The problem (which i dont know how to solve) is we live in a troll/attention economy.the more established people and society accepts that a word should not be used... the more incentive people have to use it to get attention and provoke a response.

Yeah, I don’t know either.

I think a certain amount of discipline about not signal boosting trolls and proactively boosting good voices goes a long way.

I used to think the old adage from The Simpsons song (guest starring Paul Anka) "Just dont look" would work but on a societal level people are looking, and attention is currency more than ever so im fresh out of ideas.

I'm bilingual and sometimes cringe a little when I read the French word even when it's used completely appropriately in that language, because it's such a hurtful slur in my other language. That argument is like kids saying it's ok to say "Phoque you" because "it just means 'seal!'"

this is interesting to me as I live in China (but from America); I assume this has been obvious to linguists for ages but I discovered there’s a distinct culturally dependent taboo about kids using bad words in China, the rule is simple: not in class, and not to your boss/parents/teachers, but…

…there isn’t the idea that kids should be protected from bad words, and if kids are using them among themselves in earshot of an adult, it’s rare for anyone to care I’ve become a bit inured to it; if it needs to stop I just tell them to stop being rude (rather than “kids shouldn’t say that” or etc)