this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
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I don't know where we got this idea that "retarded" was as vile and pernicious as The Hard R, to the point people don't want to repeat it. Nobody with intellectual disabilities I've heard from has such a visceral reaction to it, anecdotal as that is. The outrage seems completely invented and it gained a momentum of its own.
"Idiot" was also a medical term for cognitive disability, should that go away too?
99% of the time I hear it used, it's interchangeable with "stupid" or "idiot" and not derogatory towards literal disability.
it depends on how far back you go with this one, if you were to remove the racial pretense from it entirely yeah it would probably be fine.
But if you just sort of retconned it in like 1970 through timetravel or something, i mean it would also be fine because nobody would know what it previously was, but hypothetically that wouldn't be ok, because it's historical roots are the same.
Its the history and usage of the word that matters. Given enough time, the n word will probably lose it's vile status and become more casual. Like every other word before it.
Those people might be a little retarded
TBH kinda with you here, is it just the relatively recent proximity of the use of the word to refer those with intellectual disabilities?
...
I actually looked this up and found a timeline, which shows the use is much more recent in medical contexts than I thought, Rosa's Law 2010 is where it's use was superceded in federal usage.
I honestly thought it was a kinda 50s to 70s kinda deal, not 70s - 2010; this does change my perspective and opinion a little bit, and I do feel a bit more sympathy as of how it's still very much within living memory for some.
At the same time, I wonder whether those who take issue with it being used casually (not in reference to intellectual disability), take the same issue with the use of idiot, moron or imbecile, as retarded was used because those terms became common place and slang, not exclusively medical words.
I think that once the cat is out of the bag, (and the fact that both the medical society, and general society has moved past a single catch all term for intellectual disability) you can't really keep a word from developing it's own life.
I will note, my opinion doesn't hold any real weight here, as I'm the UK we never had AFAIK a diagnosis of "Mental retardation"
And MAGA as a whole are retarded.
The biggest retards of all
Very bigly.
The biggest retards of all, people call me and they say "can you believe how many big retards we have?" And I say "no," I mean it folks, you are the biggest retards of all, believe me. My uncle was nuclear it's all computer"
I am retarded and I agree. The word has never left my vocabulary. People have been calling me retarded as long as I can remember. I've got the pass and I give all of you the pass. It's just word. People have called me far worse and many of my closest friends and family who would take a bullet for me call me retarded all the time. Just like I call all of them retarded whenever they do or say something retarded.
In the wise words of the Black Eyed Peas: "let's get retarded in here."
we're all a little retarded at the end of the day, if you squint hard enough, it might even be pretty retarded. Because there isn't anything to see, it's a metaphor.
Anyway, this joke has overstayed it's welcome, i will be on my way now.
I just hate that they deleted my comments and told ME it's a slur I need to be upset about.
I ain't upset about "retard" being used against me or others.
The .world admins can kiss my ass.
Oh wait I gotta be careful. Don't want the retarded admins banning me for using my own words.
Sincerely,
your friendly neighborhood retard.
yeah, ultimately the only thing worse than unbridled bigotry, is misplaced accusations of bigotry. That's one of the unfortunate things with this problem, and similar ones like it, is that unless you judge it by the character of the context, it can be really wide sweeping sometimes.
anyway, i hope you have a swell day fren :)
You too fren.
You can't say retard anymore. You have to say autistic. Somehow that's okay now.
Using autistic as an insult, the same way Joe Rogan wants to use the aforementioned slur, is absolutely not okay.
I see the humor and the word being used as such on videos all over with the comments being positive. It's not what I do, it's what I see.
Autistic isn't really a general purpose slur tho. It's not even really an slur. That shit is specialized use only.