'Strong eugenic connotation': Here’s the hateful slur the alt-right is bringing back

The alt-right is reintroducing a dehumanizing slur that has its roots in 100-year-old eugenics, Justin Kirkland writes in the Guardian Monday.

“The R-word is in a new era of prominence in rightwing, chronically online circles – especially on 4chan and X,” he writes. “A favorite of those who currently hold power or stand to gain power under Donald Trump’s second administration, the slur is being used with gleeful relish to belittle and mock ideological enemies.”

One adopter of the word is none other than the Trump administration’s Elon Musk, who owns X.

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“In the past year, Elon Musk has used the R-word at least 16 times on X,” Kirkland writes. “He thought Ben Stiller was one for endorsing Kamala Harris; so was the Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz for comparing Tesla to Enron.”

There was a 200 percent spike in use of the word on X in January, according to a recent study from Montclair State University.

Last year, Trump reportedly used the word to insult Joe Biden and Harris.

“I feel liberated,” an anonymous banker told the Financial Times when Trump was elected. We can say ‘r-----’ and ‘p----’ without the fear of getting cancelled.”

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The slur has particular weight coming from Musk. “Musk, a man who launched a Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration festivities, has aligned himself dangerously closely with eugenicist thinking,” Kirkland writes. “Musk, who has said he is on the autism spectrum himself, also wields oligarchic power as he attempts to eliminate “unnecessary spending” in the federal government with Trump’s blessing. Early on, Musk set his sights on Medicaid, which was created in part to ensure people with disabilities had access to affordable healthcare. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are looking to slash Medicaid spending to support Trump’s tax cuts.”

The word has its roots in a “diagnosis” tracing back to 1910 that meant, according to some doctors, a "feeble-minded" person was “incurable.” Leaders at this time also believed that people with disabilities, people of color, and queer people could be eliminated through selective breeding. People with disabilities, proponents of eugenics argued, should be institutionalized.

“[The use of the R-word] is absolutely historically linked to the understanding that ‘r-------’ children are defective children and that we can eliminate defective children for the good of society,” Topher Endress, a reverend in Missouri who holds a doctorate in philosophy, told the Guardian. “I mean, that’s the basis of eugenics. I’m a little fearful of seeing this word pop back up because it does have such a strong eugenic connotation."

“I see the rise of the R-word as a gauge for how far society is willing to let people like Musk and Trump go," Kirkland writes. "And while I believe that in most reasonable environments, it’s still very much taboo to say the word aloud, the fact that it’s being said by some of the most powerful people in the world, with no recourse, says enough."

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