this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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'Retard' has had a rather unique journey as a clinical term through periods of great prejudice against the mentally disabled, before ending up as an insult, and once an insult, was widely used against the genuinely mentally disabled as a means of demeaning them, giving it a particularly bad history.
Don't be a fucking moron.
Well didn't moron use to be a medical term too? So you're doing the same thing here, hows moron different from retard?
Same with idiot.
People seem to have a habit of taking whatever term is used for individuals with mental disabilities and using them to hyperbolize their criticism of someone's decisions/behavior. This is insulting to the dignity of members of society so society begins to look at the term unfavorably and uses a new term to describe it's mentally challenged members. Then the cycle repeats itself.
Was it used to demean people to the same extent?
Yes, if you were rated below a certain iq, you were classified as a moron or an imbecile, both medical terms of the time which became derogatory words. It does not really make a difference if you use moron, imbecile, retard or psycho. You insult somebody by implying some kind of disability, which is now widely regarded as offensive. So i think it is really kind of funny when somebody gets chastised by doing the very same thing in the same post. Some self-reflection might be in order.
Yes
Do I have to explain to you how language works? Terms develop connotations over time. Usage makes some into slurs. This isn't complex. This is how every fucking slur comes about. Jesus H. Christ.
Exactly, and how is moron not a slur?
Wow. What an amazing point he has, that... [checks notes] connotations change with time?
Okay?
Like, I really don't know what the two of you aim to prove here by repeatedly drawing attention to the fact that connotations of words change with time. Yes, both in the past and the future. This is my shocked face.
The use of 'Retard' and its acceptability has changed due to the dual connotations it acquired (those connotations being, specifically, a derogatory insult, and the assertion of actual medical mental disability). It's no longer acceptable. That doesn't mean that every word which clinicians used or which schoolyard bullies used is now the equivalent of calling someone a 'retard'. 'Retard' has a very acute combination of connotations, which anyone who grew up around the term understands as different from terms like 'fool', 'idiot', or 'moron'.
Like, fuck's sake. How are you not grasping this?
... the problem of... not using a term widely agreed upon to be offensive in the modern day?
Okay, you go out to your local NAACP meeting and started calling all the people there 'colored', or even better, 'negros', since that's synonymous in meaning and historical context to 'Black', I'm sure it'll go over well. Good to see that you still don't understand what 'connotation' means, and apparently are too lazy to look it up.
Fucking moron.
Funny. I see nobody in this thread throwing around insults, except for you. Ok, let's stoop to that level: Maybe you could stop calling people having a civilized debate "fucking morons", then you wouldn't come across as an intolerable twat. I'm out.
Yes, like 'colored' and 'Black'. Yet only a fucking moron would confuse the two as equally appropriate.
You literally are just repeatedly demonstrating that you don't understand connotation, and are utterly resistant to the most blatant and obvious examples of connotation possible. It's like your eyes pass over the comparison without even reading it, glossing over with the hope of, I don't know, showing off your ignorance on the internet? I mean, if you're going to get into an argument about literal semantics, you should probably at least understand the elementary-school stuff, lmao.
And why is it socially unacceptable?
Because of the connotations.
Thanks for playing. Try not being a moron next time.
Like, fuck, it's not every day I get into an argument with someone who literally spells out why they're wrong, lmao. That's some next-level obliviousness.
You really are just gonna go out here and make this claim, huh? lol
... and why do words fall in and out of favor, sweetie?
I didn't say anything about acceptability in that comment, but thanks for proving that your reading comprehension is still at the same low level it was when you started this chain.
And thanks for not answering
I wonder if it's because you don't actually read the comments you respond to, or if you actually do know on some level that answering that question would torpedo your very basic and very stupid premise?
lmao
If you're going to pussy out, at least make a believable excuse.
Okay, well, if you insist!
lmao, mald and downvote more
It's FAR from unique.
Idiot, Imbecile, and (especially ironically) Moron all ran the same path.
The euphemism treadmill is neverending.
I’ve never agreed with the “euphemism treadmill” idea. All language is constantly evolving all the time. It’s not difficult to keep up with society’s changing expectations. We’ve come to a point where enough time has passed where moron has largely become disentangled from its former baggage.
I agree that 'retard' crossed the line when it started being used as an insult against legitimately disabled people
I remember using it here and there when I was younger, with no malice behind the words. I stopped using it after I learned that it had started to be used in a derogatory sense (or maybe there never was a time when it wasn't)
Thing is, the term 'retardation' just means to be slowing down, in a literal sense. In medicine, the term used is 'mental retardation' when somebody's mental thought process is reducing, which is what people think they're saying when they just say 'retarded'
I would even go so far as to say, if you allow one use of the word, that these people who paraphrase medical terms in derogatory ways are 'retarded'
If you're going to be offensive, at least be creative. When you use these words, among some other like the n word, you're just telling me you're an asshole with zero mental aptitude
For example, I think the original commenter has the thought capacity of a chicken