Do you think “idiot” and “moron” are offensive to the mentally handicapped? Are they unacceptably ableist?
This popped up elsewhere in this dumpster fire. I eliminated moron (which was specifically called out) from my dictionary because I'll put my money where my mouth is. Further, the idea of shaming people for lacking knowledge is by itself problematic. Intelligence in general is not a single factor but context specific. I don't know a lot about a lot of things and that doesn't make me a worse person, those just aren't my fields. XKCD's lucky 10000 is a great example of why shaming people into pretending they know things makes the world worse. Bear in mind, pride in not knowing things is foolish and worth derision.
feel a distinct and strong disgust for anti-intellectuals and dumb shit rightwingers that softer insults do not even make qualification for let alone rank for casual usage where I’m not necessarily trying to get creative.
I understand that one. I agree with the sentiment even if I disagree with the execution. I'd offer alternatives if I had them, but I'm burned on the whole thing for the moment. End of the day I really don't want to insult people really.
Using the r-slur doesn’t do that.
That's kinda my point. The group that the r-slur maligns is not one prone to violence or aggregated enough that people feel the need to check themselves. If I remember right (not looking up studies right now so I'll eat my words if I'm wrong), the mentally disabled are far more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators thereof. Might be crossing my wires with mental illness, but you get my point. It's not the best that the only reason certain groups aren't given respect is because they aren't prone to harming those that disrespect them, often to their detriment.
I don’t consider this taking cultural ideas from the right.
According to the New York Times, that's exactly where it came from. Posts from Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general overseeing the Justice* Department's Civil Rights Division posted it in some knitting. Joe Rogan said "The word 'retarded' is back".
And the ramp up in disdain for the usage of word happened leading up to Trump’s first electoral victory in 2016.
Not even close. I lived through that word dying off in middle school. Early to mid aughts. In my small town it became taboo to say fairly rapidly.
Its not baseline. Its obviously still a debate, a stubborn one as well.
It isn't and that's my problem. I am prone to naivete and acting how I think the world should work. It's a thing I struggle with. In my (paltry) defense, the debate died like 20 years ago and assholes brought it back.
Aside: I appreciate the candid debate. Many thanks.