[WikiEN-l] Don't be an imbecile: name-calling is NOT okay

Fri Mar 4 14:56:49 UTC 2005

I'd like to point out, in an ironically self-contradictory
(hypocritical?) way, that name-calling is not okay. There's a policy
page which says:

* Don't label or give names to people or their edits. Terms like
"racist" or "fascist" (or even "moron") enrage people and make them
defensive. When this happens, it becomes hard to have a productive
discussion.

Recall that the [[moron]] article says:

* Originally a scientific term, coined by psychologist Herbert Goddard,
and used to describe a person with a genetically determined mental age
between 8 and 12 on the Binet scale. The word moron, along with
"imbecile", "retard" and "feebleminded" (among others) was once a valid
descriptor in the psychological community, though these words have all
now passed into common slang use, exclusively in a detrimental context.

And that:

* The three traditional terms denoting varying degrees of mental
deficiency long predate psychiatry. They were originally used in English
as simple forms of abuse, and this is still the main usage. Their now
obsolete use as psychiatric technical definitions is of purely
historical interest. (see [[Mental_deficiency#Traditional_terms]])

The key points here are:

1. Terms like "moron" enrage people and make them defensive.
2. ... are all now used exclusively in a detrimental context.
3. Their use in English as simple forms of abuse is still the main
usage.

So you'd really have to be an idiot to call someone a moron. (oops! ;-)

Uncle Ed