Quote Originally Posted by OngBonga View Post
Just to clear one thing up, I don't use the term Paki, but I haven't got a problem with its use if it explicitly describes Pakistani people, and not people who look a bit like them. The term "Paki shop" was extremely common here in the UK in the 70's, the PC brigade have succeeded into turning a nickname for the corner shop into something offensive. The people who used the term didn't make it offensive, other people did. The term gollywog wasn't offensive when referring to the doll, until someone decided it was. Times are changing, soon it will be against the law to say "fat", we'll have to say "larger than average" or "horizontally challenged" or some shit.

I realise that some people are offended by certain words. If I know this when I meet someone, I try not to use those words. There are some words I obviously do not use in certain company, Paki is certainly one of those words. But then, I don't have a problem with these words so long as the context is not aggressive.
see, but you're making the point for me here:

1) it's not against the law to use any word at all. i know you're being hyperbolic for effect, but there's a serious difference here. you can say whatever the fuck you want in the eyes of your gov't (except a few extreme cases of people hanging nazi flags at their campus and being asked to take it down or getting a more severe sentence for calling someone the N-word or calling them a fagot while assaulting them). you just might offend some people if you use certain words in certain contexts, and some might perceive you as a douche if you don't seem to care about it, and some might even call you the R-word for it.

2) it's NOT acceptable for you to call someone fat, and there are a million situations where people prefer to find different ways of expressing it, or just avoid it altogether. when i met the roommate i'd be living with and realized she was pretty hefty, i found a sly way of telling my girlfriend "she didn't need to worry about anything happening because she's far from attractive." what exactly i said wouldnt' make sense here because it's a bit of an inside joke, but the point is, if i'd said "don't worry, she's a big, fat slob," then there'd be a chance my girlfriend would think i was being a prick and be defensive OF A COMPLETE STRANGER! you might say my girlfriend (and most girls) are overly sensitive to this sort of thing, but i also know that there's a lot of pressure on girls to be attractive and in a lot of ways it's nailed into their heads that being fat is like the ultimate taboo and the worst thing you could possibly be (like a guy being gay), so it's a touchy subject. i don't wholly understand, but whatever, it's not worth it to convince every girl i talk to to stop being such a sappy pussy over the whole thing, and in the interest of not being an asshole, i accommodate.

there will NEVER be a law against saying "fat," but you can see that it operates in much the same way as other touchy subjects of discriminated peoples (even in the way that fat people can get away with making a lot more fat jokes, etc)