You know what I have a problem with? People who are easily offended.

Please go do the human race a favor and un-birth yourself somewhere (that wasn't aimed at you, Velvet).

The n-word was also a product of its time; so what?

You are looking at a group that has been viciously oppressed (including forcible sterilization), and declaring that you refuse to change your language to accommodate them, because using the word "retard" is more important to you than being considerate to a "small minority." "Evil" is clearly hyperbole, but you're being pretty gross about this.

I think that one major aspect worth discussing is that the word mostly offends people who have fairly low IQs. They're not interested in the facets of the word. They hear it and it conjures up every time they were laughed at, beaten, raped, etc. Not that all of those horrific things happen to all people with handicaps, but it happens to many of them. Someone in my family with a mental disability was chained up in a barn, burned with battery acid and raped by a psycho dude. People do those kinds of things to the mentally challenged individuals b/c they can. They see someone weak.

So the rest of the social community has said that we'll stand behind them. And one way we can do that is to try to protect folks from hearing a word that hurts them. And I'm not kidding. It hurts them.

So I try not to use it.

But in the end, your use of your language will determine what you say. But your conscience can be a guide to help you figure out when and where to use the words you use.

+1

With tinned mandarins and mandarin sauce...mmmmmmmmmm...

Nigger has no real meaning outside of insulting Black people, so it's a very different animal. Thanks for the hyperbole of trying to link them though.

I have no problem with saying we shouldn't insult them in any way, especially with the word retard. Just like I would never call a woman a bitch in public or whatever else. That doesn't mean the word retard and all its other uses fly out the window and it becomes a slur.

The current media climate is treating it like nigger, i.e. the very use of it in any way outside of scholarly or linguistic discussion is inappropriate behavior. For a word with real meaning and use I find that an unacceptable level of pandering to lobbying groups trying to find a reason to exist.

Uh, well, "interesting" thread ...

Velvet, language isn't set in stone. Meanings and connotations change all the time. "Retard" has not been a slur for a long time, but is now, since decades ago. Your valiant struggle against that won't change that.

By your way of reasoning, you could also call people "niggers", and claim that the word isn't meant as a slur, because when it began to be used, it indeed wasn't one. As with "Retard", though, the people whom you insult it with may not be interested in an etymological debate, they will simply feel hurt or angry.

If you want to uphold an outdated, non-offensive use of the word "retard" while not caring about the feelings of other people, well, that's your prerogative. Personally, I don't see what anyone (you included) is gaining from such a stance, though.

Did you even read his post? He was clearly referring to its use to describe someone with a handicap...

Because "that's retarded" is a common term in every 80's kid's vocabulary and has a real meaning, it's not a slur against any sect of people. Calling PEOPLE retarded is offensive, the term is not.

This is different from nigger, as outlined above.

"Hyperbole" nothing. You want to be able to use slurs, and when someone tells you that you're gross, you start whining about being a "product of your time." And when it's pointed out that "being a product of your time" doesn't magically excuse bad behavior, you start whining that your bad behavior is completely different.

I know that you've admitted (so generous of you) that calling the mentally handicapped "retarded" is wrong. You then refuse to change language even though you know it causes pain to a group that's been horrifically oppressed, because who cares about causing "tiny minorities" pain when you can make a linguistic argument? Your inalienable right to call a car design choice "retarded" will not be impinged upon by something as trivial as the well-being of minorities!

I read it but I do think I took his last sentence the wrong way. I have since clarified.

You're missing the whole god damn point.

Using the word a specific WAY is offensive. This applies to literally hundreds of words from gay to bitch to loser. That does not mean it is a slur that we must never speak and use the term "r-word" to convey. THAT is what I have a problem with.

Words like nigger, fag and kike (in America anyway) have no use outside of being slurs. This is not true for the term retarded.

We can speak all day about not calling PEOPLE that word, I have no problem with that. I am saying outlawing the word ENTIRELY is stupid. And yes, the fact I said the word 1,000,000 times in high school when talking about anything from the Sega CD to dial-up internet is certainly a factor. You can't retroactively change language and socialization.

You're the exact person this thread is about. You cannot see past the specific offensive situation or understand the complicated motivations involved, you just want to belittle others for not being as socially enlightened as yourself, even if that enlightenment is manufactured.

Since using the words "Retard" and "Retarded" is so common place in American media, I'm surprised at all this fuss.

The UK equivalent would be "Spastic" and "Spasticated" but your more likely to hear people say "Retard" and "Retarded" nowdays because that's what all the American media says and it's not used at people with learning difficulties. People are more likely to think up of a more derogatory word than use the word "Retarded" to describe someone with difficulties since Retard is tossed around so frequently.

I am not missing the goddamn point.

You call a car design "retarded." Your use of the word causes pain to people who have been oppressed. You say: "but they have no right to be hurt! The way I'm using the word is ..."

I am suggesting, in summary, that it doesn't matter whether or not it makes "sense" for people to be hurt by your use of the word. They are.

"But the way I'm using the word shouldn't hurt them!" But it does.

I don't care about various dictionary definitions, and whether I can prove via symbolic logic that using the word "retarded" is offensive in all cases; I am suggesting that if you stop using it, you will avoid hurting people at no cost to yourself.

Inefficient does not mean the same thing.

You're right though, I could completely stop using the word and spend a lot of effort training myself not to say it, but I won't. And you're right, this is because I don't feel the need to bend over that far to what I believe is an insanely overdeveloped sensitivity.

You can go on believing I am a horribly person because of this and I can go on believing you are overly sensitive and eager to feel superior and we can both move on.