Re: [Ghm-discuss] The posh talk does not complain with the policy

[Samuel Thibault]

Luca Saiu, le Tue 12 Aug 2014 12:21:54 +0200, a écrit :
> I'm surprised by all these attempts of avoiding offense at all costs.
> I've always thought that what counts is the *intent* of the speaker;

Err, well, unfortunately, no.  Somebody feels offensed by what she/he
experiences, not by what was intended.  That's why I was talking about
careful forewords.  Knowing that what you will say can be taken as
offensive by some people, forewords can prevent that from happening, and
everybody will be fine.

> If somebody is offended by a remark which was not meant as an attack,
> too bad: she's wrong.

No.

She can not change the way she feels.

At best what she could think would be "I was wrong coming to this
event".  Which is precisely what we want to avoid.

> By the way: if something is illegal then it's already prohibited and you
> don't need any policy for that.

Just like a lot of things, yes.  But reminding the law is necessary,
otherwise it's not effective.  Think about "selling alcohol to <16yrs is
illegal" and such signs.  There are a lot of laws which are not
effective just because nobody knows about them even remotely.

> Call the cops.

AIUI, cops don't come for everything illegal, just things which require
physical force.

Samuel