Donald Trump's own use of language-- "crooked" ---betrays his hostility for people w/ disabilities

[Shankapotomus]

Last edited Mon Aug 29, 2016, 01:37 PM - Edit history (1)

I cringe every time Donald Trump uses the word "CROOKED" --- a euphemism for a physical condition--- to describe his opponent.

Trump is using the word "crooked" as a dog whistle against people with disabilities.

Trump sees the word as a way to describe people who, to him, are to be reviled and rejected, as he claims his political opponent should be reviled and rejected for being "crooked".

To Trump, people who are "crooked" are revolting, undesirable, flawed, unworthy, corrupt, no good and worthy of rejection.

Trump is using "Crooked" is a denigrating term meant to appeal purely to people's sight as a way to judge others.

This is how Trump sees people. If you're "crooked", you're automatically worthless and defective.

It reveals something about how Trump sees other people that he would choose a visually descriptive word to describe his opponent in negative light.

People with disabilities often have "crooked" limbs and if Trump finds that word useful in describing the alleged flaws and corruption of his political opponent, what is he thinking about people who are physically "crooked"?

This is a man incapable of seeing people with disabilities.

Edit: Maybe you're all right. Idk, maybe I'm just seeing things?

[Ms. Toad]

1. I don't disagree about Trump's hostility toward people with disabilities -

as well as a whole host of others groups of people.

I also agree that no one (including our side) should be using physical characteristics of groups of individuals to bash political opponents.

But I've never heard "crooked" as slang for disabled (aside from individuals with physical deformities who describe their own limbs that way). I also searched several different ways - just to see if I'd missed something - and nothing shows up in the first two pages of any of the searches I ran (looking for euphemism, slang, derrogatory, etc.)

Crooked is, however, commonly used to refer to dishonesty - and is clearly the sense in which Trump is using it.

Here's a reference for how that use likely started:

http://www.word-detective.com/2010/07/crook/

Nothing in there suggests a connection beteween his use of the term and physical disabilities.

[Shankapotomus]

2. Try here:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/crooked

crooked (ˈkrʊkɪd)
adj
1. bent, angled or winding
2. set at an angle; not straight
3. deformed or contorted
4. informal dishonest or illegal

[Ms. Toad]

5. Still no derrogatory connection to PEOPLE with disabilities.

The first three are literal definitions (whether you are talking about limbs or objects). I have heard people (both with and without disabilities) describe their own limbs as crooked - purely as an accurate physical description - for example many people have what they self-describe as crooked pinkies.

I have never heard it used as a derrogatory label for people with physical disabilities - nor can I find any such use when I search for it.

[Shankapotomus]

6. Yet you admit

that some people with disabilities have described their limbs as "crooked".

I'm not saying the term itself has negative connotations. I'm saying Trump is using it in a negative way against Hillary to play on people's prejudice toward people with physical disabilities. He's alluding to the disabled ---using that term --- as unacceptable and defective. He's using a visual cue to access people's inner prejudices against things and people they deem visually offensive and repugnant.

[Ms. Toad]

33. He's just not using a visual cue to access inner prejudices.

In the context he is using it, he is clearly invoking what he perceives as her dishonesty - a moral characteristic, not a physical one. If you can point to instances where he has used crooked to invoke physical, rather than moral, characteristics - please share them,

As to what I admitted - what I said was that I have heard people with disabilities - and without - describe limbs as crooked. It is, in every instance I have heard it and in anything I can find online - it has been used purely a descriptive (not derrogatory) term.

[Shankapotomus]

34. Okay - how about "crippled"?

[Ms. Toad]

38. Much more likely.

But that isn't the case you've been making - the use of a specific word (crooked) to trigger a visceral reaction to people with disabilities.

Crippled does that. Crooked does not - as you should have gathered from the responses in this thread.

[Shankapotomus]

23. Also a synonym of "deformed"

is "disabled".

[Ms. Toad]

35. If "deformed" had been followed by "person"

I would agree. But all of my packing boxes arrived at my new office as crooked (as in the "deformed" definition). That definition does not expressly or inherently refer to people.

Until you demonstrate "crooked" is used as a derrogatory term for individuals with physical disabilities, my objection stands.

This is the kind of argument I am normally sympathetic to - and make regularly myself. You cannot use a personal characteristic (like obesity, or gender identity, etc) to bash someone unless it is widely perceived (or you intend to convey) that the underlying personal characteristic is negative.

Crooked is not, in anything I can find, used in any way other than purely descriptive, to refer to physical characteristics of people.

[Shankapotomus]

36. So I guess

when a GOP politician wants to use the term "thug", he has to say "black thug" if he means "black people"?

Same thing for the word "urban".

[Ms. Toad]

37. No, because thug is inherently a person.

Neither crooked nor deformed are inherently people.

I don't often say this, but you're stretching to find insult where there is none.

There are plenty of direct insults, and even dog whistles, used by Trump and his supporters. Including many directed at people with disabilities. That said, nothing suggests to me that this is one of them - and nothing you've come up with even hints at using "crooked" as an insult - or as a visual cue to people with disabilities.

[FSogol]

3. Have to agree. That's quite a stretch. n/t

[tammywammy]

4. I've also never heard of crooked as a slur against the disabled.

[MineralMan]

7. That seems to be a stretch, I think.

The word "crooked" to refer to people with physical handicaps is archaic. It hasn't been used for a very, very long time. The only reference to that use I can think of is the old children's nursery rhyme that starts, "There was a crooked man..."

[Shankapotomus]

8. Donald Trump is archaic himself

I'm not saying the term itself has negative connotations. I'm saying Trump is using it in a negative way against Hillary to play on people's prejudice toward people with physical disabilities. He's alluding to the disabled ---using that term --- as unacceptable and defective. He's using a visual cue to tap into people's inner prejudices against things and people they deem visually offensive and repugnant.

[MineralMan]

11. I'm afraid I can't agree.

He's using the term in its more common meaning of dishonest or larcenous. Nobody refers to the disabled as crooked, so nobody's going to take that from Trump's usage.

As I said, it's a stretch - a long one, too.

[Shankapotomus]

13. You're wrong about that

The more or just as common meaning is as an adjective to describe the physical state of being:

crooked
(ˈkrʊkɪd)
adj
1. bent, angled or winding
2. set at an angle; not straight
3. deformed or contorted
4. informal dishonest or illegal

And I, personally, don't really care what Trump's intentions were. The word plays on and taps into people's inner prejudices toward people with physical disabilities and impairments.

There are certain code words that refer to black people, that while they do not directly mean "black people", they are still deemed offensive allusions.

This is a man who finds people with physical impairments and deformations personally repugnant, offensive and inferior.

[unapatriciated]

25. I agree with mm

Besides trump is just not that deep or smart. Neither are his followers. I say this as a mother of a disabled son and just last week my othet son had major surgery for cancer and he is home on a feeding g tube.awaiting radiation. He still has a trach and since the surgery involved opening his face his appearance is a little heartbreaking. But no one is treating him the way you think trump meant that term. So no it's a stretch. Trump is using it to. Refer to dishonesty.

[Shankapotomus]

28. Well, I'm not going to push it

I could be overreacting. Or it might not be intentional on Trump's part, if I'm partially correct.

Sorry for the difficulties you and your family are encountering.

[Shankapotomus]

31. Although...

[Siwsan]

9. One of the nicknames for Richard III was 'Crookback' referring to his scoliosis

I think the term, in that application is pretty archaic in this country. When he uses it referring to Hillary, he's trying to slur her ethics. I don't remember him using it to describe anyone else, but I could be wrong.

But I definitely understand how you would perceive that term to be referring to something physical.

[Donkees]

10. There's also an old New York City expression "As crooked as Pearl Street"

Once in a while some native New Yorker employes the expression "as crooked
as Pearl Street." It is a colloguialism now almost defunct. Pearl Street,
windingest in town, beings on Broadway, wanders toward the East River and
comes back to terminate at Broadway.

[yellowcanine]

12. I think you are thinking of "crippled."

It is a stretch to make "crooked" have this meaning. It is a variation of 'crook", slang for a thief. As in "I am not a crook." - Richard Nixon, 1973.

[Shankapotomus]

14. Haven't you ever heard of a "crooked tree limb"?

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/crooked

crooked
(ˈkrʊkɪd)
adj
1. bent, angled or winding
2. set at an angle; not straight
3. deformed or contorted
4. informal dishonest or illegal

[yellowcanine]

15. Of course, but that is not how he used it. Give it up.

There are plenty of dog whistles to call Trump on, this is not one.

[Shankapotomus]

18. No, I will NOT give it up

Just because YOU don't find it an offensive allusion, doesn't mean it isn't, anymore than "thug" isn't, or "urban" isn't because you're not black.

[Shankapotomus]

43. You mean like this crippled?:

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Wrong. "Crooked" derives from Old Norse "cunning".

It is NOT a slur against the disabled.

In the criminal / moral sense, "crooked" is akin to "he took a crooked path instead of taking a straight path".

I suppose you are next going to rant about The Band's song "Up on Cripple Creek".

[Shankapotomus]

20. Haven't you ever heard of a "crooked tree limb"?

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/crooked

crooked
(ˈkrʊkɪd)
adj
1. bent, angled or winding
2. set at an angle; not straight
3. deformed or contorted
4. informal dishonest or illegal

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. Of course I have. Duh. :eyes: Gosh Golly Geewhiz :eyes:

[Shankapotomus]

30. Yeah, maybe you're all right

idk, maybe it's just me?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

39. Two things true: 1) tRump disrespects disabled people, 2) His use of "crooked" is not it.

1) Trump disrespects disabled people in two ways: A) He mocks them in public, B) He only does the minimum required by Americans with Disabilities Act and pretends that means he loves disabled people.

2) Using the word "crooked" or "crippled" the way he does is ordinary usage and not disrespect.

Does the Crooked Still band disrespect disabled people with their name? No.
Does the Crooked Hammock Brewery disrespect disabled people? No.
Does the Crooked Goose Restaurant disrespect disabled people? No.
Does Crook County Durham disrespect disabled people? Almost certainly not.
Does Steven Crook disrespect disabled people? Almost certainly not.
Is Crook Custom Guitar company a thief? Do they disrespect disabled people? Almost certainly not.

Bottom line: There are so many bad things about Donald Trump that you don't need to stretch his use of two common words to find something bad. It is not useful to waste your firepower on the issue of the two words because it is a non issue.

Donald Trump's disrespect for disabled people is a big issue and is worth pointing out and fighting (see point 1 above). But trying to use these two words actually sets your cause back.

[Shankapotomus]

40. +1

Fair enough.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

19. Nah.

[Shankapotomus]

32. I know...silly...

I gotta be seeing things, right? I have to be.

[pnwmom]

21. Crooked is also the opposite of straight.

So you could make the argument that the word is homophobic.

[Shankapotomus]

24. I'll just say this kind of dog whistle talk

when first heard, is always nothing until it's something.

[unblock]

27. the homophobic word in that case is "bent".

if i'm remembering which shows/movies i've heard it in, this might be a britishism.

[unblock]

26. it's his hostility for people w/disabilities that betrays his hostility for people w/disabilities

no need to parse words or argue about etymology with this guy.

when you openly mock a reporter with a disability, it's pretty obvious.

[Shankapotomus]

29. no argument there (eom)

[Lsantos04]

41. Trump pretty much despises everyone

He only cares about himself, and treats everyone else with smug contempt. You're talking about a man who basically stated that women who go through sexual harassment in their workplace should just get another job. How callous can you get?

Just 3 more months of this to endure, I suppose, until Hillary rightfully wins by a landslide.

[Shankapotomus]

42. +1

That's one thing we're all counting on. Amen.