This is not something I see here on lemmygrad. In fact, lemmygrad does an excellent job of this and challenges ableist language I sometimes use.
However, this is the only place I know that is willing to stay tough on problematic language and terminology.
As I’m sure you know, the 90’s and 00’s was a time when the “F” slur was common. You heard or said “thats gay” 95 times a minute. The “R” slur was about as common.
Then, somewhat suddenly, this language began to die down. Over the years it became more and more rare to hear. I think this is because people wanted to be more respectful, or, at least that’s why I also decided to be more intentional about these matters.
But this is changing. The last few years I’ve seen people double down on the R slur. I am somewhat unsurprised, afterall, the R word was not rejected as aggressively as the F slur or the “thats gay” comment. I am convinced most people around me are closeted eugenicists emboldened by the extreme ableism baked into their emerging fascist identities.
But now I am seeing people defend how they use gay as an insult as well. I find this to be terrifying. I don’t understand how any conscientious person could shamelessly use such language.
For those of you that have decided its ok to use such language. Thank you. I am working overtime trying to find out who exactly will be comfortable killing disabled people and queer people. You make my life easier. I will trust my gut about you in these times and treat you as the enemy you are.
Yeah it’s the same here in Brasil too. A couple of years ago it was harder to come by our version of the F-word, and even the R-word was being used less from what I saw, but it’s like it is now just super common place for everyone to use these now, and it fucking sucks and hurts.
To give a lil bit more context. Our version of the F word have been reclaimed by the LGBT community here, but it never left the average person vocabulary, in fact it is even a commonly used figure of speech that just means “bro, dude, etc.” for people in Rio for example, it’s common for people there to use the word a shit ton, and therefore have a completely different meaning. It’s a complicated thing, but I’m 100% behind the reclaimed use at least. Seeing other queer people use it feels right, while the only thing I feel when straight people use it is disgust, unless it’s cariocas (people from Rio basically) using it, that I think it’s fine too.
For the R-word, I don’t think there have been an effort to reclaim in here, but I might be wrong. To me it just hurts and it’s not a word I want to reclaim. I wish I was more in tune with the neurodivergent community here to now better about it, but my understanding is that given the history of mental illness “treatment” here, it is very harmful language.