mention of ablism slurs
words/phrasrs I've been using lately to replace "stupid" "dumb" etc:
-unexpected
-silly
-a strange choice
-unreasonable
-a poor decision
-a mistake
-not what i wanted
-wrong
instead of "don't be stupid" I've been trying the more positive "try to make good decisions"
I'm open to feedback/other ideas!
mentions of ableist slurs
@miscellanium those are pretty good!
ignorant still kind of works for me because it connotes some agency, not a reference to intelligence level. but yeah, i am also open to reconsidering that interpretation if other people have a different response to that word.
mentions of ableist slurs
@hvee yeah, that's how I was thinking of it. "misinformed" could work in a similar way without having to do with actual intelligence, maybe? it's interesting to think about all the possibilities!
mentions of ableist slurs
@miscellanium it's also fairly revealing to think about the variety of uses/meanings when people default to "stupid" and to examine the implications of what a particular culture attributes to intelligence; basically, it comes down to low intelligence being inherently bad and undesirable, and with the sense that a person can choose their intelligence
mention of ablism slurs
@hvee instead of "that's crazy" use "that's a bad situation" and similar approaches
It takes a lot to unlearn ableism!
mention of ablism slurs
@vahnj yeah, mental health slurs are another category I'm working on examining in my own usage. so far it's been a harder habit for me to break than the intelligence-based ones, but I'm inching my way there ;_;
mention of ablism slurs
@hvee I am trying something similar. language can get so creative if we use it kindly.
mention of ablism slurs
@bat there are just so many more descriptive and detailed ways to use language than relying on slurs! slurs are not very specific, and they hurt people.
mentions of ableist slurs
@hvee I especially like "ridiculous" myself. "bizarre" and "incomprehensible" I think are also good words. sometimes I say "ignorant" instead of "stupid", but if anyone thinks that's still bad I'll listen to their reasoning.