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It sounds like you're describing the phenomenon of the "Euphemism Treadmill" [1], the canonical example of which is the previously-acceptable term "retarded".

It sounds like you're describing the phenomenon of the "Euphemism Treadmill" [1], the canonical example of which is the previously-acceptable term "retarded". 1: http://englishcowpath.blogspot.com/2011/06/euphemism-treadmill-replacing-r-word.html http://englishcowpath.blogspot.com/2011/06/euphemism-treadmi...

justin_vanw 11y ago
Oh my, you're right. I read the blank slate about 10 years ago and must have just internalized that idea.
nosideeffects 11y ago
I see and hear "autistic" used as a slur now, too.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
  It might well be. It is, sadly, very frequently used as an insult (at least on the Internet, anyway).
  - justin_vanw 11y ago
    Generally cruel people will find the word that maximizes cruelty. Since it is more insulting to claim that someone has 'clinical and official' whatever than to use the time worn insult version of the same word, cruel people will constantly chase whatever the most official version is. To be clear, the goal of an insult is not to use some bad word, but to claim something that will hurt the person being insulted. Even when I was in school I remember 'retarded' being used almost always a replacement for 'absurd', and people being insulted with words like 'special ed' or 'special eddy'. Not that I condone those things, but the point is that the insult was to say 'you are like that group of people' where 'that group of people' can be any group that is outside of the in-group. You can see this on message boards today where people are accused of being 'normies', etc.
striking 11y ago
I believe that you can call the slowing down of progress "retardation" still, just not where it applies to human beings. And that's where I feel this project is mistaken. Because it would flag any use of "retard" even if it were in reference to "flame retarding bromides" or an innocuous phrase like "the pace of development has slowly retarded" or "the tempo retards in the last four measures of the piece".
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
  Much like a spell-checker or Word's grammar checker screw this up, yes. I'm not sure it can be helped much.
  - striking 11y ago
    Spell checkers et al. don't check subjective properties like tone or offensiveness. (And where it gets subjective, they would rather create a false negative than a false positive.) It works rather well.
    - TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
      > Spell checkers et al. don't check subjective properties like tone or offensiveness. That's true. But grammar checkers screw up rather often for the same reason things like `alex` would: understanding context as a computer is quite hard.

justin_vanw 11y ago

Oh my, you're right. I read the blank slate about 10 years ago and must have just internalized that idea.

nosideeffects 11y ago

I see and hear "autistic" used as a slur now, too.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
It might well be. It is, sadly, very frequently used as an insult (at least on the Internet, anyway).
- justin_vanw 11y ago
  Generally cruel people will find the word that maximizes cruelty. Since it is more insulting to claim that someone has 'clinical and official' whatever than to use the time worn insult version of the same word, cruel people will constantly chase whatever the most official version is. To be clear, the goal of an insult is not to use some bad word, but to claim something that will hurt the person being insulted. Even when I was in school I remember 'retarded' being used almost always a replacement for 'absurd', and people being insulted with words like 'special ed' or 'special eddy'. Not that I condone those things, but the point is that the insult was to say 'you are like that group of people' where 'that group of people' can be any group that is outside of the in-group. You can see this on message boards today where people are accused of being 'normies', etc.

striking 11y ago

I believe that you can call the slowing down of progress "retardation" still, just not where it applies to human beings. And that's where I feel this project is mistaken. Because it would flag any use of "retard" even if it were in reference to "flame retarding bromides" or an innocuous phrase like "the pace of development has slowly retarded" or "the tempo retards in the last four measures of the piece".

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
Much like a spell-checker or Word's grammar checker screw this up, yes. I'm not sure it can be helped much.
- striking 11y ago
  Spell checkers et al. don't check subjective properties like tone or offensiveness. (And where it gets subjective, they would rather create a false negative than a false positive.) It works rather well.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
    > Spell checkers et al. don't check subjective properties like tone or offensiveness. That's true. But grammar checkers screw up rather often for the same reason things like `alex` would: understanding context as a computer is quite hard.