lemmy user(ule)s: "this sign won't stop me because i can't read"

https://lemmy.cafe/post/5682824

lemmy user(ule)s: "this sign won't stop me because i can't read" - Lemmy Cafe

https://www.specialolympics.org/stories/impact/why-the-r-word-is-the-r-slur [https://www.specialolympics.org/stories/impact/why-the-r-word-is-the-r-slur]

I understand not calling disabled people the word, because mocking people for something about themselves they didn’t choose (like a disability) is cruel, I am totally on board with never using words in this way to target disabled people.

I don’t understand why I can’t use the word to mock someone who is not intellectually disabled for choosing not to use their perfectly well-functioning brain, it seems like a very apt analogy. It communicates “you aren’t disabled, you have no excuse for acting like it, start choosing to use the fully functional brain you have”.

Additionally, only the “r-word” seems to be the bad one, despite there being many other words in our language that originally began as a medical descriptor for intellectually disabled folks. If I call someone a moron for running a red light because they’re playing with their phone nobody bats an eye, but if I call them the “r-word” I’m a terrible person?

It communicates “you aren’t disabled, you have no excuse for acting like it, start choosing to use the fully functional brain you have”.

look, if this doesn’t make you see how it’s a shitty thing to say, i don’t think anyone else can help you understand.

i appreciate how they admitted it out loud: “but how can i harrass people and call them unintelligent if the r-slur is unacceptable?”

what about dont call people unintelligent. hm?

What is wrong with calling people unintelligent when they are doing unintelligent things that are directly causing me problems (for example, people on their phones blowing through red lights?) If someone tries to change lanes into me and I say “are you blind? You almost hit me!” is that similarly bad?
yes haha

Well I guess that’s where we disagree. It’s clearly offensive to make fun of a blind person for being blind, no one should do that. But I do not see how it is offensive to actual blind people to call a sighted person “blind” for refusing to use their eyes. It is of course not polite to the person I’m speaking to, but that is the point, there are plenty of times it is ok to be rude to people, such as when they’re harming you. Offending purposely harmful people like bigots, racists; and negligently harmful people like inattentive drivers, people who leave knives pointing up in the dishwasher, etc presents me with no moral quandary.

I’m not sure if you’re saying it’s offensive to disabled people to make the comparison, offensive to the abled person you are speaking to, or both.

By comparing people to these slurs, you enforce societal norms that indicate that the said group has less value in society.

Since humans are social creatures by nature, you are essentially dehumanizing an entire class/group of people because you can’t come up with something more clever to say.

To err is human, we all make mistakes, intelligence/sight/etc. has nothing to do with it.

It’s not stating that group has less value, it is stating that that group has less ability to think which is just as true as blind people have less ability to see, or physically disabled people like me have less ability to walk than people with normal feet.

That doesn’t inherently make someone less valuable, and my point when using such a term as blind or retarded directed towards a non-disabled person isn’t to attack their value but instead to attack their behavior, specifically to point out that they aren’t utilizing their abilities to their full extent. If you hear the word retarded and think that means the person is less valuable, maybe check your assumptions about disabled people’s value.

fuck off, you don’t get to hop on a high horse here. you don’t get to turn it around when you’re straight up refusing to reflect on your own behaviour. i’m sure you think you’re being very clever, but i can guarantee what you’re doing right now is such common bigot behaviour that the people in this thread see right through it.

you feel like you should be allowed to use a slur. extremely weird, but alright. the people around you will, however, react accordingly. you’re not special.

We probably wont convince you in these comments, but using someone’s condition as an insult to someone else can definitely hurt them. It can seem like an unimportant issue when it doesn’t directly affect you. I remember as a kid, I had friends with family members who got really upset when others used the r-word. When it affects you directly it becomes a lot more clear.
Your submission in “lemmy user(ule)s: “this sign won’t stop me because i can’t read”” was removed - Using disability as an insult is not ok, end of story.