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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago

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.