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Elon Musk keeps tweeting the 'R-word.' Disability advocates say he needs to stop.
(www.usatoday.com)
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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"it's just a word" is such a shallow take. Words carry meaning and weight. Language also evolves and changes; this is why no one speaks Middle English.
I never said they didn't carry meaning. I simply meant they are just words in the sense that they can't actually do anything to you as a person. Just wiggly air or ink on paper.
All right then, you fucking fascist.
Edit: What? Just words, right?
Can you even tell me the definition of a fascist? Because I can guarantee you by any way you slice it I do not fit that bill even a tiny amount lol.
Unless of course we are using the made up version of the word where it means "anyone that I don't like" which is how some of y'all seem to use it.
Okay fascist.
Just words, right?
You seem to think this is bothering me or something. I am asking you if you even know the definition of the word fascist.
I'm glad it's not bothering you, dogfucker! You're so right that they're just words, shiteater!
I advocate more for what they do to the person who uses them. If people tell you they are hurt by your actions, and your response is to say they are wrong to feel that way and you keep doing it, who does that make you?
I never said it was wrong for people to take offense to the word inherently. My point is that it's a choice to get offended by a word. Some people don't like other random words and they freak out about it. I knew a guy in highschool that hated the word "moist" and because he had such an entertaining reaction to it everyone on the class made sure use it as much as possible. Eventually he stopped being bothered by the word entirely. The meaning hadnt changed. He just chose to stop being bothered by it.
Stop letting other peoples words have so much power over your.
Are you the kind of person who tells depressed people to just try smiling more? Or that a handicap you cannot see is not a handicap? Because that's the energy and logic you're giving off here.
You acknowledge that words carry meaning, but then immediately dismiss that those meanings can have ramifications.
No I do not tell depressed people to smile more. I lived with a buddy who is handicapped in a way nobody can see. Called him a useless cripple all the time and not only did he laugh but so did all the other people who knew about his condition because they all have a sense of humor.
When dealing with an individual you know well, behaving how they want you to behave... you are doing it right. When you assume everyone feels the same way and are wrong if they don't, you are doing it wrong.
When did I assume everyone feels the same way?
We used sped in the 1970s as it is a portmanteau of special education. It never meant a retarded kid specifically it meant a special needs kid. Many kids labelled as “speds” were far from being mentally deficient but had other issues that prevented them from functioning in a normal class space.
We stopped using that term in the early 80s.
Clinical terms will constantly shift to more neutral terms any time the current term has taken on more weight than it was intended to have. It can take a bit for the new neutral word to propagate, but it will come around sooner or later. Eventually, the stink of an old term will die down enough that it can come back into medical use.
Yeah I don't care for that. If you have a word and it's been used for something for a long time I do not see the need to change it if it suddenly starts offending people later.
Like working on cars. Lots of parts on cars use terms that some people are now taking offense too. Master/slave to refer to parts that work in a chain of command. Or male and female fittings to describe a connection that protrudes and a connection that has a hole in it.
I'm not going to change my vocabulary because suddenly after hundreds of years people are deciding they don't like the words anymore. They make sense in that application to describe the function of the parts and there is no need to change it. Nobody is being called a master or slave. Nobody is being called a male or female. These are car parts that got named the way they did because it made the most sense.
I'm not gonna get upset with people using the term "fat" to describe anything wide or large just because I'm overweight. That was be stupid.
And indeed using the term engine retarding brake is still totally valid in that same context. You're trying to apply one situation to the context of a different situation.
And when it comes to the word fat, let people around you know you are ok with it. But don't just use it around everyone else assuming they are similarly ok with it. Unless you are ok with people using the word jerk or asshole around you. You don't get to have it both ways.
Wait, three parents? Is at least one a step parent?
I consider 4 people my "parents" as in they all helped raise me to varying degrees. My bio mom and dad obviously. My dad's second wife and now his third wife both helped ar different points of my life.
My mom is about to re-marry finally but I'm a little old to be parented by her new man so he's sorta just a guy who makes my mom happy as opposed to yet another parent.
I'm sure your parents would be proud of this
Alright go ahead and call your parents that word and see how that goes lol
I think George Carlin would agree with you, if you've heard of him. He had a thing with words. Elon's a banal idiot, no offence to all the banal people out there, and idiot is no longer derogetory, it's really Idiocracy out there these days.
I miss George Carlin so much. He would have some SPICY takes about what all has been going on lately.