[overflow] Re: GHHS

[mbottorff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Michelle & Boyd Bottorff)]

> > I'd also argue that knowledge of basic psych would most likely (in the
> > first seven years of deployment) lead to more emotional peer abuse, the
> > same way of the IALAC example above.  (And I'm not saying this to combat
> > the idea that it should be deployed, I'm just wanting to get some ideas on
> > how to combat this particular problem with the deployment?)
> 
> You may be right.  I was recently startled by news from a British
> co-apan that out there kids are using "challenged" as a nasty name
> to call outgroup kids, in about the way we used to say "spaz"
> (for "spastic," someone with cerebral palsy) back in the 1950s.

This startled you?

It ALWAYS happens.  

You coin a new more politically correct term to refer to some sort of
disadvantage or disability or minority feature, and voila it turns into
an insult.

nigger was a bad word, lets say negro.
nego becomes a bad word, everyone must say black
black becomes a bad word, tell everyone it's african american.
"African American" is probably never going to become a bad word because
it's just plain too long to see everyday use.  Everyone I know still
says black.  But if it HAD caught on, african would have shortly become
a bad word.  

idiot is a bad word, lets say retarded.
retarded is a bad word, lets say mentally disabled
disabled is now a bad word, lets try challenged.

And so on and so forth.

Personally I think that people should give it over, and just stick with
the word they started out with.  "Mormon" was an insult when it was
coined, and now it's just a term, and the tone of voice has to carry the
emotional context.  The main problem Church leaders now have with it, is
not that its insulting, but that it doesn't include the word Christ
anywhere, and therefore does nothing to refute they "Mormon's aren't
Christians" nonesense.  This is a problem that they are doing their best
to address, although the "and they are all called Bob" problem has still
got the upper hand, IMHO.

Michelle Bottorff
Lady Lavender

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