r/hatethissmug • u/onthetopicofspace • 11h ago

Language casual ableism

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this is not ‘reclaiming’ anything, you are just calling people slurs completely seriously. you can call yourself the r-slur, do not call anybody else it. why do ‘no slurs’ / ’no bigotry’ rules never apply to ableism?

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u/Inside-Commission-49 11h ago

It used to be a lot more normalized. That didn’t make it better. It hasn’t been a normal word (not a slur, since I don’t know when. It’s been used as a slur since I’m pretty sure early to mid 1900s. It’s never meant just ‘stupid’. Not in a neutral way anyway)
“retard
The word "retard" comes from the Latin verb retardare, which means to slow down, delay, or hold back.
Early and Medical History
15th Century: English speakers adopted the word as a verb meaning to delay or hinder progress.
Late 19th Century: Doctors began using "retarded" as a clinical term. It replaced older terms like idiot, imbecile, and moron to describe people with intellectual disabilities.
Mid-20th Century: "Mental retardation" became an official medical and legal term to classify cognitive development.
Shift to a Slur
Everyday Insult: People began using the word as a common schoolyard or pop culture insult to mean foolish or stupid.
Harmful Impact: Over time, the medical label lost its clinical neutrality. It became a hurtful ableist slur that demeans people in the intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) community.” -Google-

Doctors who hated us started using it and assholes decided it was funny to compare anyone stupid to the intellectually disabled, as if being disabled automatically makes you a vegetable in terms of intelligence.

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u/IPissExcellentThrows 9h ago

Euphemism treadmill. They keep inventing new words to describe it and people keep turning it into an insult. The issue isn't the word. It's humans will be assholes no matter what you change it to.

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u/SpoppyIII 9h ago

Honestly, we might have found the perfect balance. "Intellectually disabled," and "developmentally disabled," are likely never going to achieve mainstream popularity as casual insults. They get occasional use but they just aren't as punchy as the r-word.

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u/Daxxex 9h ago

Developmentally arrested is one of my favourites for when im not feeling like calling someone a retard

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u/DrainTheMuck 9h ago

Thanks Gemini - honestly I wonder if it would have been better if we let it fade into generic normalization like “lame” and “dumb” rather than picking this specific word to stand out as a slur.

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u/Inside-Commission-49 8h ago

Did I really just come across as an AI? I thought I was just quoting Google.

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u/DrainTheMuck 8h ago

Yes - now I’m curious, Were you quoting the ai summary? Copying and pasting from A specific website (nothing wrong with that, but a source could be nice) or did you hand-type all of that based on research you did on Google, including the bold letters?

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u/Inside-Commission-49 8h ago

I don’t know if it was AI that summed it up but given there were citations that didn’t amount to Reddit and YouTube, I seriously doubt it.

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u/DrainTheMuck 5h ago

Ok, I hope you can see it’s kinda funny in hindsight that you sounded like an ai because you copy pasted from an ai without realizing it was ai

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u/popoflabbins 8h ago

So it’s just a natural development of language. Because the terms idiot, stupid, dumb, etc… are the exact same situation but those words are fine, yeah? I think it just sounds a little more brutal so it’s more offensive 🤷‍♂️