What is the best way to react, if someone calls you a degenerate? Just leave them, remembering the insult?
This type of insult targets disabled people specifically?
If it’s not being used ironically or self deprecatingly I generally assume the person in question is a fash or some sort of right winger
meow just meow at them
I associate this with fascists and right-wingers going back a few generations as being broadly equivalent to ‘woke’ these days: i.e. anything vaguely progressive that they didn’t like.
So, without additional context, my reaction would be to assume that the person saying this was a fascist - and therefore to treat any further interactions accordingly - and to wear the term with honour.
Throw a dildo at them
Alternatively,
No decent person would use the word degenerate. Just don’t interact if you can
Unless it’s a consensual sex thing
I know a fairly large number of amazing people who use the word degenerate somewhat frequently. That said, they are all definitely degenerates and proud of it.
Reclamation is totally fine of course
It’s not even reclamation. It’s literally just using the word for its primary definition:
Morally corrupt or given to vice.
Sure but the n word also has a non offensive primary definition in some countries, now most people agree it is offensive regardless
I say “thank you, I try” and blow them a flirty kiss.
“You wanna fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid”
My friends and I call each other degenerate when we do things that are degenerate. Like playing wow until 6am. Or buying a taco bell burrito with the intention of reheating it the next day. Or binging some garbage reality show. It’s all in good fun.
I wouldn’t take it personally, it’s just a term that jokingly means “a person who has their shit together wouldn’t be doing that”, but we all have those things and they’re fun to take note of and laugh about.
I commonly get called names and have disparaging comments fly my way.
At first, I let them get under my skin. I would get depressed. But I realized this is exactly what they want me to feel. They won.
Now when someone “makes a joke” I just tell myself they won’t win and realize whatever credibility or trust I had for this person is lost. They are wholly uneducated and I make the choice not to engage with them any further.
I win this round. Not them
Tell them to dengerate these nutz
Gottem
When I call someone a degenerate gambler I am not going after the disabled.
Calling someone a degenerate is their way of saying you have low/no morals etc. Is a lame insult used by people who think they have some high ground over you.
Like I’d imagine some fundamentalist Christian using it about skaters back in the 90s.
I’m not sure why it would be used to comment on disability.
“I like eating grilled cheese and playing with monster trucks”
If thrown out sincerely, or with real vitriol, avoid. It’s pretty dehumanizing in such a sense.
But if it’s was a friend teasing you then that’s something else, just throw some insult back at them.
They’re probably far-right, which is why you find people in Nazi bars like MeanwhileOnGrad using it frequently: (credit to @Diva@lemmy.ml )
CW
Funny enough, lemmings.world shut down because this prediction was wrong, the communists are here to stay.
In that sense, I’d react similarly to whenever a fascist, Zionist, etc. starts attacking me. None of their points hold any water, so just point that out.
