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?

    • FunkyStuff [he/him]English
      18•1 year ago

      It’s not that it was ever a medical term, the issue is disparaging someone based on their perceived level of intelligence rather than anything that they’re actually doing wrong. Almost everyone with learning disabilities will have been called stupid for their conditions hundreds of times, even if they aren’t doing anything morally wrong; meanwhile half the time us Hexbears call something or someone stupid, it’s completely off base because it’s mostly not an issue of intelligence but an issue of morality and class interest. It’s a little like calling someone fat to offend them, when they’re not even overweight.

        • Awoo [she/her]English
          7•1 year ago

          I come up against this wall often. Sometimes I do something myself that I would consider “stupid” and frankly the only thing I’ve found that feels like a good replacement is “ill-conceived” and “thoughtless” blob-no-thoughts. Depending on the scenario being whether I feel rather negative about it or positive about it would determine whether I lean more towards “stupid” over “thoughtless” though. Maybe that’s self-ableism but I sort of don’t think it is, without viewing my own actions and determining whether they were the application of good or bad ability-wise I would not improve at a given task, so some sort of analysis of ability at various things is a necessity in basic life.

            • Awoo [she/her]English
              8•1 year ago

              This is the thing. For me it’s “stupid” when I feel particularly negative about my action, like when it’s definitely my fault and I should feel bad about it. Whereas it’s “ill-conceived” or “thoughtless” when I’m neutral or positive about the action. Like with the blob-no-thoughts emoji. I wouldn’t necessarily try to change my action in the latter, whereas I would in the former.

                • Awoo [she/her]English
                  2•1 year ago

                  Interesting! I can see that interpretation, I’m genuinely struggling with an interpretation of this that doesn’t use something like that too. Taking an action that is intentionally and knowingly self harming for entertainment is very difficult to describe in any way other than self-deprecatingly.

                  Honestly I would love to find perfect replacements for things but it’s hard. Maybe we lack words or something. Perhaps borrowing words from other languages would help here.

        • AOCapitulator [they/them, she/her]English
          10•1 year ago

          Ignorance has nothing to do with intelligence, nor does being oblivious or dense, those are a lack of knowledge and personality traits respectively, and incoherent is just a subjective descriptor, something is or is not incoherent it’s not a value judgment, and not related to intelligence either

        • @[email protected]English
          6•1 year ago

          Ignorance and intelligence are different things. I think willful ignorance would denote lack of intelligence, however.

        • ta00000 [none/use name]English
          9•1 year ago

          We need a word that specifically targets the sort of person who is chronically incurious, but who constantly feels the need to speak their nonsense opinion, which if you read between the lines usually boils down to “that’s scary, let’s just keep doing the same thing” dragging the entire conversation down because they neither know what they’re talking about nor care to find out. I think that specific situation is what we mean, at least on hexbear if not generally, when we say someone is “being stupid” or the like.

          If you literally meant to tell someone that you think their brain is bad because of consequences of their birth, then you should reevaluate whether you really want to do that, which is where this post comes in.

    • charlie [any, comrade/them]English
      3•1 year ago

      It’s bad faith. If you have to go back to a dictionary and say “look see this isn’t offensive you’re wrong” then maybe take a step back

        • charlie [any, comrade/them]English
          5•1 year ago

          It’s a way of trying to get people to grasp an issue they couldn’t normally. It’s a tool for bridging a communication gap. It’s a specific type of example of a structural problem. You are looking at trees and not the forest.

          really this could be applied to most non-specific insults then.

          Yes, and it should, but that’s an intersectional issue

            • charlie [any, comrade/them]English
              3•1 year ago

              Yes that’s fair, definitely.

              Where I don’t agree is that we can find a way to fight fire with fire without burning innocents.

              Agreeing on a basic framework of, “it’s okay to throw generalized insults at certain people” is not something I’m on board with, but I understand the reasoning in some ways.