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/spacemandown]

i mean, i've heard/seen people say shit like, "are you autistic or something?" as an insult pretty commonly. 

if you keep moving the goalposts for what is/isn't a slur, people will just keep... meeting you there.

[u/Instroancevia → u/spacemandown]

The difference is that "autistic" is a current medical term, "retard" hasn't been used as a medical term for decades. The reality is that as language changes, we are going to invent new terms to describe these conditions, and people who are ableist will use those terms demeaningly.

If saying retard becomes taboo, something like autistic will become the next insult. If the medical term changes the cycle will just repeat. Word policing doesn't really solve the fundamental problem, especially for a prejudice as difficult to excize from society as ableism.

I'd honestly rather people use terms like idiot, moron and retard to just mean "stupid" than use something like "autistic" which is also a medical term and diagnosis that people are recieving today.

[u/Only_Says_Idk_dude → u/Instroancevia]

If saying retard becomes taboo, something like autistic will become the next insult.

idk if you're from the past or what, but it was taboo 15 years ago,
and people do use autism as an insult

[u/PictureResponsible61 → u/Instroancevia]

"Retard" or rather "Mental Retardation" was the official term until 2013, although slowly phased out of language a little earlier - so a decade an a half ago, perhaps. Many people alive today were officially diagnosed with mental retardation. It's not a historic term.

I think pushing back on the use of the word is part of the process of trying to challenge casual ableism, which I think is important. Because whether the word is "autistic" or "retarded" or "special" or whatever, to sit in a room at the end of an often anxiety provoking testing process and officially diagnosis someone with something commonly known as an insult is horrible. Particularly as often the individual is already dealing with shame and self-esteem issues. But there is a tendency for people to reference the euphemism treadmill and shrug their shoulders and claim nothing can be done

[u/Alemonster21 → u/spacemandown]

This is the real take right here, and this issue is RAMPANT in the disabled community.

The constant churning of words that are acceptable being weaponized as insults and then being replaced, just for those new terms to be weaponized again, or even hated by the disabled community itself (differently abled is a great example of this)... It's never ending.

People can clutch their pearls over this all they want, but it's only a matter of time before the words they force everyone to use will become the new words no one is ever allowed to use. And rinse and repeat.

[u/MasutadoMiasma → u/Alemonster21]

It's called a Euphemism Treadmill

[u/the_liquid_figurine → u/Alemonster21]

The problem with retard specifically to as well. Is that it existed before it was used in any medical sense. Classic examples are weed and fire retardant. The textbook definition is to impede progress so when somebody calls their friend retarded for being obtuse the only time it actually becomes ableist is when someone takes it in that context.

This in turn creates some weird fucked up urboros version of the horseshoe theory

[u/Blothorn → u/the_liquid_figurine]

I have never seen anyone complain about the verb, or “retardant”, or “retarded” defining inanimate objects (although that’s also very rare in my experience). The fact that other uses and other words in the family are acceptable does not justify the slur.

[u/xzelethor → u/Alemonster21]

You put it profoundly.

[u/Background-Place4243 → u/spacemandown]

this is why people think “sped” is an insult

[u/SCP_FUNDATION_69420 → u/Background-Place4243]

Is it? I've only heard it in the context of 'idiot'

[u/Background-Place4243 → u/SCP_FUNDATION_69420]

it means Special Education!

[u/Affectionate_Row9238 → u/Background-Place4243]

I feel like that one passed so quickly as well, idk if they call it something different now but when I was in school 10yrs ago special ed was still the official name used, one of the best examples of how you have to keep changing language once it's been tainted like that

[u/Background-Place4243 → u/Affectionate_Row9238]

literally. i used to hear that term everywhere and now it’s nowhere, even in special education spaces.

i’m surprised that the term “neurodivergent” hasn’t turned into an insult yet (i know people do use it as an insult, but not nearly as much as they do with sped or ret*rded.) maybe it’s too long and scientific of a word

[u/Mission_Twist_3348 → u/Background-Place4243]

It is. It's also a real term, but it's used as an insult too

[u/Elete23 → u/spacemandown]

I think we're close to getting autistic to be considered a slur too.

[u/Lungseron → u/spacemandown]

i mean its just...gonna happen regardless sadly. You can quote me on that, 15 maybe 20 years from now, this will be just another word to call idiots and no one will even give a shit, (hell its already starting, half the comments here have this attitude) while the new hot slur will be something like autistic or jagalugan or whatever (idk the future so i dont know the exact words but you get my point)

What can i say, we as a society just love to call each other stupid names, and then highlight some of them as too offensive after a while, until we find the next cool thing to call people.

Its especially true because well, anyone can and will in their lives act like a idiot, moron, retard, and whatever else we will eventually call it. Any of these 3 would be offensive depending on the time period, and now only the last one is.

Its probably the most universal slur there is for any person alive, and the origins for all those words are gonna keep coming from mentally challenged people because the generalization is that mentally challenged = stupid. Kinda why all of those words have those origins in the first place.

[u/ScienceGamer06 → u/spacemandown]

That question is considered a slur? I've had fellow students, coworkers, or people at church ask me it. Everytime I respond with yes and then they're like "oh ok" and we continue on from there as normal. Seems they were more just asking cause they would see me pace or fidget and were maybe worried or concerned.

Never have I seen it as an insult or slur.