Hey I saw that you said Ineffable Idiots is ableist, I just wanted to understand that. Could you expand on it if possible?
Hey anon! Thank you for asking! <3
'Idiot' used to actually be a diagnostic term for a 'severely intellectually disabled' person, much like 'moron' was also an actual diagnostic term.
This is precisely why it became an insult, particularly for a person others perceive as 'stupid'. It's insulting to be likened to one of 'those people'. And certainly, those of us in the disability community have been called all of these a lot throughout our lives, in addition to the Big One (the r-word which i'll avoid writing out unless I gotta lol). I know I certainly have.
It's definitely a hard one to extricate from our vocabulary since it's so old and ingrained. I'm not exempt, by any means - I've been trying to replace it with things like foolish, silly, that kind of thing. "Idiot" and "moron" are the big ones I'm familiar with that had actual origins in medical ableism and institutionalization.
Sources (as well as other sources linked within):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moron_(psychology)
