The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I recently heard about a person contending that television had a double-standard on slurs, as while they'd bleep out the n-word, they'd air the term "honky." I then had a friendly debate with a third party about the matter. First off, if we want to purely look at things from a black-and-white perspective (no pun intended), all slurs are bad. However, as is almost always the case, things are more complex than that. There are several reasons why the n-word is regarded as a more offensive slur than "honky," the biggest of which is historical context. The etymology of honky  is unclear. One theory is that the term originated in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where coal miners were segregated into three groups: 1) Whites, 2) Blacks, and 3) Non-English-speaking whites knows as "Hunk Hill." Another theory is that the term started in the meat-packing plants of Chicago, where black employees referred to white employees as "honkies." Yet another theo...

As long-time readers know, I'm a lover of both etymology and ambiguity. I enjoy researching the origin and meaning of words, as well as have fun with potential multiple meanings of words and phrases. Having said that, while Democrats can be labeled as both liberal and conservative, the Republican Party has gone from conservative to bat-sh*t crazy, and they show no sign of slowing that trend! Let's first look at the technical definitions of the terms liberal and conservative . According to Dictionary.com , here are how the two terms are defined: Liberal : "Favorable to progress or reform; open-minded or tolerant; characterized by generosity." Conservative : "Disposed to preserve existing conditions or institutions; having the tendency to conserve." Taking these definitions for what they are, the Democrat Party has often times been favorable to reform, has attempted to revise laws in order to make them fair across all demographics, yet at the same time...