I really like the use of the word 'fucktard' as it differentiates between genuine intellectual deficiency and willful, malicious stupidity. The use of the word 'fuck' effectively conveys the outrage and exasperation the observer feels. I'd define a fucktard as someone who willfuly behaves in a way that is irrational and harmful.
I've heard the word 'retard' applied as an adjective in derogatory fashion for as long as I can recall. Usually in a context that made me feel that it was the intellectually retarded people who should take umbrage at the comparison, as the alleged 'retards' were often doing blatantly stupid, stubborn and destructive things when they were in posession of ample capacity to avoid it. I feel that such misuse is the cause of the adjective 'retard' coming to be seen as an offensive one. If people were to start calling rightful fucktards 'person with intellectual impairment' in a derisive manner, that expression, too would lose favour.
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Re: 'Slow' = offensive?
Date: 2006-07-22 12:26 pm (UTC)I've heard the word 'retard' applied as an adjective in derogatory fashion for as long as I can recall. Usually in a context that made me feel that it was the intellectually retarded people who should take umbrage at the comparison, as the alleged 'retards' were often doing blatantly stupid, stubborn and destructive things when they were in posession of ample capacity to avoid it. I feel that such misuse is the cause of the adjective 'retard' coming to be seen as an offensive one. If people were to start calling rightful fucktards 'person with intellectual impairment' in a derisive manner, that expression, too would lose favour.
(If it does, I'll be sure to send you a memo.)