Elon Musk has the ear of one of the most powerful people in the world – President Donald Trump – making him one of the most powerful people in the world, too. He’s been given unfettered access to adjust the federal government’s budget and headcount.
So what’s he doing posting a slur multiple times targeting the disabled community on social media?
We used sped in the 1970s as it is a portmanteau of special education. It never meant a retarded kid specifically it meant a special needs kid. Many kids labelled as “speds” were far from being mentally deficient but had other issues that prevented them from functioning in a normal class space.
We stopped using that term in the early 80s.
That’s the good ol’ euphemism cycle/treadmill. Linguists have long observed a process of semantic shift, often pejoration, for words of taboo subjects.
Words idiot, imbecile, moron were technical designations that became offensive yet somehow later softened into acceptable insults.
Words colored people, negro, black went through the euphemism cycle. At some point black was reclaimed & became acceptable. Now people are afraid to say it again.
VD became STD and now it’s STI. I still don’t know what was wrong with STD.
This phenomenon reflects society’s avoidance of uncomfortable ideas by shifting words. The words change, though it’s questionable they objectively change society’s discomfort toward the subjects. The phenomenon might be reasonably criticized as ineffective & distracting.
Can you guess what will happen to today’s euphemisms?
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Clinical terms will constantly shift to more neutral terms any time the current term has taken on more weight than it was intended to have. It can take a bit for the new neutral word to propagate, but it will come around sooner or later. Eventually, the stink of an old term will die down enough that it can come back into medical use.
Yeah I don’t care for that. If you have a word and it’s been used for something for a long time I do not see the need to change it if it suddenly starts offending people later.
Like working on cars. Lots of parts on cars use terms that some people are now taking offense too. Master/slave to refer to parts that work in a chain of command. Or male and female fittings to describe a connection that protrudes and a connection that has a hole in it.
I’m not going to change my vocabulary because suddenly after hundreds of years people are deciding they don’t like the words anymore. They make sense in that application to describe the function of the parts and there is no need to change it. Nobody is being called a master or slave. Nobody is being called a male or female. These are car parts that got named the way they did because it made the most sense.
I’m not gonna get upset with people using the term “fat” to describe anything wide or large just because I’m overweight. That was be stupid.
And indeed using the term engine retarding brake is still totally valid in that same context. You’re trying to apply one situation to the context of a different situation.
And when it comes to the word fat, let people around you know you are ok with it. But don’t just use it around everyone else assuming they are similarly ok with it. Unless you are ok with people using the word jerk or asshole around you. You don’t get to have it both ways.
Wait, three parents? Is at least one a step parent?
I consider 4 people my “parents” as in they all helped raise me to varying degrees. My bio mom and dad obviously. My dad’s second wife and now his third wife both helped ar different points of my life.
My mom is about to re-marry finally but I’m a little old to be parented by her new man so he’s sorta just a guy who makes my mom happy as opposed to yet another parent.
I’m sure your parents would be proud of this
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Alright go ahead and call your parents that word and see how that goes lol