“Idiot” has not been a medical term for decades. It no longer refers to a particular diagnosis. Nobody who is not an idiot thinks “idiot” in its current incarnation is ableist. See also: imbecile, cretin, crazy, bonkers, etc.
Idiots of Facebook Marketplace
Submitted 11 months ago by 111000@reddthat.com to newcommunities@lemmy.world
Comments
calypsopub@lemmy.world 11 months ago
witchdoctor@lemmy.basedcount.com 11 months ago
Not my problem.
Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Doesn’t idiot come from an old term for common person or something like that.
DessertStorms@kbin.social 11 months ago
moomoomoo309@programming.dev 11 months ago
What alternative word would you use in this case, as a pejorative insult to someone’s intelligence?
DessertStorms@kbin.social 11 months ago
What alternative word would you use in this case, as a pejorative insult to someone’s intelligence
The point is literally to not, because doing so is ableist.
themusicman@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Well that’s my attempt to understand a novel point of view for today… I can now hopefully say I’m no longer “ignorant”, I simply disagree.
Any word which describes something seen as negative takes on a stigma. Those sympathetic to the victims of the stigma will blame the word and insist on a new one. The new word gains the same stigma while the old one loses its original meaning and takes on a new one based entirely on the stigma itself. Rinse and repeat and we slowly build a lexicon of words which are problematic for reasons forgotten by society. A special few retain or rediscover the original meaning, and thus we have a perfect misdirection from the vast and growing wealth and power inequality orchestrated by our capitalist overlords.
DessertStorms@kbin.social 11 months ago
You disagreeing (and clearly not reading the links, especially the last one) doesn't make it any less ableism. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
GeneralVincent@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I can appreciate what you’re doing but I do think there’s an issue in this case.
From your second link regarding the word “idiot”, the term this community is using,
It is here that we start to see the problematic connotations of the word; it became synonymous with “ignorant person.” This meaning passed with the term throughout history, resulting in our use of it today to mean someone we perceive as being ignorant or stupid.
Looking into it further, for the majority of the time it’s been a word, “idiot” has meant an ignorant person. Which is absolutely not the same as having any certain mental condition. Calling someone ignorant isn’t inherently ableist. It wasn’t until (imo) one of the worst time periods of psychology (late 1800s, early 1900s) that it was appropriated to be used as a medical diagnosis along with “moron” to describe someone with a low IQ or “mental age”. Now that we’ve mostly moved past those ignorant concepts, we’ve changed diagnostic terms and started using those old words to mean something akin to their original definition.
Where we likely agree and what people replying to you may be missing is that ignorance is being used as an insult, which is not helpful. And while the community name may be accurate (a community to discuss ignorance on Facebook) it is toxic and low hanging fruit to post an image online for everyone to point and laugh at another person’s ignorance. Especially as the poster may assume it’s ignorance when it may actually be a manifestation of a certain mental condition.
So the community will likely be unintentionally ableist but will almost certainly be toxic and an easy way for people to feel superior to others. So I personally will not judge their use of “idiot” but I will judge those who find this content amusing and entertaining. p.s. thank you to anyone who was silly enough to read my entire comment haha
JustZ@lemmy.world 11 months ago
This was a good post. Can tell you’re smart.
LesserAbe@lemmy.world 11 months ago
What these lists are missing is a word for a person who is doing something bad/unwise.
sagrotan@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That’s idiotic
otter@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Alternate link for clients that don’t support that one:
Link