I hear that this has been tried before but it didn't really land because finding viable substitutes for particular terms can be difficult. I'm fascinated by language though and I wanted to take a shot at this myself.
Just a disclaimer that I'm not trying to drag anyone over using any of these terms and I'm not going to pretend that I'm some paragon of anti-ableism myself - I have work to do on this front, you probably do too and if we all work together we can make some positive change and establish better habits and a more supportive culture in our communities.
Here's a list of words that are more socially acceptable in their ableism and some suggestions for alternatives:
Crazy, Stupid, Dumb, Moronic, Idiotic
[In the sense that something is incorrect or bad]
Silly, foolish, absurd, ridiculous, laughable, nonsense/nonsensical, illogical, incomprehensible, inscrutable, irrational, contradictory, hypocritical, self-defeating, naive, ill-conceived, inane, asinine, counterproductive, unbelievable,
Crazy, Mad
[In the sense of letting loose or being enthusiastic]
Going wild, getting stuck into something, in a frenzy, on a rampage, being engrossed, head over heels, obsessed.
Psychotic, Psychopath, Psycho
[In the sense that something is cruel]
Vicious, bloodthirsty, monstrous, horrific, sadistic, heartless, brutal, ruthless, horrendous, reprehensible, despicable, depraved.
Crippled
Hamstrung, moribund, incapacitated, impaired, ineffective/ineffectual, hog-tied (lol).
What are some other ableist words that are pretty commonplace even amongst the left that you've heard?
Are there terms that I have overlooked or any ones that you use yourself that you'd like to replace?
We need a word that specifically targets the sort of person who is chronically incurious, but who constantly feels the need to speak their nonsense opinion, which if you read between the lines usually boils down to "that's scary, let's just keep doing the same thing" dragging the entire conversation down because they neither know what they're talking about nor care to find out. I think that specific situation is what we mean, at least on hexbear if not generally, when we say someone is "being stupid" or the like.
If you literally meant to tell someone that you think their brain is bad because of consequences of their birth, then you should reevaluate whether you really want to do that, which is where this post comes in.
Why do we need a word to target someone.
Having a descriptor for a specific genre of shitty people can help with organizing against them. It's why terms like "gusano", "kulak", "Burgerbrain" and "kkkrackkker" exist.
I mean yes, and that’s why terms like removed exists. I’m probably thinking too rigidly about this…