who exactly decides what should be changed and to what?

[sixtyandfabulousofcourse]

over time what is an acceptable word and what is not changes.
for instance in the 60s and 70s the Sp*** society was acceptable and over time the society has had several name changes.
But who decides what was an everyday word who does think up the new acceptable names?

A strange thread. Obviously the charity was aware of how the connotations had become strictly negative, used as a common insult etc and that it needed to move with the times and away from that sort of antiquated language. A brand consultant, research, focus groups and consultations will have been involved. No idea how they arrived at Scope though 🤷‍♀️

I guess when the word starts being used as an insult and flung about it pretty quickly becomes offensive and needs to be changed!
I do think about the SS quite frequently. Spasticity wasn’t a symptom for all sufferers, due to different variants, so it wasn’t a great name for the charity in the first place, but as an insult it was awful! Started on a tv show I believe.

that was really just an example but what I meant was yes society but what makes society suddenly decide a word is no longer fit to use? when it has been acceptable for a long time. who deems that we can no longer use that word think of things that have gone out of use like golliwog that is a minefield

When people start flinging it around as an insult to demean people. I have hemiplegia and remember being called a spastic/spazz by various horrible kids at secondary school. It was always to hurt rather than as a descriptor, but I remember one girl being flabbergasted when once I 'reclaimed' the word, saying yes, actually I was a spastic as it was an old word for CP. I think she had no idea that it actually had medical roots.

I know what you mean. Why is retarded not OK but idiot OK but they have similar origin. For many years coloured was polite and Black wasn't but that changed. In some areas of the country that is used as a mild insult, in others it's swearing of the worst order. how do these rules get made.

Aren't these words deemed offensive by those they offend? Surely people with disabilities said they didn't like the word to describe them as it had become an insult.

But if some people are offended by a word and other aren't who 'wins'

What do you mean? People are in general offended when a word is used offensively and slides into insult.

So idiot was a term for someone with learning disabilities. But presumably noone was offended so it's not offensive. How many 'idiots' would need to be offended before the word becomes unacceptable. It is no longer used by medical professionals but is used on general conversation..

I think it's the way in which it's used. The R word I think has been used much more maliciously against people with learning disabilities than idiot, which has slid into general insult towards anybody. So they've developed differently, despite having similar roots and meanings.

As an aside it's very depressing how easy it is for hateful words against those with disabilities to slip through the net and somehow remain as "just banter" etc, when the equivalent words aimed at race/nationalities are rightly deemed absolutely unacceptable.