Offensive and damaging language ruining our society.

St Dionysius

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This is an image that was posted on a forum that I frequent. These people are mostly decent and I'm pretty sure that they have absoloutely nothing against retarded/disabled people.

People on smogon call other people retards/(BAN ME PLEASE)/got all the time. How ethical is it to go around calling someone a derrogatory name that is used for people who have something about them that they cannot change.

Nobody chooses to be a homosexual or retarded.

Of course, one could argue that it's obvious that the person using the words isn't meaning to be homophobic or offensive to retards and that it's all about context.

What's your take on this?
 
I am so uncertain about this issue. Over the past year I completely cut "gay" out of my vocabulary unless talking about things related to homosexuality, and I am in the process of not using "retard" or "retarded" and all that shit anymore. Unfortunately, (BAN ME PLEASE) is such a good word and I can't seem to stop using it. I always kinda feel bad about it but at the same time I don't because I don't mean it homophobically(?) in any way. I know it's probably inconsiderate and selfish but fuck... it just fits so nicely.
Two things that (sort of) support that side of the argument

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-otAJrtY-w

The new South Park Episode "The F Word" you should watch it
 
Sure, no one chooses to be a retard, but homosexuals do not require extra attention to live as human beings and nearly always have more to offer to society. If you want to retort that homosexuals need counseling and the like, that would become extremely unnecessary with proper teaching from parents/schools and hatred being largely stripped away, so that is an unnatural need that is not inherently a gay man's fault!
 
CaptKirby said:
Sure, no one chooses to be a retard, but homosexuals do not require extra attention to live as human beings and nearly always have more to offer to society.
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What?

As long as there are groups that openly hate, berate and tell homosexuals that they are going to hell there will be depressed homosexuals.
 
St Dionysius said:
What?

As long as there are groups that openly hate, berate and tell homosexuals that they are going to hell there will be depressed homosexuals.
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By this logic every group on earth has this problem, no matter how you categorise it. Everyone is made fun of in some form or another over something. Your signature directly backs this up. And since everyone has something they are berated over, this evens the playing field on this front. Mentally disabled people require a different form of attention to coexist properly with others. It's unfortunate, but it's true.
 
@moot

That's a good point. I didn't understand what Capt. Kirby was trying to say but now I see that you paraphrased him.

I think that homosexuals are still a special case in that it's punishable by death for being one, they don't have the same rights as non homosexuals and they've yet to receive discrimination laws. Of course they are in no way as disadvantaged as mentally disabled people who cannot survive independantly.
 
St Dionysius said:
I don't know how far off topic this is getting but: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights

This article lists the countries that have the practice of homosexuality as a death sentence.
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And it's sad because those countries are chock full of hot guys.

Back to the OP!
I know that when people use those words, it's generally out of context. If I think someone's acting stupid, I will probably tell him/her that he/she is being retarded. I use (BAN ME PLEASE) ironically.
 
i'm assuming you've never called anybody an idiot, or a moron, both of which were originally derogatory terms for the mentally disabled. language changes over time, get over it
 
Actually, idiot was originally used in Rome as a word for somebody who didn't vote... which now seems to fit.
On topic, it's annoying but there isn't much you can do about it. Generally people who use the words that way don't really have anything against that group.
 
Proclaiming something is caused societal decline has done more harm to society than any societal decline ever did.

I personally think use of these words is a little premature, as they haven't lost their meaning and currently are still in use as derogatory terms to refer to homosexuals and mentally challenged. In time, like all words, their original hateful meaning will be dulled.

Much like whore was / is? a very sexist term and stupid was extremely offensive, these words will fade with time. Telling people to stop using them at the cost of society is just slowing that down. That being said, I personally don't see it as a good thing that the words are being used as they are as a lot of people who use them, are using them because "gay people are stupid so i'll call you gay". If that weren't the case I would not object, but it very clearly is (and if you don't think so you're delusional).

b0b3rt said:
Actually, idiot was originally used in Rome as a word for somebody who didn't vote... which now seems to fit.
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Do you really think it is wise for people whom are uninformed, and know they are uninformed, to vote? What kind of reasoning will go behind it?
 
Chris is me said:
Do you really think it is wise for people whom are uninformed, and know they are uninformed, to vote? What kind of reasoning will go behind it?
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Because *most* are Republicans!

:nerd:

That being said, I personally don't see it as a good thing that the words are being used as they are as a lot of people who use them, are using them because "gay people are stupid so i'll call you gay". If that weren't the case I would not object, but it very clearly is (and if you don't think so you're delusional).
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I think it really depends on context, although I have seen a greater number of "gay people are stupid, I'll call everyone gay. INSTANT CLEVER!" nonsense going around.
 
b0b3rt said:
Actually, idiot was originally used in Rome as a word for somebody who didn't vote... which now seems to fit.
On topic, it's annoying but there isn't much you can do about it. Generally people who use the words that way don't really have anything against that group.
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Athens != Rome.
This post brought to you by a Classical Civilisation undergrad.
 
oh yeah, moron comes from μορος too, but they were used for a long time in English to refer specifically to those with mental illness

this post brought to you by a shitty greek speaker and a shittier classicist (in a shitty mood)
 
Well, while we're here... what about (BAN ME PLEASE)?
theoretically it is the same in nature as most of these words, but for some reason (at least for me) it always seems so much "worse". Maybe I'm just a pussy though.
 
BigPDaMonsta said:
Well, while we're here... what about (BAN ME PLEASE)?
theoretically it is the same in nature as most of these words, but for some reason (at least for me) it always seems so much "worse". Maybe I'm just a pussy though.
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Because American society seems to think discrimination based on sexual orientation is not as bad as discrimination based on race. It's something in your environment.
 
Well one explanation is that being thought of as gay is not in the best interests of a heterosexual male. There is a very obvious reason they would take offense at the remark that has nothing to do with how society views gay people.

I cant think of a similar reason a person would want to avoid being called black. Especially a black person (who would be the normal target of the term). So it carries the implication that being black is somehow bad for some other reason?

Have a nice day.
 
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