• Nope. This isn’t the time for this. Grow up, people sensitive to the use of rude words. We have fascists to fight, and we need every single person we can get to fight them.

  • Haess
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    274 days ago

    And MAGAts are currently clutching their pearls over Crocketts ‘Hot Wheels’ comment… Fucking traitorous clowns.

  • @Uniquitous@lemmy.one
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    83 days ago

    But hey, let’s all get the knives out for Jasmine Crockett calling the dipshit in Texas “Hot Wheels.”

  • @BranBucket@lemmy.world
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    63 days ago

    If course it’s unsurprising. The man has a very clear pattern of surrounding himself with people who he believes will do and think exactly the way he wants, and then cutting ties with them anytime they deviate from his expectations.

    • Billiam
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      94 days ago

      Given the amount of media literacy the right in general and Elon in particular has, he’d probably watch Tropic Thunder and think the point was “It’s okay to do blackface.”

    • @NotLemming@lemm.ee
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      64 days ago

      Retard. To be fair, I don’t feel it’s very offensive as I’ve never heard it used as a slur in my part of the world. Elon probably feels the same - as he’s not american either.

      • @givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        184 days ago

        Elon probably feels the same - as he’s not american either.

        He grew up in apartheid era South Africa…

        To parents who fled Canada because it wasnt pro Nazi enough…

        So if you’re arguing that’s ok because of how he grew up, I’d remind you the Nazis killed the intellectually disabled as well, and that word was used in reference to the killing of them.

        Like, I understand the argument you’re trying to make, but it only makes sense if you were completely ignorant of the topic.

        • @OrteilGenou@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          Wait, it was used in reference to the killing if the intellectually disabled in Nazi Germany? I thought the use of that term started in the sixties

          • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮
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            4 days ago

            The word originates as far back as 1426. I just find it crazy that it’s the only one considered a perjorative. Idiot, stupid, moron… All acceptable, and all have similar origins of being medical terms used to describe persons with impaired cognitive abilities that are now exclusively used as insults.

      • “R-Word” is a ridiculous over correction. It demeans the reason why “N-Word” exists. We collectively said the N-Word is out of bounds because it’s the very least anyone can do given historical events that continue to resonate to this very day (god dammit). Now the Internet thinks “R-Word” is a good idea. Why? The word is “Retard.” It’s okay to say retard. What’s not okay is demeaning people by calling them any derogatory term, and blacklisting words thinking that will somehow correct the problem is the height of hubris – as if there are no other suitable replacements. It’s an attempt to take a shortcut to a societal problem. It is, in a word, retarded (you can look up the definition in a dictionary and see it’s an appropriate usage).

        • @eric5949@lemmy.world
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          34 days ago

          Retard just means slow, and not mentally it just means slow as in not fast. There are absolutely other uses for it than talking shit about disabled people, for instance when you make bread the step where you put the dough in the fridge is called retarding, or a cold retard.

        • @NotLemming@lemm.ee
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          34 days ago

          I wouldn’t have a reason to use it here but if I travelled to another place I’d certainly be respectful of their language and customs and make sure not to accidentally offend anyone. He doesn’t seem to care since he’s an arrogant prick.

        • @noride@lemm.ee
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          84 days ago

          “I need to retard the timing on my carburetor because it’s suddenly 1973 again”

        • @NotLemming@lemm.ee
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          34 days ago

          I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used by an English person. It reminds me of ‘en retard’ which means late in French.

            • @NotLemming@lemm.ee
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              14 days ago

              I’m not saying I haven’t heard any offensive terms for the disabled, just not that one. A lot of them are dialect or slang words, probably spaz (spastic) is the most common but there are lots.

              • Flic
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                4 days ago

                yeah I know! But it was very common for a long time. Retard was voted worst by British disabled people in the early 2000s (and of course the Spastics Society had to rename to Scope in the 90s because of the misuse of the term, so it’s significant if R is worse). Currently both on the “strong” column in the ofcom list (which is a sometimes fun, sometimes horrible reference guide). https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/research-and-data/tv-radio-and-on-demand-research/tv-research/offensive-language-quick-reference-guide.pdf
                It took the US a *lot* longer to recognise spastic/spaz as offensive too.

                • @NotLemming@lemm.ee
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                  14 days ago

                  I can’t believe I wasn’t hearing it, but maybe that was because of where I grew up, where we might say someone was slow or backwards (not meaning to offend) rather than use intellectual disability, which is quite a formal term. I thought the R one was a recent Americanism (like so much today, bah humbug).

                  I only quite recently learned that the word cripple is considered offensive. A lot of these words seem respectable to me somehow, but I suppose many of them started out that way and only became offensive due to how they were used as insults. Like moron, idiot etc were originally medical categories. I’ll have a look at the list, thanks. I’m sure there will some surprises for me.

      • i learned about it being offensive as an “evolution” of american english. i do agree the simple form, out of american english context, means slow.

        the default, in american context, now seems to be retarded mental growth.

        better to not use it, or at least, know your audience. elon is a moron and can’t read a fucking room to save his life.

      • @Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        13 days ago

        It’s only because R word was being heavily censored in reddit. Any use of that word was an immediate comment removal and ban, even if the context wasn’t attacking the disabled/demeaning them.

  • @bblkargonaut@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    This is why these retards are in power now. There is enough damage being done to our country to have things to legitimately be upset about. Tangible things like all the kids dying of measles, the dismantling of our research institutions, and gambling our future prosperity away by making it known to our allies that America’s word means nothing and starting retarded trade wars.

    No one gives a shit if some Karen is upset about about people calling each other retards. The word has to much utility to be policed out of use. This is why we need Xbox live lobbies to return, let people grow thick skin because Ive been called everything in the urban dictionary.

    I may be jaded but I had an undergrad get upset with me once when they asked me to look at some bacterial colonies they were growing on agar plates. I looked at the plates and said they look retarded, as in their growth was retarded because she used minimum media instead of rich media by accident. No I didn’t get in trouble with any admins.

    • … I had an undergrad get upset with me once … I looked at the plates and said they look retarded, as in their growth was retarded because she used minimum media instead of rich media by accident.

      That’s retarded.