Thanks for the links, I'll honestly try to adjust my vocabulary, but I have to admit it is difficult. Especially because it ultimately limits the expressiveness of what I want to say. All these words picked up new subtexts and meaning, distinct from their original roots, even if the roots are still there and are still hurtful.

The sad truth is that prescriptivism, even the well-intentioned kind like his, almost never works. There needs to be a massive societal change before it can be normalized.

Without this change to how people think, language will simply adapt and invent new slurs for the disadvantaged, same as how almost all those words picked up their ableist meanings e.g.

• barren ← "bʰosós" (bare)
• lame ← "h₃lemH-" (break/broken)
• stupid ← "stupidus" (to be stunned, surprised, amazed) ← "(s)tew-" (push, hit)
• removed (originally meant "delayed, slowed down") ←*wre (backwards)- + *terh₂ (pass)
• crazy ← craze (to crush)
• blind ← bʰlendʰ- (blend) [I'm not sure how this one happened TBH]
• crippled ← *krupilaz (tending to crawl) ← *grewb- (crawl)