ruthless compassion (aroraborealis) wrote,
ruthless compassion
aroraborealis
  • Mood: curious

Don't profiteer me, man

I've been thinking a lot about ways to change the way I talk, so as to reflect my values in my speech. Just as I would never use racist phrases like "I jewed him down" or "I got gypped" to describe financial transactions, I would like to stop using the word "lame" to refer to people's disappointing behavior, because while I don't value disappointment, I think that aligning social poor form with physical disability is ... lame stupid a bad habit of speech that supports ways of thinking that I disapprove of and don't want to be part of.

Similarly, I think sex is a great thing in the world, so I don't really want to buy into sex-negativity by using "fucker" as an insult, and I like bodies, so describing someone as a body part when instead I mean that s/he was rude or acted inappropriately ... Well, you see where I'm going with this.

Several people have suggested some insults that reflect more of my values: "profiteer", for example, or "bourgeois" (there's a hand gesture that goes with this one). But I need more! Do you have any terms or phrases that come in handy as insults or denigrating descriptors that align with your values? Please share them!
Tags: introspection, people, words
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  • no, really, just try stealing these bikes

    As a vaguely-related followup to my post about people "stealing" the chocolate I keep on my desk for people to take ( here), a story: After Burning…

  • A long-time favorite from Rebecca West

    This has long been one of my favorite paragraphs, and is seasonally appropriate now: only part of us is sane: only part of us loves pleasure and the…

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