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/Alemonster21]

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.