The internet edgelords aren’t going to agree with you, but you’re 100% right. Conservatives will insist they’re not racist while talking about how X minority can’t speak right, liberals will insist they’re not ableist while literally joking about a disability rather than all his actual flaws. They’ve internalized that “racist/ableist” is a bad thing to be, but instead of thinking about how those issues manifest and steering clear, they just know they’re not bad, so they couldn’t possibly be the bad thing. It’s the same fundamental disassociation of the word from actions, just shifted once over toward the liberal end of the spectrum.
The internet edgelords aren’t going to agree with you, but you’re 100% right. Conservatives will insist they’re not racist while talking about how X minority can’t speak right, liberals will insist they’re not ableist while literally joking about a disability rather than all his actual flaws. They’ve internalized that “racist/ableist” is a bad thing to be, but instead of thinking about how those issues manifest and steering clear, they just know they’re not bad, so they couldn’t possibly be the bad thing. It’s the same fundamental disassociation of the word from actions, just shifted once over toward the liberal end of the spectrum.