Board Thread:General Wiki Discussion/@comment-11333115-20131016130019/@comment-6761334-20131031010631

First, unless I am missing something I am not aware of any connotations for meatloaf beyond a type of food and a musician. The word is not a comparable word. Your argument is a dodge.

So, are you saying that people are going to not becalling each other names with it and instead be using it to discuss mental disabilities? I don't really have faith that all instances of it will be academic. Also, it's not really a word that actual doctors are going to use to discuss  or label mental issues. The term is not used by professionals for a reason. It is not a diagnosis. There are very few reasons or contexts that I can think of that it would be used. It is not a label used by any one in the mental health professions because it carries a stigma. It is mostly used by people as a pejortive anymore because anyone who is a professoinal or knows someone with a developmental disability is extremely unlikely to use the word.

I can see an argument for gay, as it is fine for someone to say. "I am gay, etc." There are actual cnversations that I can be had with the the word. But, that was not what the issue was with. Very specifically, people in this thread are talking about when either word is used to describe something that is disliked. That is insulting, even if not targeted at an indivdual.

I am saying that using slurs in chat to describe things that are disliked can constitute passive and casual bigotry. And yes, using just a single word can be bigoted.