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[Dutchling]

I don't get this popular trend by advertisers to say "Real [product], real people". It's like it's implying that at other competiting brands, the shopkeepers there are actually androids.

[Fniff]

THEY'RE TRYING TO WARN US.

[Dutchling]

I was under the impression 'mongoloid' was an offensive term for disabled people?

Or am I thinking of something different?

Downies look like Mongols is basically what you're after. Common and potentially offensive term for them in Dutch. Not sure what the deal is in English.

[scrdest]

I was under the impression 'mongoloid' was an offensive term for disabled people?

Or am I thinking of something different?

Downies look like Mongols is basically what you're after. Common and potentially offensive term for them in Dutch. Not sure what the deal is in English.

It's the same in english. Not even particularly antiquated.

[Neonivek]

I would have thought it would be mangoloid.

Mind you I never heard the reference.

[Dutchling]

Why would Mongoloid be offensive? Or do you mean calling disabled people Mongols?

[Sirus]

Why would Mongoloid be offensive? Or do you mean calling disabled people Mongols?

I think the term mongoloid was specifically used to refer to people with Down's Syndrome, not disabilities in general.

[Lord Shonus]

It's a fun word if you don't consider the connotations, which is perhaps why it still rattles around today, perhaps like the term niggardly, which is to be poor and stingy, which we're still being taught in AP English courses.

That word is of entirely different derivation from any racial epithet. The similarity is purely coincidental.



@Dutchling
It is the equation of DOwns syndrome with the mongoloid racial phenotype that is offensive.

[Neonivek]

On that subject I am quite interested to hear of contemporary Mongolian culture.

I do know that they were quite sophisticated back in the Gangis Kahn day.

[XXSockXX]

It's a rather offensive and racist association that I'm surprised to see persist today, frankly, though mongols were referred to as barbaric (possibly inbred, in regards to the term?) for a rather long time, by authors including Lovecraft, if I'm not mistaken.

Actually "mongoloid" was a pretty normal term for people with down-syndrome when I grew up, it's only become considered offensive in the last 15 years or so. I don't think it implies inbreeding or stuff like that, it's because of the eyes.

Then there is of course a certain european tradition of seeing mongolic-looking peoples as monsters, starting with the Huns, the actual Mongols and mongolian soldiers in the Red Army. Many people have even suggested that Tolkien's Orks are based on medieval descriptions of the Huns, which makes a lot of sense if you read them.

[XXSockXX]

On that subject I am quite interested to hear of contemporary Mongolian culture.

If you like throatsinging, they have some pretty good music.

[Lord Shonus]

Then there is of course a certain european tradition of seeing mongolic-looking peoples as monsters, starting with the Huns, the actual Mongols and mongolian soldiers in the Red Army. Many people have even suggested that Tolkien's Orks are based on medieval descriptions of the Huns, which makes a lot of sense if you read them.

Not a suggestion. Tolkein explicitly described orcs in one of his letters as "squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes; in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types."

[Digital Hellhound]

On that subject I am quite interested to hear of contemporary Mongolian culture.

If you like throatsinging, they have some pretty good music.

And who can forget Mongolian environmentalist neo-Nazis?*

*Obviously not really mainstream Mongolian culture.

[Owlbread]

There are some excellent travelogues written about Mongolia.

[Dutchling]

Facebook has Pusheen.