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Cake day: June 23rd, 2023

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  • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldtoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.worldIs "retard" a slur?
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    5 days ago

    So, actually in the south the term was ‘retargeted’ by the (sub) - urban elite to mean yeoman farmers who worked the fields and had suntan on their necks.

    I respect the original term, but the colloquial has reverted to ‘ignorant, racist southerner’, for good or ill.

    If you have a better term for it I’m all ears, but it’s not like there isn’t a need for a category given their behavior.


  • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldtoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.worldIs "retard" a slur?
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    5 days ago

    They changed the underlying medical term, ‘mental retardation’ to ‘developmentally disabled’ in a form of lingual whack-a-mole since the old term was being used as an insult.

    Once it lost its meaning as a short form of the medical term, it became a slur, much like we don’t call black people the n-word anymore.