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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026

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My brother attended college with a woke Millennial from the states, who felt uncomfortable saying the N-word.

To clarify, I don't mean he felt uncomfortable saying "nigger", which is hardly unusual. I mean he felt uncomfortable saying the phrase "the N-word".

mean he felt uncomfortable saying the phrase "the N-word".

I love this. I wonder what the next step is. "The N-W phrase"?

"TNW". You know that famous song by Jay-Z and Kanye West, "T-N-Dubyas in Paris".

That would be all too quickly appropriated by Chuds as “Total Nigger Weath.”

TNW is too close to TND. Not a realistic option.

I would, too. It’s always sounded like a stupid euphemism to me.

I understand thinking the euphemism is stupid. I was baffled by the way this guy (in my brother's telling) actually lowered his voice to say "the N-word", as if that phrase in itself constituted a hateful racial slur.

With apologies to Stevie Wonder:

>But what it is, though old, so new
>To fill your heart like no three words could ever do

>I just called to say 'the N-word'
>I just called to say how much I care
>I just called to say 'the N-word'
>And I mean it from the bottom of my heart

Remember when people used to do that for "the F-word"? I guess nothing really ever changes, does it.

Okay, you made me laugh out loud, gg

I snigger at people whose rigour about words that rhyme with digger is pursued with such vigour that even a euphemism is a trigger.