I'm probably going to regret this too, but I'm going to use LoweTek's story as a jumping off point for something broader that I hope we can all learn from. I often ask people what their goal is when they're speaking to someone, what the goal of communication is, and quite regularly, I get this answer: "To say what I'm trying to say."
Which is normal, but, of course, 100% wrong. The goal of communication, as the speaker (or writer, as the case may be), is to be understood. The goal of communication, as the listener (or reader), is to understand. It's not "to say what I'm trying to say", because it only takes you as the communicator into account, and doesn't take into account that your audience may understand the world very differently from you.
Fun example:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urg-EqR-pHc
Marty uses the word "heavy" and he means "whoa, this is serious". Doc Brown hears the word "heavy" and to him, it refers to weight, and so he responds by asking about the earth's gravitational pull. Marty is like...Uh, what!?
They're both using the same word, but understanding completely different things by it.
Now take two phrases that often get used. A black person says to a white person, "Defund the police". To many whites, that term instantly implies "eliminating the police". Because the word "defund" means to them, "taking away all funding", which would mean eliminating. For example, consider the 2019 federal bill "Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2019", which would have taken away all federal funding from PP, leaving them on their own to survive financially (which I'm sure the proponents of that bill hoped they couldn't do). So it's perfectly reasonable for someone to hear the phrase "defund the police" and think it means, "take away all funding for the police", which would mean it goes bye-bye.
But that's not what *most* (not all, but most) people mean by "defund the police". Usually, when people use that phrase, it means shifting funding around, reprioritizing what the police do, etc.
Now another phrase. A white person says to a black person, "I don't see color". To many blacks, that is offensive, because to them it means, "You don't even SEE me for who I am...one of the most core aspects of who I am as a person, you don't even recognize." It feels dehumanizing. But that's generally not what *most* people mean when they say that. When they say that, most people mean something like, "I won't judge you as a person by the color of your skin; rather, I'll try to treat you equally and fairly." But the phrase isn't heard by an African-American that way.
What happens all too often is that people don't seek to be understood, nor do they seek to understand. We say what we intend to say, and if the other person hears and understands something different, we get offended - "I'm sorry you feel that way; I didn't mean any offense; that's your problem." And when we listen, we don't stop to ask, "Ok, I heard you say, 'defund the police'...can you tell me what you mean by that?" or, "can you share a little more what you mean by 'I don't see color', so I can understand you a little better?" We just jump to whatever conclusion hits us first.
Communication can be HARD WORK. And too often today, we don't even take the time to ask questions and find out what people really mean to say, and we also don't take the time to think about the words we're speaking to see if they'll be understood as we intend for them.
Of course, sometimes we get offended because we understand perfectly well what someone is trying to say, and what they say is meant to be offensive. But sometimes it's not, but we get offended anyway.
Conversations should be more like this:
"Oh, so when you say 'I don't see color', you just mean that you're not judging me or thinking less of me because I'm black." "Right, exactly." "Oh, ok, that makes sense. Let me encourage you to not use that phrase though, because here's how it can be felt by people of color sometimes." "Oh, I didn't realize that. I'll try to remember that next time."
And less like this:
"Defund the police? What are you out of your f***ing mind? What are you some sort of anarchist?" "That's not exactly what I mean --" "Yes it is. You said, 'DEFUND THE POLICE' - you want to eliminate the police."
In today's instant communication world, with far less interpersonal relationship and far more "we can just read tweets of what people are saying and then make our own judgments about it without really even knowing the person", the need for quality communication, for people to put in the hard work of saying things to be understood, and seeking to understand, has never been greater.
BTW, I'm totally guilty of this lots of times too, for the same reason as everyone else...this takes effort, and sometimes I just don't want to put in the effort. Even writing this post, I'm sure I'm not saying things in a way that make sense to everyone, and so I'm probably failing in the very point I'm trying to make.