Greentext

There will always be a need in language to describe people who are less intellectually capable so I absolutely disagree with this claim. Retard is simply still the word of choice despite efforts to censor its usage.

Still the word of choice? Published in the DSM-IV 30 years ago? Not the words that came after? The DSM-V, the ICD? These don't quite fit in the vernacular? They don't satisfy your language needs?

That's the entire point. The treadmill stopped on that word. The diagnosis-turned-slurs have stopped churning out. You can call something idiotic. You can say that's moronic. You can even argue, perhaps, that it's imbecilic. And finally, lastly, immortally, you can say, "that's retarded."

I'm not saying you need to say any of these things, mind you. But I do understand that you want to find a word that's just a bit more satisfying than saying "that's stupid." It sounds childish, I know. So you want to say "that's retarded" because it really works, y'know? And people get upset when you say it.

But would you say "it's disabled" to mean "it's stupid"?

Would you say "that's so handicapped"?

The catch-all term that said "you're stupid" also said "these people are all the same" and has been pinned down and stuck in place in your mind and the minds of society, and words like "disabled" or "handicapped" just doesn't quite cut it. Oh, people use them the way you know they're going to be used. Mean and ignorant people will use the words the way mean and ignorant people will always use words.

But you'll never use them that way.

But you, and your family, and your doctor, and your classmates, and your coworkers, and your friends, and your government... they'll never say "that's so disabled" when they want to say "that's so stupid."

And sometimes people will make mistakes, and other people will say inappropriate things like "what are you, handicapped?" And that won't be okay. Not because of the word itself - even when it is outdated. but because of the association with a medical condition.

It isn't okay to call your friends handicapped or disabled or whatever the next term will be because of the implication that the same word should be used to describe your niece who is nonverbal whose voice you wouldn't even recognize and your brother who forgot to save your video game.

What comes next shouldn't satisfy what you seem to want. We probably won't settle on an easy answer, and the current "safe" terms will probably fall out of favor in their time. Because they become slurs, like "retard"? No. Because they become outdated? Probably.

If we as a society keep moving in the right direction, nobody will ever use the next "safe" terms the way you freely use the word "retard". That's the entire point.

There is no need to set an arbitrary line on some poorly designed IQ chart and say the people below this line are inferior and cost money and the people above this line are human and can have rights oh and then also use that line to call other people stupid.

There are synonyms that you can use for vernacular that absolutely fill the needs that you're suggesting are crucial for the english language. There are plenty of words to call your friend when he left his keys in your car and his phone at his ex's. If they don't satisfy you, be the next shakespeare and write your own.

There are also plenty of words to describe a vulnerable group of people. There will always - of course - be a need to talk about them, and a need to have certain codified terms whose definitions we agree on for the purposes of professional care and legal protections. These don't need to be the same words anymore, and if we do our jobs right they never will be again.

And yes, the word may and probably should be allowed to forever bear the stain of that history of linguistic injustice. The use cases for "That's so stupid, dude" and "The results came back. I'm sorry to tell you this, but your son may never develop the ability to read." don't need to overlap ever again.

"Retard" was the last one, and therefore the worst one. No, being new is not somehow morally relevant. It is the worst one because it is the one that was still in living memory when we learned how to do better.

The treadmill stopped, and you're still standing on it, upset that people are leaving you behind and blaming them for having the audacity to move on. You're not pushing people away to save time. You're just hurting yourself and others.