A while back there was a thread about eliminating intelligence-based insults from our vocab. Words like "Dumb", "stupid", etc.
https://hexbear.net/post/15636
My gut instinct to this was to get angry, and berate the OP u/QuillQuote for his ideas. I insulted him, I called him dumb, and when he pm'd me, I dismissed all his arguments and called him dumb again. Then he told me to go fuck myself and I told him I would masturbate later
Since then I actually thought a little about the issue and I began to see their point. An intelligence-based insult is fundamentally wrong, because it concerns something that cannot be controlled.
Insults about race, gender, and sexuality are all de facto verboten here because they target traits that can't be controlled--and I agree.
Intelligence can't be controlled either. And intelligence is actually one of the most disadvantaging traits to be handicapped by. Ditto for appearance.
Likewise, AGE cannot be controlled either, you only age in one direction and that's it. If I was 55, there's nothing I can do to be more like a 30 year old. MOREOVER, some people actually have inborn disabilities that make them age faster, with some 10 year old children having the biological age of a 40 year old adult.
So I'm making the proposition that we should attempt to eliminate these words from our arsenal of insults. Words like "dumb", "stupid", "boomer", "ugly", "short", are all words that target people on traits that they cannot control, and worse, they insult other bystanders in the process who may have committed no offense.
In fact, I called someone a boomer jokingly just a few minutes ago. That was the trigger that made me think about this. I apologize if my words hurt anyone.
I disagree for the most part, and here's why. Intelligence isn't something that is set in stone. It isn't something uniform either, aka there are a lot of types of "intelligences", and if you truly put the time into it, you'll get more intelligent in a domain or another, the reverse works just as well. When we call someone a fucking moron, it's duly deserved 99% of the time. Like, there's no way around it, that person is doing stupid things or choices, and it'll impact the rest of us. They could put in the time to understand why they're wrong, yet never asked why they do or believe something once apparently. I have far more respect to someone who has learning disabilities, but who tries to dialogue and to know better, than I ever will for fascists or neolibs.
When it comes to things like "boomers" or something, well, I think it mostly refers to the state of mind of the generation who absolutely assfucked us in the past, and keeps doing it to this day. It's deserved that we call out their bullshit everyday.
However, I do agree, nearly all insults based on appearance are truly low and effortless, and should be avoided.
Some words should be avoided, but most of them are fine. I wish people could understand that we had 150k for a few reasons, which were the irreverent tone we had, the near complete freedom of expression and the constant shitposts. People felt at home, even with these words employed routinely. One of the last posts I read was one from a trans person who found in Chapo a community that fully accepted them. A community with a sizeable portion of dirtbags who never held back proverbial punches for those who deserve it.
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God I hate that I can't say the r word anymore, it's almost a reflex from the past 10 years that I have to unlearn. It took some time and I still want to scream it to some people, but eh, no changes happen in one day.
Adding to this, boomer as an insult has always been a state of mind thing. That all started out as the "30 year old Boomer" shit about being nostalgic for stuff that happened before you were born and whatnot.
As I understand, it was kicked off by a single person on 4chan who spammed it as much as they could on every board until it caught on. Wonder how they feel right now?
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