On Fri, 21 Aug 1998, Doyle Saylor wrote:
> Max Sawicky:
> "That's why I'm here. I get daily reassurance that
> there are other people crazier than me."
>
> Doyle
> Max labelling people as crazy is anti-disabled. A form of social
> bigotry. If you are crazy, what are your symptoms, come forward and
> stand up proudly for the disabled. If the person or persons you say are
> crazier than you, are they schizophrenic, or depressed, or OCD, or other
> symptoms. Decadence as a political charge using social marginalization
> requires that the common every day sort of bigotry and predjudice never
> get challenged. I like you Max. I really like your contribution to the
> list. Want to debate the merits of calling people crazy?
What's the point of this? If you look in a dictionary (I just checked in the OED) Max's use of "crazy" is correct. Thee are a number of acceptabe uses of this word. It means: (a) full of cracks or flaws, damaged, impaired, unsound, liable to break or fall to pieces. (b) having bodily health or or constitution impaired, diseased, sickly, infirm. (c)of unsound mind, insane, mad, demented; often used by way of exaggeration in sense: distracted or 'mad' with excitement, vehement desire, perplexity, etc..
There are certainly people on this list possessing more vehement desire than Max. I find it annoying when people seize upon another person's use of a word like this. Words are pretty complex; most have bundles of meanings and the word must be taken in context to know what it means. I might cringe when someone uses the word "idiot" (I have a brother who's an idiot in the mentally deficient sense) but I don't jump down peoples throats when they use it because it's also "a term of reprobation for one who speaks or acts in what the speaker considers an irrational way." Now, words like "lame" are far less flexible--lame refers to a physical condition, and as such, when it's used to dscribe something unfortunate, it's being used incorrectly. Ditto for the word "retarded." My bro. has mental retardation and I get angry when people say "oh, that's so retarded." But, again, they are using the word incorrectly.
Smugly, Frances