Interesting questions. Great article.

Writing is an art form. There should be no limits on art and people expressing themselves.

How people respond to words is their choice.

Writers also have to live with the reactions they cause.

I enjoy the ongoing discussion about the meaning of words, their history, and the different associations people have with them.

And I am an advocate of freedom of speech. There will always be someone who wants to feel hurt, regardless of how much effort a writer puts into toning down their words.

But this is the purpose of art: to evoke emotions, reactions, and provoke thought processes and discussions. Take that out of writing, and we create the kind of dictatorship we want to avoid. Any moral authority dictating what people are allowed to write, think, or say is a contradiction to democracy.