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“Retarded”

This word is verbal blackface. Sure, it’s offensive on the surface, but it’s sooo much more disgusting when you consider the vulnerable people abused and tortured for centuries because of what it represents.

Governments have used this word — and others like it —  to imprison and kill people for simply not being “normal,” or a “burden to society.” Knowing this agonizing history and still using the word says far more about you than anyone else.

Not convinced? Read “An Open Letter to Ann Coulter” by John Franklin Stevens.

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“Guns”

Can you really still argue that your absolute right to shoot pesky squirrels and repel foreign invaders is more important that protecting your neighbors from right wing radicalized terrorists — aka boys being boys — with AR-15s?

If your guns are so damn valuable, let’s put a property tax on every weapon and round in your doomsday bunker. I’m far less lethal with my minivan, and I pay taxes on that every year.

Not convinced? Read “Firearm and Ammunition Taxes” at RAND Corporation

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“S/he”

How does the way someone dresses or wears their hair have an impact on your life? Genetic coinflips can have a profound influence on each of our lives, but we don’t freak out about eye color, webbed toes, or the presence — or absence of ear lobes.

Stop fixating on someones genitals — or anything else about their body — and worry about your own presentation, ‘cuz right now you’re looking pretty ugly.

Not convinced? Read “Beyond ‘He’ or ‘She’: The Changing Meaning of Gender and Sexuality” by Katy Steinmetz.

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“Females”

Calling anyone “a female” is arrogant, reductive, and dehumanizing. When someone does this, I suspect they have a strong bias against women, and I look for (and usually find) additional evidence of this bias.

At best, it’s bizarrely clinical and awkward, unless followed by an actual noun, like “female gamer,” but why are you discussing gender anyway? Hopefully to fight stereotypes, and not play into them.

Not convinced? Read “Stop Calling Us ‘Females’ for Real, Though” by Ashley Velez.