Thought Police Forbid the Word “Stupid”

Thought Police Forbid the Word “Stupid”

As George Orwell predicted in 1984, word by word they reduce our vocabulary, thereby reducing our ability to think outside the boundaries that they designate. It was bad enough when they declared we could no longer use the word “retarded” lest it offend people with low mental capacity. Now, according to Jenny Crofton at Everyday Feminism, we can’t even say “stupid”:

People who wouldn’t use the word “dumb” because it’s offensive to deaf people and people who can’t speak, or the r-word because it’s offensive to people with developmental disabilities, are still willing to describe something or someone as “stupid.”

In my view, the fact that this word is a slur is self-evident. People don’t call you “stupid” unless they’re trying to put you down or undermine you. It’s an insult, and that’s reason enough to stop using it.

One insult that will still be allowed is the author’s favorite word, “bigot.” But he/she (I believe Jenny Crofton is this “queer trans” person of incomprehensible gender) would never call bigots stupid:

Throughout the course of this article, I’ve tried to use a variety of different words that describe bigots truthfully and non-oppressively.

Suggested adjectives to describe bigots (i.e., non-liberals) include ridiculous, offensive, senseless, and malevolent. Just don’t say the word “stupid” because…

Its use harms and triggers disabled people, which can make it a source of mass psychological harm for an already marginalized group.

So the cognitively disabled now qualify as “marginalized.” This is great news for white male heterosexuals with low IQs who hope to get into the engineering program at MIT.

If something is likely to upset the members of a marginalized group, just let it go.

The marginalized are the top caste in a liberal society. They will tell you what you can or cannot say. Or rather, barking moonbats will tell you on their behalf.

The piece goes on to argue that people with subnormal intelligence are historically oppressed, and therefore failure to revere them for their defining trait is blasphemy against political correctness. Yet “stupid” is used as an insult, just like “gay” is on grade school playgrounds. You can see why this is intolerable to liberals.

The piece gets really stupid when Crofton attempts to back up the decree that we no longer use the word “stupid” with some emotional bullying:

Children with intellectual disabilities are at extremely high risk for abuse, including sexual assault. Women with intellectual disabilities are also at high risk for abuse, sexual assault, and domestic violence – and are underserved by inaccessible support programs.

Our culture promotes a climate of toxicity toward intellectually disabled people, and part of that is in the words we use.

By condoning the casual use of ableist slurs, we tacitly permit more severe abuses. Because we undermine the people, we also undermine accountability for their abusers. We fail to construct a healing path forward.

By even condoning much less using the word stupid, you are enabling the rape of children!

Crofton describes himself/herself/zirself as “neuroatypical.” Just when the reader is starting to suspect that he/she/it is some kind of retard, Crofton displays surprising insight into the form of totalitarianism we know as “political correctness”:

Changing the way we speak is really tough. Words are the fabric of our thoughts. Re-forming the words we use means reshaping our minds. But that’s exactly why it’s so necessary and so potent.

Just as we can’t shape a new society without fully deconstructing the old, we can’t liberate our minds without dismantling the ways we think and communicate.

It’s genuinely an enormous undertaking.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, or deconstructed in a day either. That’s why they are taking our language away from us one word at a time.

newspeak dictionary
Strike out the word “stupid.”

Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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