Originally used to signify slowing down of things or for someone with an intellectual or developmental disability, the word retard has since come to be a slang characterizing a range of displeasing situations or people, especially those deemed ignorant or unintelligent. This chart highlights that no situation justifies the use of the highly insulting term with reference to people.
We've seen this before. Words that denigrate or marginalize groups tend to become part of the common lexicon. (For example, the expression "that sucks" is rooted in a homophobic implication about gay sex.) Sometimes, those phrases and words become so ingrained that people forget their hurtful origins.
I have a brother and sister with autism so the word to me is just cringeworthy. I guess people use it because their vocabulary isn't big enough or they just love to be vile idk.
lmao it's not okay. it's underscored by decades of use as a derogatory slur towards people with mental illness. it reduces people to nothing more than their mental state and implies that they offer nothing beyond that. it's no different to the f word for gays or the n word to black people, and using it to casually refer to something as flawed is no different to saying 'that's so gay'
Only on atrl people are so super sensitive about the word retard. Nobody irl is actually offended when u say it
Well it may be a cultural thing with you but saying "retard" in real life will make you a social pariah here. No excuses for it, unless you actually mean it in the correct way, which most of the time is not used in that way. When ATRLers say that **** it makes me want to throw up
