And another one straight out of the headlines...
www.cnn.com/2012/03/07/living/end-r-word/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

Okay, I understand political correctness. I understand not wanting to have your kids stigmatized and all of that. But banning the R word in favor of "intellectual disability"? Is this really worth getting all a-twitter over?

I have a disability myself, namely that my left ear is non-functional. I can't hear anything on my left, and often have difficulties in understand people's speech in general. But if someone refers to me as "hearing disabled" it annoys the fuck out of me. I'm deaf. Not differently abled, not auditorally challenged- DEAF. Similarly, I've had mood swings all of my life- not enough to be disabling, but unpleasant enough. I'm not bi-polar, I'm manic depressive, thankyouverymuch. Bipolar disorder sounds like magnets. It doesn't really carry the same meaning to me. But they banned the term manic depression because it wasn't politically correct enough.

Get over yourselves and man the fuck up.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 7 Mar 2012, 17:31, 29 replies)

Left ear?
About quarter past.
(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 17:35, closed)

Arf!
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 7 Mar 2012, 19:07, closed)

Bad alternative
"Retard" is a pretty repulsive word, with enough nasty connotations that I'd be happy to see it go the way of "mongol" or "nigger". That said, "intellectual disability" isn't a great improvement. There surely has to be a better replacement for "retard".

I'm with you on "deaf".
(ubergeekian, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 17:54, closed)

Calling someone a retard is not acceptable.
However, saying that someone is retarded doesn't strike me as being offensive- it's a technical term, like being a dwarf. (And I'm told that most of those dislike the term "little people" and prefer dwarf.) Banning any uses of the word is an overreaction, in my view.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 7 Mar 2012, 19:10, closed)

The term of art ...
... currently is "developmentally disabled." Way back when it was "feeble minded."
(uncle_bud is not the jelly roll king., Wed 7 Mar 2012, 20:41, closed)

Cross over
Unfortunately I think there is too much crosstalk: you can't describe someone as retarded (which I agree is a potentially useful term) without someone hearing only the first two syllables. Solution? Dunno.
(ubergeekian, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 22:26, closed)

She's just upset because her son is retarded.
She knows he'll never be a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer or whatever and that he will have a hard time. At the moment she's still struggling to accept it so she's lashing out at the world and the word in the hope she can in some way protect her son. Hopefully she'll grow to accept things and move on.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 17:57, closed)

Of course she's bloody protecting her son
He's got more than enough to contend with in life without the casual cruelty of insults like "retard". Ask parents of kids with Down's how they feel about "mongol" and "mong". Just upset because their children will never be doctors or engineers?
(ubergeekian, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 22:31, closed)

I was being deliberatly harsh, but I think it's largely true.
I don't blame her in the slightest for what she's trying to do, I may well do the same in that position.
However, the least of her problems is the fact that some use the word "retarded" to mean something derogatory and even getting rid of the word will not prevent any predjudice or problems her son will endure. In fact, it's probably her that the word will hurt and not him -- he'll not likely hear it or understand ehat it means to her.
She has my upmost sympathy but I disagree with her on this and beleive she's doing it because she's mourning not because it will make a difference.
Edit: There is also a world of difference between taunting a disabled person with a term and directing it towards someone who is not. If you took the words "retard" and "mongol" out of use tomorrow then people would use other ways to insult disabled people if that was their goal.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 23:00, closed)

Surely
you're "half deaf"?
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 18:35, closed)

Pretty much.
My right ear was actually off the charts in terms of sensitivity- I could hear the softest sounds they could put through the headphones. But if I'm in a noisy place, like a club or a busy restaurant, I'm unable to understand what people are saying. Under those circumstances I'm functionally deaf. Same if I'm riding in a car on the right side with the window open- I can't hear anything that's being said in the car or even make out what song is playing on the stereo.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 7 Mar 2012, 18:59, closed)

So you're like a shit version of DareDevil?

(Mr Fudge It shouldn't be illegal to have sex with an eagle, Thu 8 Mar 2012, 9:59, closed)

Unilateral deafness
is the technical term.
(ubergeekian, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 22:27, closed)

Maybe it's because "retard" is becoming a popular, catch-all insult,
in much the same way that spastic did when I were young?
I don't think I've ever heard deaf being hurled about as a term of abuse (maybe when someone is failing to pay attention, but that's within a fairly narrow context, compared with how retard is thrown about).

Meh, I'm still uncomfortable with the way gay persists as a term of abuse, particularly when people justify it with "I don't mean gay as in homosexual, just gay as in crap."
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 18:41, closed)

Similarly the words idiot, imbecile and moron originally had very specific meanings in reference to IQ levels. A nice summary of that can be found here.

The term "gay" has a long uphill battle ahead, since homosexuality has only really been acceptable for about 20 years or so. I prefer to use the word "lame" when referring to something that's crap.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 7 Mar 2012, 19:06, closed)

Gay is just changing meaning again.
Its's gone from happy to homosexual and now it's on its way to "not very good".
Of course "lame" used to mean "unable to walk" but you don't hear of many lame people complaining that it now means something different also.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 19:20, closed)

And yet,
handicapped has fallen out of use, and I've yet to hear of anyone lobbying for it's return.

Language, huh? It's kerazee!
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 20:06, closed)

I have heard someone use the term "handicapped" recently.
It was about himself though, when trying to get a better seat at a rugby game.
I should point out he was handicapped, though possibly not permanently.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 20:38, closed)

Was he
an older gentleman? It's the sort of word my old mum still uses.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 21:46, closed)

No, he was in his early twenties.
He refered to himself as a cripple too at times.
Edit: Was a similar situation to The Resident Loon below but a little longer term by the sounds of it.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 22:54, closed)

Shandycapped?
Being all wonky-legged through over-consumption of alcohol? Was that it?

Typical bloody rugby fan.
(square go, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 22:38, closed)

When I had a broken ankle and was on crutches
I used to refer to myself as a gimp. In fact, the name "Crippie Boy" was used (Clerks II reference) by my kids.

It was only for three months, but I kept a sense of humor about it. I wasn't even able to get a cup of coffee or cook for myself, which was demoralizing, so I made a point of joking about it.

The best part was when I would pull into a handicap space in the parking lot and get attitude from people as they saw a Mazda MX-5 pull in there- until I produced the handicap pass and my crutches and watched them slink off.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 7 Mar 2012, 22:49, closed)

Does have a broken ankle now qualify you as 'disabled'?
Surely that's just being badly injured. When did the lines blur so much?
(Mr Fudge It shouldn't be illegal to have sex with an eagle, Thu 8 Mar 2012, 10:05, closed)

Temporarily it did.
I had a handicap pass so I could use the gimp spaces at the grocery store, and had to use an electric cart to get around in the store itself. It was always a sore temptation to put the crutches out in front of me and go jousting.

It lasted just long enough for me to get a good understanding of what some people have to go through for their lives.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 8 Mar 2012, 14:53, closed)

The Spastic society
changed their name to Scope because kids were calling each other spastics as an insult.
This didn't stop kids calling each other Spastics but it did start them calling each other Scopers as well.
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Thu 8 Mar 2012, 9:48, closed)

manic depressive wasn't banned
it was replaced because people incorrectly assumed "manic depressive" just meant "super depressed" and bipolar better explains the upswings and downswings associated with the disorder. the terms depression and depressive have remained, it was never anything to do with political correctness.
(orestes is shitting in the 1940s, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 19:07, closed)

Ah.
Well, back when I took abnormal psychology the term was manic depression, and somewhere along the line it got changed to bipolar. I've never liked that change as manic depression always struck me as being much more descriptive of what it's actually like.

In case you're interested, Kay Jamison wrote an excellent book on the subject called An Unquiet Mind.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 7 Mar 2012, 19:15, closed)

'other-abled'
seems to be catching on round these parts. The 'other' may be something like making arrestingly loud noises seemingly at random, drooling copiously and the like. Special-needs is another one.
Does not really change the reality and the insults catch up to the new terminology with ever-increasing speed.
Guess it is nice to try to avoid stigmatising.
(W3BOPLASTY, Thu 8 Mar 2012, 10:45, closed)

what does the acronim D.E.A.F stand for?
disabled ear auditory faculty
( lucosade is counting down the minutes until, Thu 8 Mar 2012, 11:49, closed)