I hear that this has been tried before but it didn't really land because finding viable substitutes for particular terms can be difficult. I'm fascinated by language though and I wanted to take a shot at this myself.
Just a disclaimer that I'm not trying to drag anyone over using any of these terms and I'm not going to pretend that I'm some paragon of anti-ableism myself - I have work to do on this front, you probably do too and if we all work together we can make some positive change and establish better habits and a more supportive culture in our communities.
Here's a list of words that are more socially acceptable in their ableism and some suggestions for alternatives:
Crazy, Stupid, Dumb, Moronic, Idiotic
[In the sense that something is incorrect or bad]
Silly, foolish, absurd, ridiculous, laughable, nonsense/nonsensical, illogical, incomprehensible, inscrutable, irrational, contradictory, hypocritical, self-defeating, naive, ill-conceived, inane, asinine, counterproductive, unbelievable,
Crazy, Mad
[In the sense of letting loose or being enthusiastic]
Going wild, getting stuck into something, in a frenzy, on a rampage, being engrossed, head over heels, obsessed.
Psychotic, Psychopath, Psycho
[In the sense that something is cruel]
Vicious, bloodthirsty, monstrous, horrific, sadistic, heartless, brutal, ruthless, horrendous, reprehensible, despicable, depraved.
Crippled
Hamstrung, moribund, incapacitated, impaired, ineffective/ineffectual, hog-tied (lol).
What are some other ableist words that are pretty commonplace even amongst the left that you've heard?
Are there terms that I have overlooked or any ones that you use yourself that you'd like to replace?
Okay I'm a bit curious about this one, why is it considered ableist? Terms like "moron" and "idiot" were actually used to refer to people with intellectual disabilities in the past, but looking up "stupid" it appears it just comes from a Latin word for a comic relief character in plays. As far as I can tell it was never used in any official medical context and was just a generic insult for "low intelligence".
It's not that it was ever a medical term, the issue is disparaging someone based on their perceived level of intelligence rather than anything that they're actually doing wrong. Almost everyone with learning disabilities will have been called stupid for their conditions hundreds of times, even if they aren't doing anything morally wrong; meanwhile half the time us Hexbears call something or someone stupid, it's completely off base because it's mostly not an issue of intelligence but an issue of morality and class interest. It's a little like calling someone fat to offend them, when they're not even overweight.
Okay but wouldn't that mean any insult based around intelligence is ableist? So calling someone "ignorant", "dense", "oblivious", "incoherent", ect.
Also not all lack of intelligence is caused by disability, sometimes it's born of laziness and lack of curiosity.
Ignorance and intelligence are different things. I think willful ignorance would denote lack of intelligence, however.
The most willfully ignorant people I've ever met were quite smart