Prediction (recorded here for historical reference)

[fixermark]

So there's an article on NPR's website about a movement to get "retarded" banned as hate speech. The article mentions that

The word has been retired by medical and social service organizations, which prefer the term "intellectual disabilities" instead.

Regardless of other issues discussed in the article, here is my prediction

Comments

[sleepsong]

Umm... Whoever said that "retarded" has been retired by medical and social service organizations is full of shit. I work in mental health and, when appropriate, we use the term "retarded." Admittedly we are much more guarded in our use of the word than the general public, but that's because what a layman might refer to as "retardation" might fall under a different, more specific psychiatric catagory, such as "developmentally delayed."

[fixermark]

*nods* I was under the impression that the word was still in use. My guess is the story author may have been told that factoid by one of the interviewees and accepted it as true without fact-checking it (given that in the original article, it's secondary to the main story).

[sleepsong]

Well... The other thing I can see is that the interviewer misinterpreted someone's attempts to be PC. Like, I wouldn't talk about a patient and refer to them as "retarded;" I would say of the patient that they "have mild retardation." People-first language is wonderful when used properly, but I can see how it could have confused someone who is unfamiliar with it.

What a retard!*

* (Before I'm flamed, I just want to state that I am kidding! OMG! Don't kill me for saying that! People who misinterpret things like this are so gay!)

((I wonder how far I can go before somebody actually takes offense. People who take offense at things are so... uh... brown-eyed.))

[fixermark]

Apparently, the good people at Fark have dredged up an article on the terminology.

I haven't had time to read it personally, but in the interests of passing it along to people who would be interested (in the vernacular) "I'll just leave this here."

[klari]

I actually had a funny moment a few weeks ago where I saw a man walking down the hall at work and I thought suddenly, "That shirt is so gay!" That's not usually in my vocabulary. It took me a moment to decide whether my subconscious was being bigotted or not. I concluded that the shirt which was full of fashionista statement and bright colors was reminiscent of things that I have seen represented on TV as gay and was the style of clothing that I see when I am in our gay district.

So... should that have been banned as hate speech? There is context to everything. I'd prefer that they leave free speech alone and let people work out their hate in a real and deep way.

[klari]

I kind of like that... "This phrase has been banned as dick speech." :-D

[klari]

And every musician is sent to jail? Seriously, will the thought police be able to detected the difference between retard and ritard? Don't scientists use it too? Eg. "The growth of the portugese chihuahia flu is retarded by the application of tacobell meat"

[axelwolfin]

I've heard that argument put forward before, and it always smacks of middle-school playground legalism.

"I just called him cheerful! That's what it means, right?"

[klari]

Your mom is cheerful. Ha!

More seriously, whenever they talk about banning words, it bugs me. I hated political correctness. You remember Newspeak in that negative utopia book 1984? I think what they were trying to explain was that if you controlled the way people express themselves, you control how they think. For example: I speak some spanish, but due to that certain N- word, I always feel weird about using the spanish word for black no matter how innocuous the context. It's ok to talk about a black cat, but not a gato negro? That's insane!

[axelwolfin]

Do you feel uncomfortable about that word because you feel you will be censored? I'm not getting your point.

[axelwolfin]

As this is germaine to my interests, I'll put in my 2 cents.

The complaint against retarded in of itself isn't going to do much. I.D., special needs, or some other term will take it's place.

The message that needs to be taken away from this is that the word refers to a real segment of the population, and has a pejorative sense. Until that segment of the population becomes more widely recognized, there will always be a word for them.

There's a difference between saying "Man, that test raped me" and saying that to someone who was sexually assaulted.

There's a difference between saying "Dude, that movie was so gay." and saying that to someone who feared retribution if their sexual identity was known.

It's not that the word retarded bothers me. It's that I know first-hand what it means for people.

[sleepsong]

Hear, hear!

[anonymous]

There's a Wikipedia Article for that (tm): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism_treadmill

- colin m