What do you think of the R word campaign?

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I think it's a wonderful campaign have you done anything for it?

I called ret*d before and special ed kid and that's not fun.

I even have a video and picture for the r word campaign

Eeeh, I don't think this will keep the people who mean to hurt from saying it.
Usually they have a whole arsenal of alternative words anyway, not just this one.

For the general insensitive population however, this might work. Nice campaign and nice contributions.

What, ret*d?

I'm socially ret*d.

Big deal.

If I was mentally ret*d, big deal again.

My thoughts exactly. I think the greatest response to an insult is to not be offended by it. It frustrates the person throwing the "insult", and gives you the upper hand I don't think banning a word is going to be helpful in any way.
I think viewing a word as an insult just makes it that much MORE insulting.


I'm socially ret*d. So what?

Regardless, I think your contributions are really nice, Jen

Using "ret*d" as an insult seems to be losing favour and getting replaced with autism/autistic/'spergin'. Not sure It's much of an improvement, nor do I care all that much. It's going to be hard to get people to try avoiding insulting people when they're actively trying to insult people.

Mostly I support it, but I think some people have gone overboard with it. I really think the R word campaign missed the point with Tropic Thunder. Kind of like people grumping about the N word in Mark Twain's books.

I think it is kind of frivolous.

Yes I think if "ret*d" was eradicated, they'd just invent a new word. I'd like a campaign to give all Aspies a stable living allowance without any red tape.

I took the pledge at school. I think it is a good campaign, though I don't find it too offensive when people say "that's so ret*d", and I don't find the term "mental retardation" offensive when used to describe an actual diagnosis. I do find it offensive when people with disabilities are referred to as "ret*ds".

I think there is a valid way to use it and an insulting way to use it. You can insult somebody with any terminology. I've heard people use "special" as an insult and that seems to be the word of choice that people want to replace "ret*d". Also "different", which can be used as an insult as well.

It's a medical term that people started using as an insult. They do that with obese too and I haven't yet heard that word being banned, but it may well be eventually. I did hear of a group of people who want to force the psych folks to change the name of personality disorders because it offends those who have it because they take it differently than it's meant medically.

I'm sick of the offense about everything. I'm sick of people insulting others and I'm sick of people going overboard to prevent it instead of insulting them right back.

If you were my daughter I would do my best to teach you how to insult them back if they call you that and I would make sure you know that people who say stuff like that to you are idiots who can't think of a real reason to insult you so they just pull something out of their hat. I'd tell you that those kind of people never matter in the long run and to just laugh at them and feel sorry for them because they obviously cannot think of anything.

Please don't let those people hurt you. You are worth so much more than that, and kids are mean no matter what. They always insult each other for silly and superficial things. My youngest daughter said it best, and she said it from the time she was 13 on, and she's 19 now. She said "Teenagers are b*****s man, you can't pay any attention to them". She's right. Please don't pay attention to them sweetie. You are too good of a person to be made to feel bad.

I heart you.

I hadn't heard of the campaign, but it seems like a good one. Hopefully it will tip the scales to shame even the deliberately hurtful out of using it.

"Invent a new word" - perhaps, but history shows that the whack-a-mole game can be more or less won.

I bet you wouldn't be offended by the n word either, right?

The word clearly hasn't been used to dehumanise you in the past, so it doesn't matter that you don't find it offensive. What matters is that the people who have had it used against them, do find it offensive.

I know you take delight in being insensitive, but you need to start considering when your insensitivity is appropriate. A thread dedicated to stamping out a hateful word is not a suitable place to use that word three times.

So true. But if you eliminate the "R" word, someone will come up with something that is at least perceived to be as offensive. It's a vicious cycle.

n****r? I'm not black, so I wouldn't know.

Yes, ret*d has been used to "dehumanize" me in the past. I think I've been called pretty much everything there is in regards to "ret*d", stupid, slow, and whatnot (you know, due to being autistic). If I focused on it, I'd be a quivering mass of jelly afraid to ever interact with a human again. Yes, I was called stupid and dumb by teachers too; got names if you want 'em.

The only reason I wasn't physically abused was because I was bigger and stronger than everyone (people tried and I got suspended for defending myself; the teacher believes the NT that can sweet talk their way out of their actions).

I don't take delight, I take pride in knowing bullies don't have anything over me when they try to dehumanize me. They can make fun of me, but if I don't care that they do, what power do they have?

Best to look at your own biases and lack of understanding here.

Well for me I think it's not about the word specifically it's about in general making fun of people with disabilities. At least that's what I mean to end all the bullying discrimination hate and ignorance matter what word you use.

Sadly, it's going to happen no matter what and it'll be around long after we're gone. As far as I can tell, bullying is a part of human nature and it's impossible to eradicate. One year, I was bullied by an entire classroom and the teacher (which is something I've read autistic people experience, even after it was known as a medical condition) -- it reminded me of hyenas and how the group picks on the one they deem as "weak".

So, you remove the power it has over you. "Big deal". People tend to give up when they see this outlook, and even if they don't, *shrug*, big deal again.

It wasn't long ago that "gay" was being used as an insult, yet I haven't seen that in years. More awareness on it is what caused that I think.

It may be possible for "ret*d", too, but I suspect it's going to go down the route of "idiot" and "moron". When people say those two words it isn't directed at those who do have low IQs, which was the past meaning, but at the people who they direct it to who may be doing something particularly ignorant. It lost its past meaning as a medical term. "ret*d" seems to be going that way at the moment and may make it into common phrases which carry next to no meaning. I believe that because of this the medical term for someone with an IQ below 70 is now "intellectually disabled", because they are trying to move away from the word now it's used as an insult.

I guess people only use it because they get bored of the words "stupid", "idiot", and "moron" and want something that'll offend them even deeper. I don't see this stopping. If they're using it against people with disabilities, though, they're probably incredibly pathetic. Just think about the fact they've probably been rejected by everyone for being so bigoted.