Edit: I just learned from a comment on another post here that it’s literally the only rule for this community. Thanks @[email protected] for taking out the trash.
I just ran into several comments all saying this. If you’re going to be policing this community for “normal human behavior” you’ve certainly got a lot of work cut out for yourself. Almost everything about ADHD is an exaggeration of normal human behavior, we don’t randomly tweet like birds or wear silly hats, it’s the exaggeration that makes it a disorder.
It’s also really invalidating and it’s the same gaslighting crap that we’ve had fed to us by jerks our whole lives.
Oh yeah I just wasn’t sure if that was it or I was missing something else. I see it in the same family as using “retarded” as a slur; another bastardization of a term for intellectual disabilities. I think it’s easier for us with ADHD to feel a sort of brotherhood with those it was originally meant for, especially because people like me and probably many of us were called those specific things many times as a slur growing up.
My mouth (or thumbs) just haven’t caught up. I saved your link though so I can review it occasionally and actually absorb it!
Yeah, pretty much all ableist slurs come from a past “legit” use (still mostly demeaning and oppressive terms, even if they were used by medical professionals, don’t even get me started on ableism in healthcare) and have shifted in to general use as derogatory terms.
And using perceived levels of intelligence as a measure of someone’s worth or values is why they’re ableist.
Don’t feel pressured to click any of these, this is just me info-dumping, but here are some related links if you want to read more:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230605065733/https://ollibean.com/intelligence-is-an-ableist-concept/
https://disabledfeminists.com/2009/10/23/ableist-word-profile-intelligence/
https://affinitymagazine.us/2018/01/08/stop-using-intelligence-based-insults-if-you-care-about-disabled-people/
https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/stupid-is-an-ableist-slur-breaking-down-defenses-around-ableist-language-liberating-our-words/
https://web.archive.org/web/20201108200517/https://raddle.me/f/Illegalism/77441/40-alternatives-to-ableist-and-oppressive-words
https://genderbitch.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/words-offense/
Better stop saying dumb, idiot, etc. while you’re at it.
Really run out of words at a point.
Yeah, I think that’s part of what keeps my vocabulary from catching up. I haven’t rehearsed alternatives nearly as well over my life so they don’t come to mind easily. But there are many worse reasons to challenge yourself than trying not to accidentally offend someone else without intending to. Especially because I can see the damage things like that have done to me because of ADHD.
I’ve been called retarded, part of me wants to reclaim it, but that battle’s probably lost. But I can’t drop “dumb”