Will We Ever Get Off Of The Euphemism Treadmill?

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You're right, it's not necessarily hate.
Just lack of respect.

It’s more like “scorn” to me.

A scornful lack of respect. That’s how I experience being called “ret*d.”

Getting off the treadmill does not mean going back before getting off. It just means stop doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result.

That said if enough people claim it as positive I would think that is a good thing.

No.

People are insulting, they will continue to invent new insults.

Yes, they will.....but I believe in the "sticks and stones" philosophy.

Almost always, if someone calls me an insult, they have no idea what I am about. People insult others because they just feel like being insulting (i.e., it has nothing to do with YOU, per se).

That's not always true, if someone perceives me as rude and calls me an a**hole, that most certainly has to do with me. One shouldn't build a defence mechanism against insults that's so impermeable they no longer consider that their actions and attitudes might play a role.

If one person calls you an a**hole, maybe you are, maybe you're not.
If everyone calls you an a**hole, you're most likely an a**hole.

Sometimes, people just call other people a**holes just for the hell of it.

Yes....sometimes a person might "deserve" being called an a**hole.

I've been called thousands of things----none of which were true! I am speaking from experience.

I agree, sometimes people insult for no good reason, but that said;
you've never been insulted when you were in the wrong? Really, never?

Sure----obviously that's happened. But that has happened rarely. I'm not a really good person----but I'm not a really bad person, either. I'm pretty boring (no, this isn't false modesty). This is why I'm flummoxed as to why I was insulted so much as a young person.

Please refer to the post previous to my previous post----where I said "ALMOST always" : - )

I'm not doubting you're a good person, I'm sure it's quite rare (since you don't ever appear to behave in such a manner), even if NYC is stereotyped as using 'hey watch it a**hole' as the standard greeting.

I'm sure that's an exaggeration though.

New Yorkers are actually quite friendly in Manhattan----but they tend to be standoffish, clannish, paranoid, etc. in the Outer Boroughs. Very similar to most other locales in the US.

If one goes to a "gentrified" area (usually in Manhattan or Brooklyn), one runs into lots of "surface friendliness."

There are parts of Queens where Trump won, believe it or not (even though Biden carried Queens by about a 4-1 margin). In these areas, "political correctness" is out the window---and people are routinely called "ret*d," etc. (especially online).

I'm not sure: but I think this is a New York expression:

"If you're not going to s**t, get off the pot!"

You made my evening

The problem with governments prescribing when (and when not) to use particular language that's already in convention is that the speed which change happens today on social media makes it impossible to stop.

I am sure they will keep coming up with new terms for the disabled or for LGTBQI people. Meanwhile the insult/slurs will keep being generated.