Well that’s retarded. If some idiot slams on their gas and flips their car 5x because they did something stupid, I’m not gonna say “wow, that person’s a developmentally disabled!”… I’m gonna say they’re a retard.
Retard isn’t used any more to talk about people with developmental problems. It’s meant to talk about people who do exceptionally idiotic things like the example above.
It has nothing to do with empathy. This is upper-class college white girl shit, where people get offended on behalf of a class they don’t belong to and which the people who they are offended on behalf of don’t really give a shit.
You pretend to be offended so you can signal to others that you are virtuous.
This is why I prefer “willful ignoramus” when I want to insult a person like Rogan.
These people aren’t just stupid, they’re choosing to be ignorant.
The real problem is the stigma attached (throughout modern history) to people with intellectual disabilities. Every new term eventually became a slur, because the same bigots who use slurs are also bullies.
“Intellectual disabilities” has a slim chance of avoiding this because it’s too long to say and too hard to spell.
Btw, “lame” and “blind” are examples of how it’s similar for all kinds of disabilities.
Nobody’s “associating” anything. Nobody who’s calling someone retarded has any thoughts in their head about people with the mental disorder. If you called them a downie, then you would probably have a point; as it’s specifically worded to relate to downs syndrome.
But “retard” has come to be an amplification of the word “idiot”. It’s like the words big, bigger, biggest.
It’s the “biggest” of “idiot”.
So if I’m gonna call someone an idiot, my levels of idiot are: Idiot, Dumb-ass, and Retard. I’m just calling them the word that corresponds to being a gargantuan idiot. You can’t use “gargantuan” because they don’t even know what the words mean; so you use retard.
hey I have a question: how does everyone feel about “fucktard”? is that acceptable? it’s not a direct insult to persons with developmental disabilities, but it does have a fairly specific connotation that could be useful in certain situations, plus it throws out an F-bomb to emphasize your anger.
but if that’s too offensive for some folks I guess I can just keep using “fuckmouth”, if that’s easier on the ears.
They stopped using that word because it wasn’t descriptive. The same reason they stopped diagnosing women as “hysterical”. That’s the cool thing about the sciences; they evolve and change over time to be more descriptive, not less.
And now, we use the word hysterical to describe certain things…kinda cool how that works, right? When I call something hysterical (extremely funny) - people don’t get offended and say I’m using a slur.
Or when someone is losing their shit, you say they’re acting hysterical. It’s become a descriptor.
Maybe try to come up with a more creative way to insult people than by using a slur?
This is the same logic behind saying the f-slur is okay if you’re not using it to describe gay people, you’re just using it to insult a straight person… by comparing them to gay people. See the problem?
I don’t understand how so many people fail to see what you’re saying and have downvoted your comment so much. I think it’s a lot of millennials (I’m one) who have funny memories growing up calling things retarded and gay and they’re just… unwilling to give it up now. It’s not that hard to use other words.
I agree. It’s all emotional and irrational. Even if you’re making a good point, you get downvoted because it’s an emotional response. Similarly, someone saying something stupid but in line with the general sentiment gets upvoted. Sucks to see it here.
R****d fell out of favor probably close to 15 years ago at this point. Developmentally disabled/intellectual disability has replaced it.
Well that’s retarded. If some idiot slams on their gas and flips their car 5x because they did something stupid, I’m not gonna say “wow, that person’s a developmentally disabled!”… I’m gonna say they’re a retard.
Retard isn’t used any more to talk about people with developmental problems. It’s meant to talk about people who do exceptionally idiotic things like the example above.
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I don’t know about you, but calling someone less intelligent IS an insult. Doesn’t matter what you name it.
That’s the point of insults you know.
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Yeah. Retards are retards. People with downs syndrome are people with downs syndrome, glad we agree.
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It has nothing to do with empathy. This is upper-class college white girl shit, where people get offended on behalf of a class they don’t belong to and which the people who they are offended on behalf of don’t really give a shit.
You pretend to be offended so you can signal to others that you are virtuous.
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Can we still call people morons?
Yes.
That one stopped being used as a medical designation prior to people getting their panties in a twist about using medical designations as insults.
This is why I prefer “willful ignoramus” when I want to insult a person like Rogan. These people aren’t just stupid, they’re choosing to be ignorant.
The real problem is the stigma attached (throughout modern history) to people with intellectual disabilities. Every new term eventually became a slur, because the same bigots who use slurs are also bullies.
“Intellectual disabilities” has a slim chance of avoiding this because it’s too long to say and too hard to spell.
Btw, “lame” and “blind” are examples of how it’s similar for all kinds of disabilities.
Absolutely, except I’m not calling people with developmental challenges retarded. I’m calling the fucker that blew his leaves into my yard retarded.
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Nobody’s “associating” anything. Nobody who’s calling someone retarded has any thoughts in their head about people with the mental disorder. If you called them a downie, then you would probably have a point; as it’s specifically worded to relate to downs syndrome.
But “retard” has come to be an amplification of the word “idiot”. It’s like the words big, bigger, biggest.
It’s the “biggest” of “idiot”.
So if I’m gonna call someone an idiot, my levels of idiot are: Idiot, Dumb-ass, and Retard. I’m just calling them the word that corresponds to being a gargantuan idiot. You can’t use “gargantuan” because they don’t even know what the words mean; so you use retard.
hey I have a question: how does everyone feel about “fucktard”? is that acceptable? it’s not a direct insult to persons with developmental disabilities, but it does have a fairly specific connotation that could be useful in certain situations, plus it throws out an F-bomb to emphasize your anger.
but if that’s too offensive for some folks I guess I can just keep using “fuckmouth”, if that’s easier on the ears.
I’m rolling dude! haha
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“Retarded” isn’t a medical definition under IDC-11, so they aren’t retarded, as the medical definitions have changed.
Also Retarded has another standard definition – Being held back or stunted of which applies here.
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They stopped using that word because it wasn’t descriptive. The same reason they stopped diagnosing women as “hysterical”. That’s the cool thing about the sciences; they evolve and change over time to be more descriptive, not less.
And now, we use the word hysterical to describe certain things…kinda cool how that works, right? When I call something hysterical (extremely funny) - people don’t get offended and say I’m using a slur.
Or when someone is losing their shit, you say they’re acting hysterical. It’s become a descriptor.
Hey hey hey, let’s not use incontinence as an insult my dude.
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Lmao, that’s a stretch.
Maybe try to come up with a more creative way to insult people than by using a slur?
This is the same logic behind saying the f-slur is okay if you’re not using it to describe gay people, you’re just using it to insult a straight person… by comparing them to gay people. See the problem?
No, because I’m not calling anybody a faggot.
Just so you know. (I’m guessing you weren’t removing it yourself for a joke.)
So you understand why it’s bad to use a slur that way?
I don’t understand how so many people fail to see what you’re saying and have downvoted your comment so much. I think it’s a lot of millennials (I’m one) who have funny memories growing up calling things retarded and gay and they’re just… unwilling to give it up now. It’s not that hard to use other words.
It’s honestly very disappointing to see this here on Lemmy. I’d expect this from Reddit, but I thought people here were better than this.
I agree. It’s all emotional and irrational. Even if you’re making a good point, you get downvoted because it’s an emotional response. Similarly, someone saying something stupid but in line with the general sentiment gets upvoted. Sucks to see it here.
Yes. This place and this post in particular is in dire need of mod action.