The Picard Maneuver1982 was a different time
iiiThat was simply the euphemism du jour, on the eternal euphemism treadmill.
lime!can you really call it a euphemism when it just used to be a medical term back then?
OgmiosPro tip: It still is a medical term. Internet activists deciding they don’t like a word doesn’t actually change the word.
It’s not only the ‘SJW’ crowd who are asking people to stop using it, but also the medical field, patients, and their caregivers directly asking everyone to stop.
The results of both the parent and professional surveys support a move away from the use of the term mental retardation. The majority of parents indicated that they would be upset if a physician used the term mental retardation.
What’s in a name? Attitudes surrounding the use of the term ‘mental retardation’
Over the past 200 years, there have been periodic shifts in the terminology used to describe what is still most commonly referred to in the medical world as ‘mental retardation’. There are differing opinions about the acceptability of the term, but ...
Probably under pressure from the SJWs. Medical people are practically minded, not given to rewriting the nomenclature to suit the fashion of the hour (they still use Latin for God’s sake). Unless the money is threatened of course.
Tell me you’re a reactionary without telling me you’re a reactionary. Did you even read the link?
The results of both the parent and professional surveys support a move away from the use of the term mental retardation. The majority of parents indicated that they would be upset if a physician used the term mental retardation.
What’s in a name? Attitudes surrounding the use of the term ‘mental retardation’
Over the past 200 years, there have been periodic shifts in the terminology used to describe what is still most commonly referred to in the medical world as ‘mental retardation’. There are differing opinions about the acceptability of the term, but ...
Leading with an insult is poor conversational technique.
Calling you a reactionary due to observation is an insult?
Lacing up shoes are you?
Why does everyone assume it’s “eternal” or “never ending”? Each time the euphemisms change, it’s due to more inclusivity, more empathy, and more attempts to understand the plight of others. It’s reasonable to assume that it’ll stop at a point when we reach the right terms. It probably has already, and I just can’t think of any examples off the top of my head…
harkEach time the euphemisms change, it’s due to more inclusivity, more empathy, and more attempts to understand the plight of others.
True if the terminology becomes more accurate, but a euphemism for euphemism’s sake is the equivalent of sweeping dirt under a rug.
MisterFrogHere’s my random two cents about disability euphemisms.
I personally think “special”, which was pretty popular like 10 years ago, was/is pretty demeaning. Even the more recent “differently-abled” feels weird.
I think the plain language of “disability”, which seems to have been around quite a while now, is fine. It’s what is says on the tin, without judgement.
Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw a while ago…
“Join the one arm golfers and beat the world” (Accompanied with a depiction of an angry arm swinging a club at the ground.)
AllNewTypeFaceIn 1882, this event would have been called Swing For Imbeciles
magnetosphereAs I get older, I have more and more sympathy for people who can’t keep up with socially acceptable terminology. At the same time, I have less and less tolerance for people who deliberately use outdated, insulting language.
No cap, fr fr!
I am so glad you posted this. Sometimes I get into little arguments about word usage and younger folk truly don't understand how not only commonplace word usage that is considered some sort of insult now but how officially they were used. Near me was a place that helped folks with all sorts of independent living including housing and job training and just counseling and it was called the NSAR and Im almost sure the R was retardation. Think it changed its name and I can't find anything on it now but I did find like this https://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels2/pdf/70s/70/70s-WWH-NARC.pdf
It’s hard to fully explain how the reception of words change to people who haven’t seen it first-hand.
Even some bad words, which might be incredibly rude to say today, didn’t have the same oomph in the past, so while the definition technically might not have changed, the intended severity of it has.
yeah and part of it is they were used as insults but it was more co-opting than anything else. retarded is pretty legit as saying someone is retarded can be proper, but someone will call someone retarded who is not as an insult. then shortening is almost never correct. You might say someone is retarded and that is a correct thing about their condition but saying their a retard is not as its sorta a made up word based on the condition and further tard or tarded is a way to make it more derogatory. Its like homosexual. its a word that means something without being derogatory but to someone who thinks being a homosexual is bad will use it as an insult and using the word homo is almost always an insult (the rare exception is usage among friends to sorta deflate its meaning). When it comes down to it is that folks who spent decades with a word being legitamate will have trouble when it becomes a taboo thing for a decade or so.
You didn’t call retarded people retards, you called your friends retards when they were acting retarded.
yes. as I said that really had no use but as a insult but the word it came out of was legitimate.
And then some things suddenly become okay. You definitely didn’t hear people casually talking about “eating ass” in the era of retards.
Disney’s Recess was censored to remove the term midget
Apparently now little person/lesser human is the preferred term
I find it hard to believe lesser human would be used as a term. Its a bit funny because again midget was also used as opposed to dwarf by the relative proportionality even though dwarfism was appropriate for both types. Was it being used to describe someone in the show with dwarfism though because if not then it was sorta being used derogatorily.
In the first episode the line
the midget girl is right
Was use towards the short girl of the main cast when she stood up to authority
Gradually_AdjustingI grew up in an area where vans labelled “Northwest Center for the Retarded” just driving around all the time, and they were the good guys.
They’re just “Northwest Center” these days though so, consensus has definitely moved away from that word.
Whenever medical science came up with a term to describe people with cognitive or intellectual impairments, it eventually became used as a derogatory insult. The R word was going out for a long time before Rosa’s Law put the mail in the coffin.
WahotsUnder Rosa’s law, these would be described respectively as profound, severe, and moderate levels of intellectual disability.
Unfortunately, I don’t see the cycle breaking anytime soon. We got idiot and moron from the same medical textbooks as “retarded”.
Gen B squeakers will start calling people “profoundly/severely disabled” in COD 2k35 and the cycle will be born anew.
BigBananaDealerthis game is fucking PROFOUNDLY DISABLED rage quits
Give it a few more years and then “mentally disabled” will be the new retarded. We’ll cringe at how people would say they’re “disabled”.
I work with the mentally disabled and have for a while now. I love my guys but it’s so annoying seeing how new terms will come and go throughout the years constantly.
The Euphemism Treadmill might stop when the term is so clinically dry as “mentally disabled”. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue of a schoolyard bully the way “retarded” does. I dunno, we’ll see.
I’m pretty sure that “mentally retarded” was the medical term for many decades, before it became cultural lingo. There was something similar for erectile dysfunction too, they used to call you impotent, not exactly a great thing to hear at the doctor’s office.
Culture evolves. I will say, some of the new terms drive me nuts because they technically mean the same thing, but are grammatically awkward or are otherwise clunky when conveying the same message.
Like sure, I technically have a disability, please don’t try to frame it as a good thing or something to make it sound better. It just sounds condescending. I don’t need pity, I’m living my life to the fullest now :P
I mean, they are disabled! This whole “differently abled” is completely out of touch with reality.
Saw this at a consignment shop a couple months ago, from about that same time period.
Ricky RigatoniHow much was it? I’d buy that just to have a gumball machine.
vaultdweller013Looking at the tag im gonna presume its either $20 dollars or $200.
Fun fact: word usage changes over time. For example, “idiot” used to be a technical medical term for extreme mental disability. We live in the Age of Information, and if somebody doesn’t want to learn about historical context that’s actually willful ignorance on their part.
As the word “retarded” transitioned to “the r word” in the 2010s, this was pointed out over and over, that this process has happened over and over. We seem to have an innate yearning to find ways to call people stupid.
We have a desire to say it nicely but the new polite words always become slurs again eventually. You’ll probably be shamed for saying disabled in another generation by a holier than thou thirteen year old.
zeppoIt’s already happened. Some people want you to say “differently abled”.
there’s something hauntingly poetic about the ebb and flows of human compassion coming together to form language that allows the marginalized to express their need for emancipation, only for the inevitable surge of encultured ableism to quell that spark and steal that language for its own purpose. over and over and over. what will break the cycle? will people with disabilities ever get to have a concrete hold on the words they use to describe themselves, or is this a permanent fixture in the world we are forcing onto the disabled?
I read this in a Werner Hertzog voice