Ironically, retard was originally a kinder word cooked up to describe people with lower intelligence, along with moron, idiot, cretin, and imbecile. Over time these became pejoratives. Just kind of interesting to see how language develops and terms intended to avoid offense over time turn into ones that offend people.
I mean, i never really stopped calling people like Rogan and Trump retarded… But calling it a great cultural victory, is just… Retarded.
How this fucking australopithecus became a thought leader, I will never understand.
I’m not american and don’t care about politics but I was watching a show the other day and when Rogan appeared as a guest I had to shut off after 5 minutes. This person is so annoying I couldn’t stand. Don’t know how you guys do it. I didn’t even liked him in newsradio and I loved the show.
Retarded is what you call your friends when they’re being retarded
Michael Scott
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Glad someone went there.
Lol, I’ll never understand these people. The word “retard” was never gone. At no point was it illegal or impossible to say it, similar to any other word. The worst consequence for saying something that’s bound to piss people off is just that, pissed off people. You never faced jail time and I can’t think of anyone “canceled” for it.
They want to drop the hard R with zero blowback.
Unfortunately for them they don’t get to control how others feel about it. They’re free to say it at any time though. All the redneck cowards I live near use it all the time, when no black people are around.
Racists and cowards. Lovely.
You should hear the ways they justify it when pressed. “You don’t have to be black to be a …”, “not all black folks are one, but this one is.”, “why do you care, you’re not black.”, etc.
They’re usually one and the same. You don’t come to hate entire races of people out of logical thinking.
Ain’t no-one calling me ginger and getting away with it!
Unless they have a tinge of the ginge in their fringe.
Ginga, please!
We all know they have no souls. It’s not like they’re real people anyways.
The word “re----” was
The gusp I gasped was so intense that I broke the pearls I was clutching.
Reported to the FBI for saying the R word
The worst consequence for saying something that’s bound to piss people off is just that, pissed off people.
There was a real moment during which celebrity reactionaries feared The R-Word would result in the kind of deplatforming and loss of advertising patronage historically reserved for The N-Word or any of the Seven Words You Can’t Say On TV (which, curiously, did not include the N-Word at the time).
So the worst consequences wouldn’t have simply been “pissed off people”. Perhaps they’d have endured lawsuits, de-platforming, or even vigilante violence (not uncommon in religiously-tinged censorship - like with the Piss Christ display or the Draw Mohammad contest).
You never faced jail time and I can’t think of anyone “canceled” for it.
Not when the current regime is friendly to your operation, no.
But if you look at what’s happening to pro-Palestinian activists and Women’s Liberation organizations, it’s obvious that state and civil institutions have lots of tools for fucking people over based entirely on their stated political views. The real defense that Rogan, et al enjoy is having their friends in charge.
It must be nice to have so much money and freedom from consequences that that’s the kind of thing that bothers you.
Or such little money and brain cells that that’s the thing that inspires you to go out and vote against your own interests
I’m absolutely convinced that there’s a certain threshold of money/power/privilege that just destroys a person’s humanity.
Nah, you’ve got it backwards. You don’t pursue that level of money/power/privilege unless you lack humanity. These guys were always shit, but power made them more effective at being shit.
Joe Rogan has really sold out to his mentally absent base. What a victory for them.
Honestly, if the culture war has been going on this long and the “greatest victory” they can show for it is feeling comfortable using the r slur again, thats just deeply sad for them lol.
Just in case anyone had begun to consider that Joe Rogan is anything but an absolute infected boil on the ass of civilization.
The mother fucker double dips. Pay for his show and still get ads. Fuck that.
That’s your primary grievance with Joe Rogan?
Sorry guys, this one’s locked now. Y’all need to grow the fuck up.
It never left. Using it still makes you look like an asshole.
All these “free speech absolutists” still don’t realize that free speech does not mean immunity from consequences of that speech from your fellow citizens. It’s almost like they just haven’t paid attention for their entire lives.
I mean, their position falls apart when you ask them what they think about the college students being oppressed for protesting.
They do not care about free speech. They care about experiencing social consequences when using hate speech.
Yes. And it’s just hypocrisy all the way down: otherwise, as you say, we wouldn’t hear anything negative about the left exercising right to protest.
On top of r/conservative is a post about “the algorithm” flooding someone’s feed with news about US protests. Of course, the response wasn’t “hey great! Look at all those people exercising their right to free speech!”. Instead, it’s just bitching and claims of fake news (and no understanding that there really may be significant protests right now – just automatically, they must be false). There is no logic for people who can no longer discern facts from opinions.
I do not care about the word or what language people use broadly, as long as they’re using their “offensive words” to punch up.
If you’re punching up, if you’re attacking power, I do NOT care and genuinely wish people would pull the gloves off more. But Joe Rogan IS power, he is so high up that anywhere he punches is down. People with great power who use language recklessly need to be knocked down for abusing the power behind their language.
So calling Trump a regard is acceptable then?
That’s not a gotcha - tbh the “left”, to the extent there is such a thing in the US, would be more likable if it used the language of the actually existing working class to communicate its criticisms of capital. Tone policing is not an effective way to organize the proletariat or to spread class consciousness
You are a asshole for calling someone retarded. It is so incredibly offensive that you have to be a special kind of jerk to say it.
What about the word is offensive?
Is it just as offensive as calling someone stupid, moronic, dumb, or an idiot?
Is it that insulting someone’s intelligence is inherently offensive? Or is it just that it’s one of the most recent to become medically obsolete?
i can only speak for my experience. growing up autistic, i was targeted due to my different ways of thinking and acting for bullying, using the r-word to belittle and demean me, far too many times, for hearing it used to mean ‘bad’ to feel like anything but an attack on me or those like me. when someone uses the r-word casually, it hurts, and a fully automatic system, borne of hard experience, files that person away as a probable threat. i don’t understand why people want to use the word so badly, knowing it hurts people, and knowing it’s not necessary or even all that useful of a word.
It is much worse as it implies that they are disabled due to there extremely low intelligence. The word by itself isn’t bad but you shouldn’t call someone retarded.
I believe it comes from the metal retardation diagnosis from 70 years ago or so.
Not trying to be an ass here, just genuinely curious, the words “idiot” or “moron” or “imbecile” which were also in the same diagnostic tools as “retarded” so what makes them different?
I have seen earnest attempts at starting movements to abolish these words as well, (and usually at that point a lot of people start tuning the conversation out,) so I’m wondering where people’s feelings are on the broader topic or if it’s the use of the singular word and how it’s used that bothers people the most.
I think, though I could be wrong, that when many of us were growing up, the words “idiot” and “moron” had already shifted meaning. So we learned them without the connotation of mental capacity and disabled people. But “retarded” still meant both things.
But calling someone an idiot is explicitly insulting their intelligence just the same.
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The 90s: I used to use it back in the day, until one time I volunteered for a handicapped kids event, and saw how this one kid with Downs got really upset at someone calling him “the ‘R’ word” (I had never heard it put that way, or even considered it as truly harmful).
Anyway, I wiped it from my vocabulary after that. I still consider it a slur, unlike idiot, which is more generic, and not used as a specific slur against intellectually disabled folks.
Yeah, clearly many people in this thread have never spent any time around people with disabilities, it doesn’t take long to feel an innate disgust for the word and anyone who uses it, short of technical/scientific usages.
You’ve all been able to say it this whole time, just a lot of people agreed it makes you a shithead. That hasn’t changed, and it’s familiar territory for Rogan, so this is no surprise.
Good on you for making that change, and having empathy for others.
Idiot has the same entomology as retard though, does it not? As does stupid? They all start as medical diagnoses and then assholes turn them to slurs and then the medical field refines and renames and things start to repeat.
We had special education class, Special Ed, for kids struggling in certain ways, so if course the shitty kids would call kids “sp-ed” because of course they would.
I’m not sure when the line gets crossed or if we should have gone back or what, but retard, to me, has a very particular connotation that is useful for describing certain people’s actions. I don’t do it any more because I’d rather live in a peaceful society that fosters respect, but it is one of those things I “don’t get”
(I think the conversation here is more about etymology than entomology)
“Sped” is often how teachers refer to special education now too. I was a “sped teacher” for a bit. Referring to a child as “sped” would be gross and dehumanizing, but I think referring to a “sped class” isn’t considered pejorative.
It’s weird how worked up people get about “political correctness.” If you call someone ‘r-tarded’ you’re doing it to upset them, and you are also communicating that the status of having an intellectual disability is so degrading to be considered an insult. I’ve worked with lots of intellectually disabled adults and children - I don’t know that I would want to compare those people I loved and cared for to someone that I would want to insult.
fwiw Sped was used as an insult when I was in school a couple decades ago
i mean it is ONLY used to mock a very specific group of people and, historically, it was used to incarcerate and experiment on them.
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Coincidentally, “Rogan” is also an r-word that’s synonymous with moron, imbecile, or idiot.
But language changes and evolves, and words get imbued with additional meanings over time through a bunch of complicated factors and contexts.
Just because ‘idiot’ and ‘retard’ were used similarly once, doesn’t mean they’re the same now
We don’t need to fully understand the process in which the word has changed to know that lots of people find it particularly insulting, degrading and oppressive, and to decide to stop using it because of this
that’s not how i use it, but if that’s how you use it, than yeah sure. But i don’t.
It is how you use it, even if you don’t mean to.
If you use ‘gay’ as an insult, that doesn’t become OK if you only say it to straight people. It’s still some massive drive by homophobia.
The reason to stop using this as an insult isn’t to protect the people you’re insulting, it’s to protect a third group which has a dark history with the word
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I use it in reference to all Republicans.
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That exactly is the verb (“to retard”). You might mean the noun “a retard” which does not have good uses I can think of.
Retardant, retardation, retarding, retarded and a ton of other drives words also do indeed have actual real world meanings and uses that have nothing to do with humans.
Honestly, calling this admin retarded is valid because a lot of them genuinely seem to have an IQ low enough to get that medical diagnosis.
idk how they haven’t choked on their own spit tbh.
the difference between autistic and retarded is that autistic people can actually fight back and say that the use of autistic hurts people
Unfortunately retarded people can’t really do that, have to be the face and name called out at anything an individual thinks of as dumb
What? No.
Clearly you do not know anything at all about those two groups or the myriad of different functional levels the can come with those diagnoses.
Here is a thought experiment, do I need to know someone or something to use their condition as an insult?
Nah you dont.
The way you are using your narrow minded view of autism and the mentally handicapped is not only highly offensive, its also wrong. I have personally worked with and cared for people on the autism spectrum from the level of “nonverbal infant level” all the way to certified savant. Its a spectrum for a reason. I have also cared for people, for literal years, who are diagnosed retarded that are more capable and more functional than the “normal” people i see at walmart. And also hold steady jobs better than their non deficent coworkers.
Heres a thought experiment for you. If the things you say are so blatantly wrong that you get downvoted, called out, and ignored for your offensive views, but still want to double down, are you yourself retarded?
I dont know you. And i dont know your mental acuity. But i am using that word as an insult. That should answer your question i think.
You may introduce yourself as someone knowledgeable, I don’t give a shit, the word is frequently used has gotten bad connotations and influences how others think
I’m sure you’re a good person but you are trying to keep the use of a word up with no reason, using your experience simply to back up that these people are more than what their words claim to be, then using the public’s view of me against me without a proper answer
I don’t see these people as ill in the head, others may, but I don’t, and words DO hurt and they should stop being used
Stop being a dick over a word that gives bad rep to people you personally interacted with and no benefits from its use.
I am not going to change my mind, saying ‘retard’ and ‘austistic’ as an insult is bad and has its more decent alternatives, English doesn’t need to use very personal conditions as insults to begin with. why on earth are you DEFENDING ITS USE?
Bud im not saying that these words are not bad. I never said they weren’t. They are. Im saying that these words have power. Im hoping you get that now, especially now that ive hit a nerve enough, that maybe you can learn off of what you said in your initial comment.
Im asserting that your broad generalizations are equally bad. The spectrum of autism, retardation, and mental handicaps as a whole are so much bigger and more diverse than the assumptions you made. Thats my message. Thats the point im trying to speak. I hope you can eventually see that.
Yeah, it’s definitely not cool to use this word against mentally difficient people. It’s exactly the same as calling them “morons” or “idiots”.
Mentally disabled people are often such kind souls. They don’t need that.
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And i mean, you can make that argument if you want, but then like, where do we stop? Is telling people to kill themselves morally unacceptable
Yes. 🤦 Jfc, “asking me not to use a slur against disabled people is a slippery slope to asking me not to tell people to kill themselves.” Fucking, good!
Btw, you can make your argument if you want, but then like, where do we stop? If I call a straight person the f-slur, is that acceptable? I’m not actually saying it at a gay person, I’m just insulting someone by suggesting that they’re gay. Is it ok for a white person to tell another white person they’re acting like an n-word? Exactly how far are you willing to take this bullshit?
Yes. 🤦 Jfc, “asking me not to use a slur against disabled people is a slippery slope to asking me not to tell people to kill themselves.” Fucking, good!
how many times do i have to explain that im not using it against disabled people.
I like how you completely ignored my arguments.
Is it acceptable for a white person to tell another white person they’re “acting like an [n-word]?” Yes or no.
it wasn’t good, you just threw some shit in a bowl and went “ooh argument”
Is it acceptable for a white person to tell another white person they’re “acting like an [n-word]?” Yes or no.
again, i’m not saying that people are acting like retards, i’m calling them one. There’s a contextual difference that you don’t seem to understand.
Now if we’re going to fix that argument for you, free of charge you would say something like “is it ok for a white person to call another white person the N word?” could go either way depending on the context. Heavily context dependent usage.
I’ve got no stick in this fight but just wanted to chime in and say you’re losing this argument buddy
God, what a shit perspective.
Comparing someone to a category as an insult is also insulting the people in that category regardless of whether the person it’s directed at is part of the category or not. Calling a white person the n-word is offensive to black people, calling a straight person the f-slur is offensive to gay people, and calling neurotypical people the r-slur is offensive to the mentally disabled.
If I call you a “pasta eater” it would only work as an insult if there’s an unstated assumption that eating pasta is bad. If I call you “gay” it only works an insult with the unstated assumption that being gay is bad. This isn’t rocket science.
Of course retards like Rogan and Trump like that word.
