I get that. That's why I made a comparison to the term "gay", which is also frequently used as an insult without actually trying to refer to homosexual people.

I think the literal meaning matters, especially when being a (literal) incel is still something many are insecure about.

That's what makes it different to e.g. the term "bastard". That term also refers to a specific group, but nowadays noone (in the western world) would be insecure about being born to umarried parents.

As long as involuntary celibacy is something people are insecure about, we shouldn't use "incel" as an insult.

[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's not the same as using gay as an insult, wtf. There's s long history of systematic discrimination and even murder when it comes to LGBT people.

[–] argon 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I agree that it's not the same. That wasn't what I was trying to say; I'm sorry if my phrasing was unclear.

The reason I made the comparison is that it's very clear that using "gay" as an insult is bad (because of the severe discrimination you mentioned), and so I was using it as a more extreme example of an insult that refers to a specific group of people.

Using "incel" as an insult is not as clearly bad (because involuntary celibates haven't faced the discrimination that homosexuals have), yet it follows a similar paradigm, hence why I made the comparison.

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