Some of our most common, ingrained expressions have damaging effects on millions of people – and many of us don't know we're hurting others when we speak.

As a disabled person, I face ableism and ableist language every day. Some people use ableist language without even knowing that it is ableist. I thought it would be good for folks to take a look at the attached BBC article and expand their perspectives a bit.

  • DessertStorms@kbin.social
    412·
    1 year ago

    Now, as for actual discussion to be had, unfortunately our language is entirely coded in slights towards different groups of people. In calling someone “a sinister villain who’s a part of a cabal”, I’ve called them a left handed

    if left handed people were still marginalised your comparison might be valid, but they aren’t so it isn’t.

    At some point we do need to accept that these negative words, which are at their fundamentals, slights to certain groups of people, have taken on a new meaning, and that their misuse as slights against those people only really applies contextually.

    No we don’t, especially since no, they haven’t

    I do think that terms like “stupid” and “idiot” have achieved that level of shift.

    you would be wrong
    https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/stupid-is-an-ableist-slur-breaking-down-defenses-around-ableist-language-liberating-our-words/

    I’m not here to tell you you or your experience is wrong,

    yet that’s exactly what you are doing.

    You should be able to remove a few words from your vocabulary to reduce harm to already marginalised people, without arguing about it or trying to “logic” your way out of it. It isn’t a big ask, but rather the very bare minimum.

    • ram@lemmy.caEnglish
      83·
      1 year ago

      Uh, I’d rather good faith discussion instead, actually.

      Just noticed you’re using kbin.social. Checks out.

      • norapink@kbin.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        Does kbin.social have some kind of reputation or something? I’m not defending the commenter BTW.

        • ram@lemmy.caEnglish
          11·
          1 year ago

          Ad hominem only applies when using an attack on a person as an argument. This person’s clearly not behaving in good faith, so why are they entitled to a good faith reply?

        • ram@lemmy.caEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          I just notice time and time again that kbin.social is populated by users who act in bad faith. I assume it has something to do with people repulsed by communists tending to stay away from lemmy instances due to the M-L association. Of course, kbin.social is the biggest instance of its software, but it’s a trend I keep noticing.

        • hypelightfly@kbin.social
          2·
          1 year ago

          Nothing inherently, it’s an open instance with almost no rules regarding discourse though so you will find a lot of trolls and bad faith comments coming from kbin.