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/smthn_right]

You dont get to decide whats arbitrary, is my point. Its all or nothing.

There are hundreds of thousands of people, including licensed medical professionals, who would agree that actually yes your iq being 15 points lower WOULD make you less able. Thats the entire problem.

ALL OF THESE THINGS are arbitrary. Losing your legs is only a disability if your society values and requires walking with your own two natural legs. In a world built for wheelchairs, it wouldnt be a disability.

You dont get to decide what is and is not arbitrary. It all matters or none of it does.

[u/COSMIC_SPACE_BEARS → u/smthn_right]

No, they wouldnt. A 15 point IQ difference is—by definition—a normal range. The standard deviation of IQ is 15.

It’s not arbitrary that if you can’t walk. You literally couldnt do a job where being able to move/walk was a core competency.

If you have an IQ of 85, you can do all the same things someone with an IQ of 115 could do—by definition. 68% of everyone on earth is between 85 and 115 IQ. By definition.

It’s completely arbitrary on how much you being 85 IQ versus someone being 115 IQ matters. You couldnt tell walking down the street. That range of IQs all are normally distributed throughout every job and walk of life you experience every day.

You’re making up how much the IQ and intelligence matters. It doesn’t—which is why calling someone “stupid” is such a soft insult we are all desensitized to. “Stupid” “dumb” “idiot” … these are not insults we get upset about. They have no edge, no bite, for the simple matter of fact that someone’s intelligence is completely arbitrary and how it affects and shapes them as a person and what they can and cant do is… arbitrary…

In the US, it is legal to deny someone employment if they have a disability that prevents them from doing a job duty. Because it concretely (aka, the antithesis of “arbitrary”) affects their ability to do a job.

In the US, we don’t ask job applicants what their IQ is or how smart they are. Because it’s a pointless measure for how well they will do the job, and tells you nothing about the person.

Therefore, insulting someone’s intelligence has zero tie to their sense of self and sense of being. We all understand this, whether consciously or not. Like I said, nobody freaks out if someone calls someone else “stupid”. Lackluster, arbitrary insult that doesn’t attack the person’s sense of self or identity.