Being short I too have felt the iron boot of oppression. But I think we will fair better than you imagine, every crowded bar will be our sanctuary. And one should never underestimate a desperate man with a low center of gravity…

#40 colson

@ClassAction

uncool – lame – disabled people? Your argument is gay. In the overly dramatic, flaming, drag queen kinda way, not in a derogatory manner of speaking.

Apparently you haven’t heard the Hillary Duff PSA about using the term “gay”.

The real challenge in this world comes with being short. If they ever need a victim for the next holocaust, it should be remembered short people are even easier to identify than Jews. And while not trying to fuel the coming hysteria, I might point out that we are already being singled out for blatantly discriminatory exclusion. If you think I’m kidding, just check out the high speed rides next time you go to an amusement park. There is always a sign that says “You must be this tall to ride this attraction.” That’s like having a sign at the airport that says “If you look Arab, please report directly to the TSA baggage search table.”

uncool – lame – disabled people? Your argument is gay. In the overly dramatic, flaming, drag queen kinda way, not in a derogatory manner of speaking.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-man-shot-in-175565.html

I guess there’s good and bad here. He was actually indicted which is rare. And suspended without pay, believe it or not. On the other hand, GA law allows a cop to be present and address the grand jury considering whether to indict, a privilege not available to us peasants.

But people will think you’re tacky if you say that. If you don’t care if people think you’re tacky, say whatever you want. Using “you’re retarded” to mean “I don’t like what you just wrote on the internet” is similar.

Similarly, I didn’t say, and I don’t think anyone else said, that 30 Rock shouldn’t be allowed to make fun of the mentally disabled or anyone else that they want to. I just don’t think doing so is funny. It’s kinda shooting fish in a barrel, for one thing, and it seems kind of weird and desperate.

I hate it when people tell me what words I can’t say. The most infuriating thing is that that sort of censorship lacks a basic understanding of the nature of language. To whit…

Gonzo, you can’t say “whit” (and reasonably expect your opinions on usage to be understood and respected) when you mean “wit” – an archaic synonym for “know.”

Second, while it’s true that language changes, it’s wrong to suggest that linguistic drift is merely conventional in the sense that the manner in which words drift is unrelated to their original meanings. Words have both definitions (denotations), and a cluster of “feelings” that surround them (connotations). When the denotation of a word changes, it’s often in a manner that’s related to its connotation.

It’s not by mere happenstance that one of the definitions of lame is “uncool” – that is in fact one of the most basic connotations about disabled (lame) people – that they are in fact uncool, unhip, and unworthy of attention. Similarly, it’s not by accident that kids use “gay” now to mean stupid, ridiculous, or uncool. That is, in fact, the recent historical connotation of homosexual persons.

Now, you may think this is no big deal, but it’s pretty meager comfort to a disabled person for you to explain that no, you don’t mean “lame as in disabled” you just mean it as “uncool, the way disabled people have historically been viewed.” That’s probably why linguistic drift seems to happen so often for derogatory terms that describe people in minority situations; it’s clearly “no big deal” to everybody else, who can’t possibly imagine why others would be so “sensitive.”

We have the sex trafficking hoopla here, too. To hear the stories, you’d think there that van loads of kids were being abducted from the nation’s high schools on a daily basis and sold to rich republican business executives as disposable sex slaves. In fact, every time I see a kid nowadays, I think to myself, “Hey, they missed one!”

The flu kills thousands of people each year and it barely rates a second thought in most people’s lives. But the mere suggestion that kids are at risk of being snatched up and sold into sex slavery is probably responsible for the sale of more cell phones than all other reasons combined.

All for the children.

i thought her site was really spot-on, i mean, she nailed 30 Rock. but as someone ably underprivileged i am deeply disappointed in her listing the “stuff white people do” site. what about my site, “stuff white people can’t do”? why does she only help the able white people who are doing stuff? c’mon person, a little non-judgmental affection here.

The d*** was on Pacific time and the c*** was on Eastern time.

Yeah, that’s so retarded.

#15 | tb | October 27th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

Citation anyone?

#16 | CC | October 27th, 2009 at 1:49 pm

I have to say that I agree that making fun of the mentally disabled isn’t funny. I’ve heard good things about how funny 30 Rock is. I’m surprised they felt they had to go there.

//Know how I know you’re retarded?

Here is the CBC coverage from 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg