There’s a clear campaign against the mentally ill with the global rise of fascism. Lots of it shows up in anti homeless rhetoric, but you can see it in the MAHA and anti vaccination movements.
There’s no reason to use the word “r-tarded” to describe someone. As someone who’s worked with the intellectually challenged, it’s an insult to them to compare them with people who are willfully ignorant.
What’s the next euphemism we should switch to?
For a while there in the 90’s, “differently abled” looked like it was next on the treadmill.
Words for stupid or crazy are always going to be used as insults.
My nieces introduced me to “short bus” as an insult instead of retarded.
Short bus has been a thing for a long while.
It was over 25 years ago.
So yeah, insults have already moved on and people complaining about using “retarded” sound like boomers.
Err, that’s no better, it’s possible worse …
‘trumped’ works for me
The *r slur is intentionally cruel in a way that stupid can’t match, since stupid is more generic and versatile.
Maybe the *r slur doesn’t need a replacement, we can just hold ourselves to a higher standard, and drag things without compating them to someone with a disability.
The “r” word used to be the correct medical term used to avoid words like stupid and idiot that were considered cruel slurs, now the “r” is considered a slur, and the cycle goes on and on.
Accurate.
Except “stupid” was just a word, not medical terminology.
This page has great examples, including toilet and shit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#Lifespan