Idiot has a similar history. Most clinical terms and words describing someone with an intellectual disability ends up turned into an insult.

This whole thing has me soured on using lack of intelligence as in insult, because it shouldn’t be. We’re more than what we know or the ease in which we learn things. It feels old-timey to use it, but foolish feels a better term for what should be an undesirable trait. Along the lines of reveling in ones ignorance is a thing that shouldn’t be encouraged. Could just be my internal dictionary on that one.

meaning anyone who does this is just a straight up bad person.

Complete and utter agreement. No caveats. Capital T Truth is one of the very few things I’d call ‘sacred’ (gross religious connotations aside).

I guess I’m mostly referring to internet usage as well

That’s fair. I’m the weird millennial that really didn’t do forums or vaguely social internet things back in the day. And I think I forget how edgy the internet back then was. This kids, is why anecdote is an incomplete source of knowledge.

I unironically love good faith and intellectually honest debate. It gives me energy.

It’s too bad they’re so few and far between. It’s that good faith bit that’s so hard to get. Engaging in a way that leaves me open to being wrong and understanding more is delightful, even if the topic is not necessarily so.