• The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 day ago

    It’s hard to fully explain how the reception of words change to people who haven’t seen it first-hand.

    Even some bad words, which might be incredibly rude to say today, didn’t have the same oomph in the past, so while the definition technically might not have changed, the intended severity of it has.

    • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
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      1 day ago

      yeah and part of it is they were used as insults but it was more co-opting than anything else. removed is pretty legit as saying someone is removed can be proper, but someone will call someone removed who is not as an insult. then shortening is almost never correct. You might say someone is removed and that is a correct thing about their condition but saying their a retard is not as its sorta a made up word based on the condition and further tard or tarded is a way to make it more derogatory. Its like homosexual. its a word that means something without being derogatory but to someone who thinks being a homosexual is bad will use it as an insult and using the word homo is almost always an insult (the rare exception is usage among friends to sorta deflate its meaning). When it comes down to it is that folks who spent decades with a word being legitamate will have trouble when it becomes a taboo thing for a decade or so.

      • bizarroland@fedia.io
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        1 day ago

        I have a special needs uncle and my whole life I grew up with him being called “removed” and it not being a slur.

        It was just a way to describe his mental functioning.

        To me it doesn’t have the same impact because I had never heard it used pejoratively until after it was a no-no word.