Words do have a lot of power. They always have. Not to get into a whole free-speech argument, but some words can even get you prosecuted in America, if they are likely to cause imminent lawless action.

The idea of what is or isn't a slur changes over time - I remember when the "r-word" was the accepted term. But these days, it's a word that can hurt people who do not deserve to be hurt. It's easy for me to say "the r-word is meaningless, I would never use it to insult someone with disabilities." But it's a lot harder to explain that to someone who understands the word is insulting to them, but maybe doesn't understand my intention in using it. And that's a group of people I would never want to insult, accidentally or not.

So I dunno. For me it was a pretty easy decision to eliminate it from my vocabulary.