Missouri state senator rips constituent’s facial hair

[lovedforaday]

Comments

[synthesizia]

Ahahahahaha! My but politicians are dumb! I love when Republicans get served.

Although I'll be honest with you, I think trolling is really lame and I'm judging Cohn's childish behavior for even starting it.

[hey_spectrum]

Where do/did you see disablist language? Genuinely curiuos if the comment was edited or what I'm not seeing here

[lovedforaday]

they're probably talking about dumb

[hey_spectrum]

Wait do you think dumb is ableist too?

[lamardeuse]

It's the use of the words "dumb" and "lame", I believe.

[lovedforaday]

I don't think gay and lame are anyway comparable because hardly anyone knows the original meaning of lame and people know what gay means.

[hey_spectrum]

I agree. The dictionary says lame is disabled as described above, but the other definition is "weak; inadequate; unsatisfactory; clumsy: ie a lame excuse." That's the way I'd always used it and read it in books. I can see how it (specifically using it to describe someone being clumsy) may be offensive in some situations but calling someone gay and lame are most definitely not comparable

[silver_apples]

When I had a sign language course, we had to spend one day not speaking. One of my teachers made a joke about me being "dumb". In other discussions about ablist language that I've seen, people with disabilities have said others have made jokes about them being "lame". I remember a cartoon--aimed at children--with a "lame joke" represented by a person on crouches.

I agree the original use isn't as common as it is with "gay", but it is still there, still used, and well-known. It is used to hurt people, or to tease without thought to whether or not it's hurtful.

[lovedforaday]

Yeah, I see what you're saying. While I don't think I would correct anyone who uses them, they're still words I'll try to remove from my everyday language.

[silver_apples]

I avoid using the words online, because I never know who is reading and may be hurt by what I post, and I'm working on not using the words when talking (habits are hard to break), but I don't correct people IRL. Most of the people I know would think the objection was ridiculous because they have never been on the receiving end of that kind of teasing/bullying and don't know anyone who has. Also, language evolves, intent matters, out-of-control PC-ness, etc.

[theguindo]

I've found "bogus" and "bummer" to be really good replacements in daily jargon for "lame", if you want suggestions. "That's bogus" & "What a bummer" vs "That's lame" & "How lame". You might sound a little dated but it covers the full spectrum of places you'd otherwise use "lame" without requiring any clumsy rephrasing.

I don't correct people on its use RL either. It doesn't offend me, so I don't feel it's worth my energy to try to enforce it, but it requires very little effort on my part to change my own behaviour to avoid offense.

[hey_spectrum]

Interesting link. I had no idea the word weak was off limits too.

[redstar826]

if synthesizia had instead said "trolling is really gay", would you even have asked me where the homophobic language was?

can we not with this, please?