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It's a remnant of the woke era, and I expect and hope it will go the way of Latinx. The (foolish) idea was that the word "blind" has a negative charge, so if w
by BurningFrog 1y ago
It's a remnant of the woke era, and I expect and hope it will go the way of Latinx.
The (foolish) idea was that the word "blind" has a negative charge, so if we replace it with another word the stigma will go away, and blind people can feel better.
But of course, any stigma comes from the blindness itself. Any replacement term will get the same stigma, and will then need to be replaced.
Stephen Pinker called it "The Euphemism Treadmill" in 1994, and that term has never been replaced: https://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/1994_04_03_newyorktimes.pdf https://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/1994_04_03_newyo...
- squigz 1y agoThe idea of replacing "blind people" with "people with blindness" has absolutely nothing to do with the idea that "blind" is negative - if it did, I suspect proponents would, you know, not use the word blind! The actual reasoning is putting the people first, not their disability. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People-first_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People-first_language
- inglor_cz 1y agoIt still seems to be rooted in the same social engineering principle, based on Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.