4 ms·

The corporate memphis art and the content warning is just the cherry on top of this steaming pile of crap. Projects like this are doomed, because they fundamen

The corporate memphis art and the content warning is just the cherry on top of this steaming pile of crap. Projects like this are doomed, because they fundamentally ignore how language works, how language evolves, and how humans work. My favourite example is "idiot". Once upon a time it was a clinical diagnosis used by physicians to describe people. This word of course turned into a slur, so the diagnosis word had to be changed, and people at that time chose "retard". ...Which promptly became a slur, forcing people to yet again pick a new word. Is "mentally handicapped" ok these days? This list suggest "people who have a cognitive disability", that sure rolls easily off the tongue. But it's interesting to note that even though this list calls out "retard", it doesn't call out "idiot". Because the time that word was replaced by its politically correct replacement is so long ago that the people who made this list aren't aware of it and therefore think it has always been a slur, and that it's therefore, somehow, magically not disparaging towards the cognitively disabled. Another great example of idiocy (!) from this list is "basket case". They're claiming you shouldn't use it because it's offensive to quadriplegics, because that's what it originally meant. WHEN?!? IN THE 1800's?!? That expression hasn't meant or referenced quadriplegics in a long, long time. But apparently someone with a stick up their ass dug up the etymology of it and decided to include it in the list. But forgot about "idiot". This is white-knighting feel-good slacktivism at its finest. You haven't accomplished anything by putting together this list.

mcphage 4y ago
> But apparently someone with a stick up their ass dug up the etymology of it and decided to include it in the list. Don’t you realize what “a stick up their ass” originally meant?!
- robocat 4y ago
  Presumably comes from the upright posture taught as good bearing - no etymology I saw suggested anything different - comment implies it isn’t that old either: https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/38mzi9/comment/crwngx8/ https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/38mzi9/comment/c...
  - mcphage 4y ago
    Oh, I don't think it means anything, I was just being a jerk :-)
    - henrikschroder 4y ago
      How dare you! :-)
Manuel_D 4y ago
This is a never-ending euphemism treadmill [1]. Now I've noticed younger people calling each other "remedial" as an insult. Any term or phrase used to indicate a form of mental handicap is going to become the new insult, thus prompting the creation of a new euphemism. 1. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/euphemism_treadmill https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/euphemism_treadmill
- robocat 4y ago
  In my peer group, “special” or “speshul” is an insult (usually with added sarcasm prosody), as a reaction to the PC usage of the word back in the 90s. I presume the same usage in the USA (given special snowflake).
hnbear 4y ago
A huge number of current rude terms have medical origin, including an entire measured scale, including idiot, as you called out: Moron (from Wikipedia): --- It was once applied to people with an IQ of 51–70, being superior in one degree to "imbecile" (IQ of 26–50) and superior in two degrees to "idiot" (IQ of 0–25). The word moron, along with others including "idiotic", "imbecilic", "stupid", and "feeble-minded", was formerly considered a valid descriptor in the psychological community, but it is now deprecated in use by psychologists. --- Similarly cretin as someone with congenital iodine deficiency syndrome, but now far less polite and just generically dumb. The list misses huge numbers of terms. It feels very much like a small group of people sat down and brainstormed for 5 minutes writing out the things that bothered them individually, or knew about individually, and that was it.
hbrn 4y ago
Maybe doctors are realizing how language works? I bet "mentally handicapped" is less likely to become a slur because it's not short, catchy and convenient like "idiot" or "retard".
- henrikschroder 4y ago
  Oh, don't worry, children are infinitely inventive and will make a slur out of that too, given enough time. You can't stop the euphemism treadmill.
- codekansas 4y ago
  Maybe... "Are you mentally handicapped" sounds more insulting to me than "Are you retarded" but maybe it's from playing video games too much
- abigail95 4y ago
  The irony, since retard was chosen as a gentle way of saying "slow". Mabye you're right, more syllables, less catchy.
yunwal 4y ago
This isn’t accidental and it’s not about being kind or inclusive. Just the opposite actually. It’s about being able to distinguish the haves from the have-nots. Kids who know and are hip to the latest round of preferred euphemisms are “the type of kids who go to Stanford” (a.k.a rich, educated parents, respectful of the academic world). In other words, they’re cultural signifiers. This is not to say that there aren’t changes to language that have real effects, but most of these banned words are not intrinsically different from their replacements.

mcphage 4y ago

> But apparently someone with a stick up their ass dug up the etymology of it and decided to include it in the list. Don’t you realize what “a stick up their ass” originally meant?!

robocat 4y ago
Presumably comes from the upright posture taught as good bearing - no etymology I saw suggested anything different - comment implies it isn’t that old either: https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/38mzi9/comment/crwngx8/ https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/38mzi9/comment/c...
- mcphage 4y ago
  Oh, I don't think it means anything, I was just being a jerk :-)
  - henrikschroder 4y ago
    How dare you! :-)

Manuel_D 4y ago

This is a never-ending euphemism treadmill [1]. Now I've noticed younger people calling each other "remedial" as an insult. Any term or phrase used to indicate a form of mental handicap is going to become the new insult, thus prompting the creation of a new euphemism. 1. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/euphemism_treadmill https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/euphemism_treadmill

robocat 4y ago
In my peer group, “special” or “speshul” is an insult (usually with added sarcasm prosody), as a reaction to the PC usage of the word back in the 90s. I presume the same usage in the USA (given special snowflake).

hnbear 4y ago

A huge number of current rude terms have medical origin, including an entire measured scale, including idiot, as you called out: Moron (from Wikipedia): --- It was once applied to people with an IQ of 51–70, being superior in one degree to "imbecile" (IQ of 26–50) and superior in two degrees to "idiot" (IQ of 0–25). The word moron, along with others including "idiotic", "imbecilic", "stupid", and "feeble-minded", was formerly considered a valid descriptor in the psychological community, but it is now deprecated in use by psychologists. --- Similarly cretin as someone with congenital iodine deficiency syndrome, but now far less polite and just generically dumb. The list misses huge numbers of terms. It feels very much like a small group of people sat down and brainstormed for 5 minutes writing out the things that bothered them individually, or knew about individually, and that was it.

hbrn 4y ago

Maybe doctors are realizing how language works? I bet "mentally handicapped" is less likely to become a slur because it's not short, catchy and convenient like "idiot" or "retard".

henrikschroder 4y ago
Oh, don't worry, children are infinitely inventive and will make a slur out of that too, given enough time. You can't stop the euphemism treadmill.
codekansas 4y ago
Maybe... "Are you mentally handicapped" sounds more insulting to me than "Are you retarded" but maybe it's from playing video games too much
abigail95 4y ago
The irony, since retard was chosen as a gentle way of saying "slow". Mabye you're right, more syllables, less catchy.

yunwal 4y ago

This isn’t accidental and it’s not about being kind or inclusive. Just the opposite actually. It’s about being able to distinguish the haves from the have-nots. Kids who know and are hip to the latest round of preferred euphemisms are “the type of kids who go to Stanford” (a.k.a rich, educated parents, respectful of the academic world). In other words, they’re cultural signifiers. This is not to say that there aren’t changes to language that have real effects, but most of these banned words are not intrinsically different from their replacements.