lostD wrote:
Mental retardation does exist and I do not see why nobody should be able to use the word ret*d as long as it truly means mental retardation.
I have used it when I was talking about mental retardation and when I talked about the "nickname" which had been given to me when I was in high school. I do not see why I should be ashamed, I respect people with mental retardation just as I respect people who are gifted and people who are in the normal range of intelligence.
We should stop using neutral words as an insult or take it negatively, they are just words. It is just like when someone says "I am fat" and everyone assume it is negative and starts using other words for that, it is not negative unless you think it is and we will not change the world by being politically correct and using euphemism because someone did not like being called "fat" or "blind".
In my country, "autist" is an insult now, but we still call an autist an autist because this is what they are.
That isn't even what the term means the original meaning is essentially to slow something:
ret*d
verb (used with object)
1.to make slow; delay the development or progress of (an action, process, etc.); hinder or impede.
verb (used without object)
2.to be delayed.
also:
noun
3.
a slowing down, diminution, or hindrance, as in a machine.
4.
Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
a contemptuous term used to refer to a person who is cognitively impaired.
a person who is stupid, obtuse, or ineffective in some way:
a hopeless social ret*d.
5.
Automotive, Machinery. an adjustment made in the setting of the distributor of an internal-combustion engine so that the spark for ignition in each cylinder is generated later in the cycle.
but the original meaning is to slow and has nothing to do with people with mental impairments, which now the correct term is intellectual disability.
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We won't go back.