Joe Rogan Slammed For Claiming Resurrection of Disability Slur Is 'One of the Greatest Cultural Victories'

It must be nice to have so much money and freedom from consequences that that's the kind of thing that bothers you.
- Or such little money and brain cells that that's the thing that inspires you to go out and vote against your own interests
- I’m absolutely convinced that there’s a certain threshold of money/power/privilege that just destroys a person’s humanity.
  
  Nah, you've got it backwards. You don't pursue that level of money/power/privilege unless you lack humanity. These guys were always shit, but power made them more effective at being shit.

Lol, I'll never understand these people. The word "removed" was never gone. At no point was it illegal or impossible to say it, similar to any other word. The worst consequence for saying something that's bound to piss people off is just that, pissed off people. You never faced jail time and I can't think of anyone "canceled" for it.
- They want to drop the hard R with zero blowback.
  
  Unfortunately for them they don't get to control how others feel about it. They're free to say it at any time though. All the redneck cowards I live near use it all the time, when no black people are around.
  
  Ain't no-one calling me ginger and getting away with it!
- The word "re----" was
  The gusp I gasped was so intense that I broke the pearls I was clutching.
- Reported to the FBI for saying the R word
- The worst consequence for saying something that’s bound to piss people off is just that, pissed off people.
  There was a real moment during which celebrity reactionaries feared The R-Word would result in the kind of deplatforming and loss of advertising patronage historically reserved for The N-Word or any of the Seven Words You Can't Say On TV (which, curiously, did not include the N-Word at the time).
  So the worst consequences wouldn't have simply been "pissed off people". Perhaps they'd have endured lawsuits, de-platforming, or even vigilante violence (not uncommon in religiously-tinged censorship - like with the Piss Christ display or the Draw Mohammad contest).
  You never faced jail time and I can’t think of anyone “canceled” for it.
  Not when the current regime is friendly to your operation, no.
  But if you look at what's happening to pro-Palestinian activists and Women's Liberation organizations, it's obvious that state and civil institutions have lots of tools for fucking people over based entirely on their stated political views. The real defense that Rogan, et al enjoy is having their friends in charge.

It never left. Using it still makes you look like an asshole.
All these "free speech absolutists" still don't realize that free speech does not mean immunity from consequences of that speech from your fellow citizens. It's almost like they just haven't paid attention for their entire lives.
- I mean, their position falls apart when you ask them what they think about the college students being oppressed for protesting.
  They do not care about free speech. They care about experiencing social consequences when using hate speech.
  
  Yes. And it's just hypocrisy all the way down: otherwise, as you say, we wouldn't hear anything negative about the left exercising right to protest.
  On top of r/conservative is a post about "the algorithm" flooding someone's feed with news about US protests. Of course, the response wasn't "hey great! Look at all those people exercising their right to free speech!". Instead, it's just removed and claims of fake news (and no understanding that there really may be significant protests right now -- just automatically, they must be false). There is no logic for people who can no longer discern facts from opinions.
- I do not care about the word or what language people use broadly, as long as they're using their "offensive words" to punch up.
  If you're punching up, if you're attacking power, I do NOT care and genuinely wish people would pull the gloves off more. But Joe Rogan IS power, he is so high up that anywhere he punches is down. People with great power who use language recklessly need to be knocked down for abusing the power behind their language.
  
  So calling Trump a regard is acceptable then?
  That's not a gotcha - tbh the "left", to the extent there is such a thing in the US, would be more likable if it used the language of the actually existing working class to communicate its criticisms of capital. Tone policing is not an effective way to organize the proletariat or to spread class consciousness
- You are a asshole for calling someone removed. It is so incredibly offensive that you have to be a special kind of jerk to say it.
  
  What about the word is offensive?
  Is it just as offensive as calling someone stupid, moronic, dumb, or an idiot?
  Is it that insulting someone's intelligence is inherently offensive? Or is it just that it's one of the most recent to be medically obsolete?

Make Hate Great Again?
Some fucking people man... Their entire identity is hatred and gargling Trump's balls...

Joe Rogan also claimed Musk did a roman salute and how we are all crazy for thinking it's a nazi salute.
- A Roman Salute is literally the Nazi salute lmao.
  https://web.archive.org/web/20240719151050/https://www.workingclassicists.com/post/the-antiquity-to-alt-right-pipeline
  
  Lets call it N word salute and see what the ratards do.
  Goodness gratious, comedy is alive again.

- The 90s: I used to use it back in the day, until one time I volunteered for a handicapped kids event, and saw how this one kid with Downs got really upset at someone calling him "the 'R' word" (I had never heard it put that way, or even considered it as truly harmful).
  Anyway, I wiped it from my vocabulary after that. I still consider it a slur, unlike idiot, which is more generic, and not used as a specific slur against intellectually disabled folks.
  
  Good on you for making that change, and having empathy for others.
  Idiot has the same entomology as removed though, does it not? As does stupid? They all start as medical diagnoses and then assholes turn them to slurs and then the medical field refines and renames and things start to repeat.
  We had special education class, Special Ed, for kids struggling in certain ways, so if course the shitty kids would call kids "sp-ed" because of course they would.
  I'm not sure when the line gets crossed or if we should have gone back or what, but removed, to me, has a very particular connotation that is useful for describing certain people's actions. I don't do it any more because I'd rather live in a peaceful society that fosters respect, but it is one of those things I "don't get"
  
  Yeah, clearly many people in this thread have never spent any time around people with disabilities, it doesn't take long to feel an innate disgust for the word and anyone who uses it, short of technical/scientific usages.
  You've all been able to say it this whole time, just a lot of people agreed it makes you a shithead. That hasn't changed, and it's familiar territory for Rogan, so this is no surprise.
- i mean it is ONLY used to mock a very specific group of people and, historically, it was used to incarcerate and experiment on them.
  
  that's not how i use it, but if that's how you use it, than yeah sure. But i don't.
- Honestly, calling this admin removed is valid because a lot of them genuinely seem to have an IQ low enough to get that medical diagnosis.
  
  idk how they haven't choked on their own spit tbh.
- That exactly is the verb ("to removed"). You might mean the noun "a removed" which does not have good uses I can think of.
  removedant, removedation, removeding, removed and a ton of other drives words also do indeed have actual real world meanings and uses that have nothing to do with humans.
- the difference between autistic and removed is that autistic people can actually fight back and say that the use of autistic hurts people
  Unfortunately removed people can't really do that, have to be the face and name called out at anything an individual thinks of as dumb
  
  What? No.
  Clearly you do not know anything at all about those two groups or the myriad of different functional levels the can come with those diagnoses.
  
  Yeah, it's definitely not cool to use this word against mentally difficient people. It's exactly the same as calling them "morons" or "idiots".
  Mentally disabled people are often such kind souls. They don't need that.

How about it's just in poor taste to use it and its use probably says more about the user than the target?
And, if you use it, just be prepared for someone to take exception to you using it and you might just trigger yourself an ass beating or some other adverse consequence. Kind of like playing with fire crackers or bullet ants. Maybe, just maybe, you can find a better way to insult someone that's a little more clever and incisive and makes you look like less of an ignorant asshole.
- I couldn't agree more! South Park is funnier with the beeps for a very good reason. Creatively stepping around saying offensive things is usually way funnier and more interesting.
  
  They can’t afford to expend the mental energy overhead required. Their mental bandwidth is constrained enough as it is.
- I make an exception for using it against these snowflakes. If they're not supposed to be tarded in the literal sense, it makes more than perfect sense to call them it. They're doing it to themselves, and when one can choose not to wear the robes of a bigotted moron, it's more then fair to use harsh words against them.
  ... and if you say we should be kind to these ilk of humanity... I ask you; where does the line for self defense begin? When someone would gladly stab you in the back, it is distinctly not time to extend them the honor of actual humanity.
  
  … and if you say we should be kind to these ilk of humanity… I ask you; where does the line for self defense begin? When someone would gladly stab you in the back, it is distinctly not time to extend them the honor of actual humanity.
  i can't think of a single description that would fit these people, other than the definition of removed. It's literally a perfect fit.
- In my book, if someone says their a fan of Joe Rogan or they quote him, they're dead to me.
  
  Seems fair to me. I wish I lived in a world where the only platform he'd find is a street corner where no listens to his ranting.
  Sometimes my pedantry can't help itself, but the "their"s you used should have been "they're"s

Divorced middle aged dad energy

Wonder how long he would think this if everyone just started introducing him as "The removed, Joe Rogan." I'd bet the very millisecond it started to affect him personally, he'd be changing his tune. These fucking ghouls don't want freedom of speech, they want the ability to police OUR speech.
- Isn't that how people already refer to him?
  
  He deserves much worse words tbh
- What did ghouls ever do to you?
  
  It's only when they go feral that they're a problem.

I'm not a Rogan fan, and don't agree with him on almost anything.
However, I'm a few years younger than him, and grew up with the word as an insult, the same as him. This was back when the absolute worst insults you could call a dude was the "F" bomb, and a girl the "C" bomb. The "R" bomb was fairly tame. It was a mild insult between friends, like "idiot," "dumbass," or "asshole."
So, I really don't have a problem with it, EXCEPT when it's used to hatefully mock an actual removed person, THEN it's a different story. A furious different story. I had an older uncle who was severely removed, and a girlfriend whose sister who was, also.
And yes, I know times change, and yes, "If it was about somebody you cared about..." I get it. It still doesn't bother me unless it's to harm someone actually that way. And yes, I realize he's stated what he stated to get attention. Fuck him.
- I also have no real dog in the fight, I grew up with the word being slung around with casual ease, and honestly it still is in most places, despite a lot of what the sensitive younger generation might be seeing in their own spaces, the culture between "average people" would seem highly problematic to most activist-minded individuals.
  I have curbed my use, but I'm not going to attack people who say it to criticize power or insult someone who truly deserves it. This is one of those lefty "purity tests" that I can't connect with fully, so I know average moderates will be wildly pushed away from this kind of mindless scolding, so I also don't make it an issue. I literally do not care.
  Now all that said, I think we need to collectively LAY WASTE to Rogan and all he stands for. His delight in being able to say a slur again is the most crass, stupid, R-word statement that he's made yet, and he deserves to suffer as much as the people with intellectual disabilities who are going to be bullied and harmed because of his cavalier and inept attitude towards language and logic.
  Guys, it's okay to not be totally consistent. It's okay to condemn Rogan for saying this and you aren't going to be judged. Seriously, get on that soap box and knock this ape down a peg.
- I grew up in the same culture acceptance of these terms, but I've grown to think of it like this. If I wouldn't say it to the group of people it's describing, using it to describe other people carries the same meaning.
  You can't separate the term from the group of people it's offending. So using it as an insult reinforces it's meaning and acknowledging why it's offensive. So it's equally wrong.
  It's the same reason I don't say the n-word or why I wouldn't use the derogatory terms used for trans people even in a joke.
  
  Oh, don't get me wrong. I don't say it anymore, and I don't use the "N" bomb, or the "F" bomb. I despise those people. I go out of my way to treat everyone with kindness and respect, until they prove they don't deserve it. I'm just sarcastic sometimes. I'm just saying I've been hardened to that language, but I don't like it, and I don't use it, and I don't associate with people who do.
  My father was a rabid, irrational, to the point of mental illness racist, homophobe, misogynist, you name it. Everything that went wrong in his life was someone else's fault. The man couldn't have a 5 minute conversation without saying the "N" word. It wouldn't surprise me if I learned he was in the Klan, but he's been dead 13 years. This is because he was a malignant narcissist, who couldn't admit fault. A person that I hated most of my life, so I fortunately wasn't indoctrinated into the Cult of Hate.

I mean, i never really stopped calling people like Rogan and Trump removed... But calling it a great cultural victory, is just... removed.
- Rogan really being a gay removed here

It never went anywhere, there was just a heavily monied effort to quite literally equate it with the n-word.
In the immortal words of George Carlin "it's bullshit, and it's bad for you."
This entire subject is a distraction. Stay focused on the major problems these clowns are creating, and we can all have a war of words when the fascists have been expelled from the highest eschilons of the US government.

Just in case anyone had begun to consider that Joe Rogan is anything but an absolute infected boil on the ass of civilization.
- The mother fucker double dips. Pay for his show and still get ads. Fuck that.
  
  That's your primary grievance with Joe Rogan?

I hate this guy almost as much as Asmond Gold. Who I fear is much more insidious going after young impressionable “gamers”
- Asmond Gold sounds like the cheapest pack of cigarettes.
  
  He is
- But I gotta give him some grace. He’s just trying to fill his “dad hole”
  https://youtu.be/_v3KiaAjpY8
  
  I swear, the videos this guy makes are some elevated art form we don't even have a name for yet.

The only way I'd be ok with Rogan using that term is if he publicly discloses the results of an IQ test and he got sub 70...
And even then, it would only be ok if he was self identifying as that label, not calling anyone he can't understand that.

Ironically, removed was originally a kinder word cooked up to describe people with lower intelligence, along with moron, idiot, cretin, and imbecile. Over time these became pejoratives. Just kind of interesting to see how language develops and terms intended to avoid offense over time turn into ones that offend people.
- Yes, when you come up with a word to describe people that others consider less/worse than themselves, they will invariably end up using the word to describe them as an insult to others. This will happen no matter how mundane or non offensive you try to make the word.
  
  This is the very nature of slurs, and more largely language in general, in the first place. It's not the signifier, it's the signified.
  
  removed people are literally removed. Hope this helps.
- Amazing how referring to people by their perceived flaws can be offensive. Woke culture strikes again.
  Edit: In case it wasn't obvious, this was sarcasm. No shit being defined by (what others consider) a flaw is gonna be offensive. I thought my original comment was obvious.
  
  Amazing how referring to people by their perceived flaws can be offensive
  I mean, isn't this common sense? If you work for me and bring me some sub-par work, I can call you a fucking removed, and you'll probably be offended. On the other hand, if I pull you aside and say that usually you do excellent work, but I'm not liking this, and here's a couple ideas to improve your work, you might look upon that more fondly.
  In both scenarios, I'm communicating that I'm not happy with you and/or your work, but one is likely to lead to an HR incident and one isn't. How is this "woke"? (I fucking hate that term, because it tends to be use as shorthand for "stuff I don't like", but no two people seem to share definition beyond that)
  
  If a word is used with the intent to insult people, no shit that that word starts getting perceived as an insult.
  It's the euphemism treadmill

As the saying goes:
Don't mock bacteria, it's the only culture some people have

Honestly, if the culture war has been going on this long and the "greatest victory" they can show for it is feeling comfortable using the r slur again, thats just deeply sad for them lol.
- I think wayyyyy more people than you realize say it. Even people you think are raging leftists. Most of us got quiet because we in general agree with left leaning things. Feel free to skim my profile...
  But man... fucking EVERYONE says removed. I'm very left leaning. Once I got away from a few select people... it was genuinely kind of a culture shock for me how many people say it lol.
  I'm not advocating for people to just sling it like crazy.. and I know in a way that's kind of what's gonna happen to SOME EXTENT... but as someone who tried to push other folks toward not saying this in the past....
  I 100% think it's a lost cause. I don't think it's going away. I don't personally think it's ableist and never did.
  To make a comparison, from my perspective, it's kind of like turning the word "insane" into a slur.... we did some reaaaal bad things to people under the veil they were "insane." We put people in jail and mental hospital for most of their lives. We fried their brains with medication and lobotomized them both chemically and physically. It's not as common, but it is 100% an insult to tell someone they are insane or acting insane (I mean if they're bashing their skull into a tree or somethin that IS insane but that would also be an extreme example to call someone removed over)
  But we don't get upset about calling people insane today... everything has context and I think the context of removed has moved on from why people are offended.
  A more apt comparison is being equally mad you called someone slow... I mean... removed is literally a word for slow in French... it kinda really only become ableist when someone wants it to be interpreted that way. At what point is simply calling someone stupid not also then ableist? Are we gonna crucify people if they use any other insult beyond "ignorant" that doesn't indicate the insultee's willingness in their stupidity? Or is "you lack/display a lack of intelligence" (the definition of stupidity) somehow more classy than slow and removed in your eyes?
  My 2c is that unless you expect to erase the word (you're not going to) you're better off helping to change the meaning in common view (most of us just think it means ya RLY RLY fkin dumb but use a word beyond stupid or idiot) and steal it back from them. Grinding to death and dividing OURSELVES internally over shit this nonsensical is killing us.
  It's an easy code switch that uses their language against them and makes you more credible in their eyes 🤷🏻 as an ally I'm just saying not every battle can be won the way you originally wanted it to be
  TLDR: bunch of different justifications for why I call MAGATs removed when they make stupid points in arguments
  
  I don't know if it's the circles I'm around or what, but this is not my experience at all. As someone with a nonverbal autistic loved one who was bullied with this slur, I disagree with the idea that it doesn't cause harm to continue to use it. If someone uses it I ask that they don't use it around me and that's been respected. Language evolves over time, and we need to evolve away from using what was relatively recently a medical diagnosis as an insult.
  
  I also find it funny that calling someone a removed is considered less acceptable than calling someone an idiot. Especially when examined under an ableist lens.
  
  100% think it’s a lost cause. I don’t think it’s going away. I don’t personally think it’s ableist and never did.
  I don't think it's ever going fully away. But it is still important to call it out when we see it.

Honestly it was the politically correct word in the 80s, although it was simultaneously used as a slur. A lot of those people are still alive and just hate having to constantly change to new language.
- Every time we come up with a technical term to describe people with medical impairments to their intelligence, people begin using it as an insult.
  I guess here's hoping "intellectually disabled" doesn't catch on (hopefully too wordy).
  
  I knew a guy who used "delayed" as an insult after HR told him to stop calling people removed. It offended people just as much but wasn't against the rules.
  People will find a way.
  
  There's a name for it- euphemism treadmill

Personally I don't really care about these words getting used outside of hateful intent, except that their continued casual use leaves the door open for haters to use the words. I grew up with a bunch of aboriginals who used abbo, widely considered a slur in Australia. I don't use it anymore because it leaves the door open for haters to use the word. I will call some of my gay friends poof, another semi slur, but only in private. It's not about your intent when using the word, it's about the effect on society when the word gets used.
- It’s not about your intent when using the word, it’s about the effect on society when the word gets used.
  Solid perspective

How this fucking australopithecus became a thought leader, I will never understand.
- He's a morons idea of a clever person. That's how

removed is what you call your friends when they're being removed
Michael Scott

Joe Rogan has really sold out to his mentally absent base. What a victory for them.

I’ve had a bad habit of using the word and every time I do I feel like an asshole, attaching Rogans name to it is an excellent deterrent mnemonic device.
- you might say it's an excellent removedant in your impulse to say the word
- Just call them Rogans from now on

is this where i say that we should cal him "Whee Rogan The Little" ?
using WRTL as an abbreviation is permitted and encouraged.
- Is that pronounced “wertle”? Is so I love it.

Was he really slammed though?

I'm not american and don't care about politics but I was watching a show the other day and when Rogan appeared as a guest I had to shut off after 5 minutes. This person is so annoying I couldn't stand. Don't know how you guys do it. I didn't even liked him in newsradio and I loved the show.
- That's crazy. Anyway, have you tried DMT?
- Once he had Alex Jones on his show peddling "clean coal" I stopped listening to him.

It's okay if he uses that word, he has the pass. The ivermectin really set his IQ below Forest Gump levels.

Come on
And slam
And welcome to the
JAM
- I watched Space Jam with my daughter last night.
  Wow what a fucking turd. I remembered it so fondly too, in reality I think theres about 30 minutes of closeups on Michael Jordans face.
  
  Don't blaspheme in this holy house, heretic!

Of course removed like Rogan and Trump like that word.

The word should be exclusively used to refer to Joe Rogan from now on
- I'm down for that

Idiot! Imbecile! Moron!!
- What's interesting about those is that they were originally medical terms (which I'm guessing @lemmy689@lemmy.sdf.org knows). But, for those who don't:
  Moron was coined by a psychologist in 1910. He tried to make it fancy by using an ancient greek word "moros" which meant "dull". It wasn't an insult, it was meant to be a clinical term "used to describe a person with a mental age in adulthood of between 7 and 10 on the Binet scale."
  Imbecile "originally referred to people of the second order in a former and discarded classification of intellectual disability, with a mental age of three to seven years and an IQ of 25–50".
  Idiot "was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less".
  Then they became used in popular culture just to insult someone or describe someone who was stupid. Even their order changed. I'd say "Idiot" is the least insulting now, but used to be considered the most developmentally challenged.
  In any case, "removed" also started as a clinical term, actually meant to replace idiot, imbecile and moron because they had become too widely used by the public and seen as insulting. Handicapped and disabled replaced removed when it was seen as too insulting. Then things moved on to "differently abled" or "challenged". It's been called the euphemism treadmill.
  In the end, saying "removed" was never illegal, at least in the US. It was just seen as crude. That hasn't changed. It's just that people who worried that being seen as crude might hold them back no longer think they have to worry.
  
  They're talked about in this film
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupidity_(film)
  Stupidity is a 2003 Canadian satirical documentary film directed by Albert Nerenberg
  I think theres a copy on youtube.
- Honestly you probably shouldn't use those words either
  Actually idiot might be ok
  
  They're obsolete in original meaning. I came across these words in the film Stupidity. It's a bit dated, from 2003. I think there is a copy on youtube.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupidity_(film)
  The film questions "why stupidity is such a slippery concept to grasp and why so few people are talking about it."

Roided out Roe Jogan has tiny testies🍒

Sorry guys, this one's locked now. Y'all need to grow the fuck up.

toe rogain just using the slur that describes himself perfectly
- it's what the (R) stands for, ain't it?

You see, the problem with that word is that people who want to keep it around really make me wanna use it.

Roided removed Rogan relishes resurrected....ribbing? Shit, I'm stumped.
- Rampant, regurgitated right-wing rhetoric really reeks.
  
  I feel like I'm reading a season opener for Letterkenny.

I've never met anyone with this disability as vile, hateful, violent, or senseless as any of them. And that's saying something because once one beat me up on the playground.

What a mong.
- Fun fact! 'Mong' is an abbreviation of 'mongoloid', a term used as a slur for people with Down's Syndrome. The fun part is that the reason for the term being used is quite clever! Those with Down's Syndrome have a usually noticeable difference in their facial structure, with a wide, flatter face and smaller eyes. Features that are rarely found elsewhere, first discovered in natives of the country Mongolia!
  
  damn I wonder which white guy discovered those features in the Mongol population, crazy that they all missed them

They can describe themselves again. I suppose that could be considered cultural restoration?

I've always preferred fucktard, it's more satisfying
- It's interesting how this isn't removed even though it's arguably more disrespectful than actually saying the real word lol because it's basically saying an even worse version of you know what.
- All through my younger years, I never cursed.
  I had this idea that if you never curse, the times you DO it will make people around you jump and feel shock and take notice. I thought it would be my secret weapon for really driving home a point or getting attention. I was Mr Clean Language for all my childhood and adolescence and into my 20's.
  Then I fucking bought a fucking home and the fucking thing fucking fell apart from the first day, then I got fucking betrayed by a fucking friend, fucking laid off, spend years fucking unemployed, watched my fucking family drink and drug themselves all to the grave, fucking buried everyone and started over and now I realize I have no hair and I'm old and angry so whatever. Fuck it.

what drinking too much donkey juice does to the brain
- I'll bet he doesn't even have a certificate that says he doesn't have donkey brains

he's an almost 60 year old man.

This man is nearly sixty years old

slam
- SLAAAAAAAAM
  journalism!!!!

Considering this word really applies most to people like Joe Rogan, I find this whole thing pretty ironic.

Can all newspapers, when writing about Rogan, now use the term "Noted r-word, Joe Rogan..."
- Can we just make Rogan the new R-word and stop saying it?
  
  Shut up, you Rogan
  
  Oh, i love this

- R****d fell out of favor probably close to 15 years ago at this point. Developmentally disabled/intellectual disability has replaced it.
- Unfortunately yes
- OK, so you and your boss act like children. Thanks for outing yourself.
  
  Yeah, because it's hilarious and takes the edge out of the day. It's funny when I've just spent 15 minutes trying to find something, but didn't see it because it was up too high.

That's removed

Joe Rogan identifies as a South Park character: offensive and two-dimensional

So he wants people to call him that?
- That's what I'm hearing from these brainless defenders of bigotry... The only time it's appropriate to use IMO is when accurately describing the people who defend its usage as acceptable. They shouldn't even be upset; we're doing what they wanted!