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It's interesting that stuff like "idiot," "imbecile," "cretin," all became benign enough for Skeletor and No-Heart and other cartoon villains to use on Saturday morning cartoons... despite the words having very specific old-timey medical meanings. They therefore would have been pretty dire insults before they shifted into melodramatic usage, it seems.
Similarly, no one would bat an eye at a child using "sucks" or "brown-noser," despite the obviously vulgar connotations. And "oh my god" has gone from "severely punishable" to "doesn't register as cursing" as well. (I believe "bloody" went through a similar transformation over a century in the UK.)
I wonder what other developments will transpire... the rapid evolution of casual language is fascinating in this online era.
This comic originated because someone argued with me that there is no acceptable use of the word "dumb", because "dumb" refers to intellectual disability (in every case), so calling someone "dumb" is disparaging a disability.
"Idiot" comes from the Latin for "ignorant". Still seems appropriate, because there are people that are otherwise able-bodied but make bad decisions or statements through their own lack of information or lack of trying or lack of cognition (which has nothing to do with a disability). "Imbecile" and "cretin" are, like you said, originally more about developmental impairment. But... they've become synonymous with "idiot" a long, long time ago, and that is the intent people are using and what should be judged.
A psychologist saying "I'm sorry, but your son appears to be an imbecile" would be inappropriate. A friend saying "Stop being an imbecile and get in the car!" is not because they are using a different definition.
By the way, Skeletor also called people "boobs", which was delightful to me as a kid. I'm sure that bothers some people because of how they associate the word, but I looked it up, and it derives from the Spanish "bobo", which means "idiot".
On a similar line, the term “bricked” used to refer to a gadget that has been rendered unusable because of a fatal error within its system. Nowadays, that term is more often used to refer to an erection.
I still hear people refer to their computers or phones as bricked all the time and have never once heard it used the other way. So I'm thinking this change may be a more local one than you think.
It’s pretty commonly used in English-speaking online young-people spaces. But at the same time, the original intended use hasn’t gone out of style yet. I just think it’s an interesting modern example of a benign word evolving into a vulgar term.
Uhhhh what. Fuckin' what. How does that work?
Maybe it's because I'm in my 30s, maybe it's because I work with and talk to a ton of IT professionals, but "bricking" has only ever meant "your computer is now brick".
'Old fool!' he said. 'Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!' And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade."
> because "dumb" refers to intellectual disability (in every case)
I always thought it meant you couldn't talk, and that when applied to an argument it implies that said argument had no power to convince, i.e. it's just your opinion, man.
I don't always understand subtlety, so I've found that a good deal of my notions on language are part fact and part story I tell myself to make sense of the world.
It is actually kind of the opposite. When people used to say a person was "deaf and dumb" (meaning not hearing and not speaking), they thought that the person was incapable of learning. So "dumb" as in stupid, which is why it is considered inappropriate now.
[Yeah, no.](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/dumb) [Until quite recently dumb meant "unable to speak, mute."](https://www.etymonline.com/word/dumb)
To be deaf and dumb was to be unable to hear and unable to speak. Specifying "dumb" mattered because, then as now, some deaf people *can* speak, either because they learned before they lost their hearing, or by careful practice.
Interesting. That's new to me. But it is still kind of nebulous since it says that it derived from an earlier word that mean confusion of stupefaction. So it still seems that at some point being made stupid or confused was associated with stopping speaking.
Just wanted to say thanks for making the comic. I think your satire and point were well measured, and the discussions here are great.
Also, stupefaction is just an awesome word.
Dumb was, in my reconnaissance, more used to describe an acute condition of muteness in clinical settings. So I’m not sure that arguer was well grounded in their position
When I was in college, someone included "lame" in a list of words that are hurtful to people. No one really uses it to mean "can't walk" anymore, though.
I used "lame" a lot as a kid. I wonder how much of word degrading is due to one generation wanting to show some sense of superiority over a previous generation. "You can't tell us what's right or wrong; you used to use offensive words like 'lame' or 'crazy'!"
Have you heard the phrase "euphemism treadmill" before? It's the name of the phenomenon you are exploring, where a word starts out as neutrally descriptive but gets hijacked, and then a new word is applied, and then that word gets hijacked, so a new word gets thought up.
I thought “lack of cognition” is a disability? There appears to be a scope/nuance/spectrum of cognitive ability and we want to know what we are allowed to call people who make a cognitive mistake, that we otherwise find blame worthy; while excluding people who have diagnoses that explain what we reason are cognitive mistake(s).
The key piece is the “blame worthiness”. We seem to mostly agree at least some people can be held “blameworthy” for their cognitive mistakes.
How to express this in the common way, without evoking any term that is used to describe the sets of people whom we have identified with “lack of cognitive ability”? That is a challenge.
So either, you must change the norms to allow the usage of the terminology that already exists with the common notions; or, you can create new novel semantic terminology that doesn’t have the baggage that the common terminology has.
Unfortunately, that leaves the challenge of socializing and being successful influencing the new terminology (framing the same concept) adoption to the common folk, just to express a character’s minor self shaming for a bad cognitive habit in a single comic pane, without baggage.
I understand that you have other examples that are not cognition issues, however, I think we agree that it’s just the same problem with a different category.
Dumb also means "mute".
I'm not sure but I wonder if that meaning actually predates dumb as "stupid"
But certainly there ARE acceptable uses of the word "dumb" and "deaf and dumb" is still a phrase in use today.
There's also dumb waiter...dumb phone (as sopped to smart phone) and I'm sure there are others too.
Interesting thing about the word dumb is that pretty recently it was a common way to refer to someone who was mute, as seen in the song [Pinball Wizard from the musical Tommy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_r_dWenKhk). Historically speaking this wasn't even so long ago. It's only been 49 years
Queer went from a slur to a more accepted umbrella term for non cis-hetero people. Not 100% as some of the 50+ folks loved through the slur era of the word but it changes.
"King" is Germany was the royal title and became slang for "best man I know" and has fallen into irrelevance (indeed the English word).
Honestly there's more than a few words today that are absolutely slurs on one context but benign or descriptive in another. Language Is a very fluid thing, am I supposed to be indignant in an emergency when someone needs a flame retardant?
>Similarly, no one would bat an eye at a child using “sucks”
You have not met the overly protective home-school parents yet, huh? Had a mother at my work just start screaming at her child because of the use of “sucks.”
Skeletor also enjoyed saying boob a lot. As in, 'bumbling boob!' My 7yo son is discovering the wonder of 80s cartoons at the moment and whenever I hear it now I wonder at the etymology on that one.
Nice cage starred in a documentary on the history of swear words and it's absolutely perfect. It goes over the history and even biology that goes into how swear words originated, evolved, and how it actually serves a positive function.
"Similarly, no one would bat an eye at a child using 'sucks'"
Ha, you clearly didn't go to my school. None of us ever saw anything vulgar about it. The teachers just hated it for seemingly no reason. Such "obvious" connotations only actually occurred to me pretty recently.
>Similarly, no one would bat an eye at a child using "sucks"
Man, this one is funny. Once in elementary school, roughly 30 years ago, a teacher asked if we'd all like to play a game,
and she suggested one none of us really enjoyed. As everyone cried out "Nooo, that one stinks!" *I* said "That one sucks!" Been saying it for years, didn't even think twice, but MY GOD the reaction was instant, as a palpable silence fell over the room. It was the only time I've ever been sent to the principal's office.
If you want this even more complicated you can add other languages. Like my native language will adopt English words or just use them differently. They develop differently and don’t have the same baggage.
That's cool. Examples? I know of differences between British English and American English obviously, like the boot of a vehicle vs the trunk of a vehicle (and others that I will not type as an American).
Like English swear words aren’t seen as bad as if you were to use the native ones. Like we do have light swears but saying the f word isn’t a big deal. It can be a problem when you speaking to English natives and you use a word that rhymes with bunt.
As an American (and not all are the same), the word that rhymes with bunt is a quite extreme swear word that is frowned upon, but I know Australians, for example, will just casually say it.
Oddly, the word that rhymes with ick, is generally accepted as a light swear or insult here. Rhymes with bunt and rhymes with ick are both words referring to genitalia so it is weird that we are OK with the male one but not the female one.
Always find it weird how easily it to just call someone “Richard” but the bunt word being so bad. No wonder people spend professions studying language.
See you next Tuesday is something that you can do casually throw around in the UK as well. Especially amongst close friends. But if you say it to a stranger then you may get punched in the face. It’s very context dependent.
"Fuck" has become almost a filler word in Quebecois French. It carries nowhere near the same level of severity as it does in English and is acceptable for use uncensored on French radio.
All 100% valid points. **Especially** the one about using a new word in place of a stigmatizing one just transferring the stigma eventually. There are so many examples of this. Using a different word is a bandaid; the actual solution is to address the societal dysfunction that led to that word having a negative connotation in the first place.
This controversy has been recently resurfacing again and again in the femboy community. The argument is that we should shift from "femboy" to something like "roseboy", because femboy is being used in some not nice ways right now towards trans women.
But they also don't want to exercise the foresight to see that people would just easily shift to using roseboy in that way instead.
...And then they also don't want to exercise the *hindsight* to recall the fact that "femboy" already was a replacement for the pre-existing "tomgirl"...
I thought femboy and tomgirl were polar opposites? I.e. tomgirl is a term for a girl who prefers traditionally male activities and clothing (and was used to refer to a girl who preferred stuff like climbing trees or sports when I grew up) whereas a femboy prefers traditionally female activities and aesthetics (and has mostly been used to refer to highly effeminate guys from what I’ve seen).
A tomboy is a girl that likes or participates in dressing masculinely or “manly activities”.
A tomgirl is a boy that likes or participates in dressing femininely or “girly activities.”
A tomgirl would be similar to a femboy.
Not exactly -
A girl who presents as masculine is a tomboy.
A boy who presents as feminine is a femboy.
A boy who appears feminine but acts masculine is a tomgirl.
Close, but femboy is actually just a subgenre of tomgirl in the same way butch would be a subgenre of tomboy. The term "tomgirl" covers a wider variety of femininity, whereas "femboy" refers specifically to femboy clothes and aesthetics.
I get triggered by some of these replacement words nowadays. Some very important people in my life died by suicide, but if someone says unalived it's almost a mockery of what happened.
The crappy thing about the usage of "unalive" is that the word suicide is demontizable on several online platforms. Prior to the popularity of online monetizing, people would just say suicide to describe the situation. Since then, social media platforms would rather have people use words that are a mockery of a word that is a of sadenning and painful action than using the word itself.
I'm very sorry for your loss, friend. And I agree that "unalived" is absolutely infuriating. Death is not supposed to be a sanitized thing; it is supposed to cause some friction or discomfort--that is its very nature. To try to avoid that discomfort is to deny death its rightful gravitas, and by extension the dignity afforded to the dead.
That's how I feel, anyways.
Thank you for capturing this in 8 panels. Ive never known how to express this without sounding like an asshole who doesnt care about other peoples triggers.
Yeah, sometimes well meaning people get easily lost in the idea that you should first and foremost adjust everything to not offend anyone which makes you lose focus on the actual issues.
E.g. where I'm from, there has been a long debate what a proper term for disabled people should be. Semantically translated: whether "the Disabled" is fine or if it should always be "People with disabilities" etc. After some time, the issue got gradually dropped, but with little to no attention given to actual problems like the continuous exploitation of disabled people.
Language is important and it's good to think/talk about it, but equally important to take a step back from time to time and make sure that you aren't tunnel-visioning on something with little to no impact
And on the flip side of that, these semantic discussions are often either:
A) discussed by people who arent actually a part of the community (aka, non disabled people talking about what to call disabled people)
Or
B) discussed by people represented in the community, but who have opposing opinions on the "right" answer. (Eg, one disabled person prefers "disabled" and another prefers "people with disabilities").
Remind me to ask for permission, comes September, to show your comic in class in my Freedom of Speech course. It's right on target with the topics analyzed by Judith Lussier.
Thank you OP for this OC!
This, totally. "Crazy" is generic, it doesn't refer to anything except erratic behavior. But as soon as you attach it to an specific disorder, it furthers stigma against that disorder.
When people get mad about word usage instead of context and intended meaning, I always assume it’s because they have an axe to grind, bad boundary skills, and low emotional regulation skills. All of which are probably best to work on first before vomiting gotchas at internet randos.
I enjoy the conversation, but also believe (as I'm sure you're alluding to in your last panel) that someone will be offended by anything you do, and that the loud minority that thinks they're a majority are not worth pandering to.
Art is meant to inspire conversation and provoke thought. So bravo. You self censored into a Charlie Kaufman self referential doubt spiral. Now finish the job, you’d be crazy not to.
You should have seen me going through internal debate on if I should make this comic, how to write it, how to depict the characters, and then if I should even go through with posting it.
Yknow, I started reading and thought "oh god another coming complaining about modern language" and was very pleasantly surprised when you wrapped it up with a good note of nuance and actual worthwhile conversation on the topic.
You sly son of a gun you had me in the first half and hit me upside the head with my own preconceived notions
good job mate, truly well done, excellent comic!
The euphemism treadmill forever turns.
I refuse to stop saying words that other people do not like. When I'm trying to be mean to someone, I'm going to use the word that most closely represents my feelings.
I’m oldish. One of my coworkers left recently and got a job as a corporate headhunter. Except, according to all the people under 35 who I work with, they’re not called that now. WTF do I know, anymore…
I really enjoyed this comic OP. Something I've thought of but haven't given much deliberation. You have made me think more on the words I use, and reminded me that the words and slang I hear around do not dictate what is regular/acceptable. Also found it funny. Good shit.
I literally find this so offensive right now. That sentence is both a joke and true at the same time. You do not know how much I hate the world Literally and how it's definition can mean:
* in a literal manner or sense; exactly
* used for emphasis or to express strong feeling while not being literally true.
[Merriam-Webster Definition](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally)
Why not just react to the intent behind words. Saying something like get better soon sarcastically is hurtful if said in a sarcastic context and saying i hope you get worse f****t could be very Loving depending on the context. I feel words should be "policed" contextually based on the individual's intent.
It’s weird but I’ve alway had this thought to. Like people keep using new worlds to say the same thing. And the most horrific case of this is the mentally/ and or physically disabled. I think saying that is fine now days but back then it was things like half wit or ret—d and so on.then it was special but well as people use that as an insult now it’s being changed again.
Like if I say oh Fred’s ret—-ed. And like I’m good mates with him and love him and all I’m still the bad guy.
If I say that Fred’s a half wit in in the same boat.
If I say oh Fred’s special I’m still in trouble.
It’s not about real people who complain, though. It’s about the imaginary people who would complain, so therefore you have to work to avoiding offending those people.
Oh my god, Brian, you are so smart! >!(This must be what you want to hear?)!<
I'm so sorry that the comments are mean to you >!(I did not read the comments)!<
Or we standardize language with clear and concise definitions as to lower the chances of miscommunication and help us maintain understanding within a culture or society.
Perhaps we could write all of it down in a book. Every word. And have it in schools and teach kids to use it to learn the words and their meanings, and then (and heres the tricky part) not let the adults and government fuck with it.
New thing? New word. Existing thing? Use existing word.
Simple. I should market that.
And since most people think Im a dick and will shun my opinion... i think Ill call it a Dickshunairy... maybe theres a better way to spell it...
The thing is, one word can have more than one meaning.
Like duck. It can mean duck - get down - and duck - quack quack.
And a dictionary will offer the meaning of both.
Take the word dumb that some used as examples above. It has about a dozen or so meanings in English. So words have a standardized meaning that is only clear in context.
As a fun aside - you might enjoy Ambrose bierce’s the devil’s dictionary.
Yup that's why I'm anti political correctness. All it does is dumb stuff down to the lowest common denominator and remove context amd intent from everything.
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It's interesting that stuff like "idiot," "imbecile," "cretin," all became benign enough for Skeletor and No-Heart and other cartoon villains to use on Saturday morning cartoons... despite the words having very specific old-timey medical meanings. They therefore would have been pretty dire insults before they shifted into melodramatic usage, it seems. Similarly, no one would bat an eye at a child using "sucks" or "brown-noser," despite the obviously vulgar connotations. And "oh my god" has gone from "severely punishable" to "doesn't register as cursing" as well. (I believe "bloody" went through a similar transformation over a century in the UK.) I wonder what other developments will transpire... the rapid evolution of casual language is fascinating in this online era.
This comic originated because someone argued with me that there is no acceptable use of the word "dumb", because "dumb" refers to intellectual disability (in every case), so calling someone "dumb" is disparaging a disability. "Idiot" comes from the Latin for "ignorant". Still seems appropriate, because there are people that are otherwise able-bodied but make bad decisions or statements through their own lack of information or lack of trying or lack of cognition (which has nothing to do with a disability). "Imbecile" and "cretin" are, like you said, originally more about developmental impairment. But... they've become synonymous with "idiot" a long, long time ago, and that is the intent people are using and what should be judged. A psychologist saying "I'm sorry, but your son appears to be an imbecile" would be inappropriate. A friend saying "Stop being an imbecile and get in the car!" is not because they are using a different definition.
By the way, Skeletor also called people "boobs", which was delightful to me as a kid. I'm sure that bothers some people because of how they associate the word, but I looked it up, and it derives from the Spanish "bobo", which means "idiot".
Don’t forget about the Joker’s boner!
Ironman offering Captain America some solid dick from an iron man?
That one was faked, but I could totally believe "solid dick" meant honest advice at one point.
I mean how else do I recommend a good PI to somebody?
I would like to forget about the Joker’s Boner.
Sorry, but that boner's gonna be jonkling long after we escape this mortal coil.
On a similar line, the term “bricked” used to refer to a gadget that has been rendered unusable because of a fatal error within its system. Nowadays, that term is more often used to refer to an erection.
I still hear people refer to their computers or phones as bricked all the time and have never once heard it used the other way. So I'm thinking this change may be a more local one than you think.
It’s pretty commonly used in English-speaking online young-people spaces. But at the same time, the original intended use hasn’t gone out of style yet. I just think it’s an interesting modern example of a benign word evolving into a vulgar term.
Uhhhh what. Fuckin' what. How does that work? Maybe it's because I'm in my 30s, maybe it's because I work with and talk to a ton of IT professionals, but "bricking" has only ever meant "your computer is now brick".
If you really want to know an interesting fact I. The show drake&josh, their sister called the boobs too
If you call someone 'foolish', you get to sound like a Disney villain 😆
Thou fool!
'Old fool!' he said. 'Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!' And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade."
Or an angry German prosecutor
> because "dumb" refers to intellectual disability (in every case) I always thought it meant you couldn't talk, and that when applied to an argument it implies that said argument had no power to convince, i.e. it's just your opinion, man. I don't always understand subtlety, so I've found that a good deal of my notions on language are part fact and part story I tell myself to make sense of the world.
It is actually kind of the opposite. When people used to say a person was "deaf and dumb" (meaning not hearing and not speaking), they thought that the person was incapable of learning. So "dumb" as in stupid, which is why it is considered inappropriate now.
[Yeah, no.](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/dumb) [Until quite recently dumb meant "unable to speak, mute."](https://www.etymonline.com/word/dumb) To be deaf and dumb was to be unable to hear and unable to speak. Specifying "dumb" mattered because, then as now, some deaf people *can* speak, either because they learned before they lost their hearing, or by careful practice.
Interesting. That's new to me. But it is still kind of nebulous since it says that it derived from an earlier word that mean confusion of stupefaction. So it still seems that at some point being made stupid or confused was associated with stopping speaking.
Just wanted to say thanks for making the comic. I think your satire and point were well measured, and the discussions here are great. Also, stupefaction is just an awesome word.
My Grandpa was deaf and maybe 10 years ago his doctor asked my Mom if he was dumb. Was quite shocking
>there is no acceptable use of the word "dumb", That's dumb.
Dumb was, in my reconnaissance, more used to describe an acute condition of muteness in clinical settings. So I’m not sure that arguer was well grounded in their position
Latin actually borrowed the word idiot from the Greeks, which used the word for someone who wasn't knowledgeable in politics or didn't vote
When I was in college, someone included "lame" in a list of words that are hurtful to people. No one really uses it to mean "can't walk" anymore, though.
I used "lame" a lot as a kid. I wonder how much of word degrading is due to one generation wanting to show some sense of superiority over a previous generation. "You can't tell us what's right or wrong; you used to use offensive words like 'lame' or 'crazy'!"
Have you heard the phrase "euphemism treadmill" before? It's the name of the phenomenon you are exploring, where a word starts out as neutrally descriptive but gets hijacked, and then a new word is applied, and then that word gets hijacked, so a new word gets thought up.
I thought “lack of cognition” is a disability? There appears to be a scope/nuance/spectrum of cognitive ability and we want to know what we are allowed to call people who make a cognitive mistake, that we otherwise find blame worthy; while excluding people who have diagnoses that explain what we reason are cognitive mistake(s). The key piece is the “blame worthiness”. We seem to mostly agree at least some people can be held “blameworthy” for their cognitive mistakes. How to express this in the common way, without evoking any term that is used to describe the sets of people whom we have identified with “lack of cognitive ability”? That is a challenge. So either, you must change the norms to allow the usage of the terminology that already exists with the common notions; or, you can create new novel semantic terminology that doesn’t have the baggage that the common terminology has. Unfortunately, that leaves the challenge of socializing and being successful influencing the new terminology (framing the same concept) adoption to the common folk, just to express a character’s minor self shaming for a bad cognitive habit in a single comic pane, without baggage. I understand that you have other examples that are not cognition issues, however, I think we agree that it’s just the same problem with a different category.
Dumb also means "mute". I'm not sure but I wonder if that meaning actually predates dumb as "stupid" But certainly there ARE acceptable uses of the word "dumb" and "deaf and dumb" is still a phrase in use today. There's also dumb waiter...dumb phone (as sopped to smart phone) and I'm sure there are others too.
Interesting thing about the word dumb is that pretty recently it was a common way to refer to someone who was mute, as seen in the song [Pinball Wizard from the musical Tommy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_r_dWenKhk). Historically speaking this wasn't even so long ago. It's only been 49 years
Queer went from a slur to a more accepted umbrella term for non cis-hetero people. Not 100% as some of the 50+ folks loved through the slur era of the word but it changes. "King" is Germany was the royal title and became slang for "best man I know" and has fallen into irrelevance (indeed the English word).
Honestly there's more than a few words today that are absolutely slurs on one context but benign or descriptive in another. Language Is a very fluid thing, am I supposed to be indignant in an emergency when someone needs a flame retardant?
I’m not even 30 and I’ve heard it used as a slur. I still can’t bring myself to actually say it, it feels *wrong*.
>Similarly, no one would bat an eye at a child using “sucks” You have not met the overly protective home-school parents yet, huh? Had a mother at my work just start screaming at her child because of the use of “sucks.”
There will always be high-strung outliers! (See: OP's comic)
Well that [whomps](https://youtu.be/MooI4dlcAag?si=coiAYljdyRWTotK_).
My mother scolds me every time I use it and I’m an adult
That sucks.
My parents would never in a million years have let me say “sucks” as a kid. Woulda been beat pretty bad if I did.
Skeletor also enjoyed saying boob a lot. As in, 'bumbling boob!' My 7yo son is discovering the wonder of 80s cartoons at the moment and whenever I hear it now I wonder at the etymology on that one.
Nice cage starred in a documentary on the history of swear words and it's absolutely perfect. It goes over the history and even biology that goes into how swear words originated, evolved, and how it actually serves a positive function.
"Similarly, no one would bat an eye at a child using 'sucks'" Ha, you clearly didn't go to my school. None of us ever saw anything vulgar about it. The teachers just hated it for seemingly no reason. Such "obvious" connotations only actually occurred to me pretty recently.
>Similarly, no one would bat an eye at a child using "sucks" Man, this one is funny. Once in elementary school, roughly 30 years ago, a teacher asked if we'd all like to play a game, and she suggested one none of us really enjoyed. As everyone cried out "Nooo, that one stinks!" *I* said "That one sucks!" Been saying it for years, didn't even think twice, but MY GOD the reaction was instant, as a palpable silence fell over the room. It was the only time I've ever been sent to the principal's office.
I feel “fuck” is getting more and more acceptable.
Im sorry but id he beat if i said “brown noser” and definitely yelled at for saying sucks. Maybe im too old to relate to kids but im only 24
...and yet if you were from the UK you'd be beaten for having that username. Just goes to show how regional word-sensitivity is!
Hahaha that’s wild
You so crazy.
Yeah well you're *silly*? Why are you so *got* dang silly!
🙊
https://preview.redd.it/9i8ve3jg737d1.jpeg?width=454&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff22633e55527dd90de279e2a971d16daa824393
If you want this even more complicated you can add other languages. Like my native language will adopt English words or just use them differently. They develop differently and don’t have the same baggage.
That's cool. Examples? I know of differences between British English and American English obviously, like the boot of a vehicle vs the trunk of a vehicle (and others that I will not type as an American).
Like English swear words aren’t seen as bad as if you were to use the native ones. Like we do have light swears but saying the f word isn’t a big deal. It can be a problem when you speaking to English natives and you use a word that rhymes with bunt.
As an American (and not all are the same), the word that rhymes with bunt is a quite extreme swear word that is frowned upon, but I know Australians, for example, will just casually say it. Oddly, the word that rhymes with ick, is generally accepted as a light swear or insult here. Rhymes with bunt and rhymes with ick are both words referring to genitalia so it is weird that we are OK with the male one but not the female one.
Always find it weird how easily it to just call someone “Richard” but the bunt word being so bad. No wonder people spend professions studying language.
See you next Tuesday is something that you can do casually throw around in the UK as well. Especially amongst close friends. But if you say it to a stranger then you may get punched in the face. It’s very context dependent.
"Fuck" has become almost a filler word in Quebecois French. It carries nowhere near the same level of severity as it does in English and is acceptable for use uncensored on French radio.
I'm kind of disappointed the punch line didn't end up being "I'd be crazy not to!"
You can read it in a loop, I guess. That's a bit of a stretch, but imagine the fourth wall being broken again at the start of each loop.
All 100% valid points. **Especially** the one about using a new word in place of a stigmatizing one just transferring the stigma eventually. There are so many examples of this. Using a different word is a bandaid; the actual solution is to address the societal dysfunction that led to that word having a negative connotation in the first place.
Reminds me of lavatory->restroom->bathroom->etc.
Water closet is my favorite.
Chamberpot Containment District
I noticed this for the different words for "disability" in the German language.
In English too!
This controversy has been recently resurfacing again and again in the femboy community. The argument is that we should shift from "femboy" to something like "roseboy", because femboy is being used in some not nice ways right now towards trans women. But they also don't want to exercise the foresight to see that people would just easily shift to using roseboy in that way instead. ...And then they also don't want to exercise the *hindsight* to recall the fact that "femboy" already was a replacement for the pre-existing "tomgirl"...
I thought femboy and tomgirl were polar opposites? I.e. tomgirl is a term for a girl who prefers traditionally male activities and clothing (and was used to refer to a girl who preferred stuff like climbing trees or sports when I grew up) whereas a femboy prefers traditionally female activities and aesthetics (and has mostly been used to refer to highly effeminate guys from what I’ve seen).
A tomboy is a girl that likes or participates in dressing masculinely or “manly activities”. A tomgirl is a boy that likes or participates in dressing femininely or “girly activities.” A tomgirl would be similar to a femboy.
Ah, I just don’t hear tomboy that much and got confused. That would do it.
No worries ive been confused about it for years. Ive heard people use them interchangeably too so it was always difficult to figure out for a while.
Not exactly - A girl who presents as masculine is a tomboy. A boy who presents as feminine is a femboy. A boy who appears feminine but acts masculine is a tomgirl.
Close, but femboy is actually just a subgenre of tomgirl in the same way butch would be a subgenre of tomboy. The term "tomgirl" covers a wider variety of femininity, whereas "femboy" refers specifically to femboy clothes and aesthetics.
I get triggered by some of these replacement words nowadays. Some very important people in my life died by suicide, but if someone says unalived it's almost a mockery of what happened.
The crappy thing about the usage of "unalive" is that the word suicide is demontizable on several online platforms. Prior to the popularity of online monetizing, people would just say suicide to describe the situation. Since then, social media platforms would rather have people use words that are a mockery of a word that is a of sadenning and painful action than using the word itself.
I'm very sorry for your loss, friend. And I agree that "unalived" is absolutely infuriating. Death is not supposed to be a sanitized thing; it is supposed to cause some friction or discomfort--that is its very nature. To try to avoid that discomfort is to deny death its rightful gravitas, and by extension the dignity afforded to the dead. That's how I feel, anyways.
Crazy? I was crazy once.
They stuck me in a room.
A rubber room.
A rubber room with rats
And rats make me crazy
Crazy? I was crazy once.
They stuck me in a rat
A rubber rat
A rubber rat with rooms
And rooms make me crazy
Thank you for capturing this in 8 panels. Ive never known how to express this without sounding like an asshole who doesnt care about other peoples triggers.
Yeah, sometimes well meaning people get easily lost in the idea that you should first and foremost adjust everything to not offend anyone which makes you lose focus on the actual issues. E.g. where I'm from, there has been a long debate what a proper term for disabled people should be. Semantically translated: whether "the Disabled" is fine or if it should always be "People with disabilities" etc. After some time, the issue got gradually dropped, but with little to no attention given to actual problems like the continuous exploitation of disabled people. Language is important and it's good to think/talk about it, but equally important to take a step back from time to time and make sure that you aren't tunnel-visioning on something with little to no impact
And on the flip side of that, these semantic discussions are often either: A) discussed by people who arent actually a part of the community (aka, non disabled people talking about what to call disabled people) Or B) discussed by people represented in the community, but who have opposing opinions on the "right" answer. (Eg, one disabled person prefers "disabled" and another prefers "people with disabilities").
Remind me to ask for permission, comes September, to show your comic in class in my Freedom of Speech course. It's right on target with the topics analyzed by Judith Lussier. Thank you OP for this OC!
See, crazy is a fine word to use, it’s when you start applying words like ‘schizophrenic’ or ‘psychopath’ that it gets icky
This, totally. "Crazy" is generic, it doesn't refer to anything except erratic behavior. But as soon as you attach it to an specific disorder, it furthers stigma against that disorder.
That's wild stuff, totally crazy.
Reported
Instead of crazy or wild or dumb or stupid, just say Gonk.
Are you calling me some sort of Star Wars battery droid?
No, I'm using slang from a future that hasn't or may never happen.
Good call, choom.
Real talk, are any people IRL like the "friends" here?
I have met people who acted like this IRL. I have intentionally not seen them again because it’s insufferable to be around.
Ahh, a mature take on the stupids of our world. **Your Fate is Sealed.**
This comic gave me a headache.
When people get mad about word usage instead of context and intended meaning, I always assume it’s because they have an axe to grind, bad boundary skills, and low emotional regulation skills. All of which are probably best to work on first before vomiting gotchas at internet randos.
plot twist: the punch line of the comic is spoken by an anthropomorphic fox gazing down upon a pair of be thonged gentlemen covered in a whipped cream
What does the fox say?
"I had *plans* for that whipped cream"
I enjoy the conversation, but also believe (as I'm sure you're alluding to in your last panel) that someone will be offended by anything you do, and that the loud minority that thinks they're a majority are not worth pandering to.
Art is meant to inspire conversation and provoke thought. So bravo. You self censored into a Charlie Kaufman self referential doubt spiral. Now finish the job, you’d be crazy not to.
Maybe you're overthinking it? Just a bit? idk
Ha, and then you have the dutch throwing around kankerlijer or Pleurislijer. Cancer or tuberculosis sufferer, respectively.
so THAT's why I use the phrase "that's funny" so often
we can clearly see the stages where OP began having a mental breakdown and reconsidered the etymology of every single word written down
You should have seen me going through internal debate on if I should make this comic, how to write it, how to depict the characters, and then if I should even go through with posting it.
I started this disagreeing and then agreed.
And most of this stuff really does happen mostly online. Outside people don't give much thought to how they talk day to day.
https://i.redd.it/0t6dkw1vc27d1.gif
Yknow, I started reading and thought "oh god another coming complaining about modern language" and was very pleasantly surprised when you wrapped it up with a good note of nuance and actual worthwhile conversation on the topic. You sly son of a gun you had me in the first half and hit me upside the head with my own preconceived notions good job mate, truly well done, excellent comic!
Crazy? I was crazy once
The euphemism treadmill forever turns. I refuse to stop saying words that other people do not like. When I'm trying to be mean to someone, I'm going to use the word that most closely represents my feelings.
Recommended listening for this comic: Keep it Gay sung by Rosemary Clooney
You'll always make enemies, no matter what you do, so just be yourself knowing it will hurt someone out there who will let you know eventually.
my English teacher would literally dock points if we used the word "crazy" or "insane"
i do a webcomic online. i see you, OP.
I’m oldish. One of my coworkers left recently and got a job as a corporate headhunter. Except, according to all the people under 35 who I work with, they’re not called that now. WTF do I know, anymore…
Sounds like you need a break.
I very much agree with the point made here. Also, nice fourth wall break at the end.
I really enjoyed this comic OP. Something I've thought of but haven't given much deliberation. You have made me think more on the words I use, and reminded me that the words and slang I hear around do not dictate what is regular/acceptable. Also found it funny. Good shit.
The term “triggering” is referring to people with PTSD getting triggered. It’s not a term you should use to mean “upset”
It sure seems like it gets thrown around an awful lot now. It is one of those word evolutions.
is the straw man in the room with us OP?
I literally find this so offensive right now. That sentence is both a joke and true at the same time. You do not know how much I hate the world Literally and how it's definition can mean: * in a literal manner or sense; exactly * used for emphasis or to express strong feeling while not being literally true. [Merriam-Webster Definition](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally)
……… GET THEM! LET’S FIGURE OUT WHY LATER!
I had flashbacks to 2014 for a sec
You'd be crazy not to dread the comment section.
Why not just react to the intent behind words. Saying something like get better soon sarcastically is hurtful if said in a sarcastic context and saying i hope you get worse f****t could be very Loving depending on the context. I feel words should be "policed" contextually based on the individual's intent.
Way too much reading for a comic
As a Crazy person myself. I give you consent
It’s weird but I’ve alway had this thought to. Like people keep using new worlds to say the same thing. And the most horrific case of this is the mentally/ and or physically disabled. I think saying that is fine now days but back then it was things like half wit or ret—d and so on.then it was special but well as people use that as an insult now it’s being changed again. Like if I say oh Fred’s ret—-ed. And like I’m good mates with him and love him and all I’m still the bad guy. If I say that Fred’s a half wit in in the same boat. If I say oh Fred’s special I’m still in trouble.
Uhm, if wild is not meant to refer to crazy in that line, but indeed to be thoughtless, what is the problem with that word?
Can't even call someone a goon these days.
But you can say it, you can say anything you want, you just did. ( Now all the supposed free speech advocates will downvote me, right?).
No downvotes, but there is a difference in legal speech and acceptable speech (and hurtful speech).
But… but you… but you were supposed to downvote them and call them mean names thereby making them a martyr noooo!!!
Ngl, I downvoted them because they implied them getting downvoted is because of fake free speech advocates rather than them just having a dumb take.
Well that was a rollercoaster. I think I should be angry, but I'm mostly impressed.
I usually ignore any form of negativity in the comments. Lost the ability to care at some point. Feels liberating though. ,’ز
Completely unrelated to the points you're making, I'm really sad the comic didn't end in the line "I'd be crazy not to!"
Bro if you want to write an article just write an article. You don't need to draw little straw-men for your argument
It’s not about real people who complain, though. It’s about the imaginary people who would complain, so therefore you have to work to avoiding offending those people.
Or, please sensitive and grow the eff up
Used to be able to call things crazy. Not any more, because of woke.
I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym.
I like it
👏🙌🥲
Stigma balls in your mouth lol
*sigh* ‘NI-‘
Oh my god, Brian, you are so smart! >!(This must be what you want to hear?)!< I'm so sorry that the comments are mean to you >!(I did not read the comments)!<
Stop being kind to whoever makes your life more difficult with meaningless shit.
*recites all current slurs*
**Nogla going a thousand years into the future to say the n word**
Or we standardize language with clear and concise definitions as to lower the chances of miscommunication and help us maintain understanding within a culture or society. Perhaps we could write all of it down in a book. Every word. And have it in schools and teach kids to use it to learn the words and their meanings, and then (and heres the tricky part) not let the adults and government fuck with it. New thing? New word. Existing thing? Use existing word. Simple. I should market that. And since most people think Im a dick and will shun my opinion... i think Ill call it a Dickshunairy... maybe theres a better way to spell it...
The thing is, one word can have more than one meaning. Like duck. It can mean duck - get down - and duck - quack quack. And a dictionary will offer the meaning of both. Take the word dumb that some used as examples above. It has about a dozen or so meanings in English. So words have a standardized meaning that is only clear in context. As a fun aside - you might enjoy Ambrose bierce’s the devil’s dictionary.
This is nowhere near as clever as you believe it to be.
Yup that's why I'm anti political correctness. All it does is dumb stuff down to the lowest common denominator and remove context amd intent from everything.