The 90s: I used to use it back in the day, until one time I volunteered for a handicapped kids event, and saw how this one kid with Downs got really upset at someone calling him “the ‘R’ word” (I had never heard it put that way, or even considered it as truly harmful).
Anyway, I wiped it from my vocabulary after that. I still consider it a slur, unlike idiot, which is more generic, and not used as a specific slur against intellectually disabled folks.
Yeah, clearly many people in this thread have never spent any time around people with disabilities, it doesn’t take long to feel an innate disgust for the word and anyone who uses it, short of technical/scientific usages.
You’ve all been able to say it this whole time, just a lot of people agreed it makes you a shithead. That hasn’t changed, and it’s familiar territory for Rogan, so this is no surprise.
Good on you for making that change, and having empathy for others.
Idiot has the same entomology as retard though, does it not? As does stupid? They all start as medical diagnoses and then assholes turn them to slurs and then the medical field refines and renames and things start to repeat.
We had special education class, Special Ed, for kids struggling in certain ways, so if course the shitty kids would call kids “sp-ed” because of course they would.
I’m not sure when the line gets crossed or if we should have gone back or what, but retard, to me, has a very particular connotation that is useful for describing certain people’s actions. I don’t do it any more because I’d rather live in a peaceful society that fosters respect, but it is one of those things I “don’t get”
(I think the conversation here is more about etymology than entomology)
“Sped” is often how teachers refer to special education now too. I was a “sped teacher” for a bit. Referring to a child as “sped” would be gross and dehumanizing, but I think referring to a “sped class” isn’t considered pejorative.
It’s weird how worked up people get about “political correctness.” If you call someone ‘r-tarded’ you’re doing it to upset them, and you are also communicating that the status of having an intellectual disability is so degrading to be considered an insult. I’ve worked with lots of intellectually disabled adults and children - I don’t know that I would want to compare those people I loved and cared for to someone that I would want to insult.
i mean it is ONLY used to mock a very specific group of people and, historically, it was used to incarcerate and experiment on them.
But language changes and evolves, and words get imbued with additional meanings over time through a bunch of complicated factors and contexts.
Just because ‘idiot’ and ‘retard’ were used similarly once, doesn’t mean they’re the same now
We don’t need to fully understand the process in which the word has changed to know that lots of people find it particularly insulting, degrading and oppressive, and to decide to stop using it because of this
that’s not how i use it, but if that’s how you use it, than yeah sure. But i don’t.
It is how you use it, even if you don’t mean to.
If you use ‘gay’ as an insult, that doesn’t become OK if you only say it to straight people. It’s still some massive drive by homophobia.
The reason to stop using this as an insult isn’t to protect the people you’re insulting, it’s to protect a third group which has a dark history with the word
That exactly is the verb (“to retard”). You might mean the noun “a retard” which does not have good uses I can think of.
Retardant, retardation, retarding, retarded and a ton of other drives words also do indeed have actual real world meanings and uses that have nothing to do with humans.
Honestly, calling this admin retarded is valid because a lot of them genuinely seem to have an IQ low enough to get that medical diagnosis.
the difference between autistic and retarded is that autistic people can actually fight back and say that the use of autistic hurts people
Unfortunately retarded people can’t really do that, have to be the face and name called out at anything an individual thinks of as dumb
What? No.
Clearly you do not know anything at all about those two groups or the myriad of different functional levels the can come with those diagnoses.
Here is a thought experiment, do I need to know someone or something to use their condition as an insult?
And i mean, you can make that argument if you want, but then like, where do we stop? Is telling people to kill themselves morally unacceptable
Yes. 🤦 Jfc, “asking me not to use a slur against disabled people is a slippery slope to asking me not to tell people to kill themselves.” Fucking, good!
Btw, you can make your argument if you want, but then like, where do we stop? If I call a straight person the f-slur, is that acceptable? I’m not actually saying it at a gay person, I’m just insulting someone by suggesting that they’re gay. Is it ok for a white person to tell another white person they’re acting like an n-word? Exactly how far are you willing to take this bullshit?
