I think its retarded that Sarah Palin thinks she is the word police.
I disagree. The use of the term, retarded, was juvenile and crass. We expect more of the highest leaders in the country.
Wouldn’t it be great to hit the “Reset” button on this whole language thing? Start over fresh, and remind everyone that words are just combinations of letters - and are incapable of conveying personal insults or emotions. Don’t like it? Just mentally substitute a synonym and move on. You’re not owed an apology and you don’t have a right to be offended because someone uses a different sequence of letters than you might have. Reductio ad absurdum.
I agree to a certain extent, we’ve gotten all so touchy about everything and PC has gone way to far. My view on this is: I have a learning disabled adult daughter. I know the community well. Many, MANY, of the learning disabled, know and understand what’s wrong with them and they hate it. When they hear retarded, it hurts, deeply. It’s not about us, about the so called normal people, it’s about them. The fragile, the sweet, the ones who don’t have a real understanding, they just know what they are, but, they want to be like everyone else.
“What’s Wrong with using the word — ‘Retarded’?”
Nothing. I am so sick of PC from both political sides.
We do have free speech from our constitution.
Those who don’t like it, move to Venezuela
Retard
Retard
Retard
Retard
Retard
Retard is a perfectly good word which means many things. That is probably the problem who do not understand the word “retard”….because they are retards themselves.
How is that?
My best regards.
I find it offensive to call people with developmental disabilities, “retarded.” It used to be the clinical term, and it is supposedly not anymore, however, I have seen clinicians use it to describe my son and his cognitive abilities.
However, I use it all the time. I am a child of the 80s, and while I would never ever dream of calling a child or adult with Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, or Autism, “retarded,” I use it to describe idiots or situations as really stupid. It means slow (I took French). Much as the African-American community took back the N word or the Gay community took back the Q word, I will take back the R word. However, if I ever catch anyone calling my child or another in his situation that word, they will regret it. I love Sarah Palin, but honestly, I have been in this game (parenting a Special Needs child) a lot longer than her, so I would never apologize to her. I think I remember hearing Axelrod had a kid with Special Needs. Don’t know if it’s true.
Bilnd is now seeing impaired, deaf is hearing impaired , retarded is now "special needs " or learning disabled, Fat is now ample
It is like black people objecting to negro ( spanish for black)
The language is now officially useless
The word itself is not offensive when used in its proper context.
What is offensive is Rahm's usage of the word. Somehow we got sucked into focusing on the word itself when the focus should be on Rahm Emanuel's use of it as a perjorative.
I don't think even a rectum like Rahm Emanuel would call an actual retarded person retarded. That's just plain mean. Rahm used it as a metaphor for stupidity.
And, of course, the newsholes played right along. But we don't have to.
I disagree with the article except the last sentence.
I explained it to me son the other day, after I heard one of his buddies from using “retarded” as a synonym for “bad.” Replace that R word with “Asian” while you’re playing games with your buddies, some of whom are Asian. “No! Let’s not play that game. It’s so ASIAN.”
He saw immediately how offensive that would be. Same with “Black.” Or “Jewish,” his own minority. Now, if you wouldn’t say that while in the presence of the minority, don’t say it when they are not around, either. And I reminded him that a parent of a special ed kid could hear someone say it and be hurt.
There are still plenty of epithets for guys to call their friends, and say about their enemies, without resorting to their appearance or birth condition or nationality. Exceptions made for adults who love to good-naturedly tease each other mutually.
Brack Obummer is a retarded marxist.
I hate PC and could care less. But it’s simply a matter of hypocrisy. The left jumps all over any moral failing of a conservative when they damn well wouldn’t care if it was one of their own doing whatever.
AFAIK: He didn’t say “retarded”; he said “effing retards.”
ARAIK: “Retarded” WAS the euphemistic term, originally. “Retard” was ALWAYS a disparaging term, never used by doctors, for instance.
Bullshit!*
It is a word to which extreme damage has been attached; by people like you, Tinkerbell.
To be objectionable, two things must be both present :
The intent to be hurtful.
And it must be directed at someone who is actually retarded.
The opinion and feelings of bystanders is irrelevant and presumptuous.
Calling the idiot who insists on using his cell phone in a darkened theater a "retard" is totally appropriate. And barring any suspicions that the retard is armed, I could be known to actually use the word.
If it damages your sensitivities, it's your problem, not mine.
How am I supposed to know that asking you for the time might be a supreme insult (because you never learned how to tell time)?
Self appointed word police are the most arrogant of retards!
It's gay.
what is so difficult to understand about why using RETARDED (or RETARD) as a term of contempt, an insult
It is demeaning to people who WERE BORN RETARDED. If “retarded” is an insult then it makes RETARDED citizens objects of contempt.
Sarah Palin gets it. You shouild not have to have a retarded child brother or sister to “get it”
Ditto with using skin color (N-word) or hair texture (”nappy headed”) as a terms of contempt or insult
If you see nothing wrong with using a birth condition as an insult, then why not skin color and hair texture?
The issue is in using the word as a pejorative. I use the term “retarded” or “mentally retarded” to describe people with a certain handicap. I also use the term “gel retardation assay” (or “GRA”) to describe a specific kind of laboratory experiment. I will never use the word as a pejorative.
The problem is, when a word to describe the retarded develops a pejorative context, then another word has to be coined to describe the clinical condition. It will always be a race to find another word that is non-offensive, because as long as we allow the current term for “retarded” to be used as a pejorative, there never will be an acceptable clinical term for the condition.
I’d rather see people take a stand against using whatever the current term is as a pejorative. There are plenty of other words that work perfectly fine as insults. Personally, I like calling people acting stupidly “fruitcakes.”
What’s wrong with the old term, moron?