Return of the retard

[UltraBudgie]

i have noticed this, and now here is a 2000 word article from the new york times about it:

The ‘R-Word’ Returns, Dismaying Those Who Fought to Oust It

The term, long considered a slur for those with intellectual disabilities, is seeing a resurgence on social media and across the political right.

Late last month, a woman posted a photograph on social media of a purple hat she had knitted, while a black-and-white dog lounged on the carpet a few feet away. The cozy scene was accompanied by a single sentence: “This hat is an hour behind schedule thanks to influencer retards.”

The proud knitter, Harmeet K. Dhillon, is also the assistant attorney general overseeing the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Her purview includes protecting the rights of people with intellectual disabilities by ensuring compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

For decades now, the “R-word” has been regarded as a slur against people with intellectual disabilities — a word to be avoided. Yet it has had a striking resurgence, in part because people in high-profile positions of power and influence have chosen to resurrect it, often with an air of defiance.

“The word ‘retarded’ is back,” the popular podcaster Joe Rogan declared in April, describing its return as “one of the great culture victories.” He did not respond to requests for elaboration, but there is abundant evidence to support his muscular declaration....

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/us/r-...ility.html

here is an archive link in case the article is behind a paywall: https://archive.ph/CfBok

this is a strange victory for anti-wokeness

now the left can call maga retards again haha

and i actually think it is not as worse a word as calling someone stupid. because retard means to hinder growth, and a mental retard is someone whose mental growth has been hindered. whereas stupid means they are defective in themselves, which is a worse thing to accuse someone of being.

but that is a nuance and it is the hateful loaded on to things that matters more than actuality!

wait is that true?

anyway as always no excuse for personally insulting, unless someone truly is being a retard

haha what do you think?

[David64]

Good.

I'm glad to see people getting past all this overly sensitive BS. 

"words are violence"
"microaggression"

If Conservatives can be called MAGAots, Trumptards, Fascist, Nazis etc and I can be called a redneck or hillbilly { both derogatory names }... the professionally perpetually offended can just learn to deal with it.

[rickymouse]

Even the smartest person does something retarded at some time or another.  Retarded usually either meant someone had a mental disability or someone did something that was not too smart which resulted in something going wrong. 

How did they make this slur?  The kids in Special Ed were called retarded by many people, it was just a word that showed they had some mental disability, like autism or some other issue.  Calling them retarded is no different than calling them mentally disabled.  it is just a word which lots of people used.  I was one of the smartest in my grade when I was in school, yet my cousin was in special ed because he had some problems with math and liked doing outside stuff instead of school work.  My uncle got in a heated discussion with the principal about them saying he needed them to work more with him and the principal got mad and stuck him in special ed.  So I got to know some of the kids in special ed pretty well, most were decent kids, just not the sharpest.  some were in there for physical problems, they looked different, one of the boys had a deformed ear and a little problem with a lip, but he was not mentally disabled.  I asked the principal one day why they put some of those kids in there, like the kid who was a foot taller than every other kid his age, he told me that they disrupt the class because of how they look.  I understood even when I was in eighth grade. 

I talk to the baggers at the grocery store every time we go, some have different kind of disabilities, the stores hire those people for that job, that is good, they make them feel better about themselves since they are supporting themselves.  There are some people who do treat them as inferior people, I don't like seeing that, but I always talk to most of them, although just because someone is more simple does not mean they are nice people.  The stores hire nice ones for these jobs usually, because they don't want crabby ones that fly off the wall.  I am all for that, I know lots of crabby entitles people who I would never have hired to work for me.  But their mental disability usually does not mean they will be crabby unless they have a mental health issue which makes them that way.  Retarded never was equivalent to the words crazy or nuts, it originally referred to those who were mentally challenged in intelligence, but the word was used to imply to normal people that they did something stupid without thinking about it.

Now I know a small amount of people abused the word and thought they were better than those who were not so smart, but that is their personal problem.  People will demean others to make themselves look better, that is a personality problem, not a word problem.  Meanwhile, when I was in school and I did associate with special ed kids, some people in the classes thought I was delusional.  I was in the top classes associating with the smartest kids and would talk to some in special ed that were nice people too.  I never fit into the sport nut group and most kids were fascinated with the football and hockey players and cheerleaders and other groups.  Some were mesmerized with those in theater or who were great in art too.  and of course most kids idolized movie stars at that time.  I was more into hunting and fishing and hiking and camping, plus loved learning about science and math, always challenging myself.  Never really got into sports at all, I never needed a certificate to say I knew what I was doing, I did not like recognition I liked honesty....I did some retarded things in my life, I learned from my mistakes usually.

So, I think it was retarded that they thought it was necessary to make the word retarded a bad word. 

[SurferSoul]

For a moment I thought this thread was directed towards me. The thing is while I would take offence I wouldn’t take it to heart, for while I do and say retarded things I often see the error of my ways and strive to put right. 

What does bother me is the censorship of words, how are you supposed to say what you mean when the proper words aren’t allowed? Find other words? Don’t speak in derogatory language? Fair enough but the issue is people then find offence in other words offered especially if the intent is to offend in the first place. 

What this leads to is cancel culture, self censorship, men claiming they are real women, politicians afraid to say men can’t have babies biologically. Basically mental degradation, insanity. 

If the mind can’t question the defects others point out through offensive words, which are usually only offered in last resort, if it can’t put up proper defence, if can’t question its own reasoning and character, then that mind is defective and needs proper training. 
Of course not all are equal and never will be, but that is not reason for the more capable to put down the less so just because of that fact. If they feel the need to do so, they should question their own motive and faulty reasoning, try themselves against those with equal standing.
After all what master seeks challenge with the novice except for training and improvement of the novice? 

One of the problems with society and those in it these days is that people believe they are entitled to success. They get angry and throw childish tantrums when the inevitable happens, because they lack the discipline, motivation, endless practice, focus and the will to succeed. 

They don’t realise that success isn’t in fact the goal, it’s the less traveled journey it takes to get you there that is the real reward. The sense of well earned accomplishment. 

When will people realise the proper response to insults is to erase all trace of their intended target? To dig deep and overcome the adversity that has mired you in perceived shame. 

There is nothing greater than the human spirit.

All over the world it is filled with people overcoming adversity and seemingly impossible obstacles. In India there is a woman with no arms who has learned to do nearly all tasks with here legs feet and toes. Elsewhere there is a blind man who makes clicks with his tongue like sonar to detect his environment. 

Meanwhile there is the privileged who can’t get past mere trivial inconveniences and throw down tools at the slightest slight or discomfort.

[IgnorantGod]

[...]

So, I think it was retarded that they thought it was necessary to make the word retarded a bad word. 

That's the thing with compartmentalization efforts, it is always relative to everything else. Using a mean to 'average' a species intelligence in order to compare each individual against such mean is, in itself, an argumentum ad populum. This is sometime exacerbated by the context relative to the specific environment within which the mean is calculated.

For example, the attention 'deficit', is a 'deficit', in my opinion, only within the actual societal context, in which asks people to focus on one thing for several hours. However, if one would consider 'survival' context instead, who would have a better chance to survive? The one too focused on something to hear the tiger approach? Or the one that is 'distracted' by every sound he hears, and thus having more probability to notice the tiger?

But by all means, take this 'medicine' to help you be what society tells you to be, and in the same time, help me get that new useless shiny thing! Win-Win, right? 

[Toad of Toad Hall]

I have a visceral dislike of the word because one of my students attempted to end themselves (many years ago now) because their family consistently used that term to describe them. 
HOWEVER I understand that that is my visceral reaction and not grounds to police other’s language.

[Thetruth]

It's a very useful word. A perfect word to describe  idiots that drink disinfectant  for example.....