Reply #21: Don't care for the use of the word retarded as a prejorative

[Caliman73]

The message about Palin is valid. The woman is really lacking in any facet of critical thinking, but using the word "retard" or "retarded" to put her down is offensive. She is not intellectual and she plays on the fears, hatred, and base instincts of her audience. She is pathetic and ridiculous to anyone who is not easily swept up by her folksy, smarmy delivery. She is not however, retarded. Perhaps emotionally underdeveloped, perhaps ethically challenged, not retarded.

Mental retardation encompasses a large range of individuals with significant challenges in the cognitive processing. They are people who possess varying levels of awareness and ability to function in society. I think it is safe to say that being mentally retarded is not a desirable condition, but when you use the word retarded, and especially retard to put a person down, you are demeaning those individuals who struggle with their cognitive disabilities and try to navigate and contribute to society as best they can. You are basically saying, "retardation is the best insult I could come up with because it invokes the image of those individuals who are not cognitively able to function successfully in society." Perhaps you are not consciously trying to insult people with real cognitive deficits. You are however, communicating that insult to people who may have mild mental retardation, who can understand insults, and you are saying it to the parents, care givers, and people who work with the developmentally disabled. Having been involved with working with adults with developmental disabilities for the last 11 years, I can tell you that the people on my caseload who are clinically retarded but functioning at the higher range of the spectrum, they can remember those times when they were called retard, or retarded. They carry that pain around. For those who function at the lower range of the spectrum, that pain is for their loved ones to carry and perhaps them as well only they are not able to express it.

I agree that Sarah Palin could possibly be the worse thing that could have happened to the US since Ronald Reagan, but before you start jumping on the bandwagon of using retarded or retard to describe her, remember that there are people who truly carry that diagnosis, who struggle daily to contribute to a society the that looks down on them. People who try to maintain their dignity as citizens in the face of challenges born in them. There are any number of words you can use to describe and insult Palin, she's an easy target. Just think before you do it.