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.
“Stupid” and “moron” do not refer to any group of people, marginalized or otherwise. Anybody can make stupid arguments, like you’re doing now. The president of the United States is a fucking idiot and also the most powerful man in the world, in fact many of the people that lord over us are utter morons. Many stupid people are stupid basically by choice, they choose to act like asshats and refuse to learn things. The word does not refer to actual learning disabilities. It’s absolutely not a slur.
Obama was also president of the United States.
There are many powerful jews.
That doesn't make the N or K word not slurs.
There are people who will say the N word only applies to black people who steal or act "like thugs" or the K word only applies to jews who "are greedy". You're saying you only mean to use intelligence based slurs against people who "are choosing to be stupid" and not people with "actual learning disabilities".
Some people are born more intelligent than others. These people have a genuine disadvantage going into life and are also socially and sometimes systematically discriminated against on the basis of this. This discrimination can get worse when it's caused by a specific factor or just severe enough to get diagnosed but does not only occur against people who were diagnosed.
Intelligence based slurs are putting the person you're using that slur against in this group and saying it's a bad thing.
This is getting beyond outrageous, those words ARE slurs because they refer to oppressed racial and ethnic groups, stupid is not a fucking slur, holy shit. You’re venturing into extremely offensive and insensitive territory yourself trying to draw an equivalence.
There are oppressed intersectional groups which are not ethnic or racial. Less intelligent people are one of them.
Meritocracy, the lie used to justify capitalism in the Anglosphere, is inherently discriminatory against the less able and in particular the less intelligent. People who are seen as intelligent are thought to be deserving of power and luxury while people who are seen as unintelligent are said to be deserving of drudgery and misery. Historically, many other prejudices and unjust systems of oppression have been justified on similar intelligence based rhetoric.
Almost every Eugenics movement ever has identified the elimination of less intelligent people as one of its primary goals. At the peak of Eugenicist ideas popularity many states sterilised people they saw as severely mentally deficent and it's a view still held by many today. How many times have you heard or read edgy fuckers saying the world would be so much better if people with below x IQ or a group who are perceived as less intelligent were all dead/ weren't allowed to hold power? It's sometimes a dogwhistle for other prejudices, but not always, and it's often comorbid with those other prejudices.
Right now in schools all over the anglosphere children perceived as unintelligent are shamed for not learning fast enough and told they're worth less and will have lower social status than more intelligent children. This often has horrific effects on their development.
In general conversation "You're stupid", and, when targeted at someone who has internalised or is often told that they're lesser because they're unintelligent "That's a stupid idea" are often used to shut that person out of the discussion, to say they're too unintelligent to properly address the topic and should give up on trying, not trust their own judgement, and instead listen to and uncritically accept what the person telling them they're stupid is saying. If they've been shamed enough this social bludgeon will often work, and people perceived as "less intelligent" will be afforded less of a platform and less ability to self advocate because of this.
Is this not discrimination?
Your argument doesn’t make any sense. You’re arguing that some people actually are stupid but that the word itself just shouldn’t be used because it hurts feelings or has these other harmful effects, but to just stop using a word that is an accurate description of reality would require one to either just entirely stop talking about that aspect of reality, or substitute a different word, which would only take on the same negative connotation and have the same effects. The first is obviously impossible and the second is entirely pointless and makes this whole argument a colossal waste of time and energy.
If a phrase
such as forced sterilisation and furthering inequality.
It's not just about the slur, it's about not discriminating along those lines. Ceasing to believe the lie of capitalist meritocracy that people who are more able should have more and people who are less able should have less, and stopping shaming and discriminating against people for being less able
No, I don’t. I don’t think that using the word “stupid” is discriminatory or furthering systems of oppression.
It’s not about any slur because the word “stupid” is not a slur.
"Stupid" is a word used to shame and discriminate against people for something about them that is inborn and often can't be changed to a significant extent. It shames other people who maybe don't match the definition by claiming they do. It's absolutely a slur.
This is fundamentally, to me, about from each to each.
Just because people are less able does not mean they should have less
Never said that anybody should “have less” than anybody else.
Then why should people be shamed for being less intelligent?
Never said they should, never have shamed anybody for being less able
Insults based on intelligence are derogatory terms for people who are less able.
No, they aren’t.
Are you saying "idiot" isn't derogatory or doesn't refer to someone who is less able?
Or that being less intelligent isn't a form of being less able?
Less able to what? You keep describing people as “less intelligent” which is literally just the same thing as stupid. In fact I find your use of the words “less intelligent” in all these comments extremely hurtful because less intelligent people like myself are discriminated against. I insist that you stop saying those hurtful words and apologize to me.
This is the "noticing race is racist, you bigot" argument chuds fall back on when they're trying to pretend they're not owned.
Are you gonna tell me you didn't feel at least little gross typing that?
I just want to take a moment to appreciate this comment. lol
At this point I'm not sure what to do with all the cognitive dissonance I have after this.
Ironically arguing with RedDawn has shifted my view somewhat, especially:
is just impossible to square with using some of these words anymore.
It's ridiculous, but it feels like I'm holding on to 'st*pid' for dear life and I don't really even understand why anymore.
You should feel so gross you feel like you need to take a shower for actually trying to equate a word like “stupid” with actual slurs like the n-word. Frankly it’s disgusting and offensive in addition to being incredibly, mind numbingly dumb.
And this is the pro free speech warrior "haha look at me I'm calling the person asking me not to use slurs the slur" move.
Why is it so important to you to be able to refer to less able people in a derogatory way?
It’s not, and I don’t.
Also, it’s obviously not that, since I have not one single solitary time called you stupid. But I have called your arguments stupid which is what this is really about. You don’t like being called out when you type fucking nonsense on message boards and you’re trying hard to make that into you being oppressed somehow. And it’s honestly beyond disgusting, you need to grow the fuck up.
Calling an argument stupid again, has a similar effect to calling a person stupid IF that person or people who see it have internalised that they're stupid. It's a social bludgeon to tell those people their input isn't wanted and they're barred from this discourse.
I don't think you're oppressing me. I was pointing out your using bread and butter chud arguments and attacks. That's three in a row now so I'm not gonna bother with this conversation anymore.
Please take some time to consider why you feel the need to use words people are telling you are making them uncomfortable.
Thank god you’re done because every one of your replies that I read is making me a bit dumber.
Because I’m not in the habit of pretending things aren’t what they are because it might make somebody “uncomfortable”. Racists get uncomfortable when you call their racist arguments racist, but I’m not about to stop doing that anytime soon either.
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Additionally, as I said higher up in the thread
No, I didn’t say that. Stupid as a word does not refer to people with disabilities or whatever the fuck you think, you’re just flat out wrong.
Stupid as a word is a slur that says the person you're using the slur against is less intelligent than other people.
No, it isn’t.
stupid /ˈstjuːpɪd/ Learn to pronounce adjective adjective: stupid; comparative adjective: stupider; superlative adjective: stupidest
Right, like the argument you are making now is stupid.
so when you call a person stupid you are saying that they _____?