# The politically correct campaign against the word "retarded" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 13, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564 "2015-02-13T13:30:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/21 "2015-02-13T20:10:38Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > 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! Some of us remember when “retarded” was used seriously–to describe the kids with mental disabilities. Most of use would not used the word casually. “Idiot”, “imbecile” & “moron” once had clinical meanings, but that was long ago. So they are acceptable. Anyone can expand their vocabulary in order to avoid “retarded.” Unless they are a dumbass… ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/22 "2015-02-13T20:45:21Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Some of us remember when “retarded” was used seriously–to describe the kids with mental disabilities. Most of use would not used the word casually. > > “Idiot”, “imbecile” & “moron” once had clinical meanings, but that was long ago. So they are acceptable. Anyone can expand their vocabulary in order to avoid “retarded.” > > Unless they are a dumbass… Its no big deal to stop saying “retarded” but it’s water down a well at the end if the day. It’s pretty much axiomatic that any clinical word used to describe relative mental inability will soon become pejorative and synonymous with “stupid”. It’s hopeless trying to keep clinical words clinical. You can’t. Just look at “special” which followed the same pattern – and who can forget the briefly popular "otherly abled ". Both of which became pejorative within minutes of their coinage. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/23 "2015-02-13T21:08:08Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > 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? I don’t. And obviously at this point you can claim anything. But you mentioned somebody else who has a special needs person in their family and opposes the use of the word retarded. So it would have been natural for you to mention your similar situation at that point in your counterargument if it were the case. > [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > 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). And does it bother you when people do that? I’m not Jewish. It’s pointless for me to say I don’t mind when people talk about jewing somebody out of some money. Just as it’s pointless for me to say I don’t care if Washington calls its team the Redskins. Or for me to say that hearing a adult black man being called boy or an adult woman being called girl doesn’t offend me. Because none of these things demean _me_. So I don’t have the right to waive them off as unimportant. Nobody has the right to tell some other group that they should just suck it up and live with it. Because it’s them and not you who has to deal with being demeaned. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/24 "2015-02-13T21:34:14Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > \ And does it bother you when people do that? Maybe in an eye rolling way. Does it hurt my feelings? I can honestly say it does not. I realize I can’t speak for anyone but me, but then again I wasn’t trying to. It just seemed like you were implying I’d never suffered slurs so I was just sharing my experience. > [@](#): > > I’m not Jewish. It’s pointless for me to say I don’t mind when people talk about jewing somebody out of some money. Just as it’s pointless for me to say I don’t care if Washington calls its team the Redskins. Or for me to say that hearing a adult black man being called boy or an adult woman being called girl doesn’t offend me. Because none of these things demean _me_. So I don’t have the right to waive them off as unimportant. **Nobody has the right to tell some other group that they should just suck it up and live with it**. Because it’s them and not you who has to deal with being demeaned. Sure they do; it’s called freedom of expression. Luckily that’s not what I’m doing. I’m just responding to the OP and saying that while I don’t think it’s cool to use someone’s disability as a term of insult I don’t think “retarded” or any other slurs for that matter should be banned. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/25 "2015-02-13T21:38:18Z")
C’mon you guys. Quit bein a coupla spazes. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/26 "2015-02-13T21:40:33Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > 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”. My brother, for a brief while, would sneer at something stupid and say, “That is so fucking developmentally delayed!” Which, y’know, expresses frustration with the euphemism treadmill, and also kind of misses the point. The point being that it’s legit to say that some things are too stupid to live, but when you do so by comparing them to folks with Down’s Syndrome, the comparison is entirely unfair to folks with Down’s Syndrome. “Idiot” and “imbecile” have not, to the best of my knowledge, been used as clinical terms for anyone in half a century. They’re safe to use, because there’s no analogy being drawn in anyone’s mind to people with actual mental disabilities. “Retarded” was part of federal law as recently as 2015, and while it’s made its way out the door, it’s still pretty fresh in people’s minds; using the term brings the analogy to the forefront. Give it a half-century, and I suspect “retarded” won’t be any more problematic than “idiotic.” ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/27 "2015-02-13T22:03:38Z")
I find it offensive as does the Special Olympics. I don’t use it nor have I ever let my kids. Frankly, I find people that cringe at the N word or gay pejoratives, but use the word retarded as an insult to be huge hypocrites. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/28 "2015-02-13T22:16:01Z")
“Retard” is one of those words that carries some baggage for me. It was practically my nickname when I was mired in my most awkward developmental stage, and I flashback to those days whenever I hear the word. A few years ago, though, I was trying to teach a coworker how to do something on the computer. We were joking around and I was ragging on him for not learning fast enough. In my attempt to be humorous, I used the r-word. Another coworker expressed disapproval and I swiftly apologized. Later I found out that her sister is developmental delayed. So now I always try to use “flickted.” This was also one of my nicknames, but it’s not as loaded as “retarded”. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/29 "2015-02-13T22:16:16Z")
So, this is the latest iteration of “I should get to decide what other people find offensive”? That usually works so well. ---
**Author:** ![Abner\_Ravenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Abner\_Ravenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abner_Ravenwood)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/30 "2015-02-13T22:17:09Z")
Whenever you feel the urge to say “that’s so retarded” or “that’s so gay,” just say that’s so Raven" instead. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/31 "2015-02-13T22:20:11Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Sure they do; it’s called freedom of expression. Luckily that’s not what I’m doing. I’m just responding to the OP and saying that while I don’t think it’s cool to use someone’s disability as a term of insult I don’t think “retarded” or any other slurs for that matter should be banned. If you mean an actual law making it illegal to call somebody retarded than, yes, I would oppose that. Such a law would clearly be unconstitutional. But who’s talking about that? The campaign that’s being discussed here is not about laws being proposed. We’re talking about social pressure. Facebook or a local DJ do not have the power to have anyone arrested. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/32 "2015-02-13T22:54:59Z")
I recently used retarded in a sentence twice, in public no less. “We are socially retarded, functionally retarded creatures, held back by our own deeply flawed brains.” Or something close to that. Of course some people get offended at the use of retarded in that context and to those people I say “Are you fucking retarded?” ok I don’t say that last bit, but I kinda think it. because if I said that they would have a good reason to be offended. My original statement was perfectly pc. I was not referring to the delayed mental capacity of an individual, I was referring to the entire human race and our messed up brains not working they way our messed up brains think they work. and yeah euphemism treadmill anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/33 "2015-02-13T23:11:28Z")
My daughter is autistic. I admit to having a preference for her never hearing that word, particularly directed at her. Being an adult, however, I can understand nuance well enough to understand the intention of the people I speak to. And, really, on my list of things about her future I worry about, this is pretty damn far down the list. But then again, if she were to come home one day sobbing because she’d been bullied, my feelings might intensify just a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/34 "2015-02-13T23:32:39Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > …Being an adult, however, I can understand nuance well enough to understand the intention of the people I speak to… It’s kinda that way with any kind of humor or generally informal talk isn’t it? Using the OP as an example, “retard(ed)” is such a heavily loaded term that it can really be effective at getting a point across. Same goes with other words we all know but don’t need to mention. The trick is to know your audience (intended and collateral), and to not get habituated to the loaded words so they slip out when they shouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/35 "2015-02-13T23:37:56Z")
So the objection is that it’s politically incorrect to the use the term? In other words, if social pressure builds to a certain level, things change. the OP doesn’t like being told by “them” what to say, do or how to act. Pretty sure that’s how human society has worked for as long as there has been human society. The “nice” thing about living in this particular time and place, assuming the OP lives in the US, one can choose to ignore the social pressure and act in whatever way you choose, so long as you don’t actually hurt yourself or others. You might want to work on the OP - I can’t actually tell what discussion you wanted to have. The right to use the word, the right to ignore social pressure, the need to teach everyone not to be mean to others, the stupidity of political correctness… it mostly read as a screed on wanting to use the word “retard”. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/36 "2015-02-13T23:38:29Z")
Of course it’s politically incorrect to use the word “retard.” It doesn’t mean we should throw people in jail for using it. And we won’t. We’ll let the bleeding-heart libnuts continue to whine and go on with our retarded lives. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/37 "2015-02-14T03:07:36Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > 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.” Interesting, I stand corrected. > [@](#): > > 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.”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#Evolution) Had not heard this term before; so you have educated me further! ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/38 "2015-02-14T03:10:24Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > 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”? Yes, this is extreme, especially since it is an English word appropriate in a variety contexts. It is really only with “mentally” that it _necessarily_ referring to the “mentally retarded.” The fact that people use it as pejorative shorthand for “mentally retarded” shouldn’t result in the word being cast out of the English language. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/39 "2015-02-14T04:25:30Z")
I remembered when his happen , people that had Down Syndrome fought to have this happen [http://www.msaaidd.org/pr1-20061129.htm](http://www.msaaidd.org/pr1-20061129.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564/40 "2015-02-14T04:30:38Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > 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. But developmentaly delayed can mean that someone will catch up. It’s a description more than a diagnosis. > [@](#): > > What causes developmental delay? > [Developmental delay](http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/devdel.htm) can have many different causes, such as genetic causes (like Down syndrome), or complications of pregnancy and birth (like prematurity or infections). Often, however, the specific cause is unknown. **Some causes can be easily reversed if caught early enough, such as hearing loss from chronic ear infections, or lead poisoning** And even if the causes cannot be reversed many people with some developmental delays will catch up, even if someone does not walk or speak at the expected age it does not mean they will never walk or speak whether it takes recognising the cause, like deafness for example, or surgery, physiotherapy or just time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-politically-correct-campaign-against-the-word-retarded/712564.md?page=3)