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OftenBen  ·  2523 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Old Handsign Meaning "OK" Triggers Girl Who Once Saw a Pepe Meme Doing It

Approve doesn't enter into it.

Language changes and evolves over time. This is usually an inoffensive process. Clinical jargon regarding mental illness of various kinds gets hijacked and used for slurs.

Any word can be offensive, if said with offensive intent. We should aspire to be harder to offend. More capable of seeing that the intent is just to cause offense for offense sake and not take it.

In this example, someone on an anonymous imageboard said 'This thing that was previously inoffensive is now racist and offensive' and the meme propagated. If people don't respond to it, it dies.