Not sure what are you referring to?
I just think statements like “proper instructors”, “advanced training” are valued or pejorative depending on your perspective, having the two folds just help getting a mature discussion, will try to avoid crossing if that make my opinions clear
I wish I understood why people do this crossing out thing
Sometimes it is an attempt to underline, combined with not reading one’s post after pressing Submit 
Otherwise, it is like one might do in conversation, to drop in a second interpretation, playing with the language.
I would not call “pikeys” a racial slur… well it might be if one believes this description is totally inaccurate but someone who thinks it is totally inaccurate must have lived a relatively sheltered existence.
Well, pikey is certainly a slur. Anyone who thinks otherwise should turn up at a traveller’s site and call one of the gentlemen there pikey, and see what happens…
And I would also call it “racial”: The meaning of the noun “racist” (and the corresponding adjective) has slowly drifted from not only referring to “a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races” to “… people of other ethnic and religious groups”. Which other word would you use for somebody who professes he hates muslims, or wants them to go home, or give up their religion?
So the question is – are slurs less acceptable because they are “racial” as opposed to just plainly insulting?
Well, pikey is certainly a slur. Anyone who thinks otherwise should turn up at a traveller’s site and call one of the gentlemen there pikey, and see what happens…
I suppose some might argue that the fact that “something will happen” justifies the use of the word.
So, if you go to Brixton and call people niggers and they respond with “something happens” that justifies calling them niggers?
And my dealings with the traveller community is very far from sheltered. I know travellers who are hardened criminals and others who are police officers.
But taking the view that all travellers are criminal and/or violent because that is the accepted view of Middle England is no different from any other kind of racism. People believed what Der Stürmer said about Jews and believe what The Daily Mail says about Muslims.
Does it justify violence?
Whilst I do not think it is appropriate to say, I do think free speech has a great deal of value, and my prefered mechanism for stopping the likes of hateful speech would be for those near to the individual to debate and hopefully convince to consider their use of language.
Or speech is the same as physical violence. I strongly disagree with that, although it appears a number of people do think this now.
My favourite recent one from the states was the congresswoman who claimed growing cauliflowers was colonial and effectively racist.
That or people now deciding the OK hand sign is a white power symbol.
There is a big difference between opinions and insult, and using a term that is clearly insulting in the face of somebody insulted by it is likely to provoke…
A provoked attack is still illegal and punishable, but the insulter is also an idiot. Timothy will know if the provocation will lead to leniency.
Timothy will know if the provocation will lead to leniency.
It is, indeed, a mitigation in the sentencing guidelines.
I suppose some might argue that the fact that “something will happen” justifies the use of the word
So, if you go to Brixton and call people niggers and they respond with “something happens” that justifies calling them niggers?
Of course it doesn’t. It was an observation, not a personal opinion, and given in response to the perception apparent by some (indeed even by someone who finds the term offensive) that “pikeys” are folk of a violent nature.
If I’m insulted, I don’t respond by punching the perpetrator in the face.
You clearly don’t understand what it means to be born into a deprived minority surrounded by people who not only consider you their inferior, but enjoy rubbing your face in it. So long as you judge the appropriate response by what you would do in the same circumstances, you are unlikely to make progress towards that understanding.
