A while back there was a thread about eliminating intelligence-based insults from our vocab. Words like "Dumb", "stupid", etc.
https://hexbear.net/post/15636
My gut instinct to this was to get angry, and berate the OP u/QuillQuote for his ideas. I insulted him, I called him dumb, and when he pm'd me, I dismissed all his arguments and called him dumb again. Then he told me to go fuck myself and I told him I would masturbate later
Since then I actually thought a little about the issue and I began to see their point. An intelligence-based insult is fundamentally wrong, because it concerns something that cannot be controlled.
Insults about race, gender, and sexuality are all de facto verboten here because they target traits that can't be controlled--and I agree.
Intelligence can't be controlled either. And intelligence is actually one of the most disadvantaging traits to be handicapped by. Ditto for appearance.
Likewise, AGE cannot be controlled either, you only age in one direction and that's it. If I was 55, there's nothing I can do to be more like a 30 year old. MOREOVER, some people actually have inborn disabilities that make them age faster, with some 10 year old children having the biological age of a 40 year old adult.
So I'm making the proposition that we should attempt to eliminate these words from our arsenal of insults. Words like "dumb", "stupid", "boomer", "ugly", "short", are all words that target people on traits that they cannot control, and worse, they insult other bystanders in the process who may have committed no offense.
In fact, I called someone a boomer jokingly just a few minutes ago. That was the trigger that made me think about this. I apologize if my words hurt anyone.
A great reason why it should never be a rule, because fuck that. We shouldn't need rules to tell us how to support our comrades, but what we do need is the ability to talk about stuff like this without it immediately setting people against each other
I get this and I understand where you're coming from with the "it's just normal language" angle, and you're right. It is normal language. The problem however is that it shouldn't be, and that's what the ableism movement is trying to achieve.
I am on board with that movement in that respect because I can see in it exactly the same battles trans people have fought to get where we are, and what we're still fighting (trap) in many places.
But, as I said before. Because of the current situation with the word in the wider public and even among the left I do see it as strategically difficult to go all-in on it, despite the fact I completely agree with the battle they're fighting now.