America Has an Ableism Problem
Can we please stop using ableist language to denigrate political opponents?
If you are a person who calls yourself a liberal, odds are you have to deal with at least one person on the internet a week calling you a “libtard.” This term, obviously a play on a word that is generally agreed upon to be one people should not use any more to describe persons who have a cognitive impairment, has become such a common insult among conservative groups that there are literally countless memes online to be used like gotcha-cards in comment threads.
Online trolls are nothing if not efficient in their ability to pat themselves on the back for their own perceived cleverness. In this case, the use of “libtard” is a push back in their view of political correctness. It is quite simply, a trolling move, a linguistic assault of sensitive subject matter, much akin to a grade school bully calling someone a “nerd” even after the teacher tells them to stop. Conservatives don’t like the idea of not being able to ridicule those they want to ridicule using the language they want to use, citing a need for freedom of speech, where really they want the freedom to be cruel.
The First Amendment is indeed a sacred part of the American ideal of a free society, because without it, journalists and artists could not be free to…
