I hear that this has been tried before but it didn’t really land because finding viable substitutes for particular terms can be difficult. I’m fascinated by language though and I wanted to take a shot at this myself.
Just a disclaimer that I’m not trying to drag anyone over using any of these terms and I’m not going to pretend that I’m some paragon of anti-ableism myself - I have work to do on this front, you probably do too and if we all work together we can make some positive change and establish better habits and a more supportive culture in our communities.
Here’s a list of words that are more socially acceptable in their ableism and some suggestions for alternatives:
Crazy, Stupid, Dumb, Moronic, Idiotic
[In the sense that something is incorrect or bad]
Silly, foolish, absurd, ridiculous, laughable, nonsense/nonsensical, illogical, incomprehensible, inscrutable, irrational, contradictory, hypocritical, self-defeating, naive, ill-conceived, inane, asinine, counterproductive, unbelievable,
Crazy, Mad
[In the sense of letting loose or being enthusiastic]
Going wild, getting stuck into something, in a frenzy, on a rampage, being engrossed, head over heels, obsessed.
Psychotic, Psychopath, Psycho
[In the sense that something is cruel]
Vicious, bloodthirsty, monstrous, horrific, sadistic, heartless, brutal, ruthless, horrendous, reprehensible, despicable, depraved.
Crippled
Hamstrung, moribund, incapacitated, impaired, ineffective/ineffectual, hog-tied (lol).
What are some other ableist words that are pretty commonplace even amongst the left that you’ve heard?
Are there terms that I have overlooked or any ones that you use yourself that you’d like to replace?
I really think it’s context specific. Calling someone a cripple? Unacceptable. Saying a supply chain has been crippled? Most likely would not offend someone who finds ‘cripple’ offensive.
The only one here that’s got anything to it is psychotic (and maybe moron/lame - but they’re quite far removed from their origin now), and only in the sense that people misuse it. Psychotic means detached from reality, psychopathic means without empathy - people conflate the two, contributing to misrepresentation of the conditions. Then again, why am I making up a psychopath that cares about the representation of their condition? As if they give a shit.
yeah i brought this one (and lame) up in the other thread. I feel like we’ve already excised that usage from common speech, it’s something
’s dad might call someone I guess, but sanctions being crippling or whatever isn’t disparaging or marginalizing anyone.
Calling a situation Crazy is punching across the isle at the person who hears and gets dis-regulated. Switching what the word is doesn’t change the situation. I’m 100% positive that there are people who would not like to hear things called lame or crippled because yes that is still used disparagingly.
where, by whom? zero points for fossils like “jesus healed the sick and mended the lame”
I’m sorry, are we not in a room talking about this very phenomena. It’s not about specific actions, it’s about a pattern of disrespect and the underlying structure.
i think you want the “how do i call someone stupid without being ableist” branch rather than this one. if it’s about cripple i’m 99% sure the problem was that “a cripple” is dehumanizing and almost everyone who talked liked that is dead now, not that systems or machines being disabled or degraded in efficacy reinforces ableism somehow. If it’s about lame, then I personally am infinitely more disrespected by etymology or church nerds than by the primary non-ableist usage. Nobody is getting called lame in their day to day on the basis of disability in contemporary american english, and the people or things getting called lame or lame-o are not being called that because their legs don’t work.
I’ll cede lame after we talk about “sucks” being misogynist and/or bottom-phobic.
Trigger warning: language
spoiler
“removed” is dehumanizing. “Gay boy”. “removed.” “removed.” I’ve been called a lot of different things. That kind of thinking still exists. None of those people are dead. They had kids and the pejorative treadmill continued.
Exactly with sucks, that is problematic language. “Cock sucker” is not an insult, yet it’s used as one depending on context. It’s not a one after the other thing. It’s not “we’ll deal with trans rights once we’ve solved gay rights”. No, it’s all at once. That’s the point of solidarity.
maybe you missed the I personally in there. I can’t walk right, and i’m saying lame has never been directed at me or anyone else on that basis for decades outside of a bible verse.
Well congrats. I’m sure you have been disparaged in other ways though. The exact words don’t matter, intent does. The intent hasn’t changed for generations, just the words have.