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?
Except that with “retard” and quite a few others, there are genuine traits that are undesirable to most people, thus the constant cycling of terms. Technical terms come in to general and pejorative use, then new technical terms come in to be less pejorative. This the terms more and more vaguely refer to the condition when referencing actual mentally handicapped people.
idiotmoroncretinretard(from ‘[profound] mental retardation’)All technical or health terms that have been cycled into being slurs in common use. Some more terms that have made their way into pejorative use:
Handicapped(not so much pejoratively used, but being cycled out anyways)SpecialDifferently AbledI’m sure any new technical terms that are used will be picked up for pejorative use soon enough. But “mentally retarded” was and is an apt description, it’s just not socially acceptable anymore because of it’s ease of use as an insult, and the concomitant public view and usage of the word.