It's so riddiculous. The poltiically correct term for that group changes faster than any reasonable person can keep up with.
To compare, how many times has the official label for any other minority changed? Black people were Negros/Colored People for a few decades, and now they are African Americans/Black people, and no one is campaigning to end these terms just because racists make bad statements involving the world "black people." The Jews were always "the Jews" despite the term sometimes being used in a VERY insulting context. The physically handicapped aren't campaigning to end the words "handicapped" or "disabled" or even "cripple."
But for the mentally disabled the term seems to change basically as soon as the general public is able to figure out what it means, and then the new term is something more vague sounding. ("Mentally retarded" became "mentally disabled," became "intellectually disabled...")
I don't have anything against mentally disabled people themselves. But the politics surrounding them are really irritating. Most mentally disabled people I've met seem pretty laid back, but their parents and white-knights can and will get offended by ANYTHING.
IIN I'm bothered that people are bothered by the term 'retard'?
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It's so riddiculous. The poltiically correct term for that group changes faster than any reasonable person can keep up with.
To compare, how many times has the official label for any other minority changed? Black people were Negros/Colored People for a few decades, and now they are African Americans/Black people, and no one is campaigning to end these terms just because racists make bad statements involving the world "black people." The Jews were always "the Jews" despite the term sometimes being used in a VERY insulting context. The physically handicapped aren't campaigning to end the words "handicapped" or "disabled" or even "cripple."
But for the mentally disabled the term seems to change basically as soon as the general public is able to figure out what it means, and then the new term is something more vague sounding. ("Mentally retarded" became "mentally disabled," became "intellectually disabled...")
I don't have anything against mentally disabled people themselves. But the politics surrounding them are really irritating. Most mentally disabled people I've met seem pretty laid back, but their parents and white-knights can and will get offended by ANYTHING.