[dmurray]

> 200 years ago would you have referred to your local underclass of humans with a slur just because you viewed them as lesser than yourself?

Statistically speaking, yes, I absolutely would. Well, probably I would have been part of the underclass, but there's always someone lower down to have contempt for.

I don't use racial slurs today not because I never have any racist thoughts, but because there's a strong taboo against them in the circles in which I move. There's no such taboo against saying clanker.

[ben_w]

Was just thinking how we could lose a digit, 20 years ago the term "chav" was quite common in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav

(It may still be for all I know, but I moved out in 2018).