[Norma J]

What's the difference if one was to call someone a fag than if someone was to say, insult someones nationality, be it American, Australian, Canadian, whatever? We all know that if you based your judgement on someones sexual preferrence, than you'd be outcasted. But why is there a degree and an acceptance to prejudice? Why is one fine and not the other? Or is it just the fools who make the degrees? Is prejudice just prejudice which ever way you choose to swing it?

[porkmarras]

And here,ladies and gentlemen,Norma J forgets that it's not just space bars that are important but also the romantic encounters between 'which' and 'ever' in the valley of good grammar and spelling.Porkmarras being bitchy?Absolutely!!

[atari 2600]

Is (Are) there degrees to prejudice, or just the fools that make the degrees?

Everyone is conditioned both genetically and environmentally to carry some sort of prejudice.

The degree to which one is prejudiced against various groups or types of people depends primarily on the level of vigilance one exercises to overcome the folly of prejudice and their own fears.

[ni'k]

sexuality is a massive part of the pysche of a person, insulting them for this is a lot more damaging and painful. espicially in a society defined by genderisation and with such an unnatural fear of it's own sexual nature. of course race is similar. you can't choose it, you are born into it, some people have a lot of pride and define themselves as say American or Indian or whatever. So i think prejudice towards sexuality is worse in general. Probably the reason why some people would find prejudice towards sexuality worse than race or tribe are the reasons i've just listed or a variant. after all, you can leave American and become part of a different culture but you can't really alter yr sexuality. Prejudice from one group of people afraid of the differences and strangeness of another group will likely exist for a long long time, but prejudice against sexuality is unnatural and detrimental to humanity and human health and is a phase created by human conservatism, genderisation of society etc.

We would be an unmeasurably more succesful species if we were able to except our sexuality and loose the idea that everyone is either 100% straight or gay cos its bullshit. Noone ever lives a life without sexual interest in the same gender at one point or another. It is unnatural to deny people to ability to fuck whoever they consensually want to with no consideration of gender. homosexual practices strengthen the group bonds in a social group of humans.

[Savage Clone]

There are degrees for sure.
We all have prejudices, but some are more obvious than others.
The ones that seem to be the most tolerated when used openly in current society seem to me to be these:

Gays and Lesbians
"Rednecks" and "White Trash"
People with mental disabilities or mental health issues
People from outside your area (in the USA, the North and South have quite a few zingers for each other)

I don't for a second think that everyone who makes a remark about any of these or other groups of people is making them out of pure hate though, and we do need to be able to make off-color remarks in familiar company to avoid thought-police style attitudes that can prevail when political correctness goes too far.

[racehorse]

i think people should perhaps take derogative comments that they read on internet forums w/ a pinch of salt.
my 2p.

[porkmarras]

Rarely i find myself seriously insulted by a derogative comment made either because of my nationality or my sexuality and that is because,a lot more often than not,if a comment of that type is aimed towards me i can pay back with a more sarcastic comment that will sound equally as idiotic as the one that was trying to offend me.There are obvious exceptions,though.I was recently working behind the bar at my part-time job and this group of guys came in totally off their faces and with trouble written all over their foreheads that you could spot from a mile away.When they approached the bar one of them ordered a few pints of beer and quite rudely turned his back and slurred some words to his mates that went like this:'C'mon you fucking poof!Get me those pints and quickly!'.At that time the pub happened to be manically busy and he must have thought that i would have missed that comment and thought nothing of it but because i sensed the dark aura that this group of lads emanated i immediately got really pissed off and went over to him asked him to repeat what he said to his friends.He claimed to have just said 'What?'(yeah right) but even if i was a little scared i got my boss(who's 6 foot tall and,like,huge!) to throw them out because they were obviously homophobic smartasses in search for trouble.Now,extreme cases like that do happen but generally speaking most people don't really mean what they say and least of all know what they're talking about.