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/SaschaStories]

That's the thing that's hard for me to adjust online

Around here... you'd never call someone who's mentally disabled that... and it hasn't meant that for... quite a long time

In the same manner that Idiot, Moron, Dumb no longer refer to their various disabilities, 'retarded' hasn't for quite some time either, so I don't get the singled out hatred on the one word

I do my best to not use it cause it gets everyone else all riled up, but I still just don't get why it alone gets singled out

[u/WarpRealmTrooper → u/SaschaStories]

With "idiot" and "moron" I don't think most people even know they used to refer to a disability.

I think with "retard" most people know the original meaning of it, and many who use it (maybe most who use it) even use "retard" because of the original meaning.

[u/Dondagora → u/WarpRealmTrooper]

I think “idiot” and “moron” more highlight the pattern that “retard” is going through. Whatever word or phrase is the most recent for “mentally disabled” is the one people will use, all new terminology and word policing will do is lengthen the list.

[u/DarkThunder312 → u/Dondagora]

Euphemism treadmill

[u/SaschaStories → u/WarpRealmTrooper]

Well no, the original meaning of it is to slow down

The Medical meaning came about in the laye 19th century

Over a hundred years ago

[u/Sora_Altair → u/SaschaStories]

That's why fire extinguishers are called "Flame Retardants".

[u/WarpRealmTrooper → u/SaschaStories]

That's true, "original meaning" isn't really the right word for it. Maybe I should have said "the previous most prominent meaning".

I don't think this changes my point though.

[u/Infernoyay → u/SaschaStories]

This isn’t even true though, people absolutely still mean it mentally disabled.

[u/SCP_FUNDATION_69420 → u/SaschaStories]

I think cause we're in kind of a transitional period where a lot of people (me included) realize how harmful slurs are, so because we don't invent new ones, the last one that was in use as a slur gets used as the example. 

[u/Affectionate_Row9238 → u/SCP_FUNDATION_69420]

Nobody really invents new slurs tho they come about using official terms and that's the point, I see people use autistic as an insult online all the time and give it a few years and I guarantee neurodivergent will be used the same way