Confrontational

I hate when someone says something that I find offensive, and I am really sure they did not mean to offend. Today, that comment was made while a mother was admiring the terrific adult that their child had become.  A great sentiment, no doubt. Except the mom said, "I figured, given my parenting, she'd be goth or something." This implies that there is something wrong with being goth. It is so hard for me not to ask, "Would it be so terrible is she were goth and still a great human being?" I would find this statement offensive if she'd used a lot of different words there...republican, democrat, atheist, Christian. She made a statement that she figured the child would go wrong and threw a group of people to the wolves as an example. This bothers me. This was a written statement in a public forum. Which makes it even worse, to me. Maybe because writing gives a person a better opportunity to carefully measure and select their words. I don't want to call her out and make her uncomfortable. I don't even know her that well and I really do not think that she meant a slight to my goth friends. Contrary to popular belief, I am not always confrontational. That is why I have a blog, so that I can rant and rave and get things off my chest without causing harm to others.

But in the process of writing this, I have tried to rephrase that statement into something acceptable and find myself inserting...

crazy
homeless
bum
druggie
alcoholic

These all seem like better "bad" options. These words are generally accepted as being bad...but they are still people. Is it okay because they are less...what? Socially valued? Goths are not socially valued by all, neither are atheist...or Republicans?

I guess it all depends on the angle in which you are viewing life and what you value.