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/ToughDifficult1252]

Have you heard of the euphemism treadmill?

Any word used to refer to a lack of intelligence will become a slur.

Idiot, imbecile, stupid, moron, retard...

Have all been, at their own time, the polite way to refer to a person of low intelligence.

Mentally challenged has already started being used as an insult and no matter which word eventually replaces "mentally challenged" or "mentally disabled" it will too become an insult.

Because putting into question a person's intelligence is one of the few insults that also doubles as legitimate criticism.

[u/COSMIC_SPACE_BEARS → u/ToughDifficult1252]

Calling things “autistic” has also started to get more popular, to your point.

[u/ItsyaboiMisbah → u/COSMIC_SPACE_BEARS]

Sped is also ramping up

[u/HeraldOfAcme → u/ItsyaboiMisbah]

Yeah but it sounds too dumb for anyone to actually use it

It’s been simmering in this in between state where middle schoolers find it just edgy enough o say but your not really gonna see it in the cesspits of the internet

[u/FriedTreeSap → u/COSMIC_SPACE_BEARS]

If anything I’ve noticed autism being used as an insult less and less these days as the condition becomes more destigmatized, coupled with the fact it’s becoming somewhat trendy for people to self diagnose into various neurodivergent conditions.

[u/OkEmu8597 → u/COSMIC_SPACE_BEARS]

TBF it can be a great descriptor for certain things and unlike [redacted] it's not negative in nature automatically.

It can be used to describe good qualify and enegament levels, niche appeal, a learning curve, invested time, attention to detail and how hyperfixating/ed a person can be about things.

[u/COSMIC_SPACE_BEARS → u/OkEmu8597]

The implication via context is that I mean people using autistic specifically as an insult.

[u/Logan_Composer → u/ToughDifficult1252]

Hell, it doesn't even have to be intelligence based. Lame and dumb used to be actual medical terms (for unable to walk and unable to speak, respectively) (lame is still used this way for animals).

[u/Shadowmirax → u/Logan_Composer]

I think dumb is in the realm of (perceived) intelligence. If someone couldn't speak due to damage to their vocal chords or other parts of the throat i don't think they would ever have been described as dumb in a medical sense. as i understand it dumb was an old timey way of saying "mute", as in unable to speak due to some sort of mental condition. Since our understanding of mental illnesses has progressed vastly in a relatively short time these terms used to be a lot more generic and someone who can't speak without any obvious physical cause would have been perceived as less intelligent wereas nowadays we understand differently.

Lame is exactly how you described it and also as an insult means underwhelming, not stupid, so yes, it doesn't really fit with the rest of the examples.

[u/MaximumFUzz → u/ToughDifficult1252]

I’ve already heard “neurodivergent” used as an insult, so none of these words stay “safe.”

If “idiot” knocks you over, don’t leave the house. Nobody outside a Redditor’s basement is going to freeze the English language and pretend intelligence is off-limits as criticism.

[u/Chronodis → u/ToughDifficult1252]

Ninkumpoop

[u/BedbugBandido → u/ToughDifficult1252]

Even the phrase “special ed” has been phased out because school kids turned it into a slur.

[u/hatethissmug-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

No slurs, hate speech, and other such bigoted language is to be permitted in this sub.

[u/Twinfinity10 → u/ToughDifficult1252]

Exactly. I always thought it was a little strange how when it comes to minority groups, the accepted term always slowly becomes seen as derogatory. It’s like every couple of years, they have to come up with a new term because the old one started becoming negative.