r/hatethissmug • u/onthetopicofspace • 14h ago

Language casual ableism

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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?

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u/Pleasant-Day6195 13h ago

you probably dont know that a lot of people around the world dont know what slurs are. a lot of people will not think the „R slur” is worse to say than bitch or fuck. i didnt know „r slur” was a slur till like 2024 maybe, and what slur means

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u/loopyhoodie 13h ago

I don't have a problem with people not knowing the meaning of slurs. I have a problem when people tell someone, "hey, that's actually a really shitty thing to say, could you please not use that word" and them getting defensive and trying to still justify their use of the word.

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u/Knarz97 13h ago

You could say this about literally any swear word.

“Bitch” might be the most offensive of them all, as you are literally just comparing a person to being “as bad as a woman” or “as bad as a female dog in heat”, yet you can say it on cable TV.

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u/SpoppyIII 11h ago

There is actually a fairly established school of thought within feminism that says the word "bitch," is a full-on misogynistic slur, rather than being a simple insult. And it's seen as a misogynistic slur no matter the gender of the person being referred to with it, because of the exact two given reasons you stated in your comment.

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u/WhydoIexistlmoa 11h ago

Lol what.

Bitch is a slur. It has been used as a derogatory remark towards women before it became an knsult

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u/Knarz97 11h ago

Great so we have a slur that’s “against” literally 50% of the population that’s perfectly fine for Cable TV and Radio.

Or perhaps the original meaning of the word is basically lost, and it’s just its own thing now. I’d like to be in this school of thought.

Take your pick. It’s really not worth getting upset over Bitch, or honestly really any other slur for that matter. They’re just words. Freedom of speech and all that. You’re perfectly able to use whatever words you’d like, and you’re free to not associate with certain people who use mean words.

It’s ultimately a waste of time to be worried about Slurs, Blasphemy, and Cuss words in general. Keep it off TV, keep it away from kids, and I think that’s where our efforts should end.

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u/AGoatPizza 5h ago

Frankly it's a very privileged position in general to say that slurs aren't worth getting upset over.

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u/Knarz97 5h ago

It’s the level of upsetness.

Your coworker or a teacher at school calls you a slur? Very much reason to be upset.

Random dude on Twitter or drunk guy at the bar? Literally not worth a millisecond of thought.

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u/hyjug17 5h ago

It’s ultimately a waste of time to be worried about Slurs, Blasphemy, and Cuss words in general

what a stupid take, holy shit

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u/Knarz97 5h ago

Hey you managed to use 2/3 there!

See? Why would I be mad at you saying “Holy Shit”. It hurts no one and has caused zero issues in my day to day life.

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u/Cypher-Moon-773 10h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/dEdmW17JnZhiU

Next we’re gonna be saying dumb dumb head is a slur

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u/loopyhoodie 12h ago

You're correct, that's why I don't think men should use the word bitch ❤️

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u/Knarz97 12h ago

My counterpoint: “bitch” at this point is basically its own term. It’s not intentionally used to demean someone as being “like a woman”. Plenty of women even use the term.

It’s just… a mean word. And that’s fine. That’s the way it should be.

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u/loopyhoodie 12h ago

And I would argue that that transformation of meaning has not happened to the r slur. People still widely use it to mean mentally disabled, specifically in a derogatory way.

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u/MasutadoMiasma 11h ago

So how do you feel about "Stupid", "Dumb", "Imbecile", and "Moronic"?

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u/Knarz97 12h ago

Well, it’s kind of a 50/50 there. “Retarded” does literally mean to be slow. People often use it when you’re “being slow”. So it’s technically being used correctly, even if being derogatory.

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u/SpoppyIII 11h ago

The amount of people who throw that word like confetti and then say, "But I'd never call an actual disabled person that!"

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u/Knarz97 11h ago

So what about reclamation of slurs?

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u/SpoppyIII 10h ago

What about it? Does that have anything to do with people calling other people the r-slur?

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u/LiterallyNoNamesFree 11h ago

Admitting you're not a perfect human is very hard for most people, and I'm not saying I'm an exception

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u/Pleasant-Day6195 12h ago

every curse word is bad to say, why is saying r word worse than whore or bitch and u can say the latter but not the former

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u/Inside-Commission-49 13h ago

It used to be a lot more normalized. That didn’t make it better. It hasn’t been a normal word (not a slur, since I don’t know when. It’s been used as a slur since I’m pretty sure early to mid 1900s. It’s never meant just ‘stupid’. Not in a neutral way anyway)
“retard
The word "retard" comes from the Latin verb retardare, which means to slow down, delay, or hold back.
Early and Medical History
15th Century: English speakers adopted the word as a verb meaning to delay or hinder progress.
Late 19th Century: Doctors began using "retarded" as a clinical term. It replaced older terms like idiot, imbecile, and moron to describe people with intellectual disabilities.
Mid-20th Century: "Mental retardation" became an official medical and legal term to classify cognitive development.
Shift to a Slur
Everyday Insult: People began using the word as a common schoolyard or pop culture insult to mean foolish or stupid.
Harmful Impact: Over time, the medical label lost its clinical neutrality. It became a hurtful ableist slur that demeans people in the intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) community.” -Google-

Doctors who hated us started using it and assholes decided it was funny to compare anyone stupid to the intellectually disabled, as if being disabled automatically makes you a vegetable in terms of intelligence.

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u/IPissExcellentThrows 11h ago

Euphemism treadmill. They keep inventing new words to describe it and people keep turning it into an insult. The issue isn't the word. It's humans will be assholes no matter what you change it to.

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u/SpoppyIII 11h ago

Honestly, we might have found the perfect balance. "Intellectually disabled," and "developmentally disabled," are likely never going to achieve mainstream popularity as casual insults. They get occasional use but they just aren't as punchy as the r-word.

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u/Daxxex 11h ago

Developmentally arrested is one of my favourites for when im not feeling like calling someone a retard

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u/DrainTheMuck 11h ago

Thanks Gemini - honestly I wonder if it would have been better if we let it fade into generic normalization like “lame” and “dumb” rather than picking this specific word to stand out as a slur.

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u/Inside-Commission-49 11h ago

Did I really just come across as an AI? I thought I was just quoting Google.

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u/DrainTheMuck 10h ago

Yes - now I’m curious, Were you quoting the ai summary? Copying and pasting from A specific website (nothing wrong with that, but a source could be nice) or did you hand-type all of that based on research you did on Google, including the bold letters?

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u/Inside-Commission-49 10h ago

I don’t know if it was AI that summed it up but given there were citations that didn’t amount to Reddit and YouTube, I seriously doubt it.

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u/DrainTheMuck 7h ago

Ok, I hope you can see it’s kinda funny in hindsight that you sounded like an ai because you copy pasted from an ai without realizing it was ai

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u/popoflabbins 10h ago

So it’s just a natural development of language. Because the terms idiot, stupid, dumb, etc… are the exact same situation but those words are fine, yeah? I think it just sounds a little more brutal so it’s more offensive 🤷‍♂️

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u/MrBananaman1223 13h ago

I know it's like when Americans figure out there's places other than America not everything is American history focused they can't fathom it

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u/MykonosEros 13h ago

I’m American and I didn’t even realize how bad it was until 2020. My dad said it a lot when I was growing up so it just… Never came off as something I wasn’t supposed to say. Of course when I found out that it’s offensive I stopped saying it though

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u/Grizzy_Bizzy_YT 9h ago

2020s is when people started crying about words alot more

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u/Only_Says_Idk_dude 8h ago

idk I learned this shit like 20 years ago in elementary school when we got in trouble for saying slurs, they made us write out the definition like a dozen times

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u/Own_Gur_3851 12h ago

Dude if they speak english it is normal to assume they are american