Wikepedia states
“Much like today’s socially acceptable terms idiot and moron, which are also defined as some sort of mental disability, when the term retard is being used in its pejorative form, it is usually not being directed at people with mental disabilities. Instead, people use the term when teasing their friends or as a general insult.”
Is it only a slur if directed at soneone with mental disabilities? Is it a slur if durected at onself?
Whats lemmies take on this?
Slurs work like a treadmill. Technical terms start being used as slurs (“moron” and “idiot” are examples) and are replaced by new, neutral words, and the cycle begins again. We’ve had a few decades of “special” being used as a euphemism for mental disability, and that word is on its way to becoming a slur (in certain contexts, it can be used unambiguously as one).
But moron and idiot both come from simmillar backgrounds as retarted why is only retarded a slur and not the others?
They are slurs, but there’s so much distance between today and the original medical usage of these terms that people have forgotten. Both are still terms with a history based in describing someone with an intellectual or developmental disability
So hows retard any different?
Time.
Idiot is 14c Moron 1922 Retard 1950-1960
So all 3 are ages ago moron and retard are very simmillar why is it acceptabpe to say moron and not retard?
https://www.etymonline.com/word/retard https://www.etymonline.com/word/moron https://www.etymonline.com/word/idiot
Words like moron and idiot can be used as generalized insult. They can be offensive, but it doesn’t refer to a certain person or people. Moron and idiot are both defined as being stupid and stupid is defined of lack of intelligence or common sense. The word “retard” refers to people that have mental retardations. The individual person can control being stupid, but they can’t control being mentally retarded.
Welp ur half right here is what doctor duck duck go says :
moron /môr′ŏn″/
noun
A person who is considered foolish or stupid.
A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.
idiot /ĭd′ē-ət/
noun
A person who is considered foolish or stupid.
A person of profound mental retardation having a mental age below three years and generally unable to learn connected speech or guard against common dangers. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.
I’ll take half right
But ull still give me a downvote for copy pasting the actuall definition cos u where incapable of fact checking urself.
Welp seems we can also use ur argument for retard as well, so not only are you half wrong you argument proves me full right.
retard
noun
Retardation; delay. Similar: retardation delay
A mentally retarded person.
A person who is stupid or inept, especially in social situations.
Whoa whoa whoa. Slowdown. I didn’t downvote you. I actually forgot to vote at all
And you’re insinuating that I’m a retard because I downvoted you? Take a day from lemmy friend. We all get worked up and I believe you’re worked up
Well if it wasnt u then i guess poor timing didnt bother to check so guess im retarded if anyone is. And no i was simply showing that your argument for why the other words are fine applies equally to “retard”.
Don’t call yourself that. And that I disagree because those other words can be used to justify a generalization while “retard” is not a generalized word.
And I’m just going to assume what you said is an apology, but you haven’t been able to figure how to comfortably apologize to people online. Apology accepted
I think you may be misunderstanding your “victory” here. I suppose that’s pretty contextual, when it comes down to it.