• Carmakazi@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I don’t know where we got this idea that “retarded” was as vile and pernicious as The Hard R, to the point people don’t want to repeat it. Nobody with intellectual disabilities I’ve heard from has such a visceral reaction to it, anecdotal as that is. The outrage seems completely invented and it gained a momentum of its own.

    “Idiot” was also a medical term for cognitive disability, should that go away too?

    99% of the time I hear it used, it’s interchangeable with “stupid” or “idiot” and not derogatory towards literal disability.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comBanned
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        8 months ago

        If the n-word was used to describe people acting stupid would you feel comfortable with that? What if no black people complained about it? Would that make it okay?

        it depends on how far back you go with this one, if you were to remove the racial pretense from it entirely yeah it would probably be fine.

        But if you just sort of retconned it in like 1970 through timetravel or something, i mean it would also be fine because nobody would know what it previously was, but hypothetically that wouldn’t be ok, because it’s historical roots are the same.

        Its the history and usage of the word that matters. Given enough time, the n word will probably lose it’s vile status and become more casual. Like every other word before it.