(no subject)

[lollardfish]

There's a post out there today of a "friend" (not someone I actually know that well) who has been out of touch with LJ.

He's asking for updates because, "If there's something you've been assuming I know because you wrote about it on LJ and in the past I've reliably read your LJ, you might want to point it out to me. Alternately, you can just regard me as the retard in the corner who never knows what's going on."

I find this metaphor infuriating and offensive, although I know that as with most such things he means nothing by it. What's the best response? Ignore? Post something publicly in comments? Send a private email? Write an LJ post of my own about how offensive I find it and hope someone reads it?

What do you think?

Edit - I posted what I hope was both a polite and firm comment.

Comments

[fredcritter.livejournal.com]

Now that I know who we're talking about, I must say that in my opinion he does not "mentally [classify] certain people as 'retards'." I'd guess it more likely that an old phrase from those less-enlightened days fell off his tongue without much thought…just as I once (and sometimes still do when I'm not paying attention) would use the phrase "I've been gypped"; and as some people will say "he wanted too much for it but I jewed him down." I'd also guess that he'd respond less well to a strong rebuke than to a gentle one, but that's actually a whole other issue.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Hopefully I struck the right balance.