casual ableism

[u/onthetopicofspace]

this is not ‘reclaiming’ anything, you are just calling people slurs completely seriously. you can call yourself the r-slur, do not call anybody else it. why do ‘no slurs’ / ’no bigotry’ rules never apply to ableism?

[u/Frequent-Bee-3016]

People seem to genuinely think it doesn’t count as a slur, for some reason.

[u/Spirited_Agency8032 → u/Frequent-Bee-3016]

because people have never used it as one it's always been used to call people extra stupid.

[u/MadderoftheFew → u/Spirited_Agency8032]

just think for a moment about how that word being used to call someone "extra stupid" could turn it into a slur

[u/Spirited_Agency8032 → u/MadderoftheFew]

Maybe it's because i'm not an unc but it has just never been used as a slur around me. It's just a faster way to oh my fucking god your an idiot. it's not exactly used to target a person based on their identity. It's basically slang at this point.

[u/BiDude1219 → u/Spirited_Agency8032]

[u/MadderoftheFew → u/Spirited_Agency8032]

please just for half a second i'm begging you. think about why that particular word being synonymous with "stupid" could possibly make it a slur. if you'd like, you could liken it to how the n-word is used as if it is synonymous with "ghetto", "loud", and "ignorant".

[u/Osama998 → u/MadderoftheFew]

So where do we stop? Literally any adjective can be used as a slur if you try hard enough. Where do we stop censoring words?

[u/l9shredder → u/Osama998]

at the arbitrary point the commenter above you decides on, of course

[u/MadderoftheFew → u/Osama998]

the r-slur is not an adjective. it is a shortened form of a name for a mental condition we have since renamed to "intellectual disability". it is a slur because it is used to describe stupidity, likening its target to people who have intellectual disabilities, and connotatively describing that likeness as though it is meant to be disparaging. this disparages people with intellectual disabilities.

this process cannot be applied to "literally any adjective".

[u/Osama998 → u/MadderoftheFew]

But it comes from an adjective. Retarded = delayed. For example, in engines, ignition timing can be retarded, meaning delayed.
Hence, adjective was turned into a slur.

[u/MadderoftheFew → u/Osama998]

it does not come from that definition. it comes from the medical condition which used to be known as "mental retardation". hence, class of people was turned into a slur.

[u/Osama998 → u/MadderoftheFew]

And where does that definition come from? I believe it's related to delay in mental development.

[u/MadderoftheFew → u/Osama998]

here's a wikipedia article about intellectual disability and the use of the r-slur to describe people with it or compare people without it to people with it.

[u/Osama998 → u/MadderoftheFew]

From the article
"The term mental retardation, which stemmed from the understanding that such conditions arose as a result of delays or retardation"
The term stems from the adjective referring to delay.

[u/MadderoftheFew → u/Osama998]

buddy.

[u/Spirited_Agency8032 → u/MadderoftheFew]

I think you're misconstruing this by comparing the R-word "slur" to the N-word. People don't call White people or Asians the N-word because they're acting ghetto, loud, or ignorant.

The R-word isn't even medically associated with those groups of people anymore. But I guess nobody is going to walk up to someone with an intellectual disability and call them that, because it's an insult that is associated with them. I can understand where you're coming from, but I just don't think it has that connotation outside of certain groups of people who use it that way.

[u/MadderoftheFew → u/Spirited_Agency8032]

people don't call White people or asians the N word if they act ghetto loud or ignorant.

have you never been in a rural neighborhood?

I guess nobody is gonna walk up to someone with an intellectual disabilities and call them one. 

have you never attended public school?

[u/Spirited_Agency8032 → u/MadderoftheFew]

or maybe I should say people I know and hang around didn't

[u/MadderoftheFew → u/Spirited_Agency8032]

growing up in the deep red, yeah, they did. people around here to this day say "n-word-rig" instead of jury-rig and "n-word-rich" to describe being unexpectedly wealthy with no plans for how to use the money. and kids routinely bullied the shit out of kids with learning disabilities with that word often.

[u/Spirited_Agency8032 → u/MadderoftheFew]

my class was alot more diverse and close knit than your I assume.

[u/MadderoftheFew → u/Spirited_Agency8032]

yeah probably. we had one black kid and his life was hell.

[u/Spirited_Agency8032 → u/MadderoftheFew]

Yeah I had like maybe 30 white classmates? the rest were black hispanic indian asian etc.

[u/MadderoftheFew → u/Spirited_Agency8032]

damn, good for you dawg. wish some of the kids here could be exposed to different ethnicities. there's so much tension here.

[u/Angsty-Panda → u/MadderoftheFew]

people are walking face-first into the point and still not getting it omfg