(I had to read your comment a couple of times to get your point, and I may still have missed it, sorry if that's so)
You're right that stopping using a word without thinking about why you should stop using it is problematic. Better to think about it carefully and decide when it is and isn't appropriate.
But I wasn't trying to answer the question "Should everyone stop using the word 'crazy'?" so much as "Is the word hurtful to mentally ill people?", and the answer to that is "In a lot of cases, yes". Which for me, personally, is enough to make me stop using it even if I don't understand why it's hurtful.
Gaining that understanding is also important, because the problems with the word "crazy" are rooted in a lot of misconceptions about mental illness that won't go away just by changing the way we speak.
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Re: Joint reply to make the conversation easier to keep track of
You're right that stopping using a word without thinking about why you should stop using it is problematic. Better to think about it carefully and decide when it is and isn't appropriate.
But I wasn't trying to answer the question "Should everyone stop using the word 'crazy'?" so much as "Is the word hurtful to mentally ill people?", and the answer to that is "In a lot of cases, yes". Which for me, personally, is enough to make me stop using it even if I don't understand why it's hurtful.
Gaining that understanding is also important, because the problems with the word "crazy" are rooted in a lot of misconceptions about mental illness that won't go away just by changing the way we speak.