There’s a clear campaign against the mentally ill with the global rise of fascism. Lots of it shows up in anti homeless rhetoric, but you can see it in the MAHA and anti vaccination movements.
There’s no reason to use the word “r-tarded” to describe someone. As someone who’s worked with the intellectually challenged, it’s an insult to them to compare them with people who are willfully ignorant.
I told someone I was autistic and they called me retarded. So I say it now as sort of a reclaiming act 🤷♀️
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It’s funny how this thread is full of, “But muh euphemism treadmill!” and “if you stop using that, you’d also have to stop using words like ‘idiot!’” Well then, maybe we should take it further then.
Most of the time, when I have a problem with someone, it’s not really about their intelligence, which isn’t really something they can control or change. More often, it’s because of things like chauvanism, arrogance, or willful ignorance and anti-intellectualism.
I’m certainly not perfect in that regard, but in principle, the language that we use shapes our thoughts more than we realize, and attributing problems to people’s lack of intelligence rather than accurately identifying what the problem is generally isn’t very constructive or productive. There are valid reasons to avoid such language.
The reasons for using it are much less valid, and generally boil down to “but I don’t wanna!” “But then it might be extended to other words, and I don’t wanna!”
Tbh “r-tarded” is much better anyway it’s funny as hell
There is reason to use it. It fits me well sometimes.
That’s a retarded opinion.
Changing words doesn’t change the emotions the person is feeling. They’ll just find a new word to put those emotions into and the cycle starts again. It’s the Euphemism Treadmill. You need to change people/society. Acting like removing a word solves the whole problem is well, retarded.
Policing the hell out of language, while well intentioned, creates a backlash effect that I think actually hurts us more these days. Look at how they originally attacked “political correctness” in the 90s - because we were trying to code some improvements into language. Now people openly laugh at us for not having a solution to homelessness besides renaming them “unhoused.”
Be far easier to just let the R word become the word it has become, which doesn’t describe mental illness or disability anymore, much like “idiot” and “moron” and “imbecile” were once used as medical terms, and now they have none of that meaning.
Languages evolve. It’s a very common thing for descriptors of negative things to become slang for insults. Not to say we should be encouraging this behavior, but rather that policing it is ineffective at best.
Effective solutions address the underlying issues
(Destigmatization of ailments is a good thing, but doing so by stigmatizing the words themselves often has a Streisand effect)
Now people openly laugh at us for not having a solution to homelessness besides renaming them “unhoused.”
As long as one ignores all the solutions that capitalists dont like, sure. We also cant figure out why people starve while we’re at it.
Retarded isn’t a slur.
N*****, Wet****, K*ke, G**k are slurs.
These stupid wars on words IMHO is the reason why “liberals” were regarded as a joke prior to trump election
Like banning “master” in github as well as dumb, regex based words filters in chats. Oh you want to mention the “beta version”? Too bad, a social justice warrior decided that “beta” is now offensive, you have to change your language so that you wont affect the hypothetic easily offendable persons
Like banning “master” in github as well as dumb
Master wasn’t banned. The default name was changed from master to main. Literally nothing is stopping you from choosing to use master.
While they are incorrect about the specific term, their main paint is correct. “Slave” was removed from the terminology.
While this is technically correct, when you say “we’re switching the default branch name from master to main to be less culturally insensitive”, you kind of imply that people who continue using master are culturally insensitive. And nobody likes being called that (generally), so it still feels like a ban to people.
“Morally banning”. But you got my point
I love the word retard. I care about people with intellectual disabilities. I don’t mean them when I say it.
Imo idiot should be considered just as offensive to people who want to ban the word retard. It’s pretty much got the exact same history and stigma connected to it. Although I’m sure there are some who also want to ban the word idiot.
Wasn’t there someone on lemmy that loves to explain this one? Something like idiot, retarded, stupid, and moron corresponding to approximate mental ‘ages’ that were used in the early 1900s?
I have certainly encountered that on Lemmy.
There are a ton of people who think idiot is ableist yeah.
I mean I respect the dedication but my line is drawn before I get that far. And if me not thinking the same as them is a line for them, so be it.
If you have an issue with a word then you should suggest an alternative.
i’m austistic and love the word retard, really don’t understand peoples need to be offended for others. it’s not remotely close to the n-word, saying “r-word” just makes you seem like a tool imo
Look we can’t call each other retards because other people will get triggered for us…
Besides every sane person knows that in common speech this is just means “extremely stupid” with no derogatory intent.
“extremely stupid” with no derogatory intent.
I think you should look up the definition of derogatory. Calling someone stupid is derogatory.
The derogatory intent is directed at the insult target, not an uninvolved group of people, is what they meant.
How else would you refer to people with below average critical thinking skills who perform actions without understanding or considering the consequences.
Please keep your answer non-derogatory.
I never said it’s wrong to call people stupid.
You should look up context clues
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retard_(pejorative)
For context, until the 1960s, the terms moron, idiot, cretin, and imbecile were all genuine, non-offensive terms used, including by psychiatrists, to refer to people with mental intellectual disabilities and low intelligence. These words were discontinued in that form when concerns arose that they had developed negative meanings, with “retard” and “retarded” replacing them.[6][7] After that, the terms “handicapped” (United States) and “disabled” (United Kingdom) replaced “retard” and “retarded”. Disabled is now considered a more polite term than handicapped in the United States as well.
And then in a decade or two people will have started to use the word disabled with a derogatory meaning and we can no longer use that word either.
The same with “mentally challenged”
“Special needs”
It has already started. It will start immediately with whatever word they come up with to replace it. If someone is being particularly stupid, someone else will find the strongest word they can to insult them. This will never change.
Already happening, and already being railed against. You can read a great many arguments from certain communities that decry anyone calling them disabled or handicapped.
My uncles were retarded due to Rh incompatability before they understood about Rh Factor. They called themselves retarded, our family called them that, it doesn’t sound wrong or deragotory to me.
R-tard? Is that like something about Republicans?
Don’t be stupid, retard means to reduce the rate of flow
I didn’t realize the hyphen was meant for censorship instead of conjunction
