Back in the day folks always blamed addiction and race for extreme violent behavior

[PurgedVoter]

Now that we have videos and the usual culprits are clearly white folk addicted to Fox Noise, we don't hear is so much.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. Oh, the wingnuts still say it to each other I'd bet (nt)

[Thomas Hurt]

2. The christofascists now exemplify every generality and stereotype they have used for decades....

the "other". Victims, lack of personal responsibility, accountability, religious extremists, etc. If they took the time to think about it, they might be horrified to realize they have become the n word. Meh, on second no they won't.

[Moostache]

3. I was raised in a time and area where slurs and stereotypes flowed like water...

Black kids were "dangerous", "hot-heads", "violent", "lazy", "shiftless", "criminal element" and "drug addicts".
Gay men were "perverts", "child molesters", "weirdos", "sick" and "disgusting".

Those were the hideous slurs omitting the truly hateful and hurtful ones that anyone should be able to guess.

As a grade schooler, in a school without more two than black students, that was profoundly disturbing to me. Almost as scary as "gawd" who was watching every second of every day and reading my mind to make sure that I was not having "impure thoughts" or "sinning". At least those so-called names black kids would only beat me up or take my bike..."gawd" was going to burn me alive for eternity if I thought about sex or touched my hormone-raging body out of curiosity or natural deduction.

The fact was then and is now that words MATTER and when they are used around and to children, even when the intention is not to harm through sheer ignorance or misundertsanding, those impacts MATTER more. My own experience was difficult to emerge from, difficult to unwind until my mind came to a realization about the age of 13 or 14. EVERYTHING I was told was bullshit.

Drugs did not immediately make me an addict.
Alcohol did not cause me to die.
Black kids were no more scary or violent than white kids, in fact most of them were cool and fun to hang out with, even though we mostly played outside and just did kid stuff still for a few years (before cars and licenses).
And stopping any effort to force myself to believe in "gawd" was not an act of 'hating not being able to sin'...it was a release from being terrorized and yes, I'll cop to it, TORTURED mentally.

Words matter. They shape perceptions and induce reactions. Parents and adults that freely use slurs and threats and even real violence to enforce their views onto their children are child abusers. And yes...I believe that includes forced paricipation in either social or religious rites that cause real harm to developing minds. My sister and I were raised in the same envirnoment and same out of it on totally different ends of the spectrum, but one of us would never consider a Republican vote and the other is all too willing to list every greivance of the culture wars as gospel truth and reason to stop the "groomers" and "racists" in the Democrat Party.

So words matter, and reinforcement makes it harder, but they are not life sentences if one CHOOSES to think for themself and avoid poisonous other people.