Occasionally I hear similar criticisms of the word “stupid.” When a statement, agenda, object or phenomenon is described as “stupid,” some people understand that as being offensive to mentally disabled people, just as “crazy” is understood as offensive to mentally ill people — even though it’s not a person who’s being described.

I am in favor of inclusive, non-insulting language, and I want to challenge myself and others to use the language that is preferred by people who have been hurt by their marginalization, but I need to know what the replacement language is. When something is ill-informed, hastily considered, irrational, self-defeating, out of touch with the general consensus, not reality-based, unsustainable, or sounds as though it comes from a child rather than an adult… how do we communicate our criticism? Are some of the terms I just used acceptable, or are they, too, offensive to the mentally disabled/ill?

The article ends with a call for “trying to remove words like ‘insane’ and ‘crazy’ from [one’s] own speech.” That seems doable, as long as we have replacement words or concepts for criticizing things. Otherwise — and this is what actually happens to me — I catch myself about to say a word I’ve just learned is offensive to someone, and, not yet having a replacement word, my tongue freezes, which results in people looking at me as if I am, well — “stupid” or “crazy.” (How are they looking at me? How do I describe this?)