this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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I agree with everything you said. However, I almost couldn't finish reading your comment because of your use of the R slur. I'm not reporting it or anything, just something to think on.
Is Reddit the new r word?
Yeah, It’s unnecessarily cruel. Hits like a gut punch ever time I see it now. Thanks for saying something.
Just something to think on
In the 21st century the that word is widely understood to be a slur and thus violates rules 1 and 2 on lemmy.ml (where this community is hosted).
Also, you're quoting the definition of the verb, which is typically not applied to people, while the (now deleted, on lemmy.ml at least) grandparent comment was using the word as an adjective... which is.
Yeah, it was even a medical term and then a bunch of kids (and less gracious adults) went around using it as an insult and now it's taboo. Welcome to living languages, they change. I said what I said, your "umm, actually" adds nothing to the conversation.
It’s totally appropriate to use in that context e.g. retarding a fire or the brakes retarding a car, but OPs are clearly not using it like that.
Thanks for pointing that out
A week or so on Lemmy and I've seen this slur on like 3 different occasions. It's disappointing. I guess I was just more familiar with what communities to avoid on reddit (wsb) if I didn't want to see it.
You know what, I appreciate your callout. As an 80s kid there was a LOT of terms we used and our vocabulary was quite robust when it came to offensive words. Although we never truly meant to hurt any person or group those slurs were associated with. I’ve done an incredible job of eliminating all that stuff from my lexicon, but this word in particular has been difficult for me and if I use it I’m always angry.
I’ll try and do better
Just keep in mind there are words you use today, oftentimes daily, that will be considered hurtful and maybe even a “slur” in a matter of years and at most a few decades. All we can do is try and be conscience of this and work hard to eliminate them from your vocabulary but it’s not easy when you’ve used a word or term for decades
Here’s a selection of words from a list that a Harvard group just recently deemed “harmful”:
American, You guys, Prisoner, Crazy, Victim, Karen, Walk-in.