The panelists of “The View” got heated on Thursday when guest host Will Cain said Russell Brand‘s critique of Fox News was part of a pattern of people being outraged over “words.”
“I think it’s part of this whole trend we have. We elevate words to the most harmful thing in society. How dare you say something that could offend somebody?” Cain said. “How dare you say something that hurts my feelings? Why have we gone to this place where words are the worst thing?”
“Because we have a history of utilizing words to harm people and hurt people and the people who have been on the other side of it, I think are at the point where they’re saying, this is not okay anymore,” Whoopi Goldberg said. “And you got to roll with it because at some point, we all have to grow up.”
“Verbal abuse is sometimes worse than physical abuse,” Jenny McCarthy said.
“There was a time when it was sticks and stones can break your bones but your words cannot hurt me,” Cain said.
Sherri Shepherd vehemently disagreed with that.
“Well, what you can do is say, you know what, don’t use that ‘redskin’ thing anymore, I’m not comfortable with it,” Goldberg said. “Don’t say this word, because I don’t like it. I’m Irish, I don’t want to hear this. Every one of these groups has the absolute right to say this has been harmful, this has hurt my parents, this has hurt my grandparents. And don’t use it anymore. Or use it and don’t be surprised when people are pissed,” Shepherd said.
“We’ll all be out of business, we’ll all stop talking,” Cain said. “Everybody’s offended all the time, from the Fighting Irish to the Redskins. Everyone’s offended.”
“That is spoken like a true white guy,” Goldberg said.
“Maybe, that’s what I am,” Cain replied.
“And I don’t mean it in a bad way,” Goldberg said. “But have you had the experience where … your (relatives) said, you know, when I first came here this is what they did to me and this is how they treated me and this what they said to me and this is what called me?”
“No, I’ve not had that experience,” Cain said.
“That’s the difference,” Goldberg said.
“I want to be clear, my argument isn’t that there are no such things as offensive words, it’s how you react to them. You don’t shut someone up because you disagree or you find something they said offensive, you roll on with your life.”
“The whole reason they banned the [n-word] is because people just got tired of it,” Goldberg said.
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