kickabel

“@DeafOn4Wheels: Unpopular opinion maybe, but I don’t think ‘stupid’ and ‘dumb’ are ableist ‘slurs’ unless they are literally directed at a person, in that way. We have so many real issues.  Why look for more things to be offended by?”

It’s less about those terms being slurs and more about our culture as a whole. We live in a society where the actual first core belief is that humans are the most intelligent species and therefore rule the world. Intellectual supremacy is so fundamental we don’t even notice.

To imply that the use of words like stupid is a frivolous issue and not worth the energy when we have “real” issues is condescending at best. We live in a world where the justification for equal rights has always been argued as “we are just as intelligent and capable of labor.”

BIPOC, women, and the LGBTQ community all assert their humanity, their right to participate in our world, because they are just as intelligent. And on the flipside, white supremacists and misogynists argue that a disparity in IQ is justification to subjugate. This phenomenon is not a reflection on those oppressed, so much as a reflection of what rhetoric and talking points actually have worked to embolden the masses and invoke change. Productivity- linked to intelligence- is also a huge incentive to grant human rights in a capitalist nation. 

We live in a world where these issues are very real. We live in a world that is segregated. Where the mentally “unworthy” are institutionalized. 

The narrative of education and intellectualism justified colonialism. There are still debates about who should be able to vote or run for office based on intelligence. There are people out there who believe that intellectually disabled lives are disposable.

There is the narrative that nerds rule the world. That jocks and hot girls won’t be the ones with the last laugh. It’s in our pop culture.

I think about Trump and the people who would say that his supporters are dumb and the world would be better off without them. People who consider themselves the pinnacle of ethics.

There’s people who crusade for animal rights, because animals don’t know any better and don’t have the capacity to be as intelligent as us. Meanwhile the subjugation of intellectually disabled people is fine because they didn’t reach full capacity and didn’t make the cut.

People who are mentally disabled get paid less for the same labor simply because they are disabled. The developmentally disabled population is larger than the deaf and blind populations combined and yet you hear a lot more about the latter two.

When intellectualism is baked so deep that philosophers ponder what defines humanity as a species and it is intelligence, when that’s our existence’s bottom line, where most of our beliefs are predicated on the idea that knowledge is power… A stupid person is less than human.

The irony in my having to study and read so much in order to properly advocate for the humanity of my developmentally disabled sisters is not lost on me.

I think about how people say they don’t hate mentally disabled people because it’s not their fault they’re unintelligent. That implies that neurotypical people that happen to be less intelligent are that way of their own fault.

Is it a person’s responsibility to study as a method of self betterment? Is it considered a public decency much like personal hygiene? Is it a moral failing to not be smart?

People say shit like we are better off without hicks and rednecks and cold shit like that. Is a person’s worth inherently less because they have been sheltered and indoctrinated into a narrow way of thinking?

If you’re a dumb-ass, is it your fault? Is it a vice to inconvenience others by not thinking in the same way they do? Does the responsibility lie with an individual to make themselves smart enough to be “tolerable” or “useful”?

Is it the responsibility of the government to provide education? Then is it considered a failure when public schooling does not leave someone at a satisfactory enough mental level to meet societal expectation? Is it the fault of our poor education system?

This is all also said with the assumption that intelligence is quantifiable in one way and exists in one form. What about different forms of intelligence? Is interpersonal intelligence and logical intelligence more important than other forms?

Really question everything you believe and take for granted. How many times have you told someone off for being stupid?