Moronic? That often seems to connote an empty-headed failure to consider the consequences of one’s actions.
You’re not a victim here. You aren’t oppressed because you can’t call people retards or niggers on this website. There are plenty of other avenues for you to go wild and say whatever deep truths you think you’re revealing.
ETA: moron, imbecile and idiot all have a history of technical usage in clinical diagnosis, and M-W in this article disfavors their use for similar reasons to retard. But I don’t think I agree - this technical usage is long since obsolete, and I don’t think modern usage as an everyday insult makes that connection.
I don’t like moron, idiot, or imbecile, for the same reasons as I don’t like retarded, even if they are not quite as loaded. ETA: as you just pointed out.
Stupid, as far as I am aware, was never a medical diagnosis, and refers more to a lack of common sense than a lack of mental capabilities.
Same here. Much like the original hysterical, the medical implications of those terms are a couple of generations past, so few people attach the sort of gravity to the terms that retard still carries.
I am briefly returning to this board to make a couple of final posts, and this thread caught my attention.
From 3rd grade into high school I was in Special Education programs. I literally rode the short bus for most of that time. I was called a retard to my face a number of times. The people who called me that weren’t saying that I had made an underdeveloped argument. And while I was a kid, not all of those who called me a retard were. I was bullied, harassed, mocked, marginalized, and ostracized.
Even as an adult, I’ve been shunned by people who found out that I was in Special Ed for emotional problems.* Even by people who liked to think of themselves as “enlightened” and “progressive”. To this day, I’m very careful about to whom I reveal anything about having been in Special Ed, about how much I reveal, and about when and how I reveal it, even with close friends.
The idea that anyone who objects to the use of the term “retard” just needs to grow a thicker skin is ridiculous. It’s not just a matter of hurt feelings. It’s a matter of marginalization, discrimination, and abuse. Including physical abuse. It’s a designation of being “Other.” Of being “Less Than.” It’s ugly, and it’s harmful.
Personally, even though I find “retard” to be cruder and nastier, I think using terms like “rides the short bus” and “Special Ed” as insults is in some ways actually worse. I think the idea that “retard” is just a generic insult and isn’t a slur directed against a marginalized and abused group is as risible as the idea that “fag” and “gay” are just generic insults and not homophobic slurs. But it’s possible for someone to use the term out of genuine thoughtlessness. On the other hand, there’s absolutely no ambiguity when “rides the short bus” and “Special Ed” are used as insults.
I’m saddened but not surprised by the appalling level of arrogant, privileged entitlement on display in this thread. I don’t recall encountering “retard” being used as an insult on this board, but I have definitely encountered “rides the short bus” and “Special Ed” being used as insults a number of times. I’ve called out other posters for doing so a few times. I’ve gotten a couple of genuine apologies and some supportive posts. But I’ve also gotten notpololgies (“I didn’t mean to insult you”) and doubling down.
As awful as I find the straightforward defense of using these terms, though, it’s the idea that they should be allowed because it allows us to identify jerks that literally made me sick. I didn’t throw up when I read those posts, but I really wanted to. The idea that it’s desirable for someone else to be bullied and marginalized because it helps you identify bullies is…I really don’t have words for that.
I’ve already decided to leave this board. But, if I had any lingering doubts about that, I think this thread probably would have removed them. Which maybe isn’t fair to the OP and the other posters in this thread fighting the good fight. But the number of posters who are expressing entitled outrage about this suggestion compounded by those arguing that allowing the use of the terms like “retard” is “useful” makes it pretty clear that I don’t belong on this board.
*Just by the way, a lot of people don’t really understand what “Special Education” actually encompasses. It varies from state to state and school district to school district, but it generally covers a lot more than intellectual disabilities. I had severe emotional problems, but I was academically gifted. In high school I managed to get harassed for being a “retard” and to get harassed for being a nerd that made the grading curve too steep by being too smart. On the same day.
That’s a good point. I hadn’t thought of that.
I hope that you’re able to resolve your issues and that you’ll find your way back sometime.
I don’'t hink it’s @gdave’s issues that are the problem here. I think they were pretty clear about where the problem is; and it’s ours to fix, not theirs.
Have you seen their other thread?
The women in my house would like you to know they disagree, and view “hysterical” as pretty damn offensive. But then, they’ve seen The Road to Wellville and plenty of documentaries on that particular bit of medical nastiness.
I disagree.
Language police people enough you get things like dog whistles. Something MAGA types are particularly good at these days.
I’m not sure that improves things. Do you feel better that at least those people did not use the “bad words”?
I’d rather they just come out and put their hateful rhetoric on full display rather than hide behind “polite” language while still sending the same despicable messages.
I looked in to this some more and, it turns out, this is exactly what happens and there is a term for it, the Euphemism Treadmill.
The Euphemism Treadmill is common in the areas of language related to race and ethnicity, disease, and disability. What is this phenomenon? A euphemism is a word substituted for one that is considered unpleasant or embarrassing, which can be motivated by a desire to not offend. However, sometimes these good intentions can backfire. The so-called “Euphemism Treadmill” is when a word becomes pejorative because of its reference to offensive concepts, and so a polite word is introduced to replace it.
< snip >
In the mid-twentieth century, mental retardation and mentally retarded were also introduced as diagnostic terms to replace the offensive outdated words. These phrases labeled a person with an IQ of lower than 70 who had limited social and practical skills. Almost immediately, these words fell prey to the euphemism treadmill. Retarded and the abbreviation retard became strong insults, especially when used to describe people with disabilities. The recent abbreviation tard is also highly offensive, which is commonly used as a suffix to form new insults, such as libtard (“liberal retard”) and glutard (“gluten retard”) to refer to someone with a gluten-intolerance. In an effort to convey a more positive image, special was adopted in place of mental retardation. The word was chosen to imply positive connotations, that people with disabilities are somehow exceptional, distinctive, and unique. However, the word has been criticized as patronizing, and for singling out people with disabilities when they want to be treated as equals, not as special. Special soon developed negative connotations and was affected by the Euphemism Treadmill.
And more…
What’s interesting to me is that “retarded” was once an accepted and professional term for a person with mental or developmental disabilities, which has now fallen victim to a phenomenon called pejoration or the “Euphemism treadmill” (a term coined by Steven Pinker). This is the process by which words for taboo or negatively associated subjects (bodily functions, disabilities, death) are born as euphemisms (more polite ways of talking about a subject) and then, gradually, start to aquire negativity from negative use, and eventually are shunned and replaced by a new euphemism.
< snip >
So, the term “retarded” was born as a euphemism, seeming to take off around 1950, replacing the recently-shunned “slow”. It was used as the accepted term for the concept for many years, until people started using it negatively (“That movie was so retarded!”) and it started to pick up a negative connotation.
Once negative use started to set in (~1980, it appears) like so many euphemisms, it fell slowly out of use, and new euphemisms were selected.
I don’t see how making the mods chase after this improves anything as people will just move to euphemisms meant to convey exactly the same thing and that demean exactly the same people.
Where does it stop?
The incongruity you point out IS the joke
That’s the neat thing - it doesn’t! (you can mentally insert the relevant meme here 
)
(BTW, I’m agreeing your your broader point about the Euphemism Treadmill not being a good thing)
Truly, your scathing social commentary is witiful beyond boundry.
Where does the development of language stop? Are you serious?
The answer, in case it isn’t obvious, is “never”. In case you haven’t noticed, the founding fathers talked funny; Shakespeare was pretty confusing; Chaucer was completely incomprehensible. And if you go further back, they were speaking entirely different languages, since the French and Germanic tongues hadn’t merged yet.
Not to mention technical words or loan words…
If we froze you for 100 or 300 or 500 years, you’d have progressively harder times understanding English.
Whether you think this is a bad thing or not is pretty irrelevant. It’s how language works.
Again, the euphemism treadmill grinds slow. I’m sure you’ll survive having to learn a new term for something every 20 or 30 years.
But no, the terms do not convey the exact same thing. Words have connotations, and retard is inextricably linked to actual real-world horrors, just like nigger is.
The new terms used are often improvements, even if they do eventually collect their own baggage.
Nigger → Negro → Colored → Black ( → PoC)
Faggot → Queer → Gay
Retard → Special Needs → Developmentally Challenged → Intellectual Disability
But maybe that’s because we try to commit fewer atrocities these days.
I’m sorry to hear this, and I hope, not that you return to the board, but that we can make the changes needed to make this board be a welcoming place to you. As thorny says, it’s our problem to fix.
Everyone else: come on now. Are you seriously going to keep whining about having a word removed from your repertoire every once in awhile after reading gdave’s post? How petulant can you possibly be?
On the contrary: if we allow this word to stay, then we’ll have to allow every racial and sexual epithet back as well. After that, it’ll be full-on pornography we have to keep around, and doxxing, until pretty soon the board will be nothing but links to scams and ransomware attacks.
That slippery slope goes down both sides of the mountain, my friend.
That’s a question you will need to pose to those who use these words to denigrate and dehumanize others.
If you want it to stop, you are complaining to the wrong people.