I overheard one of the servers at my local bar today complain about political correctness ruining America in reference to a celebrity apologizing for saying 'r****ded' in public. I asked her about it, and she said that when she was growing up people called it like they saw it. "What about someone with cerebral palsy? Would you say that to them?", I asked. "A person with cerebral palsy would have a mental flaw, so it'd be okay to call him a r****d because that's what he is, no offense", she said. I remarked that CP was a neurological disorder, not a learning disorder. Stephen Hawking has a form of CP, but he is certainly an intelligent person. She didn't respond to that, but continued by saying she bears insults from other people on a weekly basis for the color of her skin (white) and her beliefs (Creationism), yet she doesn't make a fuss over it. She said she can’t even open her mouth without fear of getting sued or fired. While I sympathize with her concern that limiting free speech might lead to a Thought Police society à la Orwell, the fact that many Americans cannot say the n-word (or the homophobic f-word increasingly as seen in Kobe's recent 100k fine) is a double standard that anti-PC people should address. They don't say the n-word to black people for fear of violence. But, they see no problem with demeaning the other groups. I have been guilty of saying it now and then out of anger when talking about someone like Michele Bachmann amongst friends, but I realize it's a sensitive term, and I refrain from saying it out loud in public even though it's my right to say so. I call it being polite, not politically correct.
People don't say the n-word because they know they're rubbing salt in a wound that will never heal. Everyone, everywhere subconsciously discriminates against blacks in housing, employment, education, even by what types of transporation they use. And they always, always will. But even I'm willing to admit that developmentally disabled or mentally handicapped people will have it worse, so even though I've never used the "r" word to describe them, I'll go one step further and stop using it altogether.
It's definitely offensive. That's just a very bad word to use, and we need to just wash it out. Lots of people are guilty of using it, myself included, but it's something we just have to get rid of.
As so often, it depends on the context. It's definitely offensive when you say it to or about someone who has an actual disability. However, if you say it to a good friend or if you say it jokingly to someone who does not have a disability, I don't think it is offensive. And on the BBS, when someone posts something really stupid and you call him r****ded for it, I guess it's a bit offensive...but more often than not, well-deserved anyway .
Mentally r****ded is the correct terminology right? But when people use that disparagingly, it's insulting people by comparing them to the mentally r****ded, who cannot help their own condition. So, it's probably wrong in that it hurts people who are close to the mentally r****ded and the r****ded themselves. Whereas, when you're insulting people by calling them disgusting, or pigs, or b****es or stupid, well...that seems more appropriate. For example: "You're acting like an idiot" vs "You're acting like a r****d" While I'm guilty of using the r****d insult, I can understand why it's wrong to do it. r****dation is a birth condition that cannot change; idiocy should decline with age and education.
I don't use the word myself, but I also don't find it offensive at all. I was watching something on the news recently and someone referred to a controversy over "the 'r' word" and I was really confused. I had no idea what they were talking about because I didn't realize we had gotten to the point where you can't even use the word when talking about others using it in a disparaging fashion.
Referring to the mentally handicapped as "r****ds" is in poor taste, imo. But using it in the context below, I don't really find offensive. That's r****ded.
Cretin, Idiot, Imbecile, Moron, r****ded... All words used to describe the developmentally disabled eventually have to be changed as they become offensive.
Serious? Now that is r****ded thinking. Seems to me you have some deep rooted hatred. We have become a nation of softies. Its not the word you use, its the context. Certain words are almost always used to be offensive. There are many people who think they have a right to offend certain groups but not others. Whether you are being offensive by race, color, sex, ect..., its all the same.
"everyone, everywhere"? thats quite a broad brush you paint with there. all non-black people are racists.
Its a synonym for stupid, moronic, idiotic, dumb, etc. It would be offensive to call a mentally handicapped r****ded, just as it is offensive to call them stupid/moronic/idiotic/dumb/etc. But using the term to insult a person with otherwise normal intelligence, or to describe a frustrating, "this sucks" situation is not a big deal to me (outside of it probably being an unnecessary personal insult, of course).
I think both r****ded and gay are ok to use. I hate this PC campaign about how both those words are degrading to the people that are r****ded or gay or both. The whole *** episode of south park explains it best...
After learning my best friend's daughter was born with Down-syndrome I stopped using it all-together.
I have a small group of friends I grew up with and we throw these words (and gay, homo) at each other whenever we get together. We don't use them in public or in describing other people. I look at it as just a carryover from our kid days and for those few times we all see each other, we can revert to being stupid kids again. Still, this probably makes me somewhat of a hypocrite, as I would be against anyone using them in public.
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