It's actually used to mock the mentally abled by insinuating that they're disabled.
It like telling someone they're ugly. Your point isn't to make fun of ugly people, it's to make fun of that one person.
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The R word.
- Thread starter Ekdrm2d1
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It's actually used to mock the mentally abled by insinuating that they're disabled.
It like telling someone they're ugly. Your point isn't to make fun of ugly people, it's to make fun of that one person.
A friend chewed me out for using it awhile ago.
I'm not really sold on the premise. As stated, nearly all related words have been used to describe people with... IDD? It's similar to the sociopath-psychopath progression. I suppose the only sure method would be to try and never insult anything ever but I haven't seen anyone propose that idea with any degree of seriousness.
The irony of the OP suggesting idiot as a replacement is amusing. My friend suggested using "lame" when he brought it up.
But whatever. I try to not use it as much. I do enjoy the mongoloid suggestion for the doubling down on the unnoticeable political incorrectness.
I'm not really sold on the premise. As stated, nearly all related words have been used to describe people with... IDD? It's similar to the sociopath-psychopath progression. I suppose the only sure method would be to try and never insult anything ever but I haven't seen anyone propose that idea with any degree of seriousness.
The irony of the OP suggesting idiot as a replacement is amusing. My friend suggested using "lame" when he brought it up.
But whatever. I try to not use it as much. I do enjoy the mongoloid suggestion for the doubling down on the unnoticeable political incorrectness.
Exactly. I did not know what to say.
Count Dookkake
Member
Can't foresee any problem with IDD.
Definitely not.
Definitely not.
Sunset Samurai
Member
Another word bites the dust
Now it's going through a phase when it'll be removed from use in any official term. Since "retard" has become derogatory, it'll get replaced by other terms. Eventually, we'll go back to using it again as an insult once it's just another word like "stupid" or "cretin" that doesn't have relevance in society as a descriptive term for people with developmental disabilities.
And if the person using the term didn't look down on disabled people or consider them inferior, they wouldn't use it in the first place, would they? By using it you're mocking all of them, not just the person you're trying to hurt with bully bullshit. This is all stuff people should have grown out of by high school.
These days it's really not ever used with no ill intent. Anyone who works within the disabled community is well aware of the litany of other words to use, at least in America.
those scientists were complete retards
I agree. I have a mentally handicapped sister and therefore grew up in an environment with a lot of people with similar handicaps. I sure as hell consider it an offensive term and have also experienced the use of the word directly aimed at mentally handicapped people (at my sister, for example).
I am, however, also aware many people use it in a different context, with no ill intent towards handicapped people. So I usually won't call people out. But still, I consider it offensive and prefer people to use other words to describe people behaving stupid.
I am, however, also aware many people use it in a different context, with no ill intent towards handicapped people. So I usually won't call people out. But still, I consider it offensive and prefer people to use other words to describe people behaving stupid.
Reverend Funk
Comfy Penetration
My roomate says it a lot, but he also still says yolo.
Doing your duties.
GalacticToast
Member
I feel it's another one of those things where people say things and only think about how they mean it, instead of how it comes across.
Killer Queen
Banned
Yeah, though I think I'm getting better which is good.
RichiRamjag
Member
Maybe I'm wrong, but I honestly feel like this is satire based off of the T-word thread.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/stupid
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stupid
Damn. That's a crude word when you look into it.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stupid
Damn. That's a crude word when you look into it.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
As far as I know, no one uses the word retarded to describe people with actual mental disabilities anymore. And any term that describes a condition where you have subnormal mental faculties is going to be a feelbad term.
If people start throwing the term "intellectually disabled" around colloquially it's going to take on the same tone as retarded for that reason. Except most people won't because it has too many syllables.
If people start throwing the term "intellectually disabled" around colloquially it's going to take on the same tone as retarded for that reason. Except most people won't because it has too many syllables.
Struck senseless. Stupefy, stupefied.
NoblesseOblige
Banned
Nobody is going to start casually throwing "intellectually disabled" around to demean others. That's just too many syllables like you said. They will however, and have, shorten it to just "disabled". I hear students asking "are you disabled?" mockingly to one another on occasion.
Oh it's definitely based from The T word. thread title.
But I've always want to create this thread but do not. I fold every time. I saw somebody use the word in a recent political thread. I spoke out and got a reply.
I rarely use it now but back in high-school I'd use it all the time.
George Carlin: I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Because Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth. So they invent the kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it. And it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse.
George Carlin - Euphemisms (1990)
Imperfected
Member
The idea is to change the public consciousness into seeing the mentally disabled not as an other or inferior, but as human beings who just have different wiring than most of us. They think of things differently, and in some cases think in astonishing ways to see things the rest of us never see. But as long as, as you say, we think of them in "feelbad" terms then ultimately the words we use to describe them will just end up representing the same thing to the masses who have no actual interaction with them.
Stigmatizing the R word is just one step on the road to changing perception, it's not the end all be all.
Trigonometrize.
Member
IDD is correct? So essentially these people and any disorders have disowned "retarded," if they ever had any ownership to begin with, so it should no longer be offensive to anyone except maybe the guy or gal that I just called retarded. It's not like gay where that's not an actually negative condition that gay people actually own and other meanings have become arcahic. Retard still means to slow.
Am I wrong?
Am I wrong?
There simply isn't any way to insult someone's intelligence without it being offensive. I'd dare say it's kind of the point.
I sympathize with the position but I'm not certain there's any really good solution here. I guess you could try convincing everyone to use "silly goose" but good luck with that.
And that term came about because geese were considered a stupid type of bird but oh well!
Personally, I try to cut down on its usage because retarded is the word du jour which people are concerned about. I just feel that it's a self-defeating argument without any solution that isn't entirely arbitrary.
RedRooster
Member
Angina makes me physically ill to hear. Please stop using it everywhere, we don't need to be hearing about your nasty angina.
In 20 years? People are already saying how the word "disabled" is offensive. I think we, as a society these days, sometimes goes overboard on trying to not offend. I work with a local special needs agency and even I get irked at how far some people want to go.
Even what we call those that we serve, some are so touchy about it. It seems like every few years they change the name of what we call those that we serve. They were last called "clients", then that was also deemed disrespectful. They are now called "consumers" but I'm sure that will be disrespectful any time now as well. It's a never ending cycle of being scared to offend.
I do however get the offense taken at the word "retarded". I try not to use it, but before doing what I do now I rarely thought twice about it. Working so closely with them made me at least understand it.
While I don't agree with to this extent, to many, the " R word" stings as much as the "N word".
a very cute dog
Member
It makes someone sound incredibly unintelligent and immature when they use it in conversation.
I am amazed that any word has the ability to become offensive nowadays to the point where every disease, dysfunction, affliction or even syndromes now are going by contractions of letters... I didn't know it is now IDD...
Drives me insane to watch commercials where the subject never even gets spoken in any other way than in contractions like ED, EBD, ADD.. and so on
Drives me insane to watch commercials where the subject never even gets spoken in any other way than in contractions like ED, EBD, ADD.. and so on
MisterAnderson
Member
Has this been posted yet?
While their hippity hoppy music is playing
I've only ever used it in its literal sense - "held back by circumstance or nature " and I have been banned for it on gaf. Possibly because I grew up abroad where the term isn't used to describe the mentally handicapped. And it rarely occurs to me as a slight outside of Tropic Thunder.
So, head's up: the term for "excessively organized but not clinically obsessive compulsive" should be "fauxCD." Everybody's saying it.
...I've been trying to make fauxCD happen for over a year now 
Fortunately, I've never heard anyone use it to mock the disabled.
If I say "my brother is retarded" I'm making a statement of fact. It's a netural descriptive term, intended to communicate his sitatuion to you in the most straightforward manner possible.
Certainly, some people do use it as a replacement for an inslut like "stupid" etc. When people are using it in this manner, they're not actively trying to mock the disabled. It's obviously in poor taste and offensive, but if someone uses it, I don't get all bent out of shape about it. The language itself is irrelevant -- it's the meaning behind it that matters. At any rate, you should never outright insult someone -- it's bad manners, offensive, degrading, and in some cases abusive -- but if I hear someone call someone else a retard, I know they're not expressing a mocking disdain of the mentally disabled.
More generally, the eupheuism police concept bothers me, because as I said, I get the sense that people believe that if we somehow blacklisted certain words, we would solve the problem. I don't care if you use the word retard or not. Instead, I would prefer if you did something to help.
You can turn off the TV if your delicate ears can't handle more nuanced vocabulary. The ones who are actually affected, like families with disabled children, have to deal with insensitive assholes using the R word every day. I think their pain in this instance outweighs yours.
It's not a neutral descriptive term. In modern society, it's a term of disdain. You don't seem to be clued into the weight the word carries. Mentally disabled, autistic, down's syndrome, etc. are appropriate words to use. I'm frankly astonished that you wouldn't use a word to accurately describe your brother's state instead of a general and widely considered offensive term like "retarded". For example, if someone is talking about a sibling or child, they describe them as autistic instead of retarded because they don't think of them as having lower mental faculties and instead respect them as an individual.
Gnome Scat
Member
I've cut down on saying it, but occasionally it slips out. I'll work harder on using another word.
Has this been posted yet?
Perfect.
RuinerPrime
Member
"delay or hold back in terms of progress, development, or accomplishment."
I say this when my friends are being silly or dumb. But it takes too long to say.
So I call them a retard. Or something similar.
I say this when my friends are being silly or dumb. But it takes too long to say.
So I call them a retard. Or something similar.
Should someone start a thread asking about The Y Word now?
In all seriousness, yeah I try not to use the word anymore.
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