Don't blame your mythical PC police. Doctors called special needs kids retarded; children took it and twisted it, made it a pejorative. Now, some folks just want a little less disrespect. Quit acting like a toddler.
But retard literally means slow.... like.... I seriously don't understand why people are so easily offended that a word that doesn't necessarily apply to people with disabilities must be stricken from the English language. Honest question BC, if you heard someone say that they had to retard the engine, would you bristle at the use of the term?
Yes, they called them mentally retarded, not as an insult but because the word "retarded" was the correct word in the English language to describe what was going on in their brain. So because some people use it as an insult, that word must go away completely?
You are 100% right, by the way Back in the 70's dr's used to call kids mentally retarded, just as my friends and I used to go ****** knocking on doors in our neighborhood.
You know what doesn't make sense to me? Replacing a word with something that means the exact same thing. We're not mentally retarded or handicapped, we're special needs or disabled. We're not midgets or dwarfs, we're little people. It's like that word is in use for so long that it inevitably becomes some form of insult and nobody wants to be associated with it, so they change it to something else. That word will inevitably become linked to an insult, and the process will repeat itself. I imagine it will move on from "special needs" to something else in my lifetime.
As someone with a BA in English, if I heard someone say that I'd punch them for using retard when slow would work fine. Slow the engine is shorter, better, and easier to understand. Just like "slows growth" is as easy to understand as "retards growth" and "stingy" is as easy to understand as "*****rdly". People who like to use retard as a synonym for stupid lost a word. Big fucking deal. Go cry in your tiny dictionaries.
I've met a couple people with Down Syndrome who very pointedly told me that they hate being called "retarded." They prefer "mentally disabled." It's not some PC thing. They simply don't like to be called that. Since it really seems to hurt feelings, I will never call one "retarded."
I also have little people friends. Being called a midget makes them cringe and hurts their feelings. I think it's because you're kind of objectifying them, making them feel like less of a person, by calling them, a midget. They want to be treated as people, aka "little people." Similarly, I do not want to be called a ***got. It's derogatory and objectifying. Why use the term if it hurts their feelings?
What word should I use to insult stupid people, that packs a punch, and will make them angry as I intend? The word will need a hard consonant, like the t in retard. Dim doesn't have that. Stupid and idiot do, kind of, but not enough, and are overused. I have an idea, you little kabatapee. Ughdripocrap. But in a generation, the ughdripocraps will demand that we use a replacement word, like retard.
Clowntown. Seriously though, try Git. Cockney for incompetent and stupid. Maybe Dolt. Or Cretin. Or Dimwit. Or Nitwit. Or Twit. Or...
