The issue isn’t the person you’re insulting being insulted. It’s that using the word as an insult means it is a bad thing to be. It is telling everyone who does have a mental deficiency that their existence is something to be looked down upon. If it’s a bad thing to call someone, it must be a bad thing to be.
Maybe the fact you can’t recognize this says something about your mental acuity…
It IS something bad to be. THAT’S the insult. For people who are actually mentally retarded, you don’t look down on them. You pity them. The same way you would say that someone who is destroying something is a cancer to that thing. So you might say that trump is a cancer. You don’t hear people saying “oh, thats offensive to people with cancer!”
Because it’s not about the people with cancer. It’s about the person you’re insulting. Having cancer IS a bad thing. Being mentally retarded IS a bad thing. But it’s not something you’re looking down on others for saying.
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It’s not about the person you’re insulting. That you can’t realize that or come up with a better insult explains a lot.
The issue isn’t the person you’re insulting being insulted. It’s that using the word as an insult means it is a bad thing to be. It is telling everyone who does have a mental deficiency that their existence is something to be looked down upon. If it’s a bad thing to call someone, it must be a bad thing to be.
Maybe the fact you can’t recognize this says something about your mental acuity…
Best, calmest explanation I’ve seen, thanks.
It IS something bad to be. THAT’S the insult. For people who are actually mentally retarded, you don’t look down on them. You pity them. The same way you would say that someone who is destroying something is a cancer to that thing. So you might say that trump is a cancer. You don’t hear people saying “oh, thats offensive to people with cancer!”
Because it’s not about the people with cancer. It’s about the person you’re insulting. Having cancer IS a bad thing. Being mentally retarded IS a bad thing. But it’s not something you’re looking down on others for saying.
The term mentally retarded is no longer a medically recognized term, at least in the US.