Not so PC statements.

[Aldin]

Hunh, I would have thought that the fact Palin has a retarded son would have come up as a possible reason Rahm's comments annoyed her. I'm sure she played it for politics, but she does have a dog in the hunt.

~Aldin, who thinks treating people with respect is usually the right answer

[jschild]

Originally Posted by Aldin

Hunh, I would have thought that the fact Palin has a retarded son would have come up as a possible reason Rahm's comments annoyed her. I'm sure she played it for politics, but she does have a dog in the hunt.

~Aldin, who thinks treating people with respect is usually the right answer

It's exactly the reason that should should have demanded an apology. She went for politics by demanding him to get fired instead.

[Aldin]

Right, I was simply surprised that it hadn't been mentioned in this thread.

~Aldin, mental midget

[Bannister]

Originally Posted by Aldin

Right, I was simply surprised that it hadn't been mentioned in this thread.

~Aldin, mental midget

I think you mean, mental dwarf.

Bannister, Honky

[Onacara]

Originally Posted by Bannister

I think you mean, mental dwarf.

Bannister, Honky

Mental Little Person

[jschild]

Rush Limbaugh just called liberals retards. Will Sarah Palin call for him to quit or even apologize? Inquiring minds want to know.

LIMBAUGH: Our political correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards. I mean these people, these liberal activists are kooks. They are looney tunes. And I’m not going to apologize for it, I’m just quoting Emanuel. It’s in the news. I think their big news is he’s out there calling Obama’s number one supporters f’ing retards. So now there’s going to be a meeting. There’s going to be a retard summit at the White House. Much like the beer summit between Obama and Gates and that cop in Cambridge.

[SuperflyTNT]

Great stuff, TedDanson. This is a really great topic.

Here's how I see the difference:
1. Retarded people can't generally stick up for themselves.
2. Various people will stomp the crap out of you if you call them a wide variety of racial slurs.

Personally, I think it's just as offensive to call someone a retard as it is to call another a racial slur. All these slurs are directed at people that had no say in how they squirted out of their mom. It's really stupid, really. Plus, people are too damned sensitive. I call people all kinds of different stuff, and it's no big deal, IMO. People can call me whitey ford, cracker, whatever, and I don't see any difference between that and calling me a retard, an asshat, a craprooster, a MF, or whatever. If someone is insulting you for your heritage, in fact, I think that's far less bad as someone insulting you for your merits. Calling one a retard is far worse than calling one a racial slur, simply because being called "someone without any sense or intelligence/education" is worse than being called "someone who happened to be born to a family with a particular skin tone or nationality". I mean, how stupid of an insult is that? Hell, a black dude can call his peers a wide variety of black-related slurs with impunity, so how bloody bad can it be? I mean, how can you drive down the street with your system up, windows down listening to 'music' that has the 'artist' screaming "Nigga" and then when someone not 'in the club' says it, it becomes a crime against humanity? How fuggin stupid is that?

I really will never truly understand racial slurs, and why they're offensive. It just doesn't make any sense. I don't get particularly offended when I'm overseas and I hear people say things like, "Stupid Americans" because at the end of the day, I'm OK with being an American. If someone called me a limey mick bastard because I happen to be more Irish than anything else, so be it. All that means to me is that they're jealous of the fact that I can drink them under the table.

Being called retarded is only really offensive to someone who is standing nearby that happens to have a retarded friend or family member. Those are the people who are really the brunt of the insult, and who get hurt the most. My advice to them: if you're a person with a family member that's mentally impaired, you know life isn't fair. Get used to it. People call each other crap all the time, and none of it really matters. Know thyself.

[Agent Minivann]

That is pretty much how I feel. Racial slurs are so charged that they are some of the baddest of the bad words. Some of them are tossed around within the "target demographic" like it isn't a big deal, but if someone outside of that group uses it on the same group it is going to prompt a fracas. I don't think racial slurs are a big deal, but I think the ones who use them are making a bigger statement about themselves than they are insulting or offensive. The R word is different to me in that it is a legitimate description in my opinion.

[Ted_Danson]

I like that we're all talking here, this is great!

As far as I'm concerned, a racial slur is a word that is made to put someone's ethnicity down. It serves only one purpose, to insult. The fact that people inside those cultures are using the terms differently is up to them. As Onacara pointed out, retard currently means many things, and is not a word that was made to insult.

[Bannister]

Originally Posted by Agent Minivann

I don't think racial slurs are a big deal, but I think the ones who use them are making a bigger statement about themselves than they are insulting or offensive.

This!!

You can use all kinds of words as insults, "Cootie Queen", "Lint Licker" to borrow a few from Orbits gum.

But words are only insulting if I allow them to effect me. All it really does is highlight bigotry and / or a lack of intelligence to form proper arguments. It says more about the person issuing the insult than the person being insulted.

Calling someone "retarded" or "gay" seems to be, for the most part, socially acceptable. As someone with both a mentally handicapped uncle and homosexual friends, neither word bothers me in the least.

Bannister

[Lamaclown]

Originally Posted by Ted_Danson

As Onacara pointed out, retard currently means many things, and is not a word that was made to insult.

You guys are right; it is a legitimate word with a legitimate meaning.
I think the feeling insult comes in the way it used, not simply that it was used.

In Emanuel's context I think it is clear he was using it to insult the people he was referring to, he wasn't simply looking for a way to say they were mentally slower than their contemporaries.

If I was related to a person who is mentally retarded I would have been offended not that he called people that but that he called them that as an insult.

All that being said, I hate PC terms and atttitudes in most situations, but in this one I could understand how someone could be upset by the use of the word retard. But, where in the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc. does it state that we have the right to not be offended?

[Toad Rocket]

Originally Posted by jschild

Oh I know. She thought nothing was wrong with saying "Gosh Darn it!", but say the other and she'd glare like heck at you.

I always found this fairly interesting also. Using your quasi swear word alternates seems to be less bad. Like using 'Frack, Frik, Freakin' is apparently allot better than saying the full on F word. All of them as their variation.

I believe the idea is that the user is showing some level or restraint for not using the full blown swear word. I know I will use 'shoot, darn' or whatever in mildly annoying situations, but I will pull out the big guns if something really bad happens. I suppose it is a level of degree.

As for the 'retard' word. In this highly PC sensitive culture we live in I can see how that term can considered an insult. By using it your are insulting your target (who probably not mentally handicapped) by saying he is as bad as some who actually is mentally handicapped. Thus implying the mentally handicapped person is looked down upon because you are using them as a reference as an insult. So it is a double whammy with perhaps the biggest problem is that your insulting the mentally handicapped though they are in their situation through no fault of their own and thus considered defenseless.