this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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Yep, also "dumb", " lame " etc. These are words for disabilities which then entered common parlance as slurs.
"retarded" is actually the other way round in that it just means "slowed" - but has historically been used as an insult directed towards people with mental disabilities.
Personally I think that what's offensive is scolding people for using the word in the correct context which prevents society from losing the association with the disabled and instead continues perpetuating that meaning even though that's the opposite of what they claim to be trying to do
"Retarded" definitely didn't start out as an insult. There was a time when "mentally retarded" was what people with developmental disabilities were called by the medical establishment. My Boomer mother still uses it without malice (and is scolded by my Gen Z kids) to refer to those with cognitive disabilities because it wasn't an insult when she was a kid. It was fully an insult when my Gen X self was growing up.
I think there may be too much white knighting for a word that no one seriously uses any more. "You can't use that word because in the past it was a designation for the cognitively disabled." But really "retarded" has lost any meaning other than as an insult to mean supremely stupid. It often doesn't even refer to a person but could be an object or a situation.
You've pointed out the whole problem. Only two generations ago the word "retarded" was used without malice to refer to individuals who had a developmental disability. To use it as an insult, now, makes it all the more demeaning to those individuals with developmental disabilities.
It's different from "dumb" or "lame," which I've never heard used as an innocent way to describe a speech or physically impaired person, firsthand. Those words fit your description, better, of those that have been so far removed from their original meaning that they are no longer offensive by today's standards.
Dumb really means not being able to speak; I've never heard a different term for that medical condition.
But then of course it is also absolutely used as synonymous with stupid; the definition conflict is never really apparent because actually being medically dumb is so rare.
Language evolution is very interesting.
"Dumb" is "mute", but neither are used medically anymore. It is "speech impaired"
retarded is "developmentally disabled", it isn't really used medically anymore.
Completely agree, by "other way round" in my comment I meant it didn't originally mean disabled not that it started as an insult
You're really more offended by a person taking issue with a word that, for at least the last thirty years, has been used to insult individuals by comparing them to disabled people, as if the latter were somehow less-than? You're more offended by a person having some level of compassion toward disabled people, than by a person who speaks of them as if they're without dignity?
Pretty low if you ask me. If keeping the meaning of the insult "retarded" has higher societal importance to you than having respect for disabled people you just might be a huge piece of shit.
Literally all this dude above is asking is for people to not invoke disabled individuals when insulting another person, and people in this thread are bending over backwards to justify doing just that. Pretty fucking gross.
You didn't seem to take offense to them using "idiot." Why are you comfortable insulting "idiots"? Do you think that mentally deficient people choose to be mentally deficient? That's just how they're born. Why would you endorse insulting someone for something they have no choice about?
Being mentally deficient is a disability. "Idiot" is no better than the other words used here. Just stop being so insulting. Seriously, wow.
Said this elsewhere, but when was the last time you heard "idiot" used as a medical term vs "retarded?" I still hear grandmas use the latter to describe disabled people, so it's definitely more offensive to use "retarded" as an insult than it is to use "idiot" considering the current meaning of those two words. "Idiot" isn't still sincerely used to describe a vulnerable population of people, and sometimes "retarded" still is, albeit usually by older folks. That's the difference.
I think you're trying to say they're equivalent, but honestly I'm not sure if I'm understanding the tone of your comment. If you're sincerely decrying people in here justifying insulting others, in general, I'm with you. They seem to be scrambling hard to justify their own shittyness.
Where did I call anyone an idiot?
I was referring to the comment higher in the thread, but "stupid" is just as bad, which refers to the "mentally slow." They didn't choose to be that way. It's offensive to refer to other people by that term, because it sounds like you're using someone's mental disability, their mental slowness, as an insult to other people.
You're basically saying "you're acting like a dumb person," and being "dumb" is a dis-ability, in the most literal and obvious sense. You can't choose your intelligence level, that's just how people are born. It's incredibly offensive to use one group's disability as an insult towards someone else.
Hey, crazy suggestion: try kindness? Wow.
Lmao Try a little kindness.
K....
You have two accounts, bro? That's... unnecessary.
The post you're responding to is parody.
And a week old.
You're not fooling anyone and you care about people on the internet too much. Hang in there.
I apologize, I didn't intend you any offence.
I'm not personally offended, I'm offended for all the people that might be offended by how offensive you're being.
And I know you're trying to be funny, and I don't appreciate it. You're basically implying that I'm an idiot or stupid, and that's incredibly offensive to me for the reasons I've already explained.
Seriously, wow.
Thanks for the laugh, it was needed after some of the comments in this thread.
😊