CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@melindrea @hejchristian ooh those are good

@Tock Exactly - and this helps immensely when it's something like political figures that you're trying to convince someone else is bad. Saying 'Trump is an idiot' doesn't explain what he does or who he is, and his supporters are using the exact same language to talk about people on the opposite side of the political spectrum. It's useless.

@konstruct yup!

@hejchristian I very much appreciate that you're going 'oh, wow, yeah now I see it' instead of doubling down like a lot of the other replies here Props to you!

@hejchristian Heh, yeah, nuts is also a word used to describe people with mental health conditions

@hejchristian Oh, yeah, crazy and mad are both candidates.

I use 'wild' where I'd previously have used words like that, it kinda conveys the same tone

@cairobraga @saltywizard

Also I'll block you from mastodon.art and then you won't be able to see the pretty art.

You don't deserve the pretty art, anyway, and all the disabled, neurodiverse people on this instance are better off without you.

Look, before you slide into my replies giving me all kinds of tired, over-used, and entirely anticipated arguments for why you should be allowed to say the ableist words, actually - don't.

Don't bother. I've heard it all before, and your arguments - every single one of them - are full of holes and nonsensical, I can refute you all day. This is not my first 'but I want to use the bad words' rodeo.

If you want to do the work of fascism and support eugenics, fine, but keep it out of my mentions.

@unkx Also, penty of Nazis have a high IQ or are smart or have high intelligence, however you want to describe it. IQ itself is a fascist tool, but that's a different argument. You're saying 'asshole' is more muddled in meaning, while choosing to use a non-specific and irrelevant word to describe someone. If Bob's a nazi, call him a nazi. His intellect is entirely irrelevant.

@unkx You're still choosing to use a word that means 'low intelligence'. Even if you're not using that word to describe a person, you're still associating low intelligence with bad behaviour. It's still ableist. And as I said above, not knowing is fine - until you DO know, and then you can make that choice.

If you're going to choose to still use ableist words knowing they're ableist, then you're a bigot.

@saltywizard @cairobraga

@cairobraga @saltywizard

I'm glad your colleague took your come-on in good humour at least, but sorry it didn't work out for you!

@cairobraga I approve of the many butt words in PTBR!

@cairobraga @saltywizard I've been trying to avoid things that use sex-specific bodyparts, to avoid e.g. implying that penises are bad (calling someone a dickhead) - I stick with things that are more general, like shithead and asshole

@zappes Even if they do - so? Okay, it's difficult. So? You can make a choice; you accept that someone who's less privileged than you and has suffered degredation that you might have not and choose not to use language that is hurtful, or you can disregard them and not (and thus, punch down, and continue the oppression).

Complaining about how hard it is gets you zero sympathy from me. I don't care.

But really, it's not difficult. It might be mildly inconvenient to choose a new word, that's all.

@zappes The rules aren't changing, it's just now we're standing up for having been bullied and derided for decades. Using those words to describe people has *always* been bad, but now more people are calling it out.

@zappes I'm also autistic. I have been discriminated against my whole life for not behaving in 'typical' ways, and have been called all of those words on that list I shared, as insults.

The bar is not 'learn the arbitrary rules', the bar is 'don't use words that have been used to hurt other people'. Being autistic is not, has never been, and never will be, an excuse to be a bigot.

It's fine if you didn't know that those words are slurs. But now you do.

@zappes you're left with an entire dictionary of words that better and more adequately describe complex or nuanced situations rather than reducing them to single-word slurs that don't actually describe the problem or behaviour anyway, it's just convenient for people to punch down.

@cairobraga