Interesting example. My intuition here is that while this is phrased as a statement, the implication is that of a threat. That does not seem to be the case for the other examples in this thread.
Question: is the main problem with “I could rape you right now” that it’s offensive, or that it’s threatening, i.e. that it makes the hearer feel unsafe in the presence of the speaker?
So, then, I guess I provisionally agree that a factual statement minus any sort of opinion, implication, social role, etc., including the fact that it was stated instead of nothing or instead of other statements, is probably not offensive. This is a pretty weak claim, though!
Interesting example. My intuition here is that while this is phrased as a statement, the implication is that of a threat. That does not seem to be the case for the other examples in this thread.
Question: is the main problem with “I could rape you right now” that it’s offensive, or that it’s threatening, i.e. that it makes the hearer feel unsafe in the presence of the speaker?
So, then, I guess I provisionally agree that a factual statement minus any sort of opinion, implication, social role, etc., including the fact that it was stated instead of nothing or instead of other statements, is probably not offensive. This is a pretty weak claim, though!