We already do this with some slurs, right? We can start enforcing these words, too.
Not calling anyone out, I’ve been guilty of it too. And we don’t have to do it all at once. Like, we can start with these:
Ableist words and alternatives.
Stupid, R€tarded, Idiot(ic), Cretin, or Moron(ic): People say this to imply something, or someone isn't intelligent or worth their time, but the words refer to people with intellectual disabilities. Instead, say that a situation or person is frustrating, ignorant, dense, unpleasant, cheesy, or awful.
Dumb: This word refers to a person who doesn't speak verbally, but people often use it to mean that something or someone isn't intelligent or wise. It's listed separately from stupid and its synonyms because it references a physical disability instead of an intellectual one. Try using any of the non-ableist synonyms like irritating or uncool.
Crazy, Nuts, Mad, Psycho, or Insane: "Wow, that's crazy!" may not seem like a harmful statement, but if you think about someone with a mental health condition hearing that statement, it's easy to realize that it is. So instead of using one of those words, try outrageous, bananas, bizarre, amazing, intense, extreme, overwhelming, or wild.
No, they don't. They haven't in a long time. They can be used in an ableist way, but most use of those words aren't. They're very different from stuff like the r word.
That just sounds like a euphemism treadmill. But also I'd argue those words could also be used in ableist ways. Frustrating, dense, and unpleasant I could definitely see being used against autistic people (like me), but that doesn't mean they should be avoided in general, even to describe a person.
Does it though? Has anyone used it that way in the past few decades? Hell the way it's used has absolutely nothing to do with the inability to speak, it's unrelated.
The last time I saw dumb used like that it was in a children's book about a donkey that turns into a rock
That sounds like a rather dour story.
It's okay, he
spoiler
turns back. His parents go out looking for him and stop to hold a picnic, unwittingly using their rock-child as a table. They wish they had their child back and he's unrockified
Putting that in spoilers is a great bit. I was imagining it as one of those old-style Euro fairy/folktales where it just ends with the bad thing and you're like "well, fuck". A cutesy example might be "The Fir Tree", in which a tree wants to be used for a Christmas celebration
spoiler
and it is, and then is left to wither and rot for some time before being chopped into firewood and burned
lmao, shoutout to Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, book was peak fiction when I was like 8 :theory-gary:
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