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Alright folks I don't want this to be a struggle session so let's operate from "'stupid' and 'dumb' are ableist terms, now what?" I would like people to offer up alternative insults/negative remarks.

While I said I don't want it to be a struggle session, cool headed good faith discussion is also appreciated. This just came up with some comrades of mine and I couldn't find the last post about it so if anyone has the link that would be great too.

172 comments
  • Regardless of those two terms being harmful, it’s good to use more incisive terms that point toward the problems with their thinking or attitudes.

    Incurious, small-minded, duped, bereft of imagination, ill-informed, whatever. If it’s framed as a specific thing that someone is being rather than something they are intrinsically, maybe there’s a chance that someone listening identifies that in themselves and sees a chance to get better.

    Or maybe this is just an excuse to have more fun with words, iunno

    • Por que los dos

    • Or maybe this is just an excuse to have more fun with words, iunno

      It was definitely both a lighthearted post, but also serious and with the hope for either insightful comments or witty alternatives.

      • Sorry, I should’ve said “maybe this is just my excuse”! I meant to poke fun at my own motivations, not yours (or anyone else’s)

  • there's "lib" of course, or dipshit or rube.

    i try to remind myself that generally someone's ideology derives from their material interests, not some cognitive impairment, so calling someone stupid for thinking lib thoughts isn't very meaningful or useful. we're all subject to motivated reasoning, and motivated libs can be quite clever in their own way when devising post hoc rationalizations for supporting genocide or whatever else. our political opponents are not stupid, even when they allow their ideological convictions to lead them to incorrect conclusions. we can't really afford complacency and the patience to wait for capitalists to simply make enough mistakes that we win by default, because that won't happen. those terms aren't just ableist, they're self-defeating.

    • This I think is the best comment on this topic anyone has ever written, this drives at the heart of the issue that we are addressing. A fascist isn't fascist because they are "stupid", nor is someone "stupid" because they are a fascist or more prone to be such, and using those terms removes the agency of people to do good or bad regardless of any physiological characteristic.

  • If you're trying to express that someone has bad ideas, mean-spirited, incoherent, backwards, small-minded, spineless and disingenuous all convey different aspects of "stupid"

  • The real answer that only like 2 people figured out in this 150+ comment thread is to call them a Redditor. Seriously. If you call someone a Redditor, everybody understands everything. Being called a Redditor is so bad even calling someone a Redditor is an insult on Reddit.

  • I've been trying to slip "fucko" into conversation but no luck so far. I feel like "jabroni" should make a comeback too.

  • I've gone the way of saying we're all whatever non ableist word one can invent for stupid in one way or another and we should instead look into ourselves as to what variety of Dumb we are and self identify with what suits our particular lackings. I'm not sure what should describe what yet, but I for one am an oaf but I'm for sure not a numbskull or a blockhead, a nimrod or an ignoramus, but some people are and that's cool. Then it's only an insult when you're called one of those things that isn't your lane.

    • i am definitely a lunatic
      i love the idea that my bipolar disorder is "because moon", it tickles me

      • Sounds good! That one's all yours! I actually did this question at work more as a bored at a job conversation and people were pretty quick with specific words for their own 'stupidity' that they seemed kinda proud of. I'm happy to be an oaf, but yeah, there does seem to be something about it. It was surprising how many people had their own preferred insult to their intelligence in the chamber. That's what made me think of this.

    • Nimrod is a great hunter in the bible. It became an insult because Bugs Bunny would call Elmer Fudd that sarcastically. So perhaps you are a nimrod, depending on the quarry

      • I already knew that cause I've read the dang Bible and love Looney Tunes. Also a quarry is where you get rocks from, a quary is what you hunt. So perhaps you are the nimrod

  • Evil or unwise, depending on what you mean exactly.

    When people call something dumb, they mean "not thought through". When applied to politics, you arrive immediately into bumbling american empire station and "never ascribe to malice blah blah".

    When drunk friend does something weird, that's "not thought through or unwise" part

    .

  • I've taken to using "redditor" tbh. Even among normies being a dedicated reddit poster has become deeply uncool and makes a person seem like an uneducated dweeb

172 comments