It's okay.

Thank you both. I appreciate it!

I think it is. I find it extremely offensive when someone says it.


Agreed 100%

I have two cousins that are twins, one came out fine, and the other came out retarded. So whenever someone uses it as a derogatory term, I am personally offended.

I mean...

Because it offends actual retards.

I can't tell if this is a genuine or rhetorical question.

It just sounds and feels terribly ignorant, insensitive, and hurtful
just don't use it

The word "retard" has lost favor because it presumes that there is a right level of development and those who fail to meet that development are incomplete, behind, defective. While such a statement might not inherently be meant to be a judgment of character or worth, humans being humans the word has in fact come to be used as a judgement of worthiness, ie. those who are defective are inferior, which is why then you can turn it into an insult.

Just because you can say something doesn't mean you should. Technically, no one is saying you can't say it, but don't expect everyone to accept when you say it either.

Because people use it to refer to people with Special Needs as stupid, even though there are many different types of Special Needs diagnoses.

I have Aspergers Syndrome, which is on the HIGH-FUNCTIONING end of the autistic spectrum. But an ignorant person would automatically assume I'm retarded just because I'm autistic. I'm actually a rather smart person and Aspergers mainly affects a person's social skills, which I've mainly overcome over the last 9 years.

In all honesty though, the Special Needs label just really feels awkward for me because I don't feel like I have anything at all.

Well not all special education children are physically disabled, but usually they do have some kind of learning disability. I do see that as kind of weird, but I guess technically she wouldn't really have to use that term around them anyway. Disabled =/= the same connotation as retard in this case though.

Wait, this was a real question? I thought it was just a joke when I first saw it. Any way,

Read my post god bless

I explained myself thank you god bless u

Calling someone retard is exploiting the mentally handicapped community?

Are you sure it's not just a harmless joke?

Like I don't usually use the term (did all the time as a kid but it's tacky now) but I feel like people get all up in their feelings and freak out about dumb stuff.

There's laws against it, so it's not really "dumb". Mental Health is one area where people think it's acceptable to discriminate because with other issues like racism and homophobia being treated as negative, other acts don't get as much attention..

To think the Mental Health Act was only amended and fully implemented in 2008 (in the United Kingdom) is shocking.

Yeah I didn't say or imply that mental health is "dumb stuff". I'm saying that people acting like every person who uses the word "retard" in an offensive way purposely to offend mentally retarded people are reaching. It's a playground insult. The little kids who say it probably don't know what retardation is.

I don't get why retard is seen as a bad word but "stupid" "idiot" and "dumb" aren't.

I get what you mean.