“Truth? You can't handle the truth!”

[The Legendary Shark]

"Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)

[sheridan]

I've heard worse, though - tons of folk just go straight for the jugular with Greta and point at her disabilities (as if that somehow counters her logic). Goebbels would be proud.**

There has been a wave of anti-disability language in the last ten years, in the UK this is since the Tory/Liberal government and media colluded to demonise disabled people tied to 'austerity'.  This led to about 57,550 excess deaths of disabled people between 2010 and 2014.  Doesn't appear to have gotten any better with the continuing dismantling of the NHS but while the R word isn't used so often in the UK any more, the L word seems to be pretty much normalised, even among people you'd have thought would know better.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Yeah, it really isn't not, aye? People have to really stretch to come up with reasons sometimes. Let's assume he just doesn't like Greta Thunberg, and all her pointing out the bloody obvious.

To be fair, I'm pretty sure it wasn't that.  He was non-native English speaker and an admittedly very good one, and suggested some alternative suggestions to my client that conveyed the same meaning but were grammatically correct; leaving aside, of course, the fact that the actual Greta quote is grammatically correct too.

From his general demeanour, and from the perspective of someone who doesn't know all that much about human psychology, I suspect he had a more extreme version of what Greta herself has.  Unlike Greta, though, he picked a very silly hill to die on rather than the most important one in the world.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I've heard worse, though - tons of folk just go straight for the jugular with Greta and point at her disabilities (as if that somehow counters her logic). Goebbels would be proud.**

There has been a wave of anti-disability language in the last ten years, in the UK this is since the Tory/Liberal government and media colluded to demonise disabled people tied to 'austerity'.  This led to about 57,550 excess deaths of disabled people between 2010 and 2014.  Doesn't appear to have gotten any better with the continuing dismantling of the NHS but while the R word isn't used so often in the UK any more, the L word seems to be pretty much normalised, even among people you'd have thought would know better.

As someone who should know better, and has done a quick audit of the (extensive) list of known offensive terms, what's the L word? Genuinely drawing a blank

[Funt Solo]

I expect it's "lame", and mea culpa - I have a "lame-o potato" phrase in my lexicon that I'll consign to the dustbin of history. You *can* teach an old dog new tricks.

(Also, I am partially - and perhaps permanently -  lame, due to a knee injury.)

[Dandontdare]

I don't know what the R word or the L word mean - just fucking say the words

[Funt Solo]

You're being a bit of a c-word, there, with your petulant, sweary demands.

Literally two seconds of googling will net you the r-word, you lazy f-word.

 

[Dandontdare]

You're being a bit of a c-word, there, with your petulant, sweary demands.

Literally two seconds of googling will net you the r-word, you lazy f-word.

okay i googled it and I now know what R stands for.

It does piss me off though that people can't make a distinction between using a word as a slur or mentioning the word when discussing the word.

I also googled the L word - since when can we not say lesbian?

[Dandontdare]

[Funt Solo]

It does piss me off though that people can't make a distinction between using a word as a slur or mentioning the word when discussing the word.

Well, let's take the example of the n-word, because I want to use the nuclear option on this debate. People are choosing not to say the actual word, in order to make a point. It demonstrates care, consideration & support. C-words have started calling those things "virtue signaling", as if being nicer is somehow instantly boastful and anyway the wrong thing to do.

As for the l-word, only sheridan knows what he meant - but I had a guess in the post one before your demand that it be spelled out. Pretty sure it's not lesbian, though - because the context was about disabilities and the last time I checked sexual proclivity wasn't (one).

[JayzusB.Christ]

I'm still in the dark about the l-word, though I suspect you're probably right with 'lame'. My own knee is a bit fecked from a motorbike accident so I'm a tad the l-word myself.

I remember being very surprised to the the n-word in its entirety in an old Judge Dredd special, and this was before the introduction of proper swearing to the house of Tharg. 

[The Legendary Shark]

The word niggardly (which has a completely different meaning and etymology than the n-word) has also become problematic but it's still okay to snigger at anyone who uses it. Go figure.

[Le Fink]

I had to google this and I think Funt has it. I live out in the countryside and use the word 'lame' to apply to animals, as there are a lot of sheep around here hobbling about. A google suggests that's an acceptable context but using it for 'boring' or 'uncool' is ableist language. Not a context I've used it for - feels to me like an an Americanism. But good to know.

Had a job actually getting my phone to accept the word being typed in - it prefers 'lane'.

[Tjm86]

while the R word isn't used so often in the UK any more, the L word seems to be pretty much normalised, even among people you'd have thought would know better.

It's used quite a bit but I guess it depends on where you are.  I got into trouble a few years back.  There was an autistic girl in the class that managed to aggravate some of the other kids.  They called her a retard.  I pulled them up on it, reminding them that as language it is as inappropriate as 'nigger'.

A few days later I was pulled up by the head.  Apparently they had complained about the use of the latter expression.  I was informed that this was inappropriate.  When I questioned him about the use of their language he looked at me blankly.  Ironically there was not a single child from a non-white background in the class.

The thing is, although disability discrimination and racial discrimination are technically equivalent in the eyes of the law they aren't in society.  It is still totally acceptable to use 'disabling' language, to denigrate individuals with any form of disability and to tacitly (hell, openly a lot of the time) discriminate against them.

[The Legendary Shark]

Redacted interviews Kevin Ryan, editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies and a board member of the International Centre for 9/11 Justice, on the September 11th Hi-jackings.