The 'R-word'.

Alright people, considering I've seen a few instances of this from people on this very forum directed at other people, I'd like this to come to an end.

What is the 'R-word' you ask? That word is '******ed' and it is used to imply that a person or an idea that a person has is stupid. However this word has a history to it that is not at all kosher. In fact, today this word is being used as an offensive slur.

As some of you may or not know, I had a mild form of epilepsy when I was younger. Was on an anti-seizure medication at least until 5th grade. However, I was not dumb by any means yet I was called '******ed' by my classmates. All because I had absence seizures that I could not control. And it hurt a lot. I felt alienated and perhaps this was the source of my anger issues that I've mentioned before.

Ideally, I would like this word not used at all. But please, keep in mind that people with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities are people with feelings.

[video=youtube;T549VoLca_Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T549VoLca_Q[/video]

Discuss civilly.

 

ah yes, I have heard this. My sister is basically the same, calling everyone she thinks is stupid or they do something stupid, which she thinks I do all the time, ******. I've gotten over it, but it's still not nice. I hate the fact that others will call people "******ed" or "******s" just because of the fact that they are different in some way

 

I totally agree with you.
Whenever I hear someone yell "That's ******ed!" I quickly look around. Mainly to make sure there were no mentally disabled people around, because I bet that it hurts them the most, having a term that's actually made for them, "Mentally ******ed" used as a blunt insult.

 

I agree with you, it's not a word to be used as an insult. I've been making a conscious effort to stop using it offensively since I was 14, but sometimes it slips out due to being around people who use it as an insult all the time. Same thing with '***' and 'gay' as an insult.

With good parenting, maybe someday we can eliminate the use of these words to hurt others.

 

Although my IQ is high enough that I'm not medically ******ed, I still could be considered to be from a scientific standpoint. So if you want to call someone ******ed, say it to me. It's accurate to a degree but I won't take offense to it. (Just please make it a VM or something, no spam here)


What I think needs to be done here though is not the banning of the term, but rather for people to stop using it in a derogatory manner. I guess this is a step in the right direction as opposed to the game of cat and mouse there has been with whatever term is "politically correct" this week. But just banning the term keeps the prejudice and that is the truly what needs to dealt with. The joke of calling people "******ed" is a symptom, not the disease.

 

I'm with you on this one. I can't stand it when people use the R-word. It makes me sick.

This is largely due to someone very special to me. When I was growing up, I was best friends with a girl I'll call "Stef" for now. I was in the third grade when I first met her, she was maybe in kindergarten or first, one of the two. We rode the bus together. I never though she was different, or odd, just chalked it up to the fact that she was younger. But as we got older, I realized something seemed off. She was never in class with her peers, her speech was off, and she couldn't do many things I consider trivial. I later learned that she had Down's, and she had a younger brother who also had Down's. Both parents had carried the recessive trait, and has passed it to both children.

While I knew that she would never be at the same level as me, I didn't let it get in the way of our friendship. Other people tried to, making fun of and harassing both of us until she would break down in tears and ask me "Why don't they like me?" And I could never really tell her why.

Truth be told, I envied her. While I slaved away in high school over mid-terms, labs, projects and papers, she and two other special needs children had their own classroom where they made all sort of things. I remember her being so happy to show me a hurricane lamp she had decorated in class, then hearing her laugh as I slapped down a 12-page paper in retaliation. But what always rubbed me the wrong way was just that; they were kept separate from everyone else. They didn't go to class with the rest of their age group. They had their own table at lunch, and no one else except for their teacher was allowed to sit there. I kind of understand why now, but back then I just felt it was unfair.

Where is Stef now? It's been ages. She was a high school freshman when I graduated back in '06. Last I heard she had gone to a voc tech school and trained to become a medical assistant and was working at a pediatrician's office. Her brother, same age as mine, is on his way to the same school, or I think he might have one more year of high school left. But she's definitely proven that she's more than capable of holding her own. And she's part of the reason I pursued my career as a teacher.

Sorry if this feels like a bunch of gibberish, this is a very touchy subject for me and I'll probably end up going back and editing later.

 

Frankly, I only hate it when used wrongly. Much as many hate to admit, the phrase "mentally ******ed" does indeed refer to a specific mental disorder which, in most well known cases, can be considered a disability. In that sense, I find use of the term okay.

The word "******" can also be used as a verb to refer to the action of slowing down. ******ed can be used to mean the past tense of the verb or the adjectival phrase "having been slowed." You may, for example release the gas and apply the brake to ****** your car, the end result of which is your car having been ******ed.

Any other use of the word I find completely ignorant.

 

Our medical knowledge of mental disorders have changed drastically since as recently as the 1960s. If you had a disorder of some kind, you were shipped off to an asylum.(Heck, you could even be sent to the asylum for marriage problems, quarreling with your parents, or just studying too much.) And asylums were pretty much horrible to be in. I think I've read at one time that there were 3 nurses to 100 patients. These nurses were saints but it just can't be done.

I think the kinder term is Intellectually Disabled. Yes it's more syllables but it sounds nicer than the other term.

 

******ed only has one meaning, which is people who have mental disabilities.
There are no other meanings for it.

There is no "nice" way of saying it, either. It's always considered offensive or as an insult.

 

We shouldn't be using any cuss words at all to be frank. Specifically ones such as '***' 'Gay' or 'reatard'. Seriously, it's not nice.

 

Actually...

So yeah, Pillows is right in that there is another use for the word besides the medical definition and the insults.

Well, from my view, no one should say the insult in anyway whatsoever, as it's completely offensive and ignorant. My baby brother has/still has an epileptic history, and my cousin has autism, both of whom I love dearly. Yet they're still not any different to me. My cousin excels at a lot of things, like piano, and my brother isn't different at all; sure, he can't watch psychedelic shows, but he's still the same.

So in any definition of the word aside from the aforementioned one and the medical word, is wrong to me, because the people who do suffer a form of mental instance can do things and have talents just like we do -- and even more so.

 

No he's right. A simple dictionary search will tell you that one. The disability mental ******ation is named from the verb ******. It is a ****** of the person's mental ability. Expanding off of what I said earlier any mental disability could be reffered to as "mental ******ation" scientifically, however the medical term for mental ******ation has been refined and now refers to a specific branch of mental disabilities.

 

I know what it means, but I don't stop myself from saying it, or scold my friends when they say it. I understand saying, "Lol, that's ******ed." might be offensive to some people, but the definition of the word is;

So the fact it, the only annoyance comes from the fact that it's used wrong. Lol. I also hate it when it's used as an insult. Like calling someone a ******, or ******ed. I've never, ever called another person ******ed, but sometimes instead of calling something stupid, '******ed' can slip out. Not often, but...Meh. I take offense to any derogatory term directed at a human being, really. Inanimate objects? Not so much.
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While I'm not a fan of the word, it's for a different reason than some people. I don't like uncreative insults. I really hate it when people bring around their canned verbage and done to death lines and try to act superior over it. If you're too simple to even come up with your own ways to orally assault your enemies, then you're in no position to try. It's all well and good to argue whether it's the feeling or the term itself that is offensive, but I don't really care about that. Contexts and connotations will change, it's part of the inevitable march of language. However, it represents a degradation of wit and education in people as a whole when people have such impovershed vocabularies that they'd resort to such weak willed insults. Intelligent, knowledgeable people can and will insult in far more relevant, biting ways without dragging in extraneous terms. I have the same problem with gratiutous swearing. You can get your message across just as well, possibly even better if you think about what you're going to say and choose your words accurately and deliberately.

When it really comes down to it cheaply insulting people, witty or not, is also a sort of weak way to live in itself. Just being better than other people should be enough and people should be mature enough not to feel the need to rely on insults most of the time. However, I'll just assume that as humans we're never growing out of our scornful, egotistic ways.

 

Pretty much this. I'm commonly saying "this/that/it is ******ed" but I usually use it towards a task/command/event or something I just flat out don't like. I very rarely if not ever use the word towards a person, frankly because there's no reason to. I don't think it's wrong the way I use it and I don't plan on substituting the word. I don't say it to insult a person, I do agree that isn't right. Especially if they really are mentally ******ed, that's just something you don't do. Joking around with friends? I wouldn't punish anyone for that, honestly the word is too common for that. So I guess for me it comes down only if you are using the word to purposely insult someone that I see it being used improperly, again, especially with a disability.

 

Honestly, I see you guys' point, but just saying "Oh my god, you're so ******ed!" shouldn't be offensive in my opinion.
Why?
Because: Calling someone ****** is not making fun of someone with a mental illness, such as ******ation. The word ****** means, as mentioned, not mental ******ation. It means (to put it simple) slow/late. Wouldn't it then be offensive to people who are dumb to call them slow/dumb, because it's not their fault? No.

The ones taking offense to the word are the ones who are interpreting it as something negative, which it isn't at all, it's just something you say. I say it often, but I avoid saying it when there are people with mental diseases in the room or I am in a similar situation. That doesn't change the fact that it's a common word that people take offense to because they interpret it wrong. (Interpretation is on an individual level, so it's "wrong" of me to call it a wrong interpretation, but you get my point.)

Also, there are many cases where I believe the kin take offense, when the person actually having the disability doesn't care.
And before you ask, I know people who "suffers" from mental ******ation.

 

Personally I just don't care for the word being used as an insult. It unfortunately entered my vernacular because a lot of people toss it around these days, but I've just tried to replace it with 'silly' nowadays. Which sounds a bit silly (dohoho), but I'd rather not hurt anyone's feelings, and really it's just in bad taste imo.

I do think people are a little too into political correctness, like with this. I could understand getting upset if someone said "You have a mental disability" as an insult, but I don't really think that's always the case here. Either way though, I just find it easier to use a word that doesn't have the possibility to offend anyone.

 

Pretty much agree with this but without the overtones of pessimism about humanity. It's so true that if at the end of some high end debate, you make a point that is an undeniable fact and people state that 'you're such a ****** on the subject!'. THat's only when my pessimism for humanity starts to manifest.

I will state now that the use of swear words in my view does not mean your unintelligent, not in anyway. Sometimes when used effectively it can back up your emotional standpoint or cause your arguement to be more effective. Anyone who doesn't believe this is a ****ing moron.

In the end of things words eveolve and adapt to the time, place and the people that use them. Slang terms, colloquail terms and so on are changing to mean different things, whether people are aware of the original meaning, people will still use terms they think are relevant in situations they deem will be the right way to use.

The term ****** isn't used outside of North America specifically as an insult as far as I am aware of. I've never heard it used so anyway in Britain, but maybe in countries that use American media such as movies and televisions to learn the english language may have picked up the term along the way, but I wouldn't know. My point is that it is specific to the American culture as that specific term, the meaning elsewhere wouldn't necessarily be the same, so it can't be encompassed as a universally derogatory term if it isn't seen as such.

Specifically, an example of a word that develops by place is a word mentoined before '***'. In Northern America it is a derogetary term for homosexuality, in Britain it is a slang term for cigarettes. You ask for a *** in America you'll be looked at in a weird way. In Britain you'll actually get a response such as 'no' or 'yes.
Obviously if I was to use the term in America I maybe labelled as homophobic, but in reality it is my cultural ignorance that would cause me to be viewed as such. And cultural ignorance isn't something people can always be blamed for, since misinformation from the media, the constant changing of languages and the culture, both doemstic and foreign can mean that the use of a term transforms so quickly we are unable to keep up.

Basically my point is that the word shouldn't be hated, but the way certain people use it is what should be highly frowned upon. Eventually the term '******' will die out and not be used as a form of insult, it will just die in history and another word will be uesd to replace it.

 

I see why people see it as rude but I think it's more the intention behind the word- if it's used to be offensive then it's not on at all but to use it as just an adjective to describe a concept or something is fine. It's the same with the word 'gay', everytime any of my friends use it one of my friends turns to them and says "You're being homophobic!" when they're not really relating it to gays in any way, it's just become a word to mean 'silly'.

I don't use it personally as I don't really like to but I don't think it's completely wrong to use it as long as it's in the right context.