http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/man-3
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All I'm saying is show me one -- just ONE -- woman who ever dug a 200,000 gallon boner-lake. I'll wait.
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this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2025
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Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
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Posts and discussion about the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Hugo Award-winning author Zach Weinersmith (and related works)
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Yea but when I say ' nobody uses the "r" word to talk about people with actual intellectual disabilities and the word has changed to just mean very dumb', nobody can grasp the concept.
Except it didn't change, it's still used as a slur to talk about people with actual intellectual disabilities. You can't avoid that.
The evolution of language isn't a personal choice, it's done on a societal level.
That's fair, I guess its just changed in my social circle, but I disagree with your second point.
Society is made up of people and the way we use words changes their meaning over time. There isn't a dictionary committee that decides what words mean, words change based on how individuals use them on a daily basis.
That's not the case though. While it's no longer formally preferred, many people still use the term with no pejorative intent to describe a range of intellectual disabilities and neurodivergence. (Generally I've heard it from family and professional caregivers.) The word itself is not the problem; its use as an ableist slur is.
The thing about insulting someone for being very dumb is that it's inherently ableist no matter what language you use. Do you think this person chose to be less intelligent than you? It's better to criticize flaws in their reasoning or to point out falsehoods.
Ok cool, I get your points.
Do you think its alright to use dumb and stupid? Because those words pretty much have the same root as the r slur.
I imagine Idiot is ok because it comes from the greek for common man.
I kind of think you're overthinking the whole "root of the reason" for using words like "dumbass", its just a mental stress reliever.
Somebody cuts you off in traffic you say motherfucker and you feel kinda better for just instantly getting it out of your system instead of keeping it bottled up, you don't sit there and go through a Buddhist podcast about forgiveness and suffering and think about how difficult life must be for that motherfucker that cut you off, and how she probably was distracted by her kids or stressed about something.
Also I don't think its necessarily ableist, people can do a dumb thing and be called a dumbass for it, doesn't make them irredeemably dumb. A thought can be dumb, you can say it and sound dumb, doesn't make you dumb forever.
That's an example of a different scenario, where a single term changes in meaning. In the case for "man", a separate term evolved. "Man" never stopped having the meaning of "humans as a whole". Instead, it evolved a different meaning in certain contexts. "Man" also isn't used as a slur, which makes using the word you chose as an example not equivalent.
There's just no need to push "man" in these kinds of context into being gendered when it's not. Choosing to use another term is great, but it's not great to impose onto others.
So words evolve unless they become slurs.
Edit: Yea just terminate thought and downvote, very productive discussion. "Words change meaning unless we decide to ignore the new meaning of the word."
Im honestly just trying to have a conversation about this, because me and all my friends are progressive people, and none of us see the 'r' word as badly as it is perceived online. But whatever its cool, the slur treadmill continues, see you in 50 years when idiot becomes the "i" slur.