0-gaffe for “something that personally offends people present because they think it violates epistemic norms or is directly harmful”,
1-gaffe for “something that seems offensive to someone present because they think a hypothetical absent person might consider it a 0-gaffe if they were here”,
2-gaffe for “something that seems offensive to someone present because they think a hypothetical absent person might consider it a 1-gaffe if they were here”,
And ∞-gaffe for the kind of miasma that arises when there are too many levels to keep track of anymore, or when miasma sticks around out of habit, or when you’re just imitating someone else who’s treating the statement as a gaffe — statements that the brain rounds off to ‘controversial’ even though it can’t cash that out in terms of any imagined person who would perceive it as a 0-gaffe.
ideally we’d invent words so that we could give those names that are shorter than 6 english words, but that kind of thing.
Maybe:
0-gaffe for “something that personally offends people present because they think it violates epistemic norms or is directly harmful”,
1-gaffe for “something that seems offensive to someone present because they think a hypothetical absent person might consider it a 0-gaffe if they were here”,
2-gaffe for “something that seems offensive to someone present because they think a hypothetical absent person might consider it a 1-gaffe if they were here”,
etc.?
And ∞-gaffe for the kind of miasma that arises when there are too many levels to keep track of anymore, or when miasma sticks around out of habit, or when you’re just imitating someone else who’s treating the statement as a gaffe — statements that the brain rounds off to ‘controversial’ even though it can’t cash that out in terms of any imagined person who would perceive it as a 0-gaffe.