No, the problem is entirely the intent. “Retarded” actually started a nice way of calling a child slow. It was the accepted, polite term for many years. It is the way that it became used as an insult that was the problem. If you keep changing the word, then the new word will always become offensive if used as an…

This is a wonderful piece, and you sound like a great brother. But — as someone who understands the power of certain words, and how they’re used, you should get this — I wish you hadn’t used the phrase “confined to a wheelchair” multiple times. My wheelchair doesn’t have straps or locks that keep me from moving;…

I’m very sorry for what your brother had to experience, but you need to remember that words like “retarded” and “cripple” aren’t necessarily instantaneous triggers for everyone who is disabled or for their family and friends. In the context you mentioned though, definitely. If I caught someone mocking my disabled…

Nah, I’m bored of this game and it was mostly a throwaway joke.

Imagine if this collision happened with a bus or other vehicle with people in it vs. a trailer with cargo, etc. Can’t imagine the legal implications for Tesla is others aside from the Tesla driver had been hurt or killed.

Any Jezebel longform

Well, if you insist:

Quiet down loser

Counterpoint: all personal essays suck. Except The Things They Carried, which was as much quasi-fiction memoir as it was a personal account.

I do not believe that this is a uniquely male thing. As far as I can tell, this is a new-school “journalism” thing, and I’ve started to read, and then stopped reading just as many articles from female authors as male authors. (Or at least I think they were, because sometimes I don’t go back and double check who wrote…

The house........ is glass as hell.

Am I the only one who feels like this video was just done as kind of a goof?

I guess in lieu of making something people actually like, you can intentionally under-perform and call it really edgy satire. I know when I’m insecure about the results of my efforts, I sometimes self-sabotage them - for example, if I’m making a piece of functional furniture and I want it to turn out way better than I…

Totally not paranoid - how many schools have spied on their students thru the laptops they issued since 2003 and gotten caught?

This isn’t all that paranoid. I made fun of an ex when she did this, but as soon as the PRISM story broke, anybody who cares about infosec covered up their cameras. He’s a perfect target for hackers and spear phishers.