The Special Olympics’ website describes the R-word as “a hurtful term that remains prevalent throughout social media,” where “7 in every 10” posts about people with intellectual disabilities “are negative, and 6 in 10 contain a slur.”
The R-word was originally introduced as a medical term in 1961, according to the organization, but federal health, education and labor statutes replaced it with “intellectual disability” after President Barack Obama signed legislation known as Rosa’s Law in 2010.
…the slur [was]in response to Donald Trump Jr. complaining that it is no longer “a big part of our vernacular” as it was when he was “growing up.”
“I’ll say it RETARTED!” the jock boldly replied.
Who was it?
After many years working with the “mentally disabled” I noticed that the biggest insult they use to each other was “You’re Special” . They almost never use the word retarded. Which by the way is a much nicer term as it means behind the time as opposed to some disability. I can still hear the screams of ‘You’re Special” to “No you’re special!”
MY last hot rod was special. It required special timing. 12.5 degrees before TDC.
Little old me remembers Bruce Jenner from the Wheaties boxes as a Decathlon winner. Meh , hair was way too long even then
“Retarted?” Retorted? Sounds like the retard resorted and farted.
had a supervisor-punk direct me to to remove the term “engine retarder” from documentation because it might offend. 10+ years ago.
You can’t even use “developmentally disabled” anymore as it is considered demeaning a person to “less what they are as an individual with special needs.”
My guys with IQ’s under 70 used to call themselves as people who need help but the crazies with a mental health dx were nuts.
During WW2 the United States had a military division called the Field Artillery Group. Just sayin.
Sorry, I can’t get upset with the word “retarded”. I grew up with that being a descriptive medical term that was occasionally used as a schoolyard insult, but if we outlaw every word misused offensively by cranky 14 yos we won’t have any words left.
Maybe it’s because I spent so many hopeful mornings listening to the school closings on the radio as they would usually close the “Hamilton County Board Of Retardation” first due to the long bus rides. Those busses were emblazoned down the side as “Board Of Retardation And Developmental Disabilities”. We voted in tax levys to increase support for the retarded. It was a valid medical term I was told to use in Squad reports when relevant and appropriate. My doctor discussed the possibility that my cleft infant might be retarded with my wife and I in just those words while she was still recovering from the delivery (he wasn’t). My niece(wife’s side) was born with a Prader-Willi variant and my nephew (my side) was born with Down’s, one’s a wonderful young woman who lives independently with a job and everything and the other’s a delightful toddler, but they were and are described as “retarded” at times because it’s a true and accurate description of their developmental disability. It’s not that they can’t do what others do, they are just a little slower about it….e.g. “retarded”.
I’m not ignorant that folks are sensitive, tho. I won’t use that term about you or your kids unless I know you and know you know it’s not an insult. I don’t go out of my way to use it in forums like this, but I don’t avoid it when appropriate either. It’s just another word to me that means a specific thing, and I don’t stop using words just because Barry Soetoro and his ilk want to use it to their advantage, to further muddy the language and divide the people any way they can.
A retarded person may not use a word because they don’t know it.
But if someone outlaws a word just to make people walk on eggshells, that’s not retarded, that’s just another form of tyranny.
And that’s far worse.
What about dotards?
…by the way, moron. idiot, and imbecile were once valid clinical terms too.
And still should be.
https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-the-difference-between-a-moron-imbecile-and-idiot.htm
Aaaaand! You can call Bruce whatever but it don’t make him a woman…. retarted or not.
FJB
mid 60’s Retard was a common name call
or insult
back in grade school
Wasn’t going to use it but I will now.
“Cretin” is actually a very specific diagnostic term too.
https://byjus.com/neet/cretinism/
…you don’t hear that one much anymore…
retard is a useful word and I’ll use it without batting an eye, insult or not. my favorite insult – ” you smell.” it’s wonderfully effective even with folks that usually don’t react. of course I’m a toddler in an adult body, so guess I’m retarded in my own way.
Reminds me of the idiot who held up the sign “death to all juice”! I guess maybe he was … challenged.
In the South, we usually didn’t use the adjective form. It was a noun, pronounced “REE-TARD”.
Brad just replaced his his over the bed poster of Tulsi with Caitlyn, sweet.
If students are late to their Special Education classes, are they still tardy?
Itz pronounced Wetodded!
Harry “Wetodded” Eyeball
THURSDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2023, 17:42 AT 5:42 PM
“Itz pronounced Wetodded!”
https://youtu.be/o5jxVyJRCwo?si=NpTDkmnWI9-xkbYM
that IJIT is IGNANT!
next they will ban ” male” and ” female” electrical connectors and plumbing fittings.
Cynic. If they are late more than once that is Re Tardy.
i m sofa king we todd it
My 7th grade woodshop teacher used to call certain members of the class “Spastic retards” and man, was it ever more descriptive than insulting.
We weren’t allowed to call dikes dikes in the telco. They are side cutters.
And motherboards. We called them CUNT boards. Computation UNiT boards. (No offense to Mothers… it was about rubbing the company faces in shit)
So what do you call the retard port on a carb?
I’ve never seen people with intellectual disabilities as being retarded. Now my close friends on the other-hand, are usually full-blown retards. When someone gets upset and offended when they hear the word, “retard”, it tells me one thing: that they associate that word only with people who have the physical attributes of someone with mental and physical disabilities. They hear that word and they automatically think “victim” and the person who said the word as “oppressor”. Having worked with Special Olympics and all sorts of folks with disabilities, I have found that the VAST majority of these people have hearts as big as bowling balls and a work ethic that would shame any millennial. As far as i’m concerned, these people are the one who make you go home everyday, look in the mirror and ask yourself, “Am I giving it my best? Am I the actual retarded one?”
People get exercised over the dumbest shit.
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
Eric, we called lead dressers wife beaters too
Erik the ne’er do well unmasked scumbag
THURSDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2023, 22:58 AT 10:58 PM
Erik the ne’er do well unmasked scumbag
THURSDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2023, 22:58 AT 10:58 PM
“We weren’t allowed to call dikes dikes in the telco. They are side cutters.
And motherboards. We called them CUNT boards. Computation UNiT boards.”
…I have the same problem with side cutters. I don’t call them “dykes” on the job because we have a female mechanic, and while I don’t THINK she’d be nasty about it, its not worth the trip to HR or explaining the potential 3 day suspension or termination to find our. And the owner of the Company is female, just sayin’….
…Also, as far as the motherboard thing goes, I have a Motoman robot that I think came over with Columbus, but it’s a 1980sish thing that uses a Japanese axis naming convention on the axes. It’s a 4 axis robot (not the one pictured below), and the 4 axes are S, L, U, and T, so the Motoman teach pendant displays an axis fault in large letters as a SLUT error.
https://www.yaskawa.eu.com/Global%20Assets/Downloads/Brochures_Catalogues/Robotics/MOTOMAN_Robots/GP-Series/Flyer_Robot_GP50_E_11.2020.pdf
(later robots we have number the axes by joint, eg. “J1”, “J2”, etc., for…some reason…)