I remember when this happened, some poor LtCol had to stand in front a bunch of these imbeciles and very calmly answer the dumbest fucking questions I’ve ever heard, while pretending the people asking them weren’t a bunch of idiots.
As someone who deals with learning disabled children in my family, can we not use retard as a negative word?
I use it as a synonym for idiot, which was similarly once used to describe mentally disabled people. I generally wouldn’t call a person with actual learning disabilities a retard.
I mean no offense, it’s just a word that I’ve had in my vocabulary since i was a kid. I can try not to use it, but I’m sure i will at some point.
Don’t mess with Texas (unless you’re Russia).
The preferred nomenclature is “dipshit.”
I thought my girlfriend had a good rule of thumb that she goes by. She’s OK with insults that are about how a person is, just not who a person is. So if someone is being an asshole and you call them that? Fair game. Using an insult based on race, sexual orientation, or disability though is not cool for her.
No disrespect intended to you, @Timex. It was just a suggestion. It struck me as a bad note. In the spirit of inclusiveness I thought I’d mention it.
But presumably idiot, or moron, is ok? Those used to be the official terms used for mentally disabled people. They just aren’t used any more in a clinical sense.
But likewise, retarded isn’t used in a clinical sense any more either. No one actually uses it to refer to mentally handicapped people any more, do they?
The only time I hear anyone use it, is as a synonym for idiot.
I’m not really fighting about this here. I can try to change out of respect to folks like Rick, but i still question the basis for it.
Well, let’s just say that her nieces work with disabled kids in school. They’re frequently call retards by asshole kids, so she’s a little sensitive to that one. :)
For me personally, I feel like people invest words with way too much power. But it’s just a rule I try to keep in mind out of respect for her.
Sadly, yes. Just not anyone in a clinical environment.
Language evolves. “Retard” isn’t a word you should use anymore unless you want to drum up negative feelings, insult and hurt people with actual learning disabilities, and/or be one of “those people” who are consistently unwilling to change because of whatever reason they have in their head to justify their behavior even while society moves on.
Edit: I should note that the word was incredibly common for me in my formative years and it was a hard habit for me to break too so I still slip up sometimes. But generally it’s easy to think about these things and drop the word as much as you can and apologize when you slip up. At least that’s what I do and I don’t find it terribly difficult.
This. There are also other synonyms. Shitgibbon is one I like.
I’m in this boat. Having friends with a kid that has developmental issues helps change you pretty quick, though sometimes you’ll still slip up.
I like “Bozon” myself, which combines “Bozo” and “moron” and has the benefit of sharing a pronunciation with the name of a subatomic particle!
Here’s a question. Did Khrushchev, who was vehemently anti-Stalin, kill as many people as Putin?
Russia continues to deny that a Russian missile with Russian serial numbers fired from a Russian launcher photographed in Russia could possibly have anything to do with Russia (this headline not my own).
Is mystery, comrade.
Ars Technica has a much better rundown. What’s creepy is how Russian excuses, lies, and misdirection sound exactly the same as Trump and his excuses, lies, and misdirection.
I was going to quote a significant part of the article, but then I’d need to re-post the whole thing. Basically, they have every single detail about this attack, including who the commanding officer was. The U.S. should be shredding Russia for killing innocent people on purpose right now.
They will just blame Obama.