• spujb@lemmy.cafeOP
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    12 days ago

    right, i mean thats just kind of a side effect of language existing

    a similar concept appears in the terms “dumbwaiter,” “dumbfounded,” “dumbstruck” wherein “dumb” literally just meant mechanical/nonspeaking, and had none of the other implications of disability-related muteness it has now.

    obviously “dumb” carries a lot less weight these days than the r slur, but the existence of etymologically related terms doesn’t give an “out” to people using them for offense and denigration in either case

    • inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 days ago

      but the existence of etymologically related terms doesn’t give an “out” to people using them for offense and denigration in either case

      Never said it did. I remember the first time I saw retard being used in a technical sense and being thrown by it’s usage in todays world. Ultimately though you can’t police language, people are gonna say whatever dumb shit they want, doesn’t mean you have to listen. And no, anyone using “dumb” or “idiot” today is not referring to disabled people, those words stopped being used to describe disabled people multiple decades ago and are far removed from being associated with disabled people. Retard is a lot more recent, but even as a kid growing up in the 90s where calling people gay, queer and faggots were acceptable, even retard used as a slur back then was frowned upon.

      • spujb@lemmy.cafeOP
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        11 days ago

        Never said it did.

        no worries! i wasn’t saying you said that, just returning to the thesis of my post :)

        again, as i said two comments above. this is a descriptive post, not perscriptive. my main concern is to make people aware of the pattern, not to tell them what to do about it.