Removing pejoratives involving sexual orientation still leaves quite a few left. Are you asking because you think his kids might not have a sufficiently rich vocabulary with which to insult someone? Is this a version of “think of the kids”?
They claim that being politically correct is not learned by children.
> they enforce "political correctness" of speech without being told
but then claims that they have learned the difference
> When I was a kid "gay" was one of our go-to pejoratives for almost anything uncool. With my kid's cohort, it's not acceptable because they don't think being gay is insulting.
Obviously they are different kids growing up in different times with different political climates that have learned a different political correctness but both have learned what is considered politically correct from society.
The point "So what are your kids pejoratives?" simply points out that the kids are not born with an inherent knowledge of pejoratives being harmful but have simply learned different pejoratives from their parents and society.
"Both have learned what is politically correct from society"
There's a huge distinction you're glossing over. Past generations thought that exclusionary language was just fine and that exclusionary behavior was also just fine. The Gen X and Y kids were raised being "told" that exclusionary behavior and language were not acceptable, but it was not a native part of their culture and had to be learned, accepted, adopted through effort. That's the era that coined the phrase "political correctness" mostly as a pejorative term for the efforts to change people's behavior. Adults who were set in their ways were reluctant, but kids heard it and absorbed it. The current generation are being raised to inherently believe that exclusionary language is unacceptable and are self-policing because it's the predominant ethos. It's no longer a lesson to learn, it's a cornerstone of our society to protect. Obviously this varies a lot region by region and even child by child, but it's seemingly past a tipping point.
The point OP made was that speech patterns can influence thoughts/ideas. The point wasn’t that their kids don’t have any biases or don’t have a new set of pejoratives they use. It was an argument being made that perhaps political correctness does have a place or is useful. That’s what I deduced from OP’s comment.
But what does this have to do with the point made in OP’s comment? They gave an instance of changed attitudes based off of language usage. They weren’t saying their kids don’t marginalize anyone.
