The ’90s called, they want their phones back.

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
    20·
    10 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

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      10·
      10 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.

    • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.org
      5·
      10 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.

      • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
        2·
        10 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?

          • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
            3·
            10 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.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
      2·
      10 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)…