The same thing is happening to the word ‘Jew’. I get nary a glance if I ask “Is Joe Jewish?” but people stop a little startled if I ask “Is Joe a Jew?”. It’s like the noun case sounds accusatory or something.
That’s not new. I recall a Jewish friend of my dad’s explaining how he felt uncomfortable hearing “Jew” and preferred “Jewish.” that was probably 30 years ago.
It has connotations of objectification, I suppose.
Note also that racists always talk about dirty Jews, not dirty Jewish people, because it classifies them as things rather than people.
The adjective is descriptive and the noun sounds definitive - like it’s all the person is. A lot depends on tone, though.
I live one town over from a “school for weak children.” Maybe that’ll catch on in the states!
Me and my son are in disagreement. Are they easily tempted or really out of shape?
It is, indeed, a special thread.
My love for you is like a truck BERSERKER!
Would you like some making fuck BERSERKER!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, this spaz is going out to have a fit.
Never been in. It’d be pretty interesting if it were a school to study how weak children’s willpower is. Like there’s a room for the fat kids with pastries all over the place, and a room for the procrastinators with a bunch of video games.
Maybe they administer electric shocks in the upper grades.
I see it as more akin to “blind” or “deaf”. Blindness and deafness are objectively undesirable traits. If they invented a pill that gives perfect vision to the blind, it’s perfectly fine to say, “Great! Let’s get this pill to as many blind people as possible.”. Likewise, it’s fine to want to distribute a hearing-granting pill to as many deaf people as possible. It’s not acceptable to mock a blind person for being blind or to mock a deaf person for being deaf, but saying “What are you, blind?” or “What are you, deaf?” to the unafflicted are acceptable because it is understood that the intention is not to disparage the blind or the deaf.
In contrast, being black is not an objectively undesirable trait. Slurs like “nigger” carry with them the assertion that blackness is a bad thing. If they invented a pill that turns black people white, it is not at all okay to say, “Great! Let’s get this pill to as many black people as possible.”. The same rules apply for the word “faggot” and a pill that turns gay people straight. It is not acceptable to mock black people for being black or gay people for being gay. It is also unacceptable to use expressions like “That’s so gay.” in a sense that does not mean homosexual, because the statement still carries with it the assertion that homosexuality is a bad thing.
Now let’s consider mental disabilities. Is a mental disability an objectively undesirable trait? If they invented a pill that grants normal mental faculties to the mentally disabled, would it be helpful or hateful to try to distribute this pill to as many mentally disabled people as possible? I think we all agree that it is not acceptable to mock a mentally disabled person for being mentally disabled, but does saying “What are you, retarded?” to a normally bright person when they fail to understand instructions or a joke also disparage people with mental disabilities?
Nope. “Retard” in this usage is unambiguously a slur.
Nope. Retard is not unambiguously a slur. It is retarded in noun form. Tell me, Stratocaster (or anyone else who goes berserk when they hear any form of the word ‘retarded’) because I have asked this question repeatedly but have never gotten a direct answer: What would YOU call them?
Particularly, what word would you have chosen in the sentence that started this thread in the first place: Dick Clark sounds retarded? Or, if you wish, Dick Clark sounds like a retard? I keep reading that there are better terms. Please tell me how to express this thought without hurting your feelings.
It’s just amusing to me that we’re still stuck on “retarded” when “special”, “delayed”, and “differently abled” are already widely used as insults. There’s no word or combination of words that you can devise to describe “stupid” that won’t shortly and inevitably be used as an insult.
Did she just say “making fuck”?
Yes, and it seemed like an offer, too. I’ll have to give it some thought.
Exactly, precisely, and there ya have what the fundamental problem is with constantly reinventing ways to say things to avoid being insulting.
Let’s all read this fascinating article on Wikipedia, which addresses the use of this particular word over time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism_treadmill#Euphemism_treadmill
I don’t go beserk, but I’ll answer anyway. I would say “mentally retarded” to refer to the mentally retarded. But sorry, you’re wrong, “retard” (used as noun, as I noted) is to “mentally retarded person” as “nigger” is to “black person.” It’s a slur:
You can say, “well, I don’t mean it that way,” and so could someone saying, “nigger.” But that won’t change the fact that it is by definition a derogatory term.
Missed the edit window. My feelings weren’t hurt, though I’d point out that the mentally retarded do not all act and sound the same. My reaction in this thread is less to the OP–I don’t think “mentally retarded” is a slur by itself–and more to the predictable chorus that follows, including the clever, clever insults directed at people who self-identify as having loved ones who are mentally retarded.