Is the R-word unacceptable/inappropriate to use at any time?

[jamestroll]

When calling someone retarded, It is never with a good intention. However, very few people with actual intellectual disabilities  and basically actually retarded are called retarded.

It is mostly used just to insult someone.

There are worse words in our vocabulary.

Technically, it means delayed.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Look, the impulse to be kind and compassionate is understandable. But we won't achieve that in any substantive way by replacing one word in the dictionary with another. We'd do it by assigning less weight to whether individual words are actually said and more on changing the substance of how we behave as a society. George Carlin had a good bit about this...you could probably find it on Youtube. The real reason the "change out X word for Y" is popular is because talk is cheap and people like comfort from hard-nosed reality.

[Crackerjack McJohnson]

Yea, considering you could just call someone a "silly goose" and get your point across just fine.  

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

When calling someone retarded, It is never with a good intention. However, very few people with actual intellectual disabilities  and basically actually retarded are called retarded.

It is mostly used just to insult someone.

There are worse words in our vocabulary.

Technically, it means delayed.

Yes, that is what it means in French. I believe the term is a French loanword. Would have to check to be sure, though.

[patzer]

No. It’s completely fine to discuss fire retardant, or retarding the progress of something.

[BlueSwan]

Which people with mental disabilities are actually hurt by this? Nobody actually calls mentally handicapped people "retarded" these days, it is almost exclusively used to describe people who say something idiot and has the same de facto meaning as idiotic or moronic. Anyway, name me a mentally mandicapped person who is reading Atlas and taking offense when somebody uses that word? Seems to me like it is most white liberal speech police that are obsessed with this.

I know several Atlas posters who are autistic that strongly dislike the use of the word, even though it doesn't directly mean "autistic". It's offensive to people who could be considered "mentally handicapped" in some way (even  though it's the wrong way to correctly describe autism).

But who in 2022 would refer to somebody on the spectrum as being "retarded". That's simply not how the word is generally used these days. Words change meaning over time.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Which people with mental disabilities are actually hurt by this? Nobody actually calls mentally handicapped people "retarded" these days, it is almost exclusively used to describe people who say something idiot and has the same de facto meaning as idiotic or moronic. Anyway, name me a mentally mandicapped person who is reading Atlas and taking offense when somebody uses that word? Seems to me like it is most white liberal speech police that are obsessed with this.

I know several Atlas posters who are autistic that strongly dislike the use of the word, even though it doesn't directly mean "autistic". It's offensive to people who could be considered "mentally handicapped" in some way (even  though it's the wrong way to correctly describe autism).

But who in 2022 would refer to somebody on the spectrum as being "retarded". That's simply not how the word is generally used these days. Words change meaning over time.

Someone on the spectrum, being called said word, specifically for such? I'd imagine, only a small minority of overall usage at worst. A big amount of its usage must be online (primarily from edgelords using it without discriminating much in the way of who or what they apply to), with the lion's share of the rest using it to mean "really dumb and silly" in a more focused way.

[Inmate Trump]

I'd say no word is technically inappropriate, but it's usage can be.

9/10 (10/10?) times the "r-word" is used inappropriately so therefore it is usually inappropriate.

I also have a niece with Down's syndrome so it's especially bothersome to me when I hear someone say it, but I also am not someone who'll go all Karen about it.

[Spectator]

It all depends on intent. If someone gets offended when I call someone who is clearly not special needs “retarded,” then I probably don’t want to be in their company anyway.

[°Leprechaun]

Retarded literally means slow, which does not mean stupid necessarily. Of course, it need not be used as an insult.

If someone is really stupid, the word imbecile would suffice, but insulting people is not something I support in most cases.

[Cassius]

That's retarded.

[DaleCooper]

Retarded literally means slow, which does not mean stupid necessarily. Of course, it need not be used as an insult.

If someone is really stupid, the word imbecile would suffice, but insulting people is not something I support in most cases.

It seems totally arbitrary to me that imbecile, or idiot, or even stupid are socially acceptable but the PC police want to shut down the word retarded.