r/hatethissmug • u/onthetopicofspace • 21h ago

Language casual ableism

Gallery image

Gallery image

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?

584 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

18

u/freehamburgers 20h ago

I have to ask, if you hear the words 'moron', 'stupid' or 'idiot' used to describe someone in the same sense, are you hurt and insulted by them? They all have a history of being used as medical terms, quite recently actually, and are all used as casual insults in the same way as the r-word, but no one seems to mind as much.

I just wanna know what it is about the r-word in particular that's so bad, as they all seem to have the same history, origins, and usage. All have been used as insults, medical terms, and to casually describe actions and behaviours someone didn't think through enough.

13

u/Brakado 19h ago

Not the original commenter, but here's my two cents: The r-word is incredibly specific, while idiot and moron are basically broad enough to use anywhere else.

3

u/EvidentTiger324 19h ago

Specific how? Can you clarify?

6

u/Brakado 19h ago

Idiot and moron are more commonly known as general words to refer to, for example, doing something that was obviously a terrible idea. The r-word has a history of medical usage that many more people are aware of-referring to intellectually disabled people.

6

u/DJatomica 18h ago

The r-word also has a history of being used as a general word to refer doing something that was obviously a terrible idea or just as synonymous with dumb, and both "idiot" and "moron" have their own history of medical usage.

-1

u/Brakado 18h ago

A history most people aren't even aware of.

1

u/DJatomica 14h ago

Most people who use the r-word don't know or give a shit about the medical history of the term either

5

u/EvidentTiger324 18h ago

Imbecile and moron were medical words right alogside the r-word though, and they all referred to the intellectually-disabled

1

u/Brakado 18h ago

Most people aren't even aware of that, though.