Here’s an example from me

If you want to de-normalize a nation’s state/government, call them

spoiler

a regime


Other examples include: hospital --> loony bin

Edit: the more I think about it, the more I realize dysphemism are insults?

    • @MrVilliam
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      228 months ago

      And it’s not wrong to call them that. We are entitled to social programs that we paid into. The issue is the popularity of people saying that some are “entitled” instead of “self-entitled”.

      • @[email protected]
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        8 months ago

        I don’t disagree (that we should get what we paid for), but I think that term is meant to imply that beneficiaries of these programs are spoiled brats. Its idiotic, but then so is our politics. The distinction between ‘entitled’ and ‘self-entitled’ I think is way too fine a point for our national discourse.

    • @hperrin
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      58 months ago

      I like the term “earned benefits” for things like Social Security that you have to pay into.

  • SanguinePar
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    288 months ago

    Calling refugees “immigrants”

    Calling making an effort to be inclusive with people marginalised in some way, “woke”

  • @200ok
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    138 months ago

    “Booze-hound” to mean someone with an alcohol addiction

    • @200ok
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      118 months ago

      and someone who is addicted to drugs is sometimes called a “junkie”.

  • @200ok
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    98 months ago

    Back when I was in high school, I remember people calling introverts and goths “freaks” (i.e. people who are outside the “norm”.)

    • @qisope
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      58 months ago

      classic normie behavior

      • Maple Engineer
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        108 months ago

        I tell my friends that Asperger’s is a super power and that the word, “normies” is an insult.

        • TheWoozy
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          38 months ago

          I’ve aways assumed “normie” was an insult. But I might be over sensitive to such things, becaise “cis” also sounds like an insult to me.

          • Maple Engineer
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            28 months ago

            A lesbian friend was the first person to call me cis. I had no idea what it meant. Now that I understand I have embraced the term to make clear how I see myself. I am a cis male.

        • @200ok
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          28 months ago

          i.e. “boring” 💪

  • @200ok
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    78 months ago

    Some people call a therapist a “shrink”.

  • @200ok
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    68 months ago

    There are a number of dysphemisms that are used to signify a person displaying symptoms of mental illness:

    • crazy

    • whack job (or whacko)

    • lunatic

    • @200ok
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      28 months ago

      And I’ve heard someone with a physical disability is called (cringe) a “gimp”. Ugh.

  • @[email protected]
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    38 months ago
    • Motorcycle riders : temporary Australians; or meat crayons
    • Mental hospital : Napoleon factory (credit to Robert Heinlein)
    • GulbuddinHekmatyarOP
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      38 months ago

      meat crayons

      Now, that’s a colorful right there

      Mental hospital : Napoleon factory (credit to Robert Heinlein)

      Why wouldn’t we want more Napoleons tho?

  • @200ok
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    38 months ago

    Getting “dumped” (for being on the non-consenting side of a break up.)

  • Call me Lenny/Leni
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    28 months ago

    Relevant to your second example, a lot of people here tend to call therapists “paid friends”.

    • TheWoozy
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      18 months ago

      Chitown for Chicago.

  • molave
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    8 months ago

    So-so no Frieren (I actually think it’s goated, btw)

    You’ll see a lot of dysphemisms in the 2____4u communities as well.