CONTENT WARNING FOR THIS SECTION: SLURS.
ok so let me tell you about yet another inane internet discourse
a common thing on people's DNIs is 'DNI if you say slurs you can't reclaim'. reasonable enough. you can only say faggot if you're gay or the n word if youre black. a good-enough system for general social contexts. one weird exception is carved out, though- 'retard': not to be used by anyone, autistic or otherwise, ever. the justification, as far as i know, is that stripped of social context, fag can just mean gay person and the n word can just mean black person. retard, on the other hand, specifically means stupid person. it's an insult on an inherent level that the other words are not.
allegedly.
well, if you'll forgive this low hanging fruit of a word usage, i think that's retarded. the idea that the R Word is just Too Ingrained in bad contexts, and the n word ISN'T, is downright insane. it's just that you can't tell black people to stop saying the n word cos you'll be laughed out of the room. it needs stating that, to my knowledge, the bulk of people making this argument are autistic themselves-- which, naturally, gives them right to speak first about this issue. the thing about that, though, is that i am also autistic. which cancels out your autism, and then there is no position of authority left for either of us argue from!
hmm. it seems we have reached an impasse.
i am uninterested in arguing further. obviously you don't have to be okay with people saying retard AROUND YOU. i am not telling other autists to 'suck it up,' merely to allow for experiences other than their own. ok, this bit is over now, and i am done saying slurs.
but this line of thought got me thinking. what's up with stupid?? why is it strictly bad to be stupid??
this essay will discuss the current social climate surrounding stupidity, largely limited to personal experience.
people nowadays are getting gradually more progressive about which things are acceptable to be. it is becoming less inherently bad to be fat, or old, or weak, or nerdy, or awkward. we're... GETTING there with ugliness. maybe. but stupidity remains as it were: strictly bad. being lacking in reading comprehension or critical thinking? a scalding accusation!! boomers not knowing how to use technology? hilarious!! getting tricked by hoaxes and misinformation?? shameful. don't you know how to use google, nevermind that it is degrading in quality year by year? obviously, these things lead to many, many, many problems. one does not have to try hard attribute ALL of humanity's problems to various forms of stupidity.
the thing is, though, that we are animals, strictly unequipped to be in the situation that we are in. this is unfortunate, but true. our default state of being- a baby, of course- is to be QUITE dumb. quick learners, but still dumb as fuck. any intelligence you might gain as you grow up is not intrinsic, it is enviromental. people have to be taught how to think critically, how to research, how to put aside the emotional judgments we are hard-wired to make. many a time i have seen people going 'you cant use the american education system as an excuse!! educate yourself!!' and it's like... how? you do realize that educating oneself requires prerequisite knowledge on how to check for misinformation?? the uneducated lack the education to educate themselves.
this may come as a shock, but those on the internet do not represent the general public. we represent an elite, the modern and savvy, those who carry and know how to use the supercomputers that interface with a perplexing, ethereal carbon cloud. now picture one of those who rely on public library computers to send job applications. there are many such people. millions are left in the dust in our digital age, gated off from the arena of ideas, the modern battleground of social issues far away in a realm they cannot access.
there was this post that said, "we are beyond the raising awareness phase of basically every major issue on this earth. anyone by now who does not know about these things is being willfully ignorant." not only is this wishful thinking (no, dude. our work is FAR from done.) this is also just really mean. assuming everyone who doesn't already agree with you must be evil is a fantastic recipie for never convincing anyone to join ever again. and there's just this sneering disrespect, too, of those that aren't good at the internet. who ever clicks on ads? who would be dumb enough to go, 'OH THAT LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING I WANT IMMA CLICK ON IT'. don't you know corporations are bad? don't you have an ad blocker? why would you pay for a subscription when you could just pirate, a thing that is famously easy and that everyone knows how to do? how is it that the vast majority of people dont use control-z?? how could anyone fall for such an obvious scam??
well, a lot of people do, obviously.
use your imagination.
the other thing about stupid is that .. uh...... uhhhhh.....
right, i'm just gonna say it. is mentally disabled not just a synonym for stupid? HEAR ME OUT
LOOK. if you are DISABLED. you are WORSE AT SOMETHING. and if you are WORSE AT THINKING. that means. DUMB. obviously disparaging people for this is ableism, but like, think about it. it is perhaps rude but incredibly obvious that those with physical disabilities will be less physically able, and thus slower, or weaker, or what have you. i'm just saying, that 'mentally disabled' is LITERALLY just a nicer way to say stupid, like, in terms of what the WORDS MEAN. you could take this as a critique of the term, but let's be real, in replacing it you'd only succeed in coming up with an even nicer way to say stupid!! and i'm not even saying that autistic people (for instance) are less smart than neurotypical people. there are arguments you could make that that neurotype is useful for our society.
but like, what if it weren't?
do our lives only have value for our usefulness?
i have a friend who has brain damage, and they are legitimately just not very smart. they are, also, physically disabled and very mentally ill, leaving them pretty much completely unable to work. they are limited, too, in their ability to make art- haunted by wrist problems and chronic fatigue, leaving most of their projects very, very unfinished. they worry about dying before being able to finish anything truly meaningful. and let's say, for the sake of argument, that they do. in the grand sceme of things, their life's contribution to society will have been- physically, mentally, artistically- a net zero at best, but realistically, probably just an overall drain of resources.
FUCK YOU.
GET BETTER ARGUMENTS IN DEFENSE OF DISABLED PEOPLE. IF IT JUST BOILS DOWN TO 'well some of them arent THAT disabled' THEN I DONT THINK YOU UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM.
i love my friend, if you'll believe it despite my less-than-flattering description. i do not think that any of those things make them worse than me. okay yes i do because i have a superiority complex and REALLY like feeling savvy and smart, but that is BESIDES THE POINT.
continuing, for now, the discussion of disabilities:
this is the trouble with fixating on the words people use as a measure of their moral virtue. people, in general, have not been taught and do not know the best way to talk about things. see, there was this comic i was reading where a character had a lazy eye. it wasn't a thing that was commented on in-story, and so naturally, someone sent an ask to the author, "what's wrong with their eye"?? to which the author responded "there's nothing wrong with it, it's just a trait they have :/" before answering the question. and there was this time in steven universe?? ok so the rutile twins are these conjoined twin characters with one pair of legs but two upper bodies. and they and their homies were talking about how the evil empire doesnt like them cos theres something wrong with them etc, and steven was like, i dont see anything wrong with you guys :O and im like..... steve. you were visibly startled upon seeing them. you have eyes.
this is a pet peeve of mine, where in asking about or aknowledging someone's disabilities, you have to avoid saying there's anything WRONG with them. and, well, i understand this. being disabled and dealing with people's questions is beyond exhausting. but polite people, who understand that this is a touchy subject but don't know anything about it, will just throw up their hands and declare that they can never know anything about it, treating disabilities as something to be ignored in a teeth-grindingly awkward fashion, hushing their kids when they loudly yell THAT GUY'S LEG FELL OFF!!!
this whole thing extends far and wide- cishet artists being afraid of depicting trans people wrong, or gay people wrong, and thus never making an attempt. when a fear of being wrong takes center stage, the only real option is to never try. this is how people are about math, sometimes, by the way?? or music theory, or tech, or art. people see a complicated thing that other people are better at, and immediately surrender, going WELP IM NEVER GOING TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT THAT. you can see it in their faces when this happens, a switch flipping in their head to 'i am not going to remember or understand anything i am being told'.
but everyone has the capacity to learn. p. .. presumably.
the concept of 'stupid questions' has to be some sort of poison. in not already knowing something that everyone else knows, you are chided in the attempt to learn. nghhhhhh. why is life like this? everything is hard and complicated, why do we make it more hard and complicated?? why do i get so easily frusturated when other people struggle with things? terminal charter school kid brain, i suppose. and if you're like me, i've got a warning for you. do not delude yourself into thinking you have all the answers. believe me, getting knocked down is really not fun. the world is wide, and you will always overlook possibilities that other people see. it's not possible to store the full truth in one brain, anyway. and that's why it's good we've got more than one, right? it isn't about hammering your truth into the minds of others as brutally and efficiently as possible. it's about listening, discussing. learning.
that's what i think, anyway. ;)
alright, signing out.
- brak 5-11-25
PS i hate the term "differently abled" it makes me violent