Is it DUMB to be DUMB???

Question

Why do Americans call "stupid" people DUMB? Is this not a gross insult to speech- impaired and mute people. Surely in this enlightened age that rejects race, sex and age slurs, the Americans could do something to address this nasty definition of "stupid" I am sure MUTE people are not stupid, and what do they call people with hearing problems???

Well Dukalink6000, happy to see you are with the program. The question was about dumb/mute people, nothing to do with deafness, the two conditions are not intrinsically linked (not going to fast for you am I) many dumb/mute people can hear, so that blows your theory out of the water.

Right on the money Super G. Who indeed would want to listen to an ignorant or stupid person carry on? So why don't you shut the f**k up you cupid stunt (thats a spoonerism in case your not sure))

Mia:: Dumb meant mute for several centuries before you yanks highjacked to mean something derogatory.

Lovely B. Don't wan't to be pedantic honey, but deaf is NOT the same as dumb/mute.

Answer 1

Actually, the term meant "stupid" before it meant "mute". In ancient times, Aristotle (or maybe it was Socrates, I can't remember) said that the deaf were incapable of cognition (yes I know you are referring to people who are mute not people who are deaf, and yes I know that there are more hearing-mutes than deaf-mutes. I'm getting there). Of course, back they didn't have the therapies or technology that we have, so someone who was deaf probably was mute for lack of someone to teach them oral language. Any attempts to speak wouldn't have been understood and so even without being mute in the sense of lacking the capability for speech, they lacked an intelligable language, which Aristotle (or Socrates) said was the foundation for mental thought, so therefore the deaf were incabable of thinking.

Of course as time went on, people realized that this wasn't true, and sign languages started to develop (although not til fairly late in history). Once it was seen that deaf and mute people had the capacity for language, the term dumb transformed to mean "mute". Unfortunately the original meaning of "stupid" did not disappear with the evolution of the word.

Now the terms "deaf and dumb" and "deaf mute" are clearly offensive to the deaf community because a vast majority are not mute, and because of the derrogatory nature of that word. As far as those who are truly mute, they don't see the use of the word "dumb" meaning "stupid" to be insulting, but the use of the word "dumb" to mean "mute" is insulting. Mute people are not stupid, but they refer to themselves as mute, not dumb, because the true definition of dumb IS "stupid".

I hope that makes sense.

Answer 2

Dumb is a slur against people who can't talk. Dumb also means stupid. Of course it is dumb to be dumb because it a choice. You choose to be dumb by being to dumb to learn. That's dumb.
You really can't legislate change in the meaning of a word. meaning changes over time. Americans still use lots of slurs--race, sex, age, orientation and otherwise. You're in the country that has more dumb americans that any place else.

Answer 3

Seriously all this has to stop. You can't ask for a black coffee now in some places because some how that is seen as racist. Kids at school can no longer sing Ba Ba black sheep because it's racist.

I can see your point but they aren't reffering to actual "dumb" people in any way it's just another phrase for stupid. The world is seriously going down hill due to human rights.

Answer 4

It's because Americans are lazy in their speech and spelling, dropping "Us" in words etc. The language is called English not American. If they openly deride people who are mute, they must have a "field day" with "cripples" and the blind. A very tactless race

Answer 5

That very open minded---but A person is how they chose to be defined...I seriously doubt that deaf people = the word "dumb" to themselves because they are dumb. They are deaf, in many way.

deaf- not being able to hear but also something that is beyond cool.

Answer 6

Americans are an underclass of English speakers who have a huge speech impediment anyway, so don't worry about them.
On Dumb and Dumb: if you are Dumb you'll be so Dumb you won't know it. In the same way that if you're mad you don't know you are. If you are cognisant of the condition you can't have it.
Ignorance is bliss!

Answer 7

This is just a different use of words, like "gay" meaning homosexual, not an insult, just a different usage. I am sure "dumb" is not meant as an insult to mute people.

Answer 8

i think of that's a cutting-edge international style. i think of people have become dumber in specific fields like Math, technological information and technologies, whilst fields like banking, finance have remained unaffected. I studied computing device Engineering in a school in Nigeria for a pair of years earlier I got here visiting to a US college, and my very own journey (and my grades) teach that the coursework is obviously quite a few stages much less confusing over right here in the U.S. comparable statements would be made while evaluating coursework in India, China and Japan. on the different hand, there's a relentless innovations drain from international to the US in the technological information and math fields as thousands of persons migrate from countries like China and India to the US to start up new lives each and every 3 hundred and sixty 5 days, so I dont think of the US will lose its technological component for a pair of many years a minimum of. in actuality, take a walk in direction of the college of Engineering homes of maximum faculties in the US and u will see a dominance of Asian scholars (while China gets their act thoroughly mutually, its over=)

Answer 9

I agree that it is an unneccessary way to describe those who are not so gifted in the brain-cell area, but then the Americans themselves are not exactly the most enlightened of races so we shouldn't really expect anything more from them. You just have to look at some of their other grammatical and spelling traits e.g. missing out the letter "u" from words like "color" and "flavor"; their pronounciation of "aluminium" as "aluminum" etc etc :-)

Answer 10

one word can have many different meanings. depends on what subject u r talking. if dumb is the only word tht can describe hearing impaired people..be it, if not ask the people in the language turf to find new words to replace that.