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'spherians, blogging, culture, insanitybytes22, opinions, rants, Teh Stoopid, words
I know, I know, there are numerous issues with the manosphere, like an entire ocean of angst, misery, and woe threatening to drown us all in its swirling darkness. Actually, many gleefully celebrating the very idea of drowning us all in darkness, as if the only joy some of them will ever know is fantasizing about the end of civilization itself.
By the way, the above paragraph could probably be called a argumentum ad hominem, on account of the fact that it is my intention to attack the character, motive, or other attribute of the person, group, or label I am arguing against. Argumentum ad hominem is not always fallacious however, not always a logical fallacy, especially as it relates to credibility, facts, and certain kinds of moral reasoning.
Truly one should probably not even attempt to type the words “logic” and “manosphere” in the same sentence. I frequently attempt to speak to people, to argue with those I am uncertain can even be placed in the hominem category in the first place, rendering the very idea of an “argumentum ad hominem” mute anyway.
So it’s a rather trivial thing, a thing that will no doubt fall on deaf ears, but would y’all be so kind as to stop calling people “retards” as if the very idea of being a retard is a fate worse than death? There are many, many so-called intelligent people who insist on doing this, but I shall target Vox Day today because he is a frequent offender, as you can probably tell in his, “Listen Up, Retards” post.
I am a big fan of free speech, heaven forbid I should ever join the tone police or suggest that speech should ever be regulated or punished or anything of the sort. I am not the least bit interested in being politically correct here. However, just because you have the freedom and the right to say something does not mean you should say something. With freedom comes responsibility and words have tremendous power.
We can speak blessings or curses over ourselves and others.
So, calling people retards, as if being a retard is a bad thing, implies that morality and logic are somehow related to human intelligence. I assure you, there is no relationship what so ever. Computers can be quite intelligent, heck the talking chip in a Barney doll, by the standards we use to measure intelligence, is five times more intelligent than most of us. And of course there are also sociopaths and psychopaths, quite intelligent but often devoid of a heart at all.
Calling people retards dishonors your own intelligence, it deprives you of the beauty to be found in those souls, and frankly calls into question your own very status as an actual hominem.There is something to be said for the idea of actually remembering to act like a human.
Naturally those who worship at the altar of their own biology, those who place entirely too much value on human intelligence, those who harbor a certain kind of bitterness towards all of womankind, are unlikely to hear me and to take my words to heart.
With cheerful fortitude however, as it has been requested, let it be done. Stop with the calling people retards, some of those people have far more worth and value than you do.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Well said, IB. I remember the junior high contempt for “retards” and “speds” (those receiving special education), and I’m glad to know that most people in my peer group have outgrown that contempt. Being opposed to “political correctness” by no means permits any writer to abandon courtesy and respect toward others. You have stated the case well. J.
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Well now I need to go read that post lol.
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Great post and very well stated. Hopefully, this posts makes more than a few people think about their choice of words.
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By the same token, calling someone a “cripple” or a “fattie” or a “faggot” (as if those are bad things) would be seen as negative if that’s the intention of the speaker. “Retard” simply means “slow” or “delayed”, which certainly is an accurate description of the developmental state of those referred to by the term “retard” in a clinical sense. While calling someone with average mental skills “retard” might be meant as mean, it’s really only inaccurate.
Maybe the real problem isn’t the words, but the meanness of the intention behind them. And that can be applied to ANY word given enough time and exposure. Like the word “sick” used to mean “ill”.
Suppose I called you an inbred. It’s only mean if you think it is.
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No. It is always mean to apply labels like those to people, no matter what your intent. It is demeaning and offensive because someone intended it to be, not because of what the recipient thinks or feels about it.
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In Theodore Beale’s case, his whole article just sounds like more projection. Anyone who calls himself the ‘Voice of God’ has no business lecturing anyone else about logic.
On use of ‘demeaning’ terms, though: people who have dedicated themselves to the overthrow of civilization; or engage in behaviors in and of themselves demeaning to the human race have effectively segregated themselves into a separate classification. Using these terms becomes an expression of contempt for and resistance to their pretentions of superiority and their destructive goals. For example, I have no problem referring to homosexuals as the ‘Fags’. They’ve decided to declare civilized gender norms invalid and express their intentions to destroy and replace them. They themselves refer to us as ‘breeders’ ‘straights’ and other such terms; and constantly refer to themselves as though they and their lifestyles are inherently superior to other human beings. Using a derogatory term for them is making a statement that, if they renounce civilized human behaviors; then they forfeit the right to expect it from anybody else.
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I’m convinced if only “retards” existed, Christ would have died to save them. If only women existed, Christ would have died to save us. He chose Israel because they were the smallest, least people, not because they were the greatest.
He told men to honor their wives as fellow heirs of the grace of life. He simply loves His creation, and how can we turn around and think we’re so much better than any of the others that we don’t have to love those Christ sacrificed for? It’s the height of hubris. It’s saying to God, I don’t need to love the people You love—which is sin, the same sin Satan was guilty of. He put himself up as equal with God. What these guys are doing is worse because they’re saying, by implication, that God is wrong to love the people they themselves denigrate.
Becky
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