I think its dated. There was definitely a point, ten or fifteen years ago, when people were very casual with certain slurs and blurring them out was a good way to tap down the inevitable internal board drama over phrasing. But now they’re less common, so you see more people tripping over the triggers than invoking them intentionally.
At the same time, I think we’re headed back in the direction of chuds going on a message board (or out into a crowd) and spamming the n-word as some kind of in-group Owning the Left right-of-passage.
So I won’t begrudge its existence.
I say the word retarded because the euphemism treadmill for words that mean distinctly less intelligent than average is totally out of hand.
I remember clinging to the word “gay” back in college, for what I thought was similar reasons. And it just kept feeling more and more off-key to use, until eventually I stopped of my own accord.
I imagine I’m a bit younger than you. I remember gay=lame very well. I said it. Everyone said it. Then around starting high school I stopped saying it. I knew out of the closet gay people at that point.
I think there’s a big difference between gay meaning lame and retarded meaning stupid.
I think its dated. There was definitely a point, ten or fifteen years ago, when people were very casual with certain slurs and blurring them out was a good way to tap down the inevitable internal board drama over phrasing. But now they’re less common, so you see more people tripping over the triggers than invoking them intentionally.
At the same time, I think we’re headed back in the direction of chuds going on a message board (or out into a crowd) and spamming the n-word as some kind of in-group Owning the Left right-of-passage.
So I won’t begrudge its existence.
I remember clinging to the word “gay” back in college, for what I thought was similar reasons. And it just kept feeling more and more off-key to use, until eventually I stopped of my own accord.
I imagine I’m a bit younger than you. I remember gay=lame very well. I said it. Everyone said it. Then around starting high school I stopped saying it. I knew out of the closet gay people at that point.
I think there’s a big difference between gay meaning lame and retarded meaning stupid.