Dave, you may not realize it, but you're being retarded here. If you haven't caught on that when you give an inch to the censors and control freaks they proceed to take a mile, you haven't been paying attention.
Linguistic taboos are dumb. They are stand-ins for snobbery and punishment. I’ve met plenty of women I would describe as “bitches” and I think it’s important to call them that. Also, stupid is stupid.
As long as there are undesirable traits, people will use these as insults and descriptors. You can run the euphemism treadmill as long as you want, but in ten years you'll be writing this article about 'disabled' or 'special' instead of 'retarded'. You might as well spill ink about insults as a general class. It's just not persuasive.
Retarded is a great word because it perfectly captures being slow or behind, which is a common complaint about other people, and frankly in the West at least the intellectually challenged are treated with a great deal of respect and nobody but nobody would ever call an actually retarded/disabled/challenged/special needs person a retard. Let it go.
It's funny to me, because Retarded was introduced as the new polite term in the 1930s, to remove public stigma from being labeled Simpleton, Moron, or Feeble-Minded. "Retarded" just meant slowed down, behind the rest.
He's watched too many movies where the bullies are so over the top it's ridiculous and took it as gospel. For the rest of it, he imagined offense where there was none. I'd say it takes balls to be so spectacularly wrong in public, but he'll probably lock the comments/block everyone/remove the post in short order.
I like to think I was instrumental in bringing this back during 2020, which is when I first developed the habit of being truly vicious on the internet. The libs find it so offensive because they are retarded.
Anyway I just wanted to add that the libs that won't say this now say "brain worms" which is particularly funny since that's also a real condition that it turns out a now quite prominent political figure had.
I've also made the point you're saying here though which is that retard was a clinical term that replaced idiot, imbecile, and moron, and isn't used clinically anymore, so it's not really different. As retard loses its sting, I will have to find something else, but for the time being the fact that it sometimes genuinely offends liberals and gets you "I won't talk to anyone who says the r-word!" etc makes it still worthwhile. Also you use "dumb" without mentioning that is itself an archaic term for "mute." This cycle you describe here really is endless.
As to gay, for one thing the troon activists and the fact that pride events etc have gotten so openly degenerate and harmful while also being backed by the oligarchy [though this year capital support collapsed] has driven gays down in esteem. However, we really don't have a good and insulting word like "campy" or whatever and this is a curious case where in all the years we weren't supposed to say "gay" [I myself really didn't use it from the early 2000s to 2020 or so] we didn't actually replace the 90's meaning of gay with anything, and, for one prominent example, that notorious little office dance video [itty bitty titties and a bob] demonstrates the need for "gay" or a similar appropriate term for stupid shit women [and effeminate men] want to make us do.
Language policing is futile, people just choose different words to express the same thing. It’s just linguistic wack-a-mole and neither makes any difference or addresses the underlying issue.
That’s why we used to teach ‘Sticks & Stones” to children so we wouldn’t grow up as adults who get their fee fees hurt by words.
I used to hear this sort of complaint from a lady I knew, alongside a litany of other grievances over how the system was rigged against her and people like her.
She was not poor, but her house was a filthy wreck, an indicator of how she managed the entirety of her life.
No wonder she never had a good job. She was not the kind of person who could ever earn one.
She, too, objected to hurtful words, words that might force her to look at herself.
Nice overview of the situation. You covered "idiot" but I would just add that idiot, moron, and imbecile all had specific meanings in terms of IQ ranges, and "dumb" in its original sense meant mute.
My favorite in this vein is Nimrod who in the Bible was a mighty hunter ... Bugs Bunny used the term sarcastically to refer to Elmer Fudd, an inept hunter, but the term was interpreted to mean idiot generically.
I complimented the article in the first sentence of my comment and then added a few additional examples that I found interesting. This is very normal behavior and not policing, and I respectfully suggest that you learn how to read.
Years ago, in college, the campus PC cops put out a handbook listing forbidden words. "Rule of thumb" was banned because it supposedly referenced an old rule that men could only beat their wives with a branch the width of a man's thumb.
Around that time, I took a physics midterm. Two guys were sitting in the front, play-fighting. When one smacked his friend in the bicep, the injured party loudly exclaimed, "Ow, you fag!" For whatever reason, everyone decided to stop talking at precisely that moment, before erupting into laughter.
As somebody who grew up in that era, I am inclined to give "retard" a pass. Even cynical teens understood that it was something that you would never say to somebody with an actual mental disability. Once it was completely divorced from its original meaning, it became completely anodyne, as harmless as "rule of thumb". Understandably, the hoi polloi objected to elites telling them what they really meant when they used the word, and a backlash was completely predictable.
Just a few years ago, "field work" was on the list of no-nos! Students and interns in some areas of training need to do field work in order to get the degree or the certificate. Some in PC crowd decided that BIPOC would take offense because of slavery and working in the fields. SMH !!!!
My autistic 30 year old son still remembers when this was used in a nasty way. However, he said to tell everyone that most people are retarded. Especially online, he says. 🤣😂 Use it. I don't believe in letting a word have control over me or anyone else. It's weak sauce.
When an aircraft comes in to land, the pilot is told to 'retard' by the automated system, which means to pull the throttle back to idle to ensure it doesn't end up trundling all the way down the runway under power.
'Retard' literally just means "held back" or "someone who is behind in development" or "slow". It was changed because people picked it up as an insult but it is inherently no more hurtful than if someone was to use the term "special educational needs and development" in a derogatory manner.
Attempts to police what words we use are pointless. If I can't call you a retard, what's the difference if I call you special, instead?
Shut up, retard.
I came here just to say this.
The authors bio says he’s “pumelling the left back to sanity”. God help them.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 aw geez, I haven’t laughed that hard in ages. (for context, those of you who don’t know, Phisto uses that word all the time.)
Dave, you may not realize it, but you're being retarded here. If you haven't caught on that when you give an inch to the censors and control freaks they proceed to take a mile, you haven't been paying attention.
Linguistic taboos are dumb. They are stand-ins for snobbery and punishment. I’ve met plenty of women I would describe as “bitches” and I think it’s important to call them that. Also, stupid is stupid.
As long as there are undesirable traits, people will use these as insults and descriptors. You can run the euphemism treadmill as long as you want, but in ten years you'll be writing this article about 'disabled' or 'special' instead of 'retarded'. You might as well spill ink about insults as a general class. It's just not persuasive.
Retarded is a great word because it perfectly captures being slow or behind, which is a common complaint about other people, and frankly in the West at least the intellectually challenged are treated with a great deal of respect and nobody but nobody would ever call an actually retarded/disabled/challenged/special needs person a retard. Let it go.
It's funny to me, because Retarded was introduced as the new polite term in the 1930s, to remove public stigma from being labeled Simpleton, Moron, or Feeble-Minded. "Retarded" just meant slowed down, behind the rest.
He's watched too many movies where the bullies are so over the top it's ridiculous and took it as gospel. For the rest of it, he imagined offense where there was none. I'd say it takes balls to be so spectacularly wrong in public, but he'll probably lock the comments/block everyone/remove the post in short order.
I like to think I was instrumental in bringing this back during 2020, which is when I first developed the habit of being truly vicious on the internet. The libs find it so offensive because they are retarded.
Anyway I just wanted to add that the libs that won't say this now say "brain worms" which is particularly funny since that's also a real condition that it turns out a now quite prominent political figure had.
I've also made the point you're saying here though which is that retard was a clinical term that replaced idiot, imbecile, and moron, and isn't used clinically anymore, so it's not really different. As retard loses its sting, I will have to find something else, but for the time being the fact that it sometimes genuinely offends liberals and gets you "I won't talk to anyone who says the r-word!" etc makes it still worthwhile. Also you use "dumb" without mentioning that is itself an archaic term for "mute." This cycle you describe here really is endless.
As to gay, for one thing the troon activists and the fact that pride events etc have gotten so openly degenerate and harmful while also being backed by the oligarchy [though this year capital support collapsed] has driven gays down in esteem. However, we really don't have a good and insulting word like "campy" or whatever and this is a curious case where in all the years we weren't supposed to say "gay" [I myself really didn't use it from the early 2000s to 2020 or so] we didn't actually replace the 90's meaning of gay with anything, and, for one prominent example, that notorious little office dance video [itty bitty titties and a bob] demonstrates the need for "gay" or a similar appropriate term for stupid shit women [and effeminate men] want to make us do.
Bobby Brainworm is a retard!
Language policing is futile, people just choose different words to express the same thing. It’s just linguistic wack-a-mole and neither makes any difference or addresses the underlying issue.
That’s why we used to teach ‘Sticks & Stones” to children so we wouldn’t grow up as adults who get their fee fees hurt by words.
Pathetic.
Modern society, like your article, is retarded and gay
We are all gay retards, and I for one am proud of it.
I used to hear this sort of complaint from a lady I knew, alongside a litany of other grievances over how the system was rigged against her and people like her.
She was not poor, but her house was a filthy wreck, an indicator of how she managed the entirety of her life.
No wonder she never had a good job. She was not the kind of person who could ever earn one.
She, too, objected to hurtful words, words that might force her to look at herself.
Nice overview of the situation. You covered "idiot" but I would just add that idiot, moron, and imbecile all had specific meanings in terms of IQ ranges, and "dumb" in its original sense meant mute.
And "cretin," which originally meant a person with intellectual impairment due to congenital iodine deficiency, but now just means a stupid person.
My favorite in this vein is Nimrod who in the Bible was a mighty hunter ... Bugs Bunny used the term sarcastically to refer to Elmer Fudd, an inept hunter, but the term was interpreted to mean idiot generically.
Have you considered not being these things instead? Might help more than policing everyone else.
I have no idea what "policing" you are referring to but you sound more like an asshole than an idiot, moron, or imbecile.
If you can’t understand how that relates to the article in question, you are retarded.
I complimented the article in the first sentence of my comment and then added a few additional examples that I found interesting. This is very normal behavior and not policing, and I respectfully suggest that you learn how to read.
How would you feel if you didn’t have breakfast this morning?
https://dennisonwrites.substack.com/p/the-strange-return-of-the-r-word/comment/163494431
Return? Never left, ya faggot!
Years ago, in college, the campus PC cops put out a handbook listing forbidden words. "Rule of thumb" was banned because it supposedly referenced an old rule that men could only beat their wives with a branch the width of a man's thumb.
Around that time, I took a physics midterm. Two guys were sitting in the front, play-fighting. When one smacked his friend in the bicep, the injured party loudly exclaimed, "Ow, you fag!" For whatever reason, everyone decided to stop talking at precisely that moment, before erupting into laughter.
As somebody who grew up in that era, I am inclined to give "retard" a pass. Even cynical teens understood that it was something that you would never say to somebody with an actual mental disability. Once it was completely divorced from its original meaning, it became completely anodyne, as harmless as "rule of thumb". Understandably, the hoi polloi objected to elites telling them what they really meant when they used the word, and a backlash was completely predictable.
Just a few years ago, "field work" was on the list of no-nos! Students and interns in some areas of training need to do field work in order to get the degree or the certificate. Some in PC crowd decided that BIPOC would take offense because of slavery and working in the fields. SMH !!!!
My autistic 30 year old son still remembers when this was used in a nasty way. However, he said to tell everyone that most people are retarded. Especially online, he says. 🤣😂 Use it. I don't believe in letting a word have control over me or anyone else. It's weak sauce.
Retard
Referring to "retarded" as the "r word" is the most retarded shit Ive ever heard.
Fair.
When an aircraft comes in to land, the pilot is told to 'retard' by the automated system, which means to pull the throttle back to idle to ensure it doesn't end up trundling all the way down the runway under power.
'Retard' literally just means "held back" or "someone who is behind in development" or "slow". It was changed because people picked it up as an insult but it is inherently no more hurtful than if someone was to use the term "special educational needs and development" in a derogatory manner.
Attempts to police what words we use are pointless. If I can't call you a retard, what's the difference if I call you special, instead?
Don’t turn the distributor cap the wrong way or it might be “retarded”
I read your article. It's pretty retarded.