Ironically, the term "mental retardation" was introduced by medical and educational professionals as a less derogatory and more objective replacement for older, highly stigmatizing terms like idiot, moron, and imbecile, which themselves were previous medical classifications.
this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2025
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Unpopular Opinion
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slurs are useful.
they are an escalation step that are words instead of physical violence.
making slurs illegals removes that step and leads the escalation straight to violence.
That is an unpopular opinion.
What the fuck kind of logic is this? We can't magically make insulting language go away. If someone wants to use a slur, they will. People also don't think "damn, if I didn't have a word to insult this person that was insulting enough I'd punch them!" If people want to be violent they're going to be violent.
At no point has the suggestion been that saying slurs should be illegal. It’s that if you say slurs, you are a shitty person.
Also - this is probably the most sociopathic and scary take on this thread. People say slurs rather than do violence, so we shouldn’t be concerned with people saying slurs? My understanding is that slurs are more often then not preludes to violence.
Not trying to be a troll. I just genuinely don't understand why sociopathic is acceptable as an adjective and retarded is not. Can you explain the difference?
“Sociopath” is not a diagnosis for a mental illness or disability. It is a word describing behavior hostile to others. There is no systemic discrimination against people labeled as “sociopaths.”
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When you stop being offended by letters on a page and direct that hate towards the individuals that use the word as a slur or out of context on purpose, you'll be a lot happier.
People aren't upset about the word. They're upset with the people using the word. Telling people to not use the word like that is how they're "directing that hate." People are already doing the thing you're saying they should do.
Do you also use the N word? Would you feel comfortable using that as an insult?
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I'm not offended by "faggot" because of its shape, I'm offended by it because it takes me back to when Meathead John crushed my throat in the playground calling me it until I would ask him to beat up the boy i liked instead.
Words represent, communicate and are something. Humans have for the entirety of their use of language, understood that the signifier and the signified are interchangeable.
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OP, I just gotta say, I really agree with you, and I find it really disgusting the amount of people in this thread trying to renormalize it or argue that it's not problematic. This thread has been one of, if not the, most frustrating threads here over the past two years. Like I'm genuinely feeling gaslit by some of these comments. Do people not remember the voice people would use? Do people not remember the motions people would do? Those weren't just a mild way to call someone stupid. It was always ableist and still is today. Maybe in five to ten years I'll feel differently, like language really has moved on, but it doesn't feel like that's what's happening. It feels like people just being more comfortable being edgy.
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Lol you fucking spastic - can't say that, its offensive
Are you retarded - can't say that, its offensive
Damn bro, you mentally disabled?
This will continue onward, to think otherwise is retarded.
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I thought it was widely accepted that you shouldn't use this word outside of, like, quoting old medical diagnosis from when the word was used in that context. It is not an okay insult.
Maybe I just hang out with nicer people.
Who is renornalizing it?
Have you not looked at this thread? Apparently a fuck ton of Lemmy users are.
No I haven't, I guess I don't live in an area where it's being"re-normalized".
That said, once any term is used in a negative connotation long enough it becomes offensive and a new word is chosen. Until that becomes offensive.
It's an endless cycle.
Apparently a lot of Lemmy users are just dying to use it and genuinely believe it isn't ableist, hateful, or problematic.
I don't think intellectually challenged individuals deserve cruelty, nor do I believe anyone does. However, this is the first argument that popped into my head, and I want to genuinely discuss this. Again, I do NOT agree that the intellectually challenged are deserving of discrimination. This is for the purpose of discussion.
If being intellectually challenged isn't worthy of discrimination, why feel insulted when called retarded?
The situation you're describing is a catch 22. Either people view it as ableist and it's angering (though not necessarily insulting) that someone is using a slur, or people view it as a general purpose insult for stupid and it's insulting. Plus, if someone uses a hateful tone and calls me something nice, it can still be hurtful, sarcasm exists, so even if people believe the word shouldn't be used as an insult it's not like that magically means it's now a nice thing to do.
If someone thinks being overweight is t something to feel shameful about and is proud of their body while being overweight, it's not like someone using fat as an insult magically no longer hurts or isn't rude.
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Retarded is a word that is now used exclusively to talk about people who are not mentally ill acting like dumb fucking cunts. Like, its totally retarded to see people getting upset at Trump being called a retard... If you hear the word, and you think about actual disabled people. Thats a you thing. Cos I promise you, no one else is.
No one is looking at this, and thinking that anyone else, but Trump, is a fucking retard.
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+1
Maybe y'all haven’t experienced it as a slur. I grew up around jerks that did, and it leaves a nasty taste. I’ve caught myself using it, and felt awful afterwards.
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