The politically correct campaign against the word "retarded"

In My Humble Opinion
1

First, I’m against hurting other people’s feelings, and I have basically stopped using “retarded” in most situations. For example, I don’t use it in Facebook posts. So the campaign has been effective, more or less, as far as I’m concerned. That said, I think the campaign is rather, well, retarded. For three main reasons:

"Retarded" doesn’t just mean "mentally retarded."

“Retarded” means slowed down or not up to speed. It can refer also to the socially retarded, etc. It’s a pretty useful word that established a strong role as a pejorative, and good pejoratives that really express the negative feelings are hard to come by. It’s hard to replace, “That’s fucking retarded!” with something else.

"Retarded" hasn’t been used as a technical term for “mentally disabled,” etc., for a long time.

This is perhaps the thing about the campaign that annoys me the most. It’s as if (as people do all the time), people were looking for something to take umbrage at and the word “retarded” inevitably became one of the candidates, even though medical professionals had long ago moved on to more precise terms for a very wide range of conditions. Even in daily conversation, no one refers to a person with a disability as “retarded” unless the speaker is him/herself retarded (socially, etc.). The campaign might have made more sense back in the 70s…

Isn’t the real problem making fun of stupid people?

I haven’t heard people on board with the campaign get down to what’s really going on: When we use the word “retarded” with respect to people, we are talking about stupid or ignorant people. (Of course, it’s also possible to put down ideas, artistic creations, assertions, etc., as “retarded.”) When we do so, we are, generally, based on the history of the word “retarded” pejoratively comparing those people to mentally disabled people. Now that I can see as unkind to the disabled.

BUT, eliminating the word “retarded” from our vocabulary doesn’t even begin to address this issue. “Idiot” and “moron” were once considered appropriate terms for the mentally disabled but became pejoratives (probably in the same way that “retarded” has. Or that’s the history I’ve read; not sure if it’s correct). So those words should be eliminated too because the basic intention behind their use is the same as “retarded.” And the same can be said of “stupid,” “dumb,” etc., for that matter.

Quite often, perhaps even usually, the perceived stupidity of people s related to some actual mental limitation. It could be low IQ, an autism spectrum disorder, personality disorder, learning disability, etc. Whenever we make fun of or put someone down for being “stupid” or “retarded,” it’s the same thing.

So it’s easy to snipe at people for using a specific word. But perhaps the PC warriors need to address the real thinking that lies behind the use of the word “retarded.” Do we want a world in which people are not put down for stupidity? That may well be the case, but that will be a much bigger and tougher campaign to execute.

Thanks for your thoughts!

2

I think there is an obvious conflation between mental disabilities and “things we dislike” that is suggested by the word, and you yourself are trying to preserve the term as pejorative. Are there really so few words and expressions in English that we must let this conflation stand? The term “politically correct” is itself pejorative and suggests avoiding this insulting conflation is a problem. Can’t we let this word go?

3

We probably must.

I’m of a dual mind about it. The angle from which the word is attacked is pretty dubious, but there is a broader point to be made about not putting down people for their mental limitations. Thus, as a matter of advancing as a society and as a species, we probably need to do that. But in that case the step we’d be taking would be well beyond eliminating the word “retarded” from our vocabulary.

That said, I don’t always feel like being so saintly, and the word “retarded” is useful in expressing negativity in a way that “stupid” isn’t.

4

"It’s hard to replace, “That’s fucking retarded!” .

No. Actually, it’s not. Even a little bit. Even for an eighth grader, this is no challenge.

“That’s fucking…ridiculous, beyond stupid, moronic, idiotic, etc, etc…”

If you don’t want to be all “Politically Correct”, (The Horror! The Horror!), no one’s making you. Please continue to use whatever verbage you’re accustomed to, even though you acknowledge times have changed.

Look forward to sounding cringeworthy in the times ahead. Y’know, like you cringe when you hear someone say, coloured people, or darkies today! You can be that person! All you need to do is cling to your own era and refuse to move with the times.

I’m confident you have what it takes!

5

It seems to be one of those words that is “offensive only because society decided to consider it offensive.” If it weren’t considered so, “retarded” would be a scientific like term, having the same meaning as “delayed development” or “delayed progress.”

6

I guess you didn’t see my point about “moronic” and “idiotic” not being fundamentally different from “retarded.”

Yes, it’s not difficult to replace with another word. But it’s difficult to invest with another word invested with the same feeling. Just as “fuck!” can’t be replaced with “bollocks!”

7

I think his point was, calling someone “retarded” is somehow considered far worse by society than calling someone other names, even names to the same effect (namely, that one is of low intelligence or intellectually handicapped.)

8

Isn’t that, by definition, every offensive word? What, other than society, would deem a word offensive?

9

Some words are considered “politically” offensive, like gay and racial slurs. These are never to be used. “Fuck” “shit” etc. are not considered offensive in that way. Some people are in effect trying to ban “retarded” in the same way as a racial slur.

10

You’re right. In fact, ‘moron’ and ‘idiot’ were categories in the lexicon of mental disability (along with ‘imbecile’, ‘dolt’, and ‘cretin’) and some were associated with particular IQ ranges. These words have all become accepted pejoratives unless they’re applied to someone who is actually disabled. ‘Retarded’ gets a lot of bad press, although if it isn’t directed at a disabled person, I’m not sure I see why the outrage from certain quarters. A more ridiculous term for me is ‘developmentally delayed’, which implies that someone will eventually catch up somehow.

11

Not quite true. It’s only been within the last few years that “intellectual disability” has begun to replace “mental retardation” as official medical terminology. In psychiatry, this change was made in DSM-V, which came out just last year. DSM-IV had used “mental retardation.” Both separate states and the federal government have been changing the official terms used in law only within the last few years.

As you say, it’s kind of silly, because “mental retardation,” with retardation being a mere technical term for “slowness,” was itself adopted to replace previous technical terms that had become schoolyard insults: “imbecile,” “moron,” “idiot,” etc. Some people have dubbed this phenomenon the “euphemism treadmill.”

12

Except that it’s not consistent in terms of derogatory intent or meaning. Sure, “stupid” or “dumb” are frowned upon, but not anywhere near the extent of “retarded.” If one insult about intelligence or mental handicap is wrong, then all insults about intelligence or mental handicap ought to be classified as wrong likewise.

13

I can see why people find it offensive;to me it just seems mean and frankly, childish.
Not sure we need a “campaign” against it though. It’s a word. If people want to use it, they can go right ahead, and I’ll similarly go right ahead and think they’re kind of a douche (apologies to all the feminine hygiene products).

On a bit of sidetrack, there’s a local DJ on the all talk station here and this is one of his pet topics. Apparently he has a young nephew with Downs Syndrome and it his mission in life to not only ban “retarded” as a pejorative, but seemingly to obliterate it from the English lanquage, as he will spend an entire hour discussing how much he hates “the R word”. Literally, this guy constantly refers to it as “the R word” like actually saying “retarded” in context is going to evoke Cthulhu :rolleyes:

I can understand the use of “f bomb” and “n word” in the media, but really, one isn’t even supposed to utter the word “retarded”?

14

“Tard” is still ok to use though, amiright?

15

I resent that my building’s sprinkler system cannot function without hurting the feelings of society’s most vulnerable members.

16

Thank god we don’t have to deal with the timing on our cars any longer.

17

It really doesn’t matter if you ban it or not. Whatever official term is found to replace it will become the new slur, and then in turn will be put on the “offensive” shelf.

If you’re skeptical about this, just take a look at the word “special”. Said with the right inflection, it now carries *exactly *the same implication as “retarded”.

18

It’s easy to consider the effects of demeaning language to be trivial when it isn’t directed at you.

19

Can I still call someone who is acting loud, abrasive, and stupid Ricky Retardo?

20

What does that even mean? That no one has ever called me retarded? How do you know? How do you know that I don’t have a special needs person in my family?

People say stupid things. Sometimes out of cruelty and sometimes out of sheer ignorance. I didn’t say I applaud use of the term, I just don’t feel the need to try and control other peoples’ vocabulary.

If I had a dime for every time someone used “Jew” in a derogatory way around me, I’d be rich (we Jews are good with money that way).