[DanBC]

I'm not going to try to persuade you that a hateful slur is offensive, even when it's not being used about people.

    "Bob is so gay" == offensive

    "That chair is so gay" == probably still offensive

I'm happy to agree to disagree. You don't think your use of the word is offensive - that's fine. But you don't get to tell me what I (or others) find offensive, and many people find any use of the word retarded offensive.

Perhaps it's a generational thing. Are you young? (Less than 35?)

[prodigal_erik]

Sexual orientation (and race, because someone's sure to make the analogy) has little effect on one's public life, it's just taking society a long time to realize that it's not relevant enough to make any sense as a pejorative. I don't think we're likely to regard intelligence that way, whichever words the euphemism treadmill brings.

[DanBC]

Sexual orientation and skin colour are still used as insults even though sensible people agree that it's stupid to do so.

> I don't think we're likely to regard intelligence that way

I have no problem with people saying "This decision is dumb" or "This decision is stupid" or "This decision is idiotic". I do have a problem when people say "This decision is retarded" because that's not general stupidity, it is linked specifically to people with learning disabilities.

[prodigal_erik]

Some, maybe all, of those words used to be diagnoses of intellectual disabilities. I don't think laymen distinguish them much at all; I was never taught to do so. If the goal is to deter everyone from showing contempt for lack of intelligence (though I don't think that's going to happen) I don't see another word with the same connotation as progress. Am I overlooking something?

[DanBC]

The goal is not to deter people from showing contempt for lack of intelligent action. (Unless that contempt is for someone who lacks intelligence because of a disability). When someone does something stupid it is fine to call them stupid.

The goal is to ask people to consider using words that are not recently (even currently) used for learning disabilities. Retard has strong links with learning disabilities. Enough time has passed that words like 'moron' has little connection to its original meaning.

In time retard will have enough distance from its current use to be less hurtful.

>I don't see another word with the same connotation as progress.

I don't understand.

[phpnode]

The only reason words like "moron" are no longer deemed grossly offensive is precisely because people started using those words to describe things other than their literal meanings and over time their impact as slurs and insults has been reduced, and this is exactly what has happened with the word retarded. For probably the majority of the English speaking world the word has already reached this watered down status. Languages evolve, meanings change, sometimes rapidly, any attempt to regulate it will fail.

[im3w1l]

What is the difference between being retarded due to a disability, and being stupid due to genetics?

Is it just a difference of degrees? I mean both are cases of "factor outside of individuals control -> (extremely) low intelligence"

[DanBC]

A learning disability tends to be defined by IQ (IQ less than 75 or so), rather than anything else.

Thus, someone with a chromosomal disorder, or someone who was deprived of oxygen during birth, or someone who is just stupid because of genetics all have learning disabilities. They just have different forms of learning disability.