The use of the word "retard"

[Hans]

Dear Hans...please, i am not angry at all.
And i was merely pointing out that you called your cousin a "retard"...why?...because he is mentally disabled?
You have the right to use any words you like, freedom of speech...i find it morally incorrect to call someone a name.
As you yourself have stated..."retard" and "crazy" and "fat" are all names you call people in jk/hostile manner?

Next............

Im not understanding the later part of your post I understand i have the freedom of speech, but I am pretty sure if I search for all your posts, I will find atleast one of you calling someone "crazy" or "fat".

I dont go out of my way to use words like retard/fat/crazy, but if I do say them, I dont care, because its a joke. My cousin is retarded, yes. Do I mean that in an offensive way at all? No, of course not. He shares my blood and I love him. However, I dont see the big deal in calling him a "retard", words are words. Its just how you present them/in what context/in what voice, that is what empowers words, not the letters/meanings themselves.

 

[wednesday]

Go for it Hans...i double dare you to find any post with me calling anyone names...i think i have called some1 numbnuts once but it may have been deleted..

And as i said...its purely up to you how you perceive and view you cousin...my cousin has "autism"..i dont think she is "retarded"....and i would defo not describe her that way!

But each to his own.

 

[Hans]

I wouldnt call an autistic person a retard either, because it isnt the samething. I aready understood what you say, I just dont want a person looking down on me for how I chose to speak, or if they do, they atleast understand where I am coming from. If they understand how I feel, how I am the way I am, and THEN hate me, I am totally fine with that.

EDIT:I forgot to type this, basically about the crazy/fat thing, Im too lazy to look if you have, but its almost impossible to have never posted as much as you have and not accidently slipped SOMETHING that will offend SOMEONE. It just feels/seems like a waste of life to worry about people who are gonna freak out over something as small as a joke/word.

 

[Veronica]

Ok, as many of you know, I have a child that is autistic. Me personally would never call him a retard.. However, I do occasionally use that word in a joking manner.. I will basically say "im being a retard' .. more less trying to say that Im being a dork.. I dont know when it became excepted into my vocabulary..im guessing someone I was around said it and i just gradually started saying it.. Before, I was highly against the use of the word.. now it doesnt bother me as much. I HATE short bus comments.. Those to me are way worse.. I dunno why they are different to me, but they are.

 

[wednesday]

can i just quickly ask without rattling ya cage anymore...

You say that calling someone "fat" would be offensive to someone thats fat!!
Dont you think it might be offensive to call someone with learning difficulties a retard!!!?

 

[Veronica]

see I would never use that word towards someone that is disabled.. That is cruel and just wrong..

 

[Hans]

can i just quickly ask without rattling ya cage anymore...

You say that calling someone "fat" would be offensive to someone thats fat!!
Dont you think it might be offensive to call someone with learning difficulties a retard!!!?

It depends on the person, I wouldnt walk up to a LD student and say something like, "hey, stupid, read faster you retard.". If it was my stupid friend, sure, Id call him a retard. Why not? Im sure hed call me a pale ass fugly ghost. If it was someone I dont know, I wouldnt say anything to him that may set him off, thats just rude. Ive always been assuming a casual/friend enviroment, my friend are the kind of people who want to have a fun/good time, most of them wouldnt be my friends if they were offended that easily...thats sort of been my whole point

I understand *SOME* people WILL get upset at retard/fat, but that wont stop me from saying it to anyne I know/like. I PROBABLY wouldnt like the people I like if they were offended easily. Theres a time and palce for everything, I am the kind of person who talks a lot in school, but have never gotten in ANY fight or ANY trouble, becaus there is a time and place for everything, words included.

BTW, youve never came close to rattling my cage Youd have all the respect in the world if you could pull that off

 

[skyblue]

sometimes i think a little sensitivity is needed.....continual use of the word 'retard' would certainly start to offend.....i mean,lets be honest here,many parents have to cope with having children with alsorts of difficulties,whether it be mental or physical...i cant see how most would be best pleased at continually hearing such a word used as an insult

 

[Veronica]

Well I dont look at it too seriously unless the person in question really does have disabilities. I guess I TRY to not be sensitive about stuff like that. the world is a cruel place, so you cant let everything bother you. However, the n word is something that bothers me.. you will never hear me say that word.

 

[loumac]

sometimes i think a little sensitivity is needed.....continual use of the word 'retard' would certainly start to offend.....i mean,lets be honest here,many parents have to cope with having children with alsorts of difficulties,whether it be mental or physical...i cant see how most would be best pleased at continually hearing such a word used as an insult

Am I allowed to join this conversation..OR do I need to be invited so as not to be accused of eavesdropping

 

[wednesday]

Am I allowed to join this conversation..OR do I need to be invited so as not to be accused of eavesdropping

:24::24::24::thumbupreppage

 

[loumac]

Just wanted to say hi to all on this thread, with a great big grin

 

[loumac]

:24::24::24::thumbupreppage

Ta!

 

[The Joker]

I don't get what all the bother is about.

I can understand if someone said to a mentally challenged person "You're a retard!" but people just messing around apparently are WORSE than people who blatantly say it to retarded people. I trip walking up the stairs "Oh god that was retarded" for example.

In short

Retarded = Hindered

Retarded =/= Autistic, Mentally challenged, any other mental illness.

 

[skyblue]

ok joker.......lets use another word as an example...or condition

some years ago i worked with someone who thrived on stuff like this......his favourites were epilepsy jokes,well i let it go for a while,until i got pissed of with it anyway

the point being is that my brother is epileptic,only mildly but epileptic all the same

well this one day he just went to far,yes,i got offended,it was one sick joke after another.....so i just whispered in his ear about my brother and at the top of my voice shouted STFU!!!!!!!!!!

he never did seem so keen to do it after that

 

[The Joker]

I don't mind people getting annoyed if they ARE doing something wrong, but using retard jokingly has nothing wrong with it, it doesn't even describe mental illness.

I remember a TV show, a guy was about to jump out of a helicopter when they just knocked their pilot out, accidentally, one guy was tryingt ow ake him up, turns round, sees his brother, and asks
"Why are you putting that parachute on?!"
"To retard my fall!"

I don't see anything wrong with that.

But the public did,m for some reason.

They got all up in arms, when this meant the ACTUAL meaning of the word retard. Hinder.

 

[wednesday]

Look everyone has there own opinion...i hate the word...

I was merely pointing out to hans that calling his mentally disabled cousin a retard was slightly immoral...unethical...n bloody horrible really.lmao

 

[Hans]

My cousin is a retard, Id tell it to my friends, I wouldnt call my retarded cousin a retard. That may still be bad or immoral, but it is what Im going to do I wont go out of my way to do it, but Im not gonna care about the PCness of a word.

 

[Minor Axis]

I think it has been taken out of context over the years and now people tend to find it far more offensive than is necessary, i mean the word by definition is "to hinder," so if someone said to you "that was a very slow statement" would you be as offended as if they said "that was a very retarded statement."

Personally i'm not offended by it, and i've seen it used as both a joke and as a word to hurt another person, and i think that if someone will stoop so low as to label someone with a word such as that in an attempt to upset them, then it is them who need to think of how they'd describe themselves.

I'm not sure how this is slang is used in the U.K., but in the U.S. retard is short for retarded (mentally handicapped). In this forum, if you made a statement I disagreed with and I was one of our callous members, I might call you a "retard", or stupid. If a friend does something stupid it can be used as a endearing good natured insult. So it totally depends on the intent of the invoker but in all cases I can think of, it signifies a negative meaning.

I don't mind people getting annoyed if they ARE doing something wrong, but using retard jokingly has nothing wrong with it, it doesn't even describe mental illness.

Mentally challenged is the basis for this word. It's never used as a compliment unless it has morphed into something else in the last 30 years.

 

[The Joker]

Mentally challenged is the basis for this word. It's never used as a compliment unless it has morphed into something else in the last 30 years.

I NEVER said it was a compliment. And it's not the basis, the basis is hindered.

Retarded ACTUALLY means hindered.

It was only used in the context of Mentally challenged in the past few decades when people have said "Hey, mentally challenged people are retarded! Retards!".

Once again, Retarded DOES NOT mean mentally challenged, retarded means HINDERED and it JUST so happens, that Mentally challenged people are HINDERED.

You can be retarded in school.

E.G. "I was retarded from going into the fourth grade"