DGS49
Diamond Member
A local DJ (Marty Griffin, KDKA - Pittsbugh) was expounding this morning on the terrible resurgence of the insult of calling someone a "retard." It is hateful, unacceptable, blah, blah, blah.
But I think he was missing the point.
The word, "retard" actually has a definable meaning. It refers to someone of low intelligence whose learning takes place at a "retarded" pace. That is, what takes a normal person a given time to learn - for instance, it takes an average person ten minutes to memorize a four-line poem - will take a retarded person much longer. That's what it means. Some people are retarded; it's just a fact of life. They have an IQ below 85. To describe such a person as "retarded" is not an insult, and indeed it it is ludicrous to even imagine saying to such a person, "You are retarded." It never happens. So to say that using the word is "hateful" is just silly.
The word is an insult, used against people who are manifestly NOT retarded, to opine that what they are doing or saying is like what a retarded person would do or say. Many people say that President Trump is "retarded," but nobody takes that as a serious psychological assessment of his mental capacity. Indeed, only a retard would believe that.
Consider for comparison the word, "bastard." A bastard is someone who was born to an unmarried woman. In past generations, this often meant that the person was virtually condemned to a life of poverty and want. Maybe it still does.
But when you call someone a "bastard," you are not actually asserting that they were born out of wedlock, you are saying that their character is in some way deficient. And you wouldn't call a person born out of wedlock a "bastard," except to make a semantic point.
When you call someone a "bitch" you are not claiming that they are non-human (a female dog), you are slandering their personality in a way that is commonly understood.
So while it is unkind and vulgar to call someone a "retard," nobody understands it as making a serious assessment of their mental capacity; it is saying that they are acting like a fool.
For the record, such luminaries as Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, and Trump 47 have referred to people as "retards" in recent weeks, and while that's not a word I would personally use, I'm fine with it. I don't think they being hateful to actual retards.
But I think he was missing the point.
The word, "retard" actually has a definable meaning. It refers to someone of low intelligence whose learning takes place at a "retarded" pace. That is, what takes a normal person a given time to learn - for instance, it takes an average person ten minutes to memorize a four-line poem - will take a retarded person much longer. That's what it means. Some people are retarded; it's just a fact of life. They have an IQ below 85. To describe such a person as "retarded" is not an insult, and indeed it it is ludicrous to even imagine saying to such a person, "You are retarded." It never happens. So to say that using the word is "hateful" is just silly.
The word is an insult, used against people who are manifestly NOT retarded, to opine that what they are doing or saying is like what a retarded person would do or say. Many people say that President Trump is "retarded," but nobody takes that as a serious psychological assessment of his mental capacity. Indeed, only a retard would believe that.
Consider for comparison the word, "bastard." A bastard is someone who was born to an unmarried woman. In past generations, this often meant that the person was virtually condemned to a life of poverty and want. Maybe it still does.
But when you call someone a "bastard," you are not actually asserting that they were born out of wedlock, you are saying that their character is in some way deficient. And you wouldn't call a person born out of wedlock a "bastard," except to make a semantic point.
When you call someone a "bitch" you are not claiming that they are non-human (a female dog), you are slandering their personality in a way that is commonly understood.
So while it is unkind and vulgar to call someone a "retard," nobody understands it as making a serious assessment of their mental capacity; it is saying that they are acting like a fool.
For the record, such luminaries as Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, and Trump 47 have referred to people as "retards" in recent weeks, and while that's not a word I would personally use, I'm fine with it. I don't think they being hateful to actual retards.
