761: Antidiscrimination Paradigm Jan 7, 2017

Words are arbitrary and without any understood meaning they are nothing more than sounds. Insults therefore rely not on the word itself but the concept that it conveys and as such, no matter what the term is, it will eventually become offensive if it carries negative connotations. Linguist Ben O'Neill calls this the Antidiscrimination Paradigm, in which a neutral word becomes a dysphemism (negative term), and then a euphemism is created to replace it. This cycle explains why 'moron', 'idiot', 'mentally retarded', all began as clinical, medical descriptors but gained their rudeness from bullies. Later, these words were replaced with 'mentally disabled' which O'Neill argues will eventually also gain these connotations until public perception changes.