I&#x27;m just musing, and hoping someone might have an explanation.  Language is complicated, and emotionally-loaded words are especially so.<p>Let me put it this way.  If I call someone cancerous, I&#x27;m not trivializing the group of people that have cancer and distilling them to a pejorative.  In general, if I use a disease as an insult it&#x27;s fine, but if I use a disability as an insult it&#x27;s usually offensive.  They&#x27;re both afflictions, but they&#x27;re treated differently in uncountable ways.<p>I could list some reasons, but none of them really feel like they get at the root cause of the difference.  Do you have any insight?