Whats with people saying 'retard'? It's so politically incorrect.

At one point, retarded/retardation was an accepted term. Then they moved away from that and used 'special.' Now, that has a negative connotation behind it. So, now, mentally challenged is being used. Retardation sounds wrong today, but it is still being used. I don't have a problem with someone saying retarded, as long as they aren't doing it in a joking matter.




"Perhaps we can learn a lesson from this tragedy like don't steal and don't be disturbed."

It's a reference to a scene in Tropical Thunder. It's funny in the context of that movie. I don't think it at the expense of the mentally challeged, it's about Sean Penn's and Ben Stiller's character's fictional portrayl of a mentally challenged person as a means to get critical/peer award recognition and the obsuridty of it.

The current "vogue" term is cognitively impaired ("CI") - it's all semantics. It's just a matter of time before saying someone is CI is just as taboo as saying they are retarded.

A short but interesting read is Oliver Wendall Holmes Supreme Court opinion in Buck vs. Bell (1927). A "feeble-minded" 18-year old girl who had an illigitimate child was ordered to be involuntarily sterilized by the state because her mother was "feeble-minded", and, as Holmes puts it, "three generations of imbiciles is enough." She suffered from epilepsy, but was nevertheless sterilized against her wishes.

I completely agree with the OP. Argue all you want that 'retard' was once the accepted term. Do you remember that *beep* was once a highly used term and fully accepted. As with 'f*ggot' and other offensive terms. The point is that in the past, these people were treated unfairly and considered unequal and such terms WERE negative - they carry all the stigma of what society's opinions of them once were. Society has changed. Most of us are doing all we can to ensure that everyone is considered equal and given a fair chance at life, therefore we use different terms that don't carry the stigma of past transgressions.

It's not that hard to say "Mentally Challenged"

Retard is still widely used in the field when in the proper context and there is nothing wrong with saying that someone is mentally retarded. I personally know folks that work with the mentally retarded and that term is used by them during discussion, etc.

The problem with the word retarded is it's thrown out in every day communication as a derogatory term. Someone doesn't get something or is acting like a complete jack*** and the common theme response is, "Shut up retard!" Etc. That being said, there is nothing wrong with commenting that Sam is retarded, because medically that's still a valid term.

You sound like another one of those young hipsters that comments about how everything is politically incorrect. "OMG it's African American!" "It's mentally challenged!" and rush to defend every race/handicapped person when it generally has nothing to do with you other than being offended because that's what's consider socially acceptable to make folks feel better about themselves.

honestly I think the term mentally challenged is more offensive than Retard...

I couldn't agree more! Times have changed and most of those uneducated people, that use that term, need to play catch up. Lack of morals and full lack of education. I despise the R word!