How do you feel about the word ret*d?

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When a person is "naïve," all that means is that he/she is not schooled in "the ways of the world." It does not mean a person is intellectually weak.

I am relatively "naïve" for a person of my age.

I see the term "naïve" as an impetus to learn more about how to live in this world.

na·ive
nīˈēv/Submit
adjective
(of a person or action) showing a lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment.

If someone is saying I lack wisdom or judgment, they might as well call me stupid or dumb. That's the way I see it even if you don't, Mr. K. AND they better not tell me that I'm NAIVE in my political views. It's a passive - aggressive way of talking down to someone.

I don't find you "naïve" in your political views at all.

I just think you've to certain conclusions based upon what you've experienced in life.

It's the euphemism treadmill. Moron used to be a medical term too.

Recently I've heard "learning disability" being used as a medical term. I guess that means that term will fall out of favour with the medical community and be replaced with another term.

Anyway, here's a cringeworthy video of Barbra Streisand showing how people once used "ret*d".

I don't have a problem with the word. But I'm from the UK and it's not really a word we use much. The first time I ever heard it was in Quantum Leap and Sam jumped into a young man with learning difficulties.

I guess all insults hurt.

My Glaswegian friend taught me a good Scottish word. Glaikit.

I think that's a more socially acceptable thing to say.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/caledonianmercury.com/2011/06/13/useful-scots-word-glaikit/0021157/amp?client=ms-android-h3g-gb

Or are we just meant to pretend no one ever does anything stupid now? Are sjws telling us we just have to pretend everyone is always clever and sensible.

What was cringeworthy was how she used her song "people who need people" not her trying to help people and using language based on what was understood at the time.

Yes, the word does bother me no-end. I grew up with that word my whole life.

well, probably not....they have their own words for such people which many of us are all too familiar with.



seems too sterile to be used as an insult IMO, but you never know.

I hated that song, "People who need people." They are NOT the luckiest people by a long shot. Being overly dependent is not a sign of good fortune.

LOL! we all know who the song is referring to when they say "people"

It is a word that means slow.

Language always provides non-literal, abstract ways to precisely express one's ideas. If we politicize a word, its meaning morphs. "ret*d" changed from a general adjective to talk about something that was moving, but at a slower speed, to label and segregate human cognition, to a weapon. When we PC a word, it increases its power as a weapon.

The most successful campaigns I am aware of to disarm weaponized vocabulary is the group affected embraces the word: queer (odd), first a general word, then a pejorative, then replaced with gay, now the umbrella term for talking about sexual diversity in a civil manner. "Black" was embraced because segment of humans, although we are all shades of brown, denigrated on the abstract feature.

It was used, like gay, to replace a word that is still such a powerful weapon of hate, that if I wrote it, I would be sanctioned I pray for the day when this "old" "white" "lady" (all politicized words) can talk about my friends and family with "n-word" and no one thinks its bad because no one thinks badly of people stereotyped by it, and the pain caused by this weapon has healed.

But as long as the world is inhabited by humans, we will have haters. As long as we have haters, words will be weaponized. All we can do is embrace them proudly.

ret*d means slow. ret*d has pretty much always been a pejorative. If people want to reappropriate that word into something positive I would be for that effort.

I hated it because it is a bad song - now its in my head, damn it!!

I never did like that song.

But that's silly. Why should we change the meaning of existing words. That's like going through the dictionary and scoring out words we don't like.

Every generation changes the vocabulary. And the older generation has been complaining about it for thousands years or so. Language is very fluid.