Words become slurs as soon as assholes start using it in a derogatory fashion. It doesn’t need to make sense, it’s just how it is.
removed used to be a medical term. Then assholes used it as an insult so it became a slur. Then it needed to change to mentally ill. Now mentally ill is started to go out of fashion.
The n word used to just be a term to refer to black people, then assholes used it as an insult. Then assholes started to just use the word “black” as an insult so we needed to switch to African-american.
Language evolves, and assholes ruin things all the time so we have to continuously evolve and change so we don’t use the same words as assholes.
I don’t think this is the same for something that is:
true
and
within the individual’s control
and, in part,
actually bad or against the law
We can keep words to say that people have made a choice without needing to change the language every 3 years. Felons are people that have committed felonies. Criminals are people that have committed crimes. Terrorists are people that have committed terrorism.
Your other examples are slurs because they’re used to insult people over something that’s out of their control and isn’t actually a bad thing. Racial slurs are slurs not because they identify someone as a particular race but because using it indicates the speaker (incorrectly) believes there’s something “bad” about that particular race. And, race/sexuality/age/etc… aren’t even a choice, so the slur user is insulting the person about something that they can’t even control.
Of course, there’s a debate to be made that illegal immigration was the “right” choice for that person at the time to escape their situation or that some undocumented immigrants didn’t have a choice (children or trafficking victims), but at a basic level we’re talking about people who have immigrated illegally, by choice.
Words become slurs as soon as assholes start using it in a derogatory fashion. It doesn’t need to make sense, it’s just how it is.
removed used to be a medical term. Then assholes used it as an insult so it became a slur. Then it needed to change to mentally ill. Now mentally ill is started to go out of fashion.
The n word used to just be a term to refer to black people, then assholes used it as an insult. Then assholes started to just use the word “black” as an insult so we needed to switch to African-american.
Language evolves, and assholes ruin things all the time so we have to continuously evolve and change so we don’t use the same words as assholes.
I don’t think this is the same for something that is:
and
and, in part,
We can keep words to say that people have made a choice without needing to change the language every 3 years. Felons are people that have committed felonies. Criminals are people that have committed crimes. Terrorists are people that have committed terrorism.
Your other examples are slurs because they’re used to insult people over something that’s out of their control and isn’t actually a bad thing. Racial slurs are slurs not because they identify someone as a particular race but because using it indicates the speaker (incorrectly) believes there’s something “bad” about that particular race. And, race/sexuality/age/etc… aren’t even a choice, so the slur user is insulting the person about something that they can’t even control.
Of course, there’s a debate to be made that illegal immigration was the “right” choice for that person at the time to escape their situation or that some undocumented immigrants didn’t have a choice (children or trafficking victims), but at a basic level we’re talking about people who have immigrated illegally, by choice.
Which leads to ignorant shit like calling people in other countries “African American”. That was a dumb choice.