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i’ve been censored as ableist for saying idiot, moron and stupid… idiot and moron were once medical terms too.
how am i supposed to properly say “very not intelligent”?
“derp” was kinda popular for a minute, but i think that was making fun of the types of sounds mentally handicapped people make.

furthermore, scientifically, retarded means slowed down… flame retardant, retarded plant growth, etc… the problem isn’t the terminology, it’s how people use it. A bunch of kids picking on a disabled kid called him any name for being that way is evil. Someone acknowledging their own folly and using that term isn’t evil.

and before the n-word comes in, that’s completely different because that word was used as part of a system of slavery and oppression.

i guess it’s worthwhile to be sensitive of people’s feelings even when you don’t agree with all of it… like, im not going to show the bottom of my shoe to an arab person… but trying to be the politically correct word police isn’t usually either.

every negative word is offensive. for some people it’s full on triggering. i knew someone with bipolar who would occasionally, while manic, act like a total asshole… like deliberately… but then the word “asshole” became triggering for him, making him full on melt down… because people kept calling him an asshole when he acted like it.
but should nobody call an asshole an asshole because it hurts their feelings to be referred to as someone who hurts people’s feelings? (i’ll never call him that again).

the whole thing is retarded and has missed the point of being nice to people… not erasing words that can be used meanly.

(p.s. i’m far far faaar leftist, but i don’t believe in coating the entire planet with nerf foam)

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surewhynotlem@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

how am i supposed to properly say “very not intelligent”?

I think the accepted term is “conservative”.

The R word has been flagged by that community as hurtful, and when people who are in the group say “ouch”, we listen.

I don’t think they care about the terms stupid, idiot, moron, dummy, fool, or dunce.

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- Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  LOL, I do think we can both agree that “conservative” is the best approach to belittling someone’s intelligence. It also carries with it a number of other connotations, though (crazy comes to mind.)
  
  As for the “r-word” being “flagged” by “that community”. That’s quite the overreaching statement. There is no single community to speak of here, and there was absolutely never a true consensus on this word by our society as a whole.
  
  The reality is that the “r-word” campaign was a heavily monied thing pushed on billboards, tv ads, and online ads over the last 20 or so years. If you ask me, someone who is literally part of “that community”, I think it was a bunch of Karen’s behind the entire thing.
  
  The word “retard” was clinical when I was growing up. People quite literally referred to mentally challenged individuals as “mentally retarded”, and it was not an insult in any way. There is the core definition to this word, and it has a lot of other scientific and industry-based definitions. The fact it was separated from “mental” and then ostracized as a “bad word” by certain groups of people is downright ludicrous.
  
  You could say “this process has been retarded to the point of complete failure”, and it would (should) have no negative connotation targeting individuals who were born with “deficiencies” in the area of intellect. Instead, it uses the definition of the word: “To delay or hold back in terms of progress, development, or accomplishment.”
  
  This crusade against this single word in 2025 is simply asinine. We have huge problems to tackle in this world, and I really don’t believe anyone of substance should care about this. I’ve never met an actual, neurodivergent individual that takes offense to it being used in a way that doesn’t directly target them, or someone like them. That is to say, we’re talking about the Michael Scott usage.
  
  You don’t call a paraplegic person “lame” because “oops”, that’s pretty messed up even if you didn’t mean it that way. This said, I doubt that person would take offense in a situation like this. This is where we should be with the “r-word”. There is simply no justification for making this word synonymous with a word like the n-word. It does not have that power, and I reject the monied campaigns trying to spread a narrative that it should.
  
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lugal@sopuli.xyz ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

i’ve been censored as ableist for saying idiot, moron and stupid

Not by me. Words change meaning (both connotation and denotation) over time and right now, the R word in relation to humans is considered a no no. This might change, the word might change its connotation again or might disappear completely and another word takes its place, who knows. This isn’t about what words could mean or used to mean or mean in very different contexts but what they mean here and now.

But maybe the problem about the meme is that it makes fun of “very not intelligent” people, as you put it. Maybe it’s not cool to portray them in such a way, with such a face. As you said, things come across differently within different people groups and there are many people on the internet so maybe be a little more cautious there.

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- Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  the R word in relation to humans is considered a no no. This isn’t accepted by everyone, though. In fact, I’d argue that it’s really only accepted by “polite society” at this point. This means that even in left-leaning communities like Lemmy, we’re seeing a majority of individuals speak out and very clearly say “This does not offend me.”
  
  I avoid the use of the word typically because I aim to achieve something when I speak. By using a word that’s being actively burned by part of a community, you risk being selectively censored. This said, I think those who might censor others for the use of this word are doing the people they censor a massive disservice. I think a lot of the people practicing this are younger, and they were taken in strongly by the monied campaigns to push this word over the last 20 years. People paid to change their minds, and it worked.
  
  At the end of the day, however, we’re looking at a word that means the exact same thing as a number of other words nobody cares to censor. This makes the entire ordeal nothing more than a mechanism to divide people who would otherwise get along. The world is becoming too small a place to allow for this sort of division, so I oppose this witch hunt. The word should either be tolerated, or we should see a true approach to protect disabled individuals - not this half-assed, virtue-signaling approach being enacted today.
  
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  - lugal@sopuli.xyz ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    
    we’re looking at a word that means the exact same thing as a number of other words nobody cares to censor.
    
    So why not use them instead? Why insist on this one word when there are enough to choose from?
    
    And is this really the case? I’m not a native speaker but I consume a lot of English media, including old books, and never have I encountered it as anything other than a derogatory term to mentally disabled people. And let me remind you that you made this convention about censorship, I didn’t. I just wrote a short comment, ready to move on, you bombarded me with paragraphs of comments. I’m just feeding the troll at this point and maybe I shouldn’t.
    
    So you are much more part of the mechanism that divides people which is a poor argument in my opinion anyway. It’s often used to silence people who fight for marginalized groups and “divide the working class”. I’m not saying that you used it that way, but neither am I part of a witch hunt for suggesting not to use that word.
    
    And what is all the talk about “monied campaigns”? Who has the monetary interest to cancel this word? I really don’t get this point.
    
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  - tomenzgg@midwest.social ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    
    This means that even in left-leaning communities like Lemmy, we’re seeing a majority of individuals speak out and very clearly say “This does not offend me.”
    
    Has that been by people who are mentally disabled, though?
    
    And that leftist spaces struggle with meaningfully engagement with systems of ablism has been a point of contention for…decades, now.
    
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ebolapie@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Asinine, fatuous, inane…

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- xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  nah
  
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