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Well would you look at that... (lemmy.today)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
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[–] 1 point 16 hours ago (6 children)

It no longer means the same though. Language changes, and the R word is used as an insult equating somebody to somebody with down syndrome (as an example) while Moron and Idiot don't have a direct correlation to a group.

While all are still uses medically, there is context needed. Like the test might say your child is in the idiot, moron range. But a doctor will now say they have mental retardation or reduced mental capacity. They dont say hey parents your kid is β€˜Re----"

People still using the R word (as non time related uses) are just behind the times, like when my mom called black people colored..at some point somebody has to confront you and say "hey, this is not how we do things now"

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  • [–] 2 points 15 hours ago* (5 children)

    Moron and Idiot were the original correlations. People adopted those words as insults and the medical community adopted new words, and then those words got used as insults, and then the medical community adopted new words........

    And on and on and on. Moron equates you to someone with diminished capacity like someone with down syndrome, to use your example. So does Idiot, and Imbecile. As again they were medical terms turned into insults lol.

    So like by all means hate Retarded as a word, but have some consistency.

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  • [–] 1 point 15 hours ago (4 children)

    The terms moron and idiot are still used on the test reports, but nobody nowawdays associates calling somebody an idiot/moron with a slur against the mentally challenged, but the R word is.

    Like under your argument we can still call people gay as a slur because it used to mean happy.

    We stopped calling people gay or R word in the early 90s dude.

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  • [–] 4 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

    Lmao, sorry, sorry. I just wasn't expecting to get told, wrongly, about history I lived through. Retard didn't fall out of favor until the 2010's, and gay as an insult only started wearing off towards the late 00's early 10's which is why you can still see it in media from the time.

    Not sure how old you are, but I found it very funny.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 hours ago (1 child)

    Highschool mid 80s. Maybe I just lived in a more progressive zone, where language changed faster, or people realised it was not couth

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago

    So two things that makes this believable for me. One you grew into an adult so you weren't as naturally aware of the younger generation's lexicon.

    And also you lived closer to the inception of the word. Its very possible that "Retard" met the specificity requirement in your time for a slur, and meant a very particular caricature in that time. Which, is what I think is need for a word to be slur. It needs two things Hate, and specificity towards a particular subset of humans. Think about all the other slurs, they very specific aspect to them when you think of the word, to the point you can't mistake it for another subset of humans. Which is my problem with Retard being a slur, even in the medical diagnoses it was an umbrella term. It wasn't like "Downs" that was bandied about in my childhood, and IMO is the real slur of my time for this subject.

    So I think "Retard" may have just became generalized by the time it my generations lexicon, because I knew the definition as "Incredibly Stupid" before I had ever met a mentally disabled person. And when I had, trust me, I would have gotten my ass beat by my peers if I had even uttered "stupid" in there direction. Which, IMO, would have been the right call. Besides I would never have insulted Ronnie like that, kid was decent and kind.

    Btw, this has been interesting to me, and I appreciate this discussion even though there are those that disagree. I hope you know I don't have any ill-will towards you, and very much enjoyed this.

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