A reader writes:

I wonder whether your perception of “faggot” would change if you considered the continuing debate on reddit over the use of the “OP is a faggot” meme. This meme appears (and is usually upvoted to the top of the thread) almost without exception in cases where the original poster (OP) of the thread is suspected of wrongdoing – usually lying about the nature of the post, reposting old content without acknowledging the source, or making things up to get karma. These things happen a lot on reddit and so you don’t have to spend much time there to see “OP is a faggot.”

Many redditors will tell you that they are only using the term as you describe it – a “general term of abuse for straight women and straight men” that is “jokey” and “has been drained of any explicit homosexual meaning.” All you need to do to see the dishonesty of this claim is to look at one of the most popular ways to call OP a faggot – using an image meme. Search Google images for “OP is a faggot” for some representative examples. These images almost universally involve homosexual sex, gay stereotypes, or other direct allusions to a man being gay. Generally they consist of a man who has been caught in a situation that reveals that he is homosexual, with an arrow labeling the man as “OP.” And yet on the very same thread where they post and upvote these images, redditors will tell you with a straight face that “OP is a faggot” has “nothing to do with being gay!” and, often, what a faggot you are for ruining their fun by pointing out that it does.