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It bothers me seeing weird used as a weapon (self.chat)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by elfpie to c/chat

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I really tried to ignore it and let it go as just another passing trend. It’s not my language, not my culture and not my battleground, but it’s hard. It hurt me seeing it slowly spreading and getting bigger. What made me decide to vent was reading someone talk about their struggles and seeing a familiar sentence that might be familiar to all: “I was a weird child”.

Being weird is not usually a problem, the issue usually is people being incapable to accept what they consider weird. Different is not wrong, queer is not wrong, expressing yourself and living the only way you know when it’s not hurting anyone around you is definitely not wrong, even if it doesn’t conform with society.

All these horrible people hate being called weird because it’s what they having been calling us the whole time, but in more specific ways. I feel using it as a slur now just reinforces the negative connotations and validate their view.

Update: semantic satiation to the rescue. Weird became a meme and a trend everyone wanted to take part and use regardless of it making sense.

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[–] theangriestbird 16 points 3 months ago (3 children)

This article shared by @TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org earlier today has a section where they explore this idea a little:

There are, of course, different kinds of weird. There’s good weird and bad weird, or creepy-weird and interesting-weird. Plenty of regular folks and artists are a very good kind of weird. They reject conformity in ways that make us question cultural norms and force us to face the inherent randomness of existence. Weirdness is vitally important in this way.

Vance and Trump and their foot soldiers are most definitely creepy-weird.

I guess I'm not getting what bothers you about it? I wrote most of a paragraph about how I view the word, but then I realized that we are basically on the same page. "Weird" means different things depending on who is saying it, and depending on who they are saying it to. Just like "queer" has taken on a new context, even though it was used as a slur for quite some time. You know that if a leftist calls you "weird", they mean it in an endearing way, while if they call a right winger "weird", they mean it in a derogatory way. I am gathering that you agree that this is how it works. So what am I missing?

[–] elfpie 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I sometimes say to my best friend, among other generally inappropriate things, that something she does is gay, and she does the same to me. It is a private reclamation of the use of the word gay as a slur, but outside any context, to an outside observer, it’s just casual homophobia.

Let me go back to that child. I don’t think they will hear horrible people being called weird and see it as being bad weird. It’s just plain weird. If it’s not being different that’s the issue, but the specific bad behavior, why the focus is on weird? We know words help shape our perception, we fight for those changes. What bothers me is hearing the same harmful words I heard so many times towards me and around me being used by those who seemed to understand how they hurt. I guess it’s similar to the discussion of being okay to attack someone’s looks if they are on the other side.

[–] theangriestbird 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I sometimes say to my best friend, among other generally inappropriate things, that something she does is gay, and she does the same to me.

My partner and I do the same. It's to the point where i don't even think of the original slur use anymore. This is pretty universal among all of the queer people I know IRL.

If it’s not being different that’s the issue, but the specific bad behavior, why the focus is on weird?

Because the specific bad behavior is childish and immature, but the weird people in question do not understand that their behavior is childish and immature. Weaponizing "weird", a word that is usually only weaponized by children, brings their immaturity into sharp focus, which pisses them off because they are trying so very hard to be viewed as tough and unstoppable. Most rational adults do not mind being called weird, which is why it works as a label. It makes conservatives mad, and if they try to go, "I'm not weird, you're weird!", most rational people won't really care, because weird isn't a bad thing to be. We've tried other words, but they generally don't work because they are either too academic to stick, or the Right simply "both-sides" it into obscurity.

You really should read that article I linked, it digs into this better than I can.

[–] elfpie 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I read it. I was familiar with that form of activism, but I don't agree this is it. I saw all the examples presented as forms of reframing the situations to deflate their original meaning. The author says using weird is non violent, but it's an attack using a word. The advice is use it because it hurts, not because it makes their ideals less appealing.

edit: Anti-Authoritarian Clowns: A Revolutionary History