As the term "retarded" is retired from polite conversation...

[BurtWorm]

WHEREAS, persons who are cognitively disabled are now properly referred to as people with cognitive disabilities...


Is it fair to use the retired term "retarded" to describe someone who is politically, morally, ethically or culturally backward? Such as "Damn! Those Bushes are retarded!" Or "Damn! Those freepers are freakin' retards!"

[Richardo]

1. I was brought up not to use it in polite conversation... or political ones

So 'no' for me.

[Skittles]

4. I'm with you

not to mention the truly "mentally retarded" people I have ever known in my life were much smarter and more personable than freepers and that is no joke.

[DS1]

2. I grew up using it, but have since changed my ways

Retarded people never asked to be born that way, I'm sure they'd love a chance at a normal life instead of menial tasks.

Instead I'll just make up my own names for the snivelling snotmolesting Freeper vermin.

[BurtWorm]

5. I don't think people with cognitive disabilites should be objects for mock

ing. I don't use that word to refer to anyone with that condition. But it comes so naturally when referring to idiots like the Bushes and our good friends on the right wing.

[Left Is Write]

6. It is still a hurtful word to many people.

I'd avoid its use altogether.

[BurtWorm]

8. I do avoid it.

But when I see the word freeptard, I do snicker a little. :evilfrown:

[rbnyc]

31. I agree.

I think it's similar to using the word gay or pussy to mean that something is bad, or weak. People with cognitive disabilities are valuable people. To use a derogatory word for people with cognitive disabilities to indicate qualities we don't value in people we don't value is demeaning to the cognitively disabled.

[sniffa]

7. but dude.. they're wicked retahded

[Gormy Cuss]

11. Sniffa, you know 'retarded' and 'retahded' are different terms! n/t

[Shell Beau]

3. I would say no. Plus you may be

giving too much credit to the freeps!

[Gormy Cuss]

9. There is a difference in the two examples.

Calling the Bushes retarded, although not something I would do, doesn't offend me the same way calling them 'retards' does. The latter is clearly a slam at people with cognitive disabilities, the former can be interpreted as fair use of the word if the type of retardation is mentioned (that is, if one makes it clear it's not a reference to mental disability but rather a cultural or moral limitation.)
Either way, because we live in a society where language nuances are ignored, I avoid using the term to avoid getting flamed.

[sui generis]

10. I use it.

I have never actually associated it with developmental disability. I also use the word "idiot" and "stupid" and "moron" which were all previously used in place of developmental disability.

I'm not apologizing for it and I am not a bigot.

Convince me, politely, why I shouldn't.

Having said that and issued the challenge, I do not use the term hardly ever at all for any reason, preferring much more colorful, powerful, emotionally moving and descriptive language of someone's shortcomings.

Also, having defended a late "slow" friend against bullies and real bigots for years as a child, I don't find it acceptable to use the term "retard" when addressing someone, any more than I would find it acceptable for someone to address me by saying "hey queer", although the use of "queer" as a descriptive term doesn't otherwise bother me.

[no name no slogan]

12. how about a compromise: "Freeptards"

has a nice, Orwellian Newspeak ring to it, no?

[anarch]

13. is it ok to say "Wow, those freepers seem to have cognitive disabilities"?

Or, "Our president seems to be clinically insane"?

No offense meant.

[Brotherjohn]

14. No! Would you use the "N-word" to describe someone you find inferior?

Of course not.

My son has Asperger's, and many see odd behavior in people like him (moreso with classical autism and Down's Syndrome), and still use that word.

It is offensive and should not be used.

[sui generis]

18. Retarded WAS the PC term used to replace

"idiot" and "moron" and "simpleton"

I'm not defending its use by idiots and morons and simpletons (sarcasm) but most people have never even met a developmentally disabled person and certainly in using the word "retarded" to describe a series of mental shortcomings associated with fully cognizant often morally challenged adults, don't intend to be or mean to be hateful.

In your experience as a parent of an LD/DD child, you have seen stupid people say stupid things, sometimes untintentionally hurtful and other times with malice.

It's confusing to people to be told that they are either ignorant or malicious when they are neither. There are better words to use than "retarded" "idiotic" "moronic" and "stupid", no doubt, more fashionable words and expressions will replace even developmentally disabled, learning disabled as "proper".

It's an argument about nothing. If someone is being malicious, address it with them; their malice probably extends beyond mere words. If they are really being hurtful to someone or potentially hurtful to someone and don't know it, address it with them. There will always be people addressing the lack of capacity of "normal" adult to cogitate in unfavorable terms using more or less "hurtful" speech.

[Brotherjohn]

32. I'm not saying I'd call anyone ignorant or malicious for using the term.

I'm simply saying it's offensive, and I wouldn't use it, and I would recommend (that's simply recommend) that others not use it. I simply used (an admittedly drastic) example to make this point.

You're right that "retarded" started as the PC term... but the fact of the matter is it is an offensive term now. Why use a term that is offensive to many when you can use "stupid", "idiotic", "moronic", and many other terms? Yes, once upon a time (before most of us were alive), some of these terms may have also referred to developmentally challenged people... but they no longer do (at least in any common usage). They simply mean "stupid"... lacking an ability to cogitate. But "retarded" is, in recent time, a derogatory slur against a specific group of people.

You say it is an argument about nothing. But as my son gets older, he'll hear the term bandied about, and at times (whether though misunderstanding or not) he'll feel it is directed at him. And he will be hurt. And this happens thousands of times a day to people all over the country.

Yes, there will always be people referring to other people in derogatory terms. But there are so many ways to verbally address specific criticisms of people in the English language, why would you choose a term that you know in recent time has been a derogatory slur against a group of people for something which they have no control over?

It's not the end of the world to me. But it's just an issue of sensitivity.

[sui generis]

35. thanks for the level headed reply

I'm not holding on to it out of stubborness or bigotry or even particularly holding on to it - I just think that we give those kinds of words too much power and then they take on a life of their own.

As gay folk, we "own" queer. Truthfully, even if someone uses it in a derogatory way it doesn't really bother me, and owning it also means that other "slurs" are now meaningless. I tend to think of people who think that they are being hurtful by using those words maliciously as having a convenient big glowing sign hanging in the air over their head, but anyone else, no matter to me.

I took up regularly for a young man with a spinal cord related bladder problem and a moderate learning deficit at a military school in Germany named John when I was just 10 myself - I thought that making everyone else stop saying mean things was the solution, and I didn't hesitate to take down anyone I thought was a bully, and there were a lot.

It did not make me popular - but I also realized you can't depend on people to be nice for your own self esteem. I think John knew that too - certainly, I have learned that myself. I think knowing he had a friend was enough - or maybe he just didn't understand that other people were being mean unless they were also physically aggressive with him, but as far as I could tell I was the only one acting out to that term.

As I've said, I would rather be more colorful if I feel compelled to dress someone down. I don't find learning disabilities to be an adequate slur, just like I don't find sexual orientation to be an adequate slur. However, I speak German in Germany, Italian in Italy, and American here - as a rational adult I can choose when and where to use language for maximum effectiveness, just as Debi below responded using the term in a way that I thought was funny because it made fun of people who use that kind of language thoughtlessly.

That's where my head is on the topic.

[Orsino]

15. The most cowardly of insults, IMO...

...directed as it is against the people least likely to be able to understand it or to defend themselves. I think that the word "retarded" should be used only clinically, and the nastier diminutive "retard" shouldn't be used at all.

[Mojambo]

16. Retarded? Yes. Retard? No.

I will use retarded as a descriptive term for a set of ideas, but not as a label for a person or group of persons.

[Debi]

17. What is your definition of retarded in those sentences?

Because they seem to have the same meaning as in the past (cognitive inability).

So you really haven't changed anything other than who you hurl the insulting word at. (or use the insulting word to describe).

My child is 'retarded' or more acceptable now 'congitive delay' and the other day I was talking about how the drought was retarding the growth of a tree near our house. He pipes up, "That is a garbage word, throw it away". I agree. A garbage word in any scenario!

[BurtWorm]

21. That settles it.

It's a garbage word, and I'll throw it away. :cry:

[sui generis]

22. you have offended all garbage everywhere!

by your inappropriate comparison of insensitive bigots to garbage!

DISCLAIMER: sui doesn't really represent all garbage everywhere, he's just being funny.

[Debi]

25. is being funny relative? n/t

[sui generis]

34. we disagree

I've given my reasons - you've given yours, it's all good.

Laughed at your reply to redqueen to. It was funny and although I can't speak on behalf of all people with learning disabilities everywhere, I don't believe any were injured or exploited in the humor of your reply.

[Debi]

37. I was trying to be witty with my comment to you...not degrading

I guess my ability to be funny is.....retarded?

[Debi]

24. From the mouths of babes

Garbage!

[Xithras]

19. Yes, "retarded" has meanings other than mentally challenged that apply

Look up retarded in the dictionary: To cause to move or proceed slowly; delay or impede. To be delayed. A slowing down or hindering of progress; a delay. A slackening of tempo.

The word retarded came to be used for people with congnitive disabilities because, for a very long time, people simply believed that they were slow learners. Their learning was "delayed", so they were retarded. It's was (and still is) a common English word that appropriated a negative meaning in some uses.

Still, when I'm tuning up my dads old muscle car with him, we'll often turn the distributor to retard the timing while we're working on it. Often the traffic gets heavy in the morning and I find myself being retarded by the gridlock.

Republicans are a force that delays progress, and by that definition are all a bunch of retards in one big retarded group.

[redqueen]

20. I wonder if people who defend using "bitch" refrain from "retard"

Hmmmmmm.....

[Debi]

26. Like in the phrase, "That bitch is retarded"

when we won't give them our phone number? :7

Oooohhh now I'm being just plain naughty!

[redqueen]

29. hahahahahahahaha

Yeah, something like that... :D

[Debi]

30. I'm glad you laughed!

Walked a thin line there! :bounce:

[MissMarple]

23. Had to vote no. It's just bad form to use it like that.

We need to get our ceativity cells going and find something else. And I confess to using freeptard. You all just raised my conscious. I will not do so in future. Freepturd comes to mind, but it's a trifle coarse for someone who looks more like a librarian. What to do, what to do? :shrug:

[caty]

27. That word is a

mean spirited word. Something a republican would use--but not us. We're more compassionate than that.

[miss_kitty]

28. I will STILL use it to describe a condition in which I might find

my car's distributor (or any vehicle's distributor, for that matter).

O8)

[Dukkha]

33. people tell me to "retard" my anger

then I tell them to SHUT THE FUCK UP ASSHOLE! then I throw a cat at them

[Debi]

38. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

:rofl: Poor Kitty!

[Dave Reynolds]

36. I just use

We Todd Did.