The Word "Retard"

[BenTheBeliever]

Except its offensive to minority groups, and not the person you are trying to insult

I dind the word to be complete offensive and i am not the only one

 

[Penumbra]

The idea that the word "retard" in this context is hate speech, seems to be a cultural artifact.

The word "retard" simply means to delay or impede the development of something. It's used in a variety of professional and scientific contexts; the meaning of the word itself is not unclear or inherently insulting. And so, linguistically, referring to a person with an intelligence level that was impeded by some condition as mentally retarded, is not inaccurate. And as far as I'm aware, this original usage of the word for people in this category was not meant as a derogatory term.

And then it seems people used it as an insult, like you call someone a retard as an insult.

Since then, associating the otherwise acceptable word retard with mentally handicapped people is considered improper. Even though words like handicapped or challenged are essentially synonyms, in this context, to the word retarded. They're not any better in and of themselves, and the word retarded is not any worse in and of itself. It's just that the word retarded has a recent cultural history of being used as an insult, while the others were not.

 

[Scott C.]

Admittedly, this is a topic that I might be lacking in understanding so I appreciate any assistance.

Considering the above paragraph, it's obvious to me that there needs to be a term that distinguishes people with intellectual disabilities for everyone's benefit however it seems as if the very nature of the topic would doom any term that refers to intellectually challenged people to eventually become a term of insult. This almost confirms to me that simply being offended by something does not constitute any form of argument and by assuming that it does stifles progress.

An acceptable term becomes unacceptable and offensive when people start using it as an insult. Suppose "retarded" is a perfectly acceptable term to refer to a mentally handicapped condition. Then suppose that people start calling people who are not retarded, retarded, as a form of insult. By doing so, they are mocking the non-retarded victim of their insult as well as truly retarded people. Over time, as the term is used more and more as a form of insult, truly retarded people will no longer want to be referred to as such. This is the reason that acceptable terms are in constant change. The term is acceptable for a while, until it becomes sullied by incorrect and insulting usage. Having said all of that, I'm guilty of using the term "retard" or "tard" to tease a friend.