"Spread the word to end the word"

[MaoExE]

I'm gonna say something, and 90% are going to instantly assume I hate/dislike people with disabilities.

In my opinion (People have those, and *gasp* they can vary) this whole "spread the word to end the word", is one of the stupidest movements you can have. It's based on self-segregation and thin skin.

You can't preach "Equality" and than preach "Care more about me, than anything else."
This is just ignorance, if I am using the word "retard" in my sentence as a verb/adjective, you have NO right to get bent out of shape. If I'm talking about how I like crackers in my chili, that's not suddenly bad just because cracker can be played off as a racial slur.

It's HOW you say it, WHAT it's directed to, and the CONTEXT of the situation. According to everyone else on their, really (I mean really) high horse, I'm instantly a terrible person. It's the whole logic of "I want you to shoot a three pointer, while back-flipping, and beat a cheetah in a race; just to prove you're not a terrible person and hate people with disabilities." There is NO, reason for me to have to jump through all these hoops to prove ANYTHING to ANYONE.

Yes I want EVERYONE to be equal, regardless of ANYTHING: but, if we suddenly act like they have to get special attention to take down a word, that's far from equal. A word can offend anyone, but the word "retard" shouldn't magically turn super offensive. We use too many slurs in an everyday conversation, do we usually have the intent of the slur? Of course we don't. Think for a second, if something is being lame, many people will often call it gay. Does that make it a super offensive word? No, a word only holds as much bearing and weight as YOU place in it. 90% of the time YOU are placing context that isn't there making the slur seem like it's an actual slur.

/rant

To add discussion points to this topic, how do you feel when one group feels more "self-entitled" than the rest. Or when people just have too thin of skin, I find the movement ludicrous.

The worst part is, you can go around my area, make ANY racial slur/slur in general, but because of this movement the ONLY important slur is "retard"

In schools around here, it's soon to become that saying something racist/cursing in front of a teacher will probably only leave you with a detention, and MAYBE a referral if you're just bigoted. They want it to be, that if you say retard you can be suspended, and even expelled. I feel that if they're going to apply it to this word, they might as well censor any, and EVERY, word that can be taken as a slur. Because as it stands, we're trying to make people with disabilities equal by putting them on a pedestal, like "Oh, you're offended by this, let's make a huge deal out of ONLY this slur, and ignore anyone else offended by something else."

 

[Keoul]

So they don't want "intellectually disabled" individuals to feel bad but they're perfectly fine with the whole anti-gay thing going on? what about fag and gay? should those words be banned as well?

Their whole pledge thing seems like a waste of time since all the people actually using it as a derogatory word will still use it. They're only really stopping doctors from using the word "mentally retarded" as a medical term

 

[pffh]

And retard isn't even a bad word. Mental Retardation is a clinical term. Sure it can be used badly just like any other word but at the end of the day it's still part of medical terminology.

 

[PhantomEcho]

The really amusing part is that you said: "Think for a second, if something is being lame, many people will often call it gay. Does that make it a super offensive word?"

Lame. As in bad, craptacular, or otherwise 'shitting stupid'.

Here's the funny thing. Lame ACTUALLY means someone who can't walk. It's ALSO a derisive term being used to describe something else.

Which actually goes further to prove your point.

Words are words. We use them to describe things, to separate ourselves into groups, and to differentiate ideas from one another. We use them for everything, and often without considering the context of the word. Why? Because the context DOESN'T MATTER.

I guarantee you, I could start calling everyone I view as intellectually inferior a "Warvelding Madbisker", and five years down the road (assuming for some demented reason it caught on) we'd have people crying out about how the Warvelding Madbiskers take offense to being called such.

Why? Because any idiot with two brain cells realizes that they can GET ATTENTION by acting offended. Being offended by something is an INNATELY SELFISH act. It means "I'm too good for you to look down on me" and "I'm not strong-willed enough to stand up to you, so instead I'll huff and puff until I get my way."

Which is fine. Believe me, that's all part of being human too. But it doesn't mean I have to give a fuck.

I couldn't care LESS if you're offended because I think I'm smarter than you, or because I called my friend a retard, or because I used some obscure racial slur to offend your people. Why? Because your people are HUMANS, goddammit, and there ain't ONE breed of human on this planet that's above reproach or ridicule.

Humans are self-absorbed, egotistical, megalomaniacal vermin. We're just the biggest, meanest brand of cockroach to come around.

Folks can cry all they want about trying to 'better' ourselves as a species. That's a fine, noble effort. But the first step to BETTERING OURSELVES is, almost assuredly, to GET THE HELL OFF OUR HIGH HORSES and accept that we're just as big a bunch of sacks of crap as any other stupid, stinking animal.

 

[roushutsu]

I would love to see people stop using words like gay and retard outside of their proper context, but let's be realistic here; it's not going to happen. The movement seems more pointless than anything, no matter what good intentions may be behind it.

 

[krazykidd]

Damn i misread the title . I thought it was " spred the word to end the world ". I came in read to compare december 2012 to persona 3 . As for the topic , why the hell isn't it possible for some people to not use some words ? Is it the fact that they know some people hate it? Like b***h, r****d, f*g , n****r , all offends a certain group ( women , mentaly disabled , homosexuals and black people respectively) and we just ask that people don't use those hurtfull words. And yet people still do . Why can we take a few words out of our vocabulary to prevent hurting others?

 

[RagTagBand]

I've always found it curious that people would try to censor words that are used primarily (if not solely) for the purpose of offending people because it offends people.

I know its offensive, thats why i'm calling you it

It's like telling people not to use fists in a fight because fists hurt people.

The "Retard" deal is possibly one of the most shallow attempts at trying to cull the use of an insult I've ever come across - They seem to have a problem with the word itself, not the implication. It comes across like it would be fine if I said "Your opinion is absurd, are you mentally handicapped?" but would flip their shit if I said "Your opinion is absurd, are you retarded?" even though I've said exactly the same thing and implying exactly the same thing.

And honestly, in most contexts where calling someone retarded is used, it's a relevant insult! If someone says something that is stupid then questioning their intelligence makes sense, whereas if someone says something stupid and you go "Thats your opinion? Then clearly you're a queermosexual" the insult is completely irrelevant - Being gay has no influence over your intelligence, Having Mental retardation does.

Anyway, all this Word-culling is ruining some damn good insults. "Fag" is an excellent curse word, it feels very visceral to say, like a verbal punch in the mouth, the sooner the meaning of that word changes (again) the better; I'm hoping that it moves on to refer to someone who is being melodramatic about something pathetically shallow.