why did we pick this word? Why is moron, imbecile, idiot, etc… all of those are perfectly a-okay as an insult and no one gets their panties in a bunch. Feels arbitrary.
Feels more like a empty issue to take up arms for so that people can FEEL like they’re doing something, while doing next to nothing. It’s so easy to word police, it’s hard to read up on social causes and systems of oppression. So, instead you get armchair keyboard warriors going “you can’t say that!!!” and feel like they’re making a difference… it’s a lazy cause to pacify people, artificially inflated. On the same wavelength as latinx.
imagine it’s you. imagine you have to hear it all the time. imagine it’s your loved one, or nearly everyone you work with professionally, and you have to deal with it. then imagine that for decades. are you exhausted yet? it gets very old and when the traction finally kicks in and people start going ‘‘OK let’s move away from this’’ and you pop up going ‘why can’t we just KEEP being awful! It doesn’t hurt MY feelings!!! So who cares!’’
I don’t have to imagine, I heard it all the time. Among a litany of all other sorts of insults. “slow”, “dumb”, “moron”, “idiot”, “dipshit”, “special”, “widowlicker”, etc, etc, etc…
Policing ONE word isn’t do jack shit to solve the bullying problem. It’s giving lazy people an easy cause to crusade for that ultimately does nothing. Less then nothing, because once you’ve convinced yourself that “this word” is the “nono word”, you’ll let all the others slide. As long as they don’t say the “nono word” it’s okay…
And actually does more harm than any tangible good. Because the most common misuse of policing the word isn’t to protect people… it’s to purity check others. Its a diversionary wedge issue that creates artificial divisions. Instead of stopping bullies, we’re stopping eachother… “oh you called RFK Jr a nono word??? you’re a nazi too!!”
so you want people to use the slur? because people recognizing saying it is awful is bad…? it’s not a crusade, people get it’s bad and don’t want to hear it. and yeah one word isn’t the issue, as an adult, when you start getting corrected on the one word, you kind of have to be smart enough to see the actual problem and stop with all the other words as well. I don’t think it’s a coordinated attempt to destroy all decency if we allow people to be upset about a slur.
Nah it’s straight up a slur. I’m from the 90s, I remember what we actually called intellectually disabled people. It wasn’t any of those other medical terms.
and that was the only thing they were called? They weren’t called any other things, at all?
So, what is accomplished by saying “this word” is the nono word? You’re not stopping the bullying. Instead, you’ve picked some arbitrary word, policed it (instead of the issue) and get to feel like you’re making a difference (you aren’t) while the bullying continues. Except now, you don’t care… I mean, so long as they don’t say the nono word…
I care, and that was the big one. I agree language is the least important part, but online it’s the most visible sign of disrespect. It goes to creating a more welcoming culture to people with all kinds of disabilities.
Were you around back in the day? It’s actually been great seeing people getting less tolerant of ableist language, and behavior. The shit we use to say about our fellow people, just in the mainstream, it all went to such a fucked up culture of disregarding people just because they aren’t “like us.”
That’s the same as using certain racial slurs. Refraining from using them is a simple act of respect to those marginalized communities.
“Idiot” or “moron” isn’t commonly understood to be tied to a particular group on a modern context. It’s just a generic insult for a stupid person. Trying to compare that to the word of cocern in this post is comparing apples and oranges. It’s now clearly understood as an ableist word and a marginalized group is asking everyone not to use it, as it has very negative connotations for them.
Likewise, “Latinx” was never accepted amongst the Latino community, and only a tiny percentage of university students, most who weren’t even first generation, even cared about it. Using Latinx or Latine actually demonstrates cultural ignorance, as a gendered language doesn’t actually mean words are male, female, non-binary or anything in between. It’s just the rules of the language.
Using slurs against, or in the presence of marginalized people opens up all their old wounds again, wounds inflicted on them by privileged oppressors. These slurs were created with the intention of dehumanizing, insulting and punching down on certain groups, or implying inferiority of those groups when using it as an insult towards others (you’re equating a person to an “lesser” person of a marginalized group).
If you’re interested in studying systems of oppression, this should be an obvious thing to you. Oppression is perpetuated by direct physical and emotional violence, as well as systemic violence.
If words mean nothing, I suggest trying that theory out by going up to a person of colour and using a certain word to them. Or even call them “colored”, which used to be the preferred term.
So if words mean something, perhaps it’s worth the time to consider their use carefully.
Yea, but you’re not actually doing anything effective.
Are you helping real people, or just helping yourself? Because tone policing a word when it isn’t even being used as slur at a person, but doing it just because you want everyone to know how anti-bullying, anti-bigotry you are… sorry, that’s just self-congratulatory masturbation. And look, I get it, sometimes it feels good to wax poetic in public, I’m just saying, maybe be honest about why you’re doing it.
My dude, you’re the one who gets off putting people down. Not projection. Observation. You’re not policing some arbitrary (and redundant) word because it might offend a specific person. You’re policing it because it gives you a reason to exercise power.
Especially when you treat every usage as equal without examining the context. If you cared about protecting mentally challenged people, you’d be offended when its targeted at them or when any word is used… but you don’t… you only care about one word, regardless of context… and it’s because when that word is used, it’s punishing time… and what a trip it feels to be “morally superior”, now you get to put someone down. You get to ride around on highhorse skeeting your platitudes all over.
Please be cautious here. You have crossed a line that, as a mod, I would remove your comments for incivility and personal attacks. I allow such things to go further when they are directed at myself, but I am certainly done conversing with you. But I think you’ve made the kind of person you are quite clear.
you know what this kind of context absent policing reminds me of? Jaywalking.
Like, a stupid rule made up that sounds reasonable “Keep people safe and not walking into traffic causing accidents”. But that’s not how it was policed… instead regardless of context or traffic, anyone caught walking across the road was punished. Not because it was unsafe to do so… but because… they could. You walked on the nono place, time to punish you.
That’s kind of what you’re doing. You’re removing the intention behind something, removing the context, so that all that’s left is “having a cause to punish people”. Then you get to feel like the big hero who saved traffic… and no one can say you weren’t justified, I mean clearly they were on the road (used the word)… so they had to be punished.
edit. Also, “personal attacks”? Talk about a trumped up reason out of thin air. okaybuddy. You don’t have cause, but you disagree, so you’re making threats. Coolcoolcool.
Kantar reviewed nearly 50 million social posts in the U.S. over 2 years. Over two-thirds of posts about people with intellectual disabilities were negative and nearly 29 million contained slurs (i.e., using the word “retard(ed)” or other words combined with “-tard”).
Spreading the R-word continues to hurt people with intellectual disabilities—and whether intended or not, is a form of bullying. Using the R-word is the same as using any slur against a minority group. Eliminating this word is a step toward respect for all."
it’s a lazy virtue signal so that we eat our own. Likely propagated by right-wing groups who benefit the most from the infighting. It doesn’t solve a real issue and instead is just another purity test imposed to artificially create division.
But go off, feel good about yourself, you’ve done it, you solved bullying!
Because that’s how language works. That word has been used to demean, mock, belittle, and cause real trauma to people. That’s why using it makes people feel bad, and as sentient, empathetic people, we choose not to use it.
Somehow it was decided that one word would be the nono bad word… when literally all of them are used interchangably. But, you only get scolded if you say one of them. And policing its use does make any actual meaningful change. Like, if you wanted to insult a handicapped person, you can still do it using any of other words in the quiver.
why did we pick this word? Why is moron, imbecile, idiot, etc… all of those are perfectly a-okay as an insult and no one gets their panties in a bunch. Feels arbitrary.
Feels more like a empty issue to take up arms for so that people can FEEL like they’re doing something, while doing next to nothing. It’s so easy to word police, it’s hard to read up on social causes and systems of oppression. So, instead you get armchair keyboard warriors going “you can’t say that!!!” and feel like they’re making a difference… it’s a lazy cause to pacify people, artificially inflated. On the same wavelength as latinx.
imagine it’s you. imagine you have to hear it all the time. imagine it’s your loved one, or nearly everyone you work with professionally, and you have to deal with it. then imagine that for decades. are you exhausted yet? it gets very old and when the traction finally kicks in and people start going ‘‘OK let’s move away from this’’ and you pop up going ‘why can’t we just KEEP being awful! It doesn’t hurt MY feelings!!! So who cares!’’
I don’t have to imagine, I heard it all the time. Among a litany of all other sorts of insults. “slow”, “dumb”, “moron”, “idiot”, “dipshit”, “special”, “widowlicker”, etc, etc, etc…
Policing ONE word isn’t do jack shit to solve the bullying problem. It’s giving lazy people an easy cause to crusade for that ultimately does nothing. Less then nothing, because once you’ve convinced yourself that “this word” is the “nono word”, you’ll let all the others slide. As long as they don’t say the “nono word” it’s okay…
And actually does more harm than any tangible good. Because the most common misuse of policing the word isn’t to protect people… it’s to purity check others. Its a diversionary wedge issue that creates artificial divisions. Instead of stopping bullies, we’re stopping eachother… “oh you called RFK Jr a nono word??? you’re a nazi too!!”
so you want people to use the slur? because people recognizing saying it is awful is bad…? it’s not a crusade, people get it’s bad and don’t want to hear it. and yeah one word isn’t the issue, as an adult, when you start getting corrected on the one word, you kind of have to be smart enough to see the actual problem and stop with all the other words as well. I don’t think it’s a coordinated attempt to destroy all decency if we allow people to be upset about a slur.
Yep, stupid fucking mods
Nah it’s straight up a slur. I’m from the 90s, I remember what we actually called intellectually disabled people. It wasn’t any of those other medical terms.
and that was the only thing they were called? They weren’t called any other things, at all?
So, what is accomplished by saying “this word” is the nono word? You’re not stopping the bullying. Instead, you’ve picked some arbitrary word, policed it (instead of the issue) and get to feel like you’re making a difference (you aren’t) while the bullying continues. Except now, you don’t care… I mean, so long as they don’t say the nono word…
I care, and that was the big one. I agree language is the least important part, but online it’s the most visible sign of disrespect. It goes to creating a more welcoming culture to people with all kinds of disabilities.
Were you around back in the day? It’s actually been great seeing people getting less tolerant of ableist language, and behavior. The shit we use to say about our fellow people, just in the mainstream, it all went to such a fucked up culture of disregarding people just because they aren’t “like us.”
That’s the same as using certain racial slurs. Refraining from using them is a simple act of respect to those marginalized communities.
“Idiot” or “moron” isn’t commonly understood to be tied to a particular group on a modern context. It’s just a generic insult for a stupid person. Trying to compare that to the word of cocern in this post is comparing apples and oranges. It’s now clearly understood as an ableist word and a marginalized group is asking everyone not to use it, as it has very negative connotations for them.
Likewise, “Latinx” was never accepted amongst the Latino community, and only a tiny percentage of university students, most who weren’t even first generation, even cared about it. Using Latinx or Latine actually demonstrates cultural ignorance, as a gendered language doesn’t actually mean words are male, female, non-binary or anything in between. It’s just the rules of the language.
Using slurs against, or in the presence of marginalized people opens up all their old wounds again, wounds inflicted on them by privileged oppressors. These slurs were created with the intention of dehumanizing, insulting and punching down on certain groups, or implying inferiority of those groups when using it as an insult towards others (you’re equating a person to an “lesser” person of a marginalized group).
If you’re interested in studying systems of oppression, this should be an obvious thing to you. Oppression is perpetuated by direct physical and emotional violence, as well as systemic violence.
If words mean nothing, I suggest trying that theory out by going up to a person of colour and using a certain word to them. Or even call them “colored”, which used to be the preferred term.
So if words mean something, perhaps it’s worth the time to consider their use carefully.
yes those are exactly comparable. Definitely no difference in historical context at all… pat yourself on the back, you’re antibullying saviour!
Do you pat yourself on the back for standing up against bigotry? I would think it’s the human thing to do.
Yea, but you’re not actually doing anything effective.
Are you helping real people, or just helping yourself? Because tone policing a word when it isn’t even being used as slur at a person, but doing it just because you want everyone to know how anti-bullying, anti-bigotry you are… sorry, that’s just self-congratulatory masturbation. And look, I get it, sometimes it feels good to wax poetic in public, I’m just saying, maybe be honest about why you’re doing it.
You can project all you like. I don’t care. I do think standing up for bigotry is not a good look for you, but that’s your call to make.
But you will face consequences if you break the TOS.
My dude, you’re the one who gets off putting people down. Not projection. Observation. You’re not policing some arbitrary (and redundant) word because it might offend a specific person. You’re policing it because it gives you a reason to exercise power.
Especially when you treat every usage as equal without examining the context. If you cared about protecting mentally challenged people, you’d be offended when its targeted at them or when any word is used… but you don’t… you only care about one word, regardless of context… and it’s because when that word is used, it’s punishing time… and what a trip it feels to be “morally superior”, now you get to put someone down. You get to ride around on highhorse skeeting your platitudes all over.
Please be cautious here. You have crossed a line that, as a mod, I would remove your comments for incivility and personal attacks. I allow such things to go further when they are directed at myself, but I am certainly done conversing with you. But I think you’ve made the kind of person you are quite clear.
you know what this kind of context absent policing reminds me of? Jaywalking.
Like, a stupid rule made up that sounds reasonable “Keep people safe and not walking into traffic causing accidents”. But that’s not how it was policed… instead regardless of context or traffic, anyone caught walking across the road was punished. Not because it was unsafe to do so… but because… they could. You walked on the nono place, time to punish you.
That’s kind of what you’re doing. You’re removing the intention behind something, removing the context, so that all that’s left is “having a cause to punish people”. Then you get to feel like the big hero who saved traffic… and no one can say you weren’t justified, I mean clearly they were on the road (used the word)… so they had to be punished.
edit. Also, “personal attacks”? Talk about a trumped up reason out of thin air. okaybuddy. You don’t have cause, but you disagree, so you’re making threats. Coolcoolcool.
FTA:
"The R-Word Is a Form of Bullying
Kantar reviewed nearly 50 million social posts in the U.S. over 2 years. Over two-thirds of posts about people with intellectual disabilities were negative and nearly 29 million contained slurs (i.e., using the word “retard(ed)” or other words combined with “-tard”).
Spreading the R-word continues to hurt people with intellectual disabilities—and whether intended or not, is a form of bullying. Using the R-word is the same as using any slur against a minority group. Eliminating this word is a step toward respect for all."
it’s a lazy virtue signal so that we eat our own. Likely propagated by right-wing groups who benefit the most from the infighting. It doesn’t solve a real issue and instead is just another purity test imposed to artificially create division.
But go off, feel good about yourself, you’ve done it, you solved bullying!
Removed by mod
They also don’t like the word mongoloid, and prefer that you don’t say “suffers from …” and more.
People humor them, because… you know
Because that’s how language works. That word has been used to demean, mock, belittle, and cause real trauma to people. That’s why using it makes people feel bad, and as sentient, empathetic people, we choose not to use it.
yea… but so have all those other words too.
Somehow it was decided that one word would be the nono bad word… when literally all of them are used interchangably. But, you only get scolded if you say one of them. And policing its use does make any actual meaningful change. Like, if you wanted to insult a handicapped person, you can still do it using any of other words in the quiver.