It causes harm...&quot;. It is the kind of phrase you see a lot in public discourse, a potent term emerges that invokes ideas beyond the thing being discussed, and it has a certain power initially. But then people naturally stop and sat, wait, what does harm mean exactly? And then &quot;Oh, you don't mean harm in the physical or direct sense, you mean someone was upset&quot;. I am not saying it is always used to describe someone being upset. But it was this broad term, that covered so much, you started to see every little complaint about a thing filed under &quot;this causes harm&quot;. And at that point, I know I stopped listening to that language. I am sure many others did as well. Now when I see that term used, I usually ask for more specificity, but if is part of a podcast, blog, or youtube video, I just ignore it because it could mean just about anything from someone was vaguely irritated by a trope to it promoted truly repugnant stereotypes. That is just too much ground. Also I don't think soft wording is as effective at changing minds on these topics. You are seeing in real time, in this discussion how intractable peoples positions are. The only time you see people concede, isn't when someone uses really charged language or shames someone into getting off their butts to do something, it is when people roll things back and ask good faith questions about the other person's stance, or explain themselves in an open way that doesn't cast judgement on the other person. I don't think strong language is all that useful here. Clear language sure.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 8528239, member: 85555"] I don't think this is true actually. Strong and accurate language, probably. But language that is strong, while also being exaggerated, misleading or just not quite accurate, I think that causes people to take notice at first, then stop paying attention to what you say after they realize you are saying something different than they initially thought. Especially with the phrase "It causes harm...". It is the kind of phrase you see a lot in public discourse, a potent term emerges that invokes ideas beyond the thing being discussed, and it has a certain power initially. But then people naturally stop and sat, wait, what does harm mean exactly? And then "Oh, you don't mean harm in the physical or direct sense, you mean someone was upset". I am not saying it is always used to describe someone being upset. But it was this broad term, that covered so much, you started to see every little complaint about a thing filed under "this causes harm". And at that point, I know I stopped listening to that language. I am sure many others did as well. Now when I see that term used, I usually ask for more specificity, but if is part of a podcast, blog, or youtube video, I just ignore it because it could mean just about anything from someone was vaguely irritated by a trope to it promoted truly repugnant stereotypes. That is just too much ground. Also I don't think soft wording is as effective at changing minds on these topics. You are seeing in real time, in this discussion how intractable peoples positions are. The only time you see people concede, isn't when someone uses really charged language or shames someone into getting off their butts to do something, it is when people roll things back and ask good faith questions about the other person's stance, or explain themselves in an open way that doesn't cast judgement on the other person. I don't think strong language is all that useful here. Clear language sure. [/QUOTE]

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