• DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    This is like the 4th time I’ve seen “retard” used on Lemmy today, I thought we all stopped using that word in the 2000s. I also haven’t heard “welfare queen” in a while either.

    Poilievre isn’t a good person, but we can target him and his political party with words that don’t hit others in the crossfire.

    • dlpkl@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Are you implying that retard is a class of people? Because I doubt whoever you’re concerned about would raise their hand to identify as one.

      • DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        The people I am concerned about are those like my sister with Downs.

        “Retarded” stopped being used by the American government to refer to people with intellectual disabilities in the 2010s. Even though I am not American, our cultures are intertwined enough that what they do matters.

        • dlpkl@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Again I doubt your sister would choose to identify with that word. Languages evolve, and you’re clinging on to a meaning that was lost decades ago. It’s a dead slur and it doesn’t take a genius to recognize that it’s not disparaging towards the intellectually disabled, but go ahead and clutch your pearls.

    • Oderus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Retard was a widely used word before it was considered non-PC so people, like me still use the term literally and not in a way that denigrates mentally handicapped people. I don’t use the term everywhere, just around my local friends who are like-minded.