We are free to express ourselves (in accordance with the law), just about any way that we choose to. I do not enjoy hearing the “R” word: “retard” and “retarded.”
And I will tell you why…
As these two words are now commonly used? They are (at all times), meant as a euphemistic put-down. And the genesis of the “put-down” itself is based on disparaging a population of special needs individuals who have always been viewed as inferior to the person mouthing the words: “retard” and “retarded.”
What does it mean if one’s best friend is acting “retarded?” He or she is behaving like a crazy person. Or, conducting him- or herself like a whack job. Far, far afield of any recognizable vestige of that person’s typical or acceptable comportment.
When a party is said to be “retarded?” That party is understood to be insane, stupid or just plain ridiculous. When a friend tells another friend to “stop being such a retard,” the admonishment is targeting an unflattering or all too simple-minded behavior that is only marginally tolerable when exhibited even by “those” people — who damn sure aren’t like “us”!
When the suffix “-tard” is added on to any adjective or noun, the resulting conjunction is intended to render a word that will connote an inferior, idiotic or dumber-than-dirt, juxtaposed quantity.
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