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Words matter. As a writer, I’ve always believed this. Over the last few years, I’ve come to understand it even more.

I once had an editor inform me I couldn’t use the word “crazy” in an article. My first impulse response was to protest.

“Well, I don’t mean it that way…” I thought. Then I paused because I realized I couldn’t defend the use of the word. Part of me wanted to insist it wasn’t my intention to insult anyone with a cognitive issue. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that’s exactly what I was doing.

The same thing happened with the word “stupid.” Once again, a reader called me out on this misuse. It’s a lazy and insulting term that distracts from your true intent. These two examples belong to a whole family of words that we reach for when we can’t be bothered to follow through on our thoughts.

I’ve made a deliberate effort to remove this kind of language from my work. However, I’m the first to admit that I’m not perfect. Sometimes in moments of frustration I allow an inappropriate word to slip out. When that happens when I’m writing, I fix it in the editing. However, if you watch my livestreams you’ll find many examples of poor word choices. Sometimes I catch myself and apologize and use my slip as a teachable moment. Other times I don’t notice and my readers have to inform me later.

Appropriate word selection is fundamental to the craft of writing. However, in the time I’ve spent attempting to recondition myself not to use words that refer to cognitive incapacity, I’ve discovered something interesting. When you hold yourself to a higher standard, particularly when it comes to explaining acts of cruelty, you arrive at a clearer picture of the threats you face.

It’s empowering.

Essentially, we do ourselves a disservice when we get into the habit of dismissing cruelty by blaming evil acts on cognitive issues.

This is most obvious when it comes to the behavior of the loathsome occupant of the Oval Office. Yes, from the outside looking in, it appears as if he’s in poor health. But we can’t allow his poor health to end up being the excuse for a lifetime of deplorable choices.

From all accounts, this is a man who, when given a choice between kindness and cruelty, has always elected to be cruel. We can’t allow ourselves to become distracted by that truth with lazy word choices.

This is just as irresponsible as blaming school shootings on mental health, when it’s clearly a white supremacy issue. These words are deployed to prevent us from seeing the true source of the problems that confront us.

The words you select to describe your reality alter your perception of reality. People who are cognitively incapacitated are no more a danger than immigrants or members of the LGBTQ+ community. We have to recognize that the radical right is constantly looking for scapegoats to blame for the essential cruelty of conservative ideas. But we can’t allow them to suggest their actions were based on an ailment that was beyond their control.

The political right is cruel. That is their choice. They make this choice in sound mind and body. When you stop attributing their behavior to mental illness, you become better fortified to stand against the evil of the world. Until you stop dismissing their beliefs as mental illness, you can’t comprehend that they’re doing it on purpose.

People often lecture me that I should never assume malice when ignorance or incompetence might also explain the behavior. I have begun to push back hard against that sentiment. I think it’s been weaponized in order to camouflage deliberate acts of evil.

It is a self-destructive form of ableism to assume somebody is acting with cruelty because they are less intelligent than you. We should be mindful that ableism is a form of supremacy thinking. If you’re casually dismissing evil acts as some indication of cognitive incapacity, you’re trivializing the behavior. You’re participating in scapegoating innocent people for the crimes of the deliberately cruel.

I believe this form of cognitive bias is similar to many other habits that are indoctrinated into us through white supremacy conditioning. Remember that white supremacy is the fundamental culture of the United States. It’s the shame of this nation, and even now we’re not doing nearly enough to combat this toxic ideology.

You can’t wake up one morning and decide not to be a white supremacist any more than you can wake up and decide to learn Physics. Incorporating complex ideas into your thinking requires deliberate and diligent action. You have to first remove every strand of the cobweb of corruption that was planted against your will and without your consent, then you have to replace it with something better.

This is why you’ll continue to see me make mistakes in my livestreams for the foreseeable future. I’m currently in the process of removing a pattern of thought that is ineffective. Through deliberate action and accountability, I will turn a choice into a habit. Once I’ve established a habit of avoidance when it comes to the language of ableism, I will be able to maintain it with minimal effort.

Establishing good habits in your thinking is how you gain power. We have to practice accountability with ourselves and with our peer group. The more we train ourselves to perceive and discuss the reality of the world, and not default to the language of malicious habits, the more empowered we are to combat evil at its source.

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