People seem to have a habit of taking whatever term is used for individuals with mental disabilities and using them to hyperbolize their criticism of someone’s decisions/behavior. This is insulting to the dignity of members of society so society begins to look at the term unfavorably and uses a new term to describe it’s mentally challenged members. Then the cycle repeats itself.
Yes, if you were rated below a certain iq, you were classified as a moron or an imbecile, both medical terms of the time which became derogatory words. It does not really make a difference if you use moron, imbecile, retard or psycho. You insult somebody by implying some kind of disability, which is now widely regarded as offensive. So i think it is really kind of funny when somebody gets chastised by doing the very same thing in the same post. Some self-reflection might be in order.
Well didn’t moron use to be a medical term too? So you’re doing the same thing here, hows moron different from retard?
Do I have to explain to you how language works? Terms develop connotations over time. Usage makes some into slurs. This isn’t complex. This is how every fucking slur comes about. Jesus H. Christ.
His point that whatever term retard is replaced with in the lexicon will simply go on the treadmill of slurs just like moron did.
Okay?
Like, I really don’t know what the two of you aim to prove here by repeatedly drawing attention to the fact that connotations of words change with time. Yes, both in the past and the future. This is my shocked face.
The use of ‘Retard’ and its acceptability has changed due to the dual connotations it acquired (those connotations being, specifically, a derogatory insult, and the assertion of actual medical mental disability). It’s no longer acceptable. That doesn’t mean that every word which clinicians used or which schoolyard bullies used is now the equivalent of calling someone a ‘retard’. ‘Retard’ has a very acute combination of connotations, which anyone who grew up around the term understands as different from terms like ‘fool’, ‘idiot’, or ‘moron’.
Like, fuck’s sake. How are you not grasping this?
You are literally participating in the problem you tried to call out.
… the problem of… not using a term widely agreed upon to be offensive in the modern day?
Either both are acceptable or neither is because they are synonymous, in meaning and historical context.
Okay, you go out to your local NAACP meeting and started calling all the people there ‘colored’, or even better, ‘negros’, since that’s synonymous in meaning and historical context to ‘Black’, I’m sure it’ll go over well. Good to see that you still don’t understand what ‘connotation’ means, and apparently are too lazy to look it up.
Funny. I see nobody in this thread throwing around insults, except for you. Ok, let’s stoop to that level: Maybe you could stop calling people having a civilized debate “fucking morons”, then you wouldn’t come across as an intolerable twat. I’m out.
Well didn’t moron use to be a medical term too? So you’re doing the same thing here, hows moron different from retard?
Same with idiot.
People seem to have a habit of taking whatever term is used for individuals with mental disabilities and using them to hyperbolize their criticism of someone’s decisions/behavior. This is insulting to the dignity of members of society so society begins to look at the term unfavorably and uses a new term to describe it’s mentally challenged members. Then the cycle repeats itself.
Was it used to demean people to the same extent?
Yes, if you were rated below a certain iq, you were classified as a moron or an imbecile, both medical terms of the time which became derogatory words. It does not really make a difference if you use moron, imbecile, retard or psycho. You insult somebody by implying some kind of disability, which is now widely regarded as offensive. So i think it is really kind of funny when somebody gets chastised by doing the very same thing in the same post. Some self-reflection might be in order.
Yes
Do I have to explain to you how language works? Terms develop connotations over time. Usage makes some into slurs. This isn’t complex. This is how every fucking slur comes about. Jesus H. Christ.
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Wow. What an amazing point he has, that… [checks notes] connotations change with time?
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Okay?
Like, I really don’t know what the two of you aim to prove here by repeatedly drawing attention to the fact that connotations of words change with time. Yes, both in the past and the future. This is my shocked face.
The use of ‘Retard’ and its acceptability has changed due to the dual connotations it acquired (those connotations being, specifically, a derogatory insult, and the assertion of actual medical mental disability). It’s no longer acceptable. That doesn’t mean that every word which clinicians used or which schoolyard bullies used is now the equivalent of calling someone a ‘retard’. ‘Retard’ has a very acute combination of connotations, which anyone who grew up around the term understands as different from terms like ‘fool’, ‘idiot’, or ‘moron’.
Like, fuck’s sake. How are you not grasping this?
… the problem of… not using a term widely agreed upon to be offensive in the modern day?
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Okay, you go out to your local NAACP meeting and started calling all the people there ‘colored’, or even better, ‘negros’, since that’s synonymous in meaning and historical context to ‘Black’, I’m sure it’ll go over well. Good to see that you still don’t understand what ‘connotation’ means, and apparently are too lazy to look it up.
Fucking moron.
Funny. I see nobody in this thread throwing around insults, except for you. Ok, let’s stoop to that level: Maybe you could stop calling people having a civilized debate “fucking morons”, then you wouldn’t come across as an intolerable twat. I’m out.
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Exactly, and how is moron not a slur?