@elbowspeak pure epithets — "queer", even "deplorable" — ironically were easier to targets for reappropriation. it'd be like progressive descendants of confederates trying to reappropriate the good parts of what was gone with the wind. it's not that those good parts weren't there, nor that contemporary descendants might not intend something genuinely new, ethical, open to embracing those they once excluded or worse. but traditions they mean to reappropriate have meanings to other communities. 5/