Saw you wanted so non-ableist terms! Hope this helps a bit.

ineedmasculism:

non-ableist alternatives for insulting people or things! 1. please do not say “l*me” cruddy

annoying

disappointing

lousy

no good

crummy

rubbish

junky

(as pointed out by a comment, not to be confused with j*nkie and better avoided in real life, when it could easily be confused with a slur against addicts)

rotten

cheesy

corny

tacky 2. please do not say “d*mb” or “st*pid” illogical

foolish

silly

nonsensical

obtuse

sophomoric

ignorant

incomprehensible

irrational

senseless

vapid 3. please do not say “cr*zy,” “ps*cho,” or “ins*ne” ridiculous

unfathomable

erratic

illogical

unbelievable

unreasonable

absurd

wacky

eccentric

out of control

unpredictable

wild

preposterous

ludicrous

outlandish

Okay, a few points to consider about lists like this:

For a great many people who this whole ‘change your language’ activism claims to help, this is actually completely inaccessible. Check this post. Basically, telling somebody who actually has an intellectual disability or a cognitive impairment that, no, they have to say “sophomoric” instead of “stupid” is the opposite of helpful, individually or in terms of dismantling systems of oppression.





There’s a difference between a word like 'stupid’, and a word like 'retarded’. One of these words is explicitly linked to one particular oppressed group, and centuries of systematic violence. Like several other words (and you know what they are, we all know what they are) it’s not okay to use. The word 'stupid’, on the other hand, is literally a descriptive word meaning 'not smart’. There is a really big difference here, and equating the two is not helpful to any cause.





Let’s say this again: 'stupid’ is a descriptive word meaning 'not smart’. It doesn’t mean the same thing as intellectually disabled. It didn’t originate as a descriptor for the intellectually disabled. (Lame, okay, yes–'lame’ specifically means somebody who can’t walk; I generally avoid it myself, because it has that explicit connotation. There are arguments to be made about linguistic shift–if most people know that 'dumb’ means 'stupid’ and very few people know that 'dumb’ means 'mute’, then the primary meaning of the word has changed–but that’s way, way beyond the scope of this post.) When you’re writing a list like this, you’re trying to protect people from a part of language that isn’t even aimed at them.





The only real connection that the word 'stupid’ has to people who are intellectually disabled, is the idea that intelligence is Good Good Good, and lack of intelligence is Bad Bad Bad. That’s not a problem of the word 'stupid’, that’s an underlying social and cultural problem. Any word you choose has that underlying social and cultural problem. Replacing 'stupid’ with 'irrational’, which A) has been used to silence women (and many other oppressed groups) for years, and B) means the exact same thing, in terms of Intelligence Is Good and Lack Of Intelligence Is Bad, is, well. "Irrational.“





"Why are you trying to make tiny changes when there are children starving in Africa!” is a terrible argument against any kind of activism for a whole lot of reasons, and I don’t want to make it here. I do want to say, however, that if changing your language–or, specifically, policing other people’s language–is your prime form of activism, you should probably rethink your plan. Things like this don’t happen because somebody used the word 'stupid’. They happen because some people have intellectual disabilities, and other people think that intellectual disabilities make a person less than human. Saying that it’s too horrible to even call something 'stupid’ doesn’t really help that problem.

I wouldn’t make a big deal out of this, except that it’s sort of amazing to me: whenever I see people blogging about disability/mental health activism via changing our language (which is a powerful tool, don’t get me wrong!), 95% of the time, it’s the people who aren’t disabled. The people who are disabled, or mentally ill, or who this list otherwise applies to, tend to blog about how this particular kind of activism does them more harm than good.

(via queerhawkeye-deactivated2017012)