The trouble with Mr. Moto’s laudable yet misguided at elevating the level of discourse is that he predicates his objection to the use of “retarded” on is use as “hate speech.” Now as I understand it, “hate speech” as defined on this refers to slurs based on race, religion, and sexual orientation. This is certainly sensible becauase words like “fag,” “Hebe,” “Spic,” and “nigger” have no purpose except to insult.
But “retarded” is just a descriptive adjective to indicate slowness or delay. If we ban the term becuae it can be used to insult people, then we might as well ban any other word that might cause offense. Hell, we might as well ban “Republican” because I certainly regard that affiliation to be insulting.
And I advise GLWasteful and Indygrrl to avoid the Cartman at the Special Olympics episode of South Park or they might well explode in a burst of terminal self-righteousness.
Please do. Until then, I’m super, thanks for asking, all things considered I couldn’t be better I must say. . .
And again, I only want to ban the use of this word as an insult or expletive. Its use as a description would still be okay.
You should be able to describe someone with mental retardation as being mentally retarded. I don’t regard this as an abuse of the word, and it’s likely Tim Shriver would agree with this.
Neither he nor I agreed that the word should be banned. We both find it offensive because we’re deeply involved with special needs people, but I don’t see how that’s any more self-righteous than any other topic that people get offended by.
I guess it’s easy to be flippant if the subject doesn’t offend you. But that doesn’t mean that those of us who do care should keep our mouths shut or be accused of self-righteousness.
Moderators have discretion to decide who is being a jerk or spewing hate speech, and I don’t think we need a specific list of words that we can or can’t use. AFAIK nothing is specifically banned in The Pit except calling other posters trolls (or sock puppets.) The reason ‘troll’ is banned as an insult is because it is extremely rude and fundamentally stifles discourse. Unless an insult rises to that level of disruptiveness, which ‘retard’ definitely does not, there is no need to ban it.
Disagreed. I don’t use the word. I don’t like the word. I find it mildly insulting on behalf of those with actual disabilities to have it applied as a pejorative. I, like Hamlet, end up with a lower opinion of those who use it as a pejorative. But none of these make it my place to restrict the freedom of others. I think one of the best things about the SDMB is the large degree of freedom of expression allowed here and I would rather see that undiminished and have to put up with a few total dipsticks than restrict speech. Yes we already have to some degree, but I’d rather not go any further down that slippery slope.
Y’know, the hell of it is, I agree with gobear inasmuch as “retarded” is simply a descriptor, as opposed to actual, honest-to-christ hate speech. And as an expletive, it shows the mean level achievable by those who use it. Mr. Moto: it’s not gonna happen, and your complaints about it only serve to make you appear a dour little prig.
That said, gobear’s attempt at humor I found not at all amusing. Just as I don’t care for terms like “nigger”, “spic”, “kike” or “faggot”, I don’t find shots at the mentally retarded to be funny. Y’wanna call Bush a “retard”? I’ll stand there and tell all and sundry that you’ve every right to do so. Ditto for those who are of the Republican bent who want to use that term to describe Kerry. But calling someone who isn’t mentally retarded a “retard” falls light years from this:
If you are too ignorant to tell the difference, well, the world needs special people like you. Otherwise, Maria Shriver wouldn’t have topics for her insipid polemics.
Oh, and I’ve seen the Cartman at the Special Olympics episode. Also the cartoon wherein two characters are betting on the outcome of the Special Olympics. Found them very funny, too. No exploding, no bursting. Nor am I exploding or bursting at your snipes. For the above, though, you are still an ignorant piece of shit.
Look forward to seeing you in threads where neither of us thinks ignorance is an amusing character trait.
Do you have the same opinion about the use of the terms below?
From m-w.com: idiot: *usually offensive : * a person affected with idiocy idiocy:usually offensive : extreme mental retardation
moron: *usually offensive : * a mildly mentally retarded person
stupid: slow of mind
**imbecile: **usually offensive : a person affected with moderate mental retardation
It seems that all these terms relate to mental retardation to a degree, so do you find it mildly insulting on behalf of those with actual disabilities to have these terms applied as a pejorative?
I’d just like to say that I still look back fondly at the times when Mr. Moto came into the various threads where Brutus called me a “retard” and blasted Brutus for using that word. It was heartening to see a staunch Republican come to the defense of a staunch Liberal (one who’s actually proud of the word) against a fellow staunch Republican. It speaks to how we can actually work together in the future to better America as Americans, rather than as partisans. wakes up Damn…I had the weirdest dream!
For the record, I found gobear’s joke to be hilarious. Sort of in the same way that I find dead baby jokes and Helen Keller jokes funny. I laugh because I’m not supposed to. And the more I try to supress it, the worse it gets.
I can see on one-hand, how someone who used to work with the developmentally disabled would consider use of the term ‘retarded mongoloid’ as insulting and insensitive.
On the other hand, I could also sympathize with someone who considers the term ‘faggoty fairy’ as ‘demeaning’ (but not ‘homophobic’).
Classifying the word ‘fag’ as “hate speech” because it has ‘no purpose except to insult’ is a weak argument - almost to the point of being hypocritical. To argue that the word retarded (when used as an insult) is descriptive adjective to indicate slowness seems to ignore the fact that most people who use the term faggoty are using it as a synonym for unmasculine, weak or lame - not to be hateful. (Standard disclaimer: Not all homosexuals are unmasculine or weak – nor are all retarded people are slow or stupid).
People can argue until they’re blue, red, green, yellow, black, white or brown in the face over what it is insulting. The one thing we should all be able to find agreement in is the fact insults are relative to the individual. Hence, there will never be a unanimous concensus on what words should be banned or labeled as hateful.
Maybe instead of wasting all this energy uncovering & examining words or phrases whose use could be deemed ignorant or may ‘hurt’ other individuals, people should start concentrating on the fact they’re only words.
