Ironically, retard was originally a kinder word cooked up to describe people with lower intelligence, along with moron, idiot, cretin, and imbecile. Over time these became pejoratives. Just kind of interesting to see how language develops and terms intended to avoid offense over time turn into ones that offend people.
Yes, when you come up with a word to describe people that others consider less/worse than themselves, they will invariably end up using the word to describe them as an insult to others. This will happen no matter how mundane or non offensive you try to make the word.
Amazing how referring to people by their perceived flaws can be offensive. Woke culture strikes again.
Edit: In case it wasn’t obvious, this was sarcasm. No shit being defined by (what others consider) a flaw is gonna be offensive. I thought my original comment was obvious.
Amazing how referring to people by their perceived flaws can be offensive
I mean, isn’t this common sense? If you work for me and bring me some sub-par work, I can call you a fucking retard, and you’ll probably be offended. On the other hand, if I pull you aside and say that usually you do excellent work, but I’m not liking this, and here’s a couple ideas to improve your work, you might look upon that more fondly.
In both scenarios, I’m communicating that I’m not happy with you and/or your work, but one is likely to lead to an HR incident and one isn’t. How is this “woke”? (I fucking hate that term, because it tends to be use as shorthand for “stuff I don’t like”, but no two people seem to share definition beyond that)
Ironically, retard was originally a kinder word cooked up to describe people with lower intelligence, along with moron, idiot, cretin, and imbecile. Over time these became pejoratives. Just kind of interesting to see how language develops and terms intended to avoid offense over time turn into ones that offend people.
Yes, when you come up with a word to describe people that others consider less/worse than themselves, they will invariably end up using the word to describe them as an insult to others. This will happen no matter how mundane or non offensive you try to make the word.
This is the very nature of slurs, and more largely language in general, in the first place. It’s not the signifier, it’s the signified.
Retarded people are literally retarded. Hope this helps.
Amazing how referring to people by their perceived flaws can be offensive. Woke culture strikes again.
Edit: In case it wasn’t obvious, this was sarcasm. No shit being defined by (what others consider) a flaw is gonna be offensive. I thought my original comment was obvious.
I mean, isn’t this common sense? If you work for me and bring me some sub-par work, I can call you a fucking retard, and you’ll probably be offended. On the other hand, if I pull you aside and say that usually you do excellent work, but I’m not liking this, and here’s a couple ideas to improve your work, you might look upon that more fondly.
In both scenarios, I’m communicating that I’m not happy with you and/or your work, but one is likely to lead to an HR incident and one isn’t. How is this “woke”? (I fucking hate that term, because it tends to be use as shorthand for “stuff I don’t like”, but no two people seem to share definition beyond that)
Yes, that was my point. I guess the sarcasm was lost
If a word is used with the intent to insult people, no shit that that word starts getting perceived as an insult.
It’s the euphemism treadmill