(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

What's the proper response on TradeMe when you leave someone *very polite* neutral feedback for items that were frankly not as you expected, including the phrase "seller was handicapped by not knowing X", and the seller responds by flipping out and saying "DO YOU NO WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE HANDICAPPED? I DON'T TAKE THAT LIGHTLY. DON'T TRADE WITH ME AGAIN."? (I ended up apologising - but I'm not sure how I could have phrased that in a way that doesn't offer an insult - that was the most neutral phrasing I could come up with. The closest synonym to handicapped in this context is "struggled with" and frankly that seems nasty to me.) Am I completely wrong? Are people who talk about golf handicaps being insensitive? Can the word handicapped no longer be used without presenting an insult? (I mean - I am usually totally onboard with changing meanings of words and, for example, find the "that's so gay" construction offensive as well as puerile. But I had felt that handicapped in the context I used it in retains its original meaning.)

Comments

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Go ahead, pick on me! It's good for the constitution. I think there's a clear line between retarded and dumb - to do, yes, with proximity to insult - but it's harder for me to draw the line between dumb and lame, dumb and crazy (and lame and crazy are both words whose frequent use have been criticised in internet debates I've read recently.) I don't know, I struggle with it - while I can think of plenty of synonyms for idiot, moron, and bad person, I really struggle to think of a word that conveys the implied irrationality of crazy, or the implied sense of being simultaneously irrelevant and ridiculous of lame.

PS YOU DIDN'T SAY BEN WAS A NATIONAL VOTER. MAY NOT BE ABLE TO COPE.