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From Friday's Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi- ... 2854.story

I have despised the word "retard" for more than 40 years, which is as long as I've had a brother with intellectual disabilities. So when I heard about the Special Olympics' Spread the Word to End the Word campaign, my first thought was: finally. I am tired of cringing when otherwise nice people thoughtlessly use the word, tired of feeling outraged when it is employed with the cruelty of hate speech.

The R-word deserves extinction. Let's make it unacceptable.

Retard connotes defective, stupid, an absence of good qualities. It's a reduction. It's as if someone took your most noticeable weakness and reduced your entire identity to a mean term that describes this weakness. At R-word.org, you can view stories and videos about some of the amazing people who've had this awful term applied to them.
...
People with intellectual disabilities don't react with hostility when they are dissed. As actor John McGinley of "Scrubs," who has a son with Down syndrome, said, "When you pick on that group, you've picked the perfect storm of cowardice to exercise your vitriol, because they're not going to return serve." They're equipped to hug not hit, said McGinley.

I read this and thought of AZ's posts on a different thread a while back. I agree with AZ's opinion and this commentary does a pretty good job of explaining why. Let's make a conscious effort to stop using this word!

Using any "derogatory" slur onto disabled persons is unacceptable I agree, however I see nothing wrong with using a word that describes ones conscience behavior.

Example:

My sister is acting like a retard.

Tell me how that is offensive to the mentally handicapped, is it to be insinuated that the word "retard" is trademarked and owned by persons who are mentally or otherwise handicapped, and that by garnering that label on someone who is not in fact mentally or otherwise handicapped it is disrespect to those who are?

No, I think not either.

Again, I agree it is in bad taste to use the word "retard" or any other hate word against those who are by no fault of their own, disadvantaged, but lets also on this board, just say no to

Wedgebuster wrote:Using any "derogatory" slur onto disabled persons is unacceptable I agree, however I see nothing wrong with using a word that describes ones conscience behavior.

Example:

My sister is acting like a retard.

Tell me how that is offensive to the mentally handicapped, is it to be insinuated that the word "retard" is trademarked and owned by persons who are mentally or otherwise handicapped, and that by garnering that label on someone who is not in fact mentally or otherwise handicapped it is disrespect to those who are?

No, I think not either.

Again, I agree it is in bad taste to use the word "retard" or any other hate word against those who are by no fault of their own, disadvantaged, but lets also on this board, just say no to

It's not trademarked but I think it is derogatory in the same way that saying something like:
"I went in to buy a car and really jewed them down on the price" could be considered derogatory.

Don't use the word myself, but I do not want anyone dictating to me or anyone else what words I can and cannnot use thank you.

"It's not trademarked but I think it is derogatory in the same way that saying something like:
"I went in to buy a car and really jewed them down on the price" could be considered derogatory."

See, that's part of the irony of the pc movement, citdog is proudly jewish, he sells cars, and he loves to be jewed down.

What is or is not objectionable can largely be dependent upon who is doing the talking, what someone might or might not have heard right, or taking things people say out of context, or misunderstanding, etc.

I think signing on to be one of the PC Police is akin to walking around with a "kick me" sign on your back.

Refuse to be a victim, just say "no" to PC!

Mixed on this...

Somewhat similar to when some people use "That's so gay" to mean something bad, difference here is that "retard" was already a legit word in the english language to describe something whose growth was stunted, etc, and then applied to a group of people.
I would not use the word retard to describe an actual mentally disabled person, but to say never use it is, well, retarded

To quote George Carlin:

"There are no bad words. There are bad thoughts and bad intentions, but there are no bad words."

As the father of a special needs child, I would really love it if I never heard the r-word again. I realize most people don't mean it in a bad way, but it really is offensive. [*two cents*/]

I agree with Wedge, dback, bucdad, and the others on this one. I use the word retard once in a while and use it in the sense of "You fucked that up", or did something stupid. Now if others have connected the word retard with the mentally handicapped then I can't help that. That's not where my intent comes from so the question then is which one of us has the problem if that's what you immediately think of when you hear the word? Now for Beef it's a more personal level as I'm sure he's heard some kids (or adults) refer to his child in this fashion. That's a whole different ballgame, as was explained previously because someone is being overly insensitive when using that as a description of a mentally handicapped person. There is a mean spirited intent in that case.

Handicapped is not a positive word either as far as I've ever seen so how is the term mentally handicapped a positive reference and what point down this road do we do this all over again? We all have different little pet peeves and things that we find offensive. So fucking what? A lot of us should get used to the fact that we DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO NOT BE OFFENDED BY ANYTHING. It is a part of the human experience that we all need to get used to.

I'm not asking that people be required (i.e. dictated) not to use the word. I'm asking that people freely make a conscious effort not to use it to mean less than smart. It's a free country and no one should be required to make that effort. It is a valid word with valid reasons to use it, such as "the drought retarded the growth of the corn." I just don't like it when it is used to indicate that someone is stupid or did something stupid. You can easily substitute the word idiot or similar in that instance.

I know I don't have the right not to be offended. I've been offended before and will be offended many times by things people say and do and I'm sure I've offended and embarrassed people more often than I've been offended (Life is one big psychological/sociological experiment to me and I love to do things and see how people react).

UNI88 wrote:I'm not asking that people be required (i.e. dictated) not to use the word. I'm asking that people freely make a conscious effort not to use it to mean less than smart. It's a free country and no one should be required to make that effort. It is a valid word with valid reasons to use it, such as "the drought retarded the growth of the corn." I just don't like it when it is used to indicate that someone is stupid or did something stupid. You can easily substitute the word idiot or similar in that instance.

I know I don't have the right not to be offended. I've been offended before and will be offended many times by things people say and do and I'm sure I've offended and embarrassed people more often than I've been offended (Life is one big psychological/sociological experiment to me and I love to do things and see how people react).

Not that I disagree with any of that, and I have all but stopped using the word. I still use it occasionlly but it is by accident. I make a conscience effort to know my surroundings when selecting words.


However, I speak by that George Carlin quote. I have no problem with anything anyone says unless it has bad intentions or meanings behind it.

Banning words ranks right below burning books IMO. It just inches us closer to the Orwellian future of the "Thought Crime". I'll have none of that crap.

That said, I don't use retard in a derogitory way. But I use it frequently for it's intended purpose. I will agree with the request not to use it in a negitive way, but not to ban it.

Why don't we try to stop the spread of all of these words?

White trash
Trailer Trash
Moron
Dumb ass
Cracker
Idiot
Asshole

I am sure someone is offended each time one of them is used. Political correctness has gotten to be retarded!

Great posts top to bottom on this potentially contentious thread, and another good example of the strength of our community. I would think the kind of tolerance and self moderation that is evolving here would be an attractant for new members who might not find the same atmosphere elsewhere.

We have always reserved the right to call each other butt sniff, wipe, or hole, and ass lick, sniff, wipe, or hat, and douchebag, or bukkake face, or cheese dick, or donk, or conk, etc. And this is amongst members of our community!!

Politicians and the like should be shown no quarter here in light of the way we talk about each other.

UNI88 wrote:I'm not asking that people be required (i.e. dictated) not to use the word. I'm asking that people freely make a conscious effort not to use it to mean less than smart. It's a free country and no one should be required to make that effort. It is a valid word with valid reasons to use it, such as "the drought retarded the growth of the corn." I just don't like it when it is used to indicate that someone is stupid or did something stupid. You can easily substitute the word idiot or similar in that instance.

I know I don't have the right not to be offended. I've been offended before and will be offended many times by things people say and do and I'm sure I've offended and embarrassed people more often than I've been offended (Life is one big psychological/sociological experiment to me and I love to do things and see how people react).

I see what you're saying and the fact that you ask nicely does make me feel a little bad that I may not be able to comply with the request. I am like you in that I sometimes do shit just to see the reaction but more importantly I have a disease (yet un-named, or diagnosed) that I suffer from that will not allow filtered thought and speech. Or more precisely I may have a vastly undersized filter for the amount of blathering that I do. I like my friends as they realize that I refuse to censor my thoughts/speech or even really water it down at all. That's the big reason I love this board as well and those that I have met here, we can just be who we are here or whoever we feel like being for some.

I should probably be offended that there are those of you out there that don't recognize my disease and actually look down on me for it but I'm a forgiving guy.

Since you are a guy that I really respect and like I am going to go ahead and apologize in advance for some of the things that I may say that are fairly obtuse.

"good talk Rusty"

Wedgebuster wrote:Great posts top to bottom on this potentially contentious thread, and another good example of the strength of our community. I would think the kind of tolerance and self moderation that is evolving here would be an attractant for new members who might not find the same atmosphere elsewhere.

We have always reserved the right to call each other butt sniff, wipe, or hole, and ass lick, sniff, wipe, or hat, and douchebag, or bukkake face, or cheese dick, or donk, or conk, etc. And this is amongst members of our community!!

Politicians and the like should be shown no quarter here in light of the way we talk about each other.

That's a great post fucko.

Seriously, it's a great post on the temperature of the board and the members here as to what happens when we can treat each other as equals. I hope you have at least started making some notes on that book I was musing about a few weeks back.

Ursus A. Horribilis wrote:

Wedgebuster wrote:Great posts top to bottom on this potentially contentious thread, and another good example of the strength of our community. I would think the kind of tolerance and self moderation that is evolving here would be an attractant for new members who might not find the same atmosphere elsewhere.

We have always reserved the right to call each other butt sniff, wipe, or hole, and ass lick, sniff, wipe, or hat, and douchebag, or bukkake face, or cheese dick, or donk, or conk, etc. And this is amongst members of our community!!

Politicians and the like should be shown no quarter here in light of the way we talk about each other.

That's a great post f**k[*].

Seriously, it's a great post on the temperature of the board and the members here as to what happens when we can treat each other as equals. I hope you have at least started making some notes on that book I was musing about a few weeks back.

At which point of the beer duel did this come up? Was it late?

Wedgebuster wrote:

Ursus A. Horribilis wrote: That's a great post f**k[*].

Seriously, it's a great post on the temperature of the board and the members here as to what happens when we can treat each other as equals. I hope you have at least started making some notes on that book I was musing about a few weeks back.

At which point of the beer duel did this come up? Was it late?

It was at the Rhino after some discussions about the work and life and times with the Volunteer Firefighter stuff, how things were accomplished as far as the election to said post, and several other little things that I said were "Hemingwayespue". It was just before or possibly during the time the Redhead with the titties showed up so that and the duel many have had something to do with it.

Ursus A. Horribilis wrote:

Wedgebuster wrote:


At which point of the beer duel did this come up? Was it late?

It was at the Rhino after some discussions about the work and life and times with the Volunteer Firefighter stuff, how things were accomplished as far as the election to said post, and several other little things that I said were "Hemingwayespue". It was just before or possibly during the time the Redhead with the titties showed up so that and the duel many have had something to do with it.

Oh yeah, my bad!! Hemingway and Grizo's redheaded tit-dozer, I remember now. I think we might have been on a roll.

Hey that makes 3K, bow to zod!

Wedgebuster wrote:

Ursus A. Horribilis wrote: It was at the Rhino after some discussions about the work and life and times with the Volunteer Firefighter stuff, how things were accomplished as far as the election to said post, and several other little things that I said were "Hemingwayespue". It was just before or possibly during the time the Redhead with the titties showed up so that and the duel many have had something to do with it.

Oh yeah, my bad!! Hemingway and Grizo's redheaded tit-dozer, I remember now. I think we might have been on a roll.

Hey that makes 3K, bow to zod!

Yeah we were rollin' alright. I will never bow to anyone for a post count on this site I will however bow to your wisdom and level headed way of doing bidness.

That's 3001 now, you're off the hook, and thanks, and good to know you got something for all the drinks you bought.

What do you all think about cunt?

Wedgebuster wrote:That's 3001 now, you're off the hook, and thanks, and good to know you got something for all the drinks you bought.

What do you all think about cunt?

love it and use it frequently...the word anyway...

I'll take that as an acceptable, I might have an idea for a certain casual friday.....................

UNI88 wrote:From Friday's Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi- ... 2854.story

I have despised the word "retard" for more than 40 years, which is as long as I've had a brother with intellectual disabilities. So when I heard about the Special Olympics' Spread the Word to End the Word campaign, my first thought was: finally. I am tired of cringing when otherwise nice people thoughtlessly use the word, tired of feeling outraged when it is employed with the cruelty of hate speech.

The R-word deserves extinction. Let's make it unacceptable.

Retard connotes defective, stupid, an absence of good qualities. It's a reduction. It's as if someone took your most noticeable weakness and reduced your entire identity to a mean term that describes this weakness. At R-word.org, you can view stories and videos about some of the amazing people who've had this awful term applied to them.
...
People with intellectual disabilities don't react with hostility when they are dissed. As actor John McGinley of "Scrubs," who has a son with Down syndrome, said, "When you pick on that group, you've picked the perfect storm of cowardice to exercise your vitriol, because they're not going to return serve." They're equipped to hug not hit, said McGinley.

I read this and thought of AZ's posts on a different thread a while back. I agree with AZ's opinion and this commentary does a pretty good job of explaining why. Let's make a conscious effort to stop using this word!

dbackjon wrote:Mixed on this...

Somewhat similar to when some people use "That's so gay" to mean something bad, difference here is that "retard" was already a legit word in the english language to describe something whose growth was stunted, etc, and then applied to a group of people.
I would not use the word retard to describe an actual mentally disabled person, but to say never use it is, well, retarded

Beef wrote:As the father of a special needs child, I would really love it if I never heard the r-word again. I realize most people don't mean it in a bad way, but it really is offensive. [*two cents*/]

Folks, I don't think anybody is taking light of this, I appreciate your position about offending anybody other than each other, especially on the political board, that is what this board is for. Pretty much, I think it is only the members who read these boards.

Wedgebuster wrote:
Oh yeah, my bad!! Hemingway and Grizo's redheaded tit-dozer, I remember now. I think we might have been on a roll.

Hey that makes 3K, bow to zod!

I'm sorry I left early that night, but it might have been a good thing that I did. If I stayed, I would have had a few more beers, and probably asked the tit-dozer to marry me! And being a non-cunt, she would have said "ABSOLUTELY"!!!:lol: