In his Time essay, about which I just commented, Steven Pinker uses the V-word to describe someone with profound cognitive incapacities. He really shouldn’t. None of us should ever use that word any more than we would the odious N-word for black folk, or the C-word for women. Even used obliquely, as Pinker does the V-word, these denigrating terms are intended to demean, dehumanize, and degrade. As such, they are dangerous and should not be part of any respectable person’s vocabulary.
Pinker speaks of humans being cruel in his essay. There is no denying it. Indeed, using a pejorative term that reduces some human beings to the level of a radish is precisely that.
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