Stuff like "stupid, idiot, moron, dumb," you know the ones. If you’re insulting someone for their shitty garbage beliefs and all you can manage to come up with is ways to insult their intelligence, appearance, or other aspect about them that has nothing to do with their cruelty and shittyness, you should maybe reevaluate.

Just saw a thread on here where a user was stubbornly refusing to adjust their language when another user politely pointed out that it was harmful to our comrades as well, and the person refusing was massively upvoted and the comrade trying to explain why it was harmful was downvoted. Thought we were better than that

I'm not calling anyone out, just wanted to make a post explaining my feelings on it and that when stuff like that happens (not the intelligence based insults, I know its hard to switch, but getting insulted for asking people to avoid them) it hurts and makes me feel less welcome here </3

Using words like “You’re being ignorant” or “That’s a cruel belief” is actually more effective than just going “lmao idiot”.

If those are the words you actually mean to convey I'd say use them instead :)

Edit: if the reception this post got isn't a good proof that this is something this community needs to grapple with, I don't know what is.

  • Civility [none/use name]
    2·
    4 years ago

    "Stupid" is a bad insult because it basically amounts to "you were born less powerful than me" and that isn't something that you should insult people for.

    • astigmatic [none/use name]
      5·
      4 years ago

      no it’s not. it doesn’t mean anything like that. to anyone who’s ever used it. shut the fuck up.

      • Civility [none/use name]
        3·
        4 years ago

        Are you saying that intelligence isn't a kind of power?

        Or that intelligent people aren't valued and made to feel more valued by society than less intelligent people?

        • astigmatic [none/use name]
          4·
          4 years ago

          yeah for sure when i say that this is the stupidest thing i’ve read tonight i’ll actually be saying that i can dominate you and that i understand the circumstances of your life well enough to know i have some sort of power over you! i’ll also be talking about the intellectually disabled somehow (despite my own neurodevelopmental issues). but at least i won’t be doing whatever weird shit you’re doing where you think you can just measure people’s “intelligence” like that to create an universal hierarchy, strip any conversation of context and assign people some sort of malign power for not agreeing with you on how to use words

          • Civility [none/use name]
            1·
            4 years ago

            I agree that my earlier post should have read "than other people" instead of "than me".

            Intelligence isn't the only form of personal or social power but it is a form of personal power and society does value people perceived as "more intelligent" and make them feel special and denigrate people perceived as less intelligent and make them feel like shit, especially children in school.

            Intelligence is an ill defined term but it generally refers to something along the lines of being better at thinking and learning, which are both forms of power. Just because the term is ill defined doesn't mean people can't be more or less intelligent or more or less powerful as a result of that intelligence.

            Just because intelligence is hard to measure sure as fuck doesn't mean that people can't or don't discriminate on basis of perceived intelligence.

          • astigmatic [none/use name]
            3·
            4 years ago

            telling me im wrong is just a different way of saying im less powerful than you ;[ wahh

            • Civility [none/use name]
              2·
              4 years ago

              Saying "you're wrong" is different from saying "You are bad at thinking and will therefore always be wrong more than those around you"

                • Civility [none/use name]
                  2·
                  4 years ago

                  That's what insults calling people less intellegence are saying.

                  plus a load of social baggage where more intelligent people are seen as more valuable and good than less intelligent people

                  • astigmatic [none/use name]
                    3·
                    4 years ago

                    i don’t think you’re incapable of understanding any of what i’m saying, i think the continued insistance that i’m disparaging anybody “intellectually inferior”(whatever the fuck that means! again!) because of my language is fucking annoying and insincere. its coming from a place of condescension because im less virtuous than you. thats it. not from concern for anyone. it does nothing for the marginalized anywhere because with some legitimate exceptions and discounting a handful of narcisissts we can usually tell when something isn’t about us! i attribute this to malice because i assume you have a reasoning brain too and have talked to people in the past and know that language isnt used anywhere close to how youre portraying it

                    • Civility [none/use name]
                      1·
                      4 years ago

                      I'm not trying to say you're a bad person for calling people stupid. I'm sorry if it came off that way.

                      I'm trying to say that you calling people stupid is something we should probably stop doing.

                      • astigmatic [none/use name]
                        3·
                        4 years ago

                        i am very skeptical of this whole line of argument because i just really don’t buy it. i flirted with it in the past, not as a passionate crusader but occasionally policing language, and it’s just not real, i could eventually understand it was just antisocial, tone deaf and condescending behavior. maybe you personally see for real but the whole push is extremely phony and yes it’s ultimately based on projecting virtuousness over making any kind of difference. this thread makes me more convinced than ever, lol, it keeps deliberately misreading arguments and then presenting them as “fascist” or “nazbol”