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Old 10-08-2004, 07:53 PM   #57
xoxoxoBruce
The future is unwritten
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vindwyn
I'm not excessively PC! I guess it comes from working with the disabled. The word retarded is just sad.
No it's not, it's a perfectly good word. What is sad is the images it brings to mind for anyone who has worked with or even contacted retarded kids. Also the reaction of much of the public to those same kids.

It's not the word, it's never the word, or the dictionary definition of the word. It's always the baggage we pile on the word in our minds.

The same thing with the word homosexual. The queers piled so much baggage on it, they felt they had to appropriate gay. (That pisses me off because that was a wonderful word that I haven't found a replacement for.)

Anyway, don't blame the words for the feelings you internalize, or feel others internalize, when you hear it. Changeing words won't change peoples perception, and that's what has to be done
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