dear garden,
after thinking about slurs, i was thinking further about why people get offended by insults. i guess tribalism is important. it’s a bad look to say people are only offended by slurs because people are insecure about the traits slurs target.
i don’t know if you would understand but i guess it makes sense. tribalism is a pretty old human thing because humans needed to take care of each other and work together to survive. aggressively defending each other from attacks makes sense. even if you’re not insecure about something, even if the entire group is confident in their security about something, it could make sense to act aggressively towards things that show hostility. after all, if people are trying to hurt you (verbally or otherwise), then it seems they intend to exploit your vulnerabilities, even if they can’t currently find one. so, from an evolutionary biology standpoint, it would probably be better to beat them back before they have a chance to find one.
i don’t like it though. it might be an outdated thing when applied to modern society, especially when it comes to slurs. insults in general don’t seem important. after all, words can’t hurt your flowers and leaves, can they?
ramble garden 