Your assumption that I can only care about hurting people because I want to feel superior ...

You know what, fuck it. "Let's move on" is the only thing you've said in this thread that I can agree with.

You and I are never going to find common ground, nothing wrong with admitting that.

I will say I don't hold any malice toward you and respect your opinion, I was just debating which I love to do. I will never understand your need to bow to every sensitivity and you will never understand what you perceive as callous and uncaring behavior.

Anyway... video games.

Personally I'm struggling to understand why we can't find common ground here in agreeing that Ann Coulter is an obnoxious, loud-mouthed, attention-seeking childish bitch who is as much an embarrassment to the Republican Party that she supports as she is to America.

Hell, even the most hardcore neo-con Republicans I've seen are struggling to find good things to say about her...

Fun fact - In the original Dambusters (1955) the black Labrador Retriever was called Nigger. His name was later censored to "Trigger", though in the film the real name can still be heard in Morse code. (you can also hear the name in spoken out loud in the background in Pink Floyd The wall.

anyway , the tread is silly and borderline troll thread.

Agreed except for the bitch part. That's a slur against women.

/trollface

Thing is, when the word is used as an insult it is a slur. Saying "That's just retarded" is a slur because the root of that comment/insult goes right back to comparing it to the mentally handicapped.

When the word is used properly, it's not a slur. Such as "Progress was retarded by this poor design choice".

But used in the context of saying something is basically stupid or unintelligent isn't using the word properly.

Apparently we're expecting a major new publisher? That's pretty neat.

This.

I also used the word "behindert" (German for "retarded") as a teenager a lot, both to insult people that I considered idiots and pretty much anything else I considered stupid - it was used a lot this way where I grew up. But really, when I used that word in the presence of a friend who has a sister with a mental disease I just got ashamed of myself and gave more thought to why it's wrong to use that word this way.

Of course the word in itself is not a slur but when you call a mentally healthy person a retard you insult not only that person, you insult people who actually do have that kind of illness - after all, this use suggests that this condition is something worth being ashamed of, something you should feel bad about, something that makes them lesser beings. But I do respect people who have illnesses of this kind, I would never make fun of them for this or consider them a strain on society - so it is wrong to use the word as an insult and that's why I don't do it and why I hate it when other people do.

And if a word gets such a negative connotation it's not the fault of some overly sensitive folks, it's the fault of those people who established it as an insult by using it this way. Those people are to blame, not the ones who do not tolerate this use.

No, it doesn't.

The word was applied to them because of it's meaning, it does not derive it's meaning from them. That's the whole point.

This is definitely an idiotic thread filled with morons, but hopefully they appreciate me not calling it retarded.

tl;dr: why is this an issue?

+Rep

It's an issue because I like to rant sometimes.

I find people getting offended over words quite funny really

Like racist words, derogatory words, etc. Be offended by them and you give them power

I have epilepsy. Call me a spastic, retard, whateverthefuckyouwant. I don't care. Why would or should I? Hell, I even call myself a natural breakdancer because of it XD

People are too soft/PC these days

Bingo dingo.

This.