cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/10105454

• Gen Z’s nostalgia for the early 2000s is sparking a revival of landline phones, seen as a retro-chic escape from the digital age.

• Influenced by '90s and 2000s TV shows, young adults like Nicole Randone and Sam Casper embrace landlines for their vintage appeal.

• Urban Outfitters capitalizes on Gen Z’s love for nostalgia by selling retro items like landline phones alongside fashion trends from the '90s and 2000s.

      • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Why idiot, imbecille and moron are okay but retard is off-limits? All of these words have been used in a psychological classification system in the past yet retard seems to be the only one people take issue with.

        Idiots. —Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years.

        Imbeciles. —Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years.

        Morons. —Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.

        Edmund Burke Huey, Backward and Feeble-Minded Children, 1912

        • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.org
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          9 months ago

          Stop arguing about what slurs are okay to use. The only rule around here is to be nice. If someone asks you to not use a word because it hurts them, the nice thing to do is to listen.

        • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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          9 months ago

          Because language is fluid and changes with societal use. We don’t all defer to linguistic norms from hundreds or even thousands of years ago when literally everything about life would be alien to us now.

          I’m sure you didn’t intend to post such a nice comment (based on the historical definition of the word)…

        • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          What makes you think I am cool with calling people hurtful names? Why are you trying to reason your way into using slurs? You can say what you want if you really want to die on this hill. But you aren’t immune from social blowback.

          I can’t imagine getting so passionate about the ability to call somebody such a hateful term. But I guess we know a little bit more about what your priorities are. Though my guess would be that if I told you I was on the spectrum you would have a very different tone.

          • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            You’re free to go thru my post history and try to find examples of me calling people hurtful names. You just wont find any because that’s not how I behave and that’s not what my question is about.

            My question is pretty simple; why this specific term? It feels so arbitrary. There doesn’t seem to be any logic behind it. I wont get mobbed if I call someone an idiot but for some reason retard is off limits. Why?

            • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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              9 months ago

              I don’t care about your post history. I am talking about what is in front of us right now.

              Idiot is unkind and I personally avoid it but it is not on the same level and you know it. There is no debate here. You know what my argument is, you just don’t care. That is your prerogative. But you do not get to be shielded from judgment.

              Clearly it is incredibly important to you to use ablest slurs. You go ahead and live your life the way you want. But you’re not going to get permission from me or anyone who objects. Welcome to social consequences dude I don’t know what else to tell you.

              • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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                9 months ago

                I feel like you’re completely ignoring my original question. Seeing that despite being controversial it has 12 upvotes and zero downvotes then maybe that’s an indication that it’s a valid question and I’m not the only one wondering the same thing.

                • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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                  9 months ago

                  If barely double digit vote counts are how you decide what is right and wrong then we have nothing to discuss.

                  Mine above you is 42/1 (I’m willing to bet that 1 is you but I’m too lazy to check) so there you go. Stop using the term because the numbers said so.

                  • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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                    9 months ago

                    I’ll take that bet.

                    I haven’t made any moral statements about right and wrong. It’s a simple question about why something is the way it is. Simple question you refuse to engage with so no point in going any further with this.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          9 months ago

          It’s more recent. Just the euphemism treadmill in action.

          Basically, some people are clinically unintelligent out of no fault of their own, and we’d rather they not get caught in the crossfire when insults are being hurtled. The approach to that has been to try and avoid unintelligence-based insults, but it hasn’t worked, because it actually is just better to be smarter.

          I don’t really have a better suggestion, though.

    • TheaoneAndOnly27@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      I 100% agree, but is there any way we could kind of keep working to phase out retarded from common vocabulary. It’s just such a charged and unnecessary word to use as a pejorative.

      • Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        I would argue words change meaning and if you dont like that word you also shouldn’t use “stupid” or “dumb”. I’ve never heard anyone disparage a person with intellectual disabilities using that term so in my mind it just means… How should I phrase this for someone so sensitive… “Very much not smart”. Idiot should be fine since it comes from a word meaning “common person”. I don’t use the word anymore because i don’t want to push even sensitive people away, but I do think the whole thing is pretty silly.

        • belated_frog_pants@beehaw.org
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          9 months ago

          That word hasnt changed meaning and people still alive now have been ridiculed with it. You dont get to reclaim slurs that you arent part of the community its aimed at. Stop using the word.

        • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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          9 months ago

          It’s literally what everyone here called mentally disabled people in the 90s. And it was meant to be insulting.

          • Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            Look dude it doesn’t matter what word you use, there will always be a word or phrase to convey the essence of what the r-word represents. Its all just a treadmil of expressions, you can cancel the r-word and then in 20 years we can have this exact conversation about “stupid” and “dumb”.

            • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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              9 months ago

              It does matter what words you use. Would you walk up to somebody who is on the autism spectrum and call them that word? Are you seriously that daft? Do we have to get this basic about this because you can’t use your imagination?

              Your response is flippant and I know even you could come up with examples where we needed to stop using a word and it was a good decision. But instead you are grandstanding and using absolutist language here because you want to win an Internet argument. For what? The right to use a hateful slur targeting people who have no control over something you are mocking?

              You are welcome to use it if it’s that important to you. But you are not immune from social repercussions. And no, no one is going to grant you that. So live your life knowing you can be the hurtful person you want to be.

    • TransporterAccident1@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      The article doesn’t offer a single statistic suggesting there is a resurgence of landlines, much less that Gen Z folks are responsible for it. It’s basically just a fiction piece.