Talk:Intellectual disability

Missionality?

I'm having a hard time seeing how this is on mission in its current form. Also, the tone is a bit tight-arsed. Where's the snark? --MtD^{Notorious Sodomite} 04:39, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

I just put the framework down. I felt the article could be appropriate since it has been a controversial, often kneejerk political issue lately and there is quite a bit of reactionary bullshit going on with people fighting tooth and nail to maintain their willful ignorance on mental health issues as well as some really manipulative think of the children hand-wringing by activists. I've been thinking of writing a larger article on ableism, so maybe this could be merged into that when I get around to that.

As far as the lack of humor goes, I didn't have the time to pull up some of the really over-the-top statements made by politicians, pundits, and activists on this issue. Those along with the escalation of the euphemism treadmill are good sources of satire. I just think it's important that we don't engage in punching downward by making fun of people with mental retardation (whether directly or using them as a negative comparison) for the same reason we don't make fun of abuse victims. That's just my view, though. Larry Wumpus (talk) 15:23, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

<ctrl-F>"euphemism treadmill" and it seems you're on the right track. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 16:04, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Random crap

Just added some snark to the tight arsed "it's only used as a pejorative" opening. if you're competent with operators, you can get 9M+ pages mentioning retardation, not in any mental setting. don't have a problem with the article, but that opening just smacks of... don't know, bit too pissed to think of the right simile right now :-) Random bloke (talk) 12:15, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Major re-write required

Apart from, as Random Bloke has pointed out, retard being quite a common technical word outside of the playground, hyperbole like When you really think about it, mental retardation is one of the most tragic, fucked up situations in the world. is just plain wrong. Ask Mencap. The mentally challenged will have their problems but to call their situation "fucked up" is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Sorry but just plain wrong. Placeholder (talk) 12:53, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

You're right. I hadn't noticed that latest expansion on 12 April, which is full of all kinds of ignorance. I suggest rolling back to the 10 April version & working from there. As for stuff about other uses of retardation and related terms, it seems pointless to me. We're not a dictionary and the article is already called 'mental retardation'. Wèàšèìòìď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 17:04, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

But shouldn't we rename the article or whatever? After all, AFAIK, the term has fallen out of flavor among English-speaking psychologists. --Raysenn ^{Get the paddles, he's having a cancer!} 23:21, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

The fun part is that the 12 April expansion was done by the original author of the article...--ZooGuard (talk) 19:36, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Retard/retarded as a pejorative

I don't see what's wrong with using an intellectual disability as a metaphor to describe how stupid someone is being. Same thing happened with idiot, moron, and imbecile, and we don't seem to have a problem with that. Zygote (talk) 16:33, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

the reason you don see that for other insults is because they've been almost entirely detached from intellectual disability (which of course happened because people were using the words as an insult). Vorarchivist (talk) 19:28, 28 July 2018 (UTC)

It matters more depending on how people with the disability react now, IMO. You still shouldn't be using it to refer to their condition. --It's-a me, LeftyGreenMario! 19:38, 28 July 2018 (UTC)

@Vorarchivist So what we need to do is keep using retard/retarded as an insult, and it will lose its medical association.

@LeftyGreenMario I personally don't prioritize someone's feelings because there's always someone to offend. And it's not like mere words are that big of an obstacle, they can easily be ignored. Zygote (talk) 16:33, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

@Zygote Do you have kids? ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 10:59, 31 July 2018 (UTC)

No, but how is that relevant? Zygote (talk) 18:55, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Let's say you did, let's say that you fight with them, are at times frustrated by them, but love them. Let's say one of them has autism (since that's apparently a Bad Thing which must be used as an insult and demonized, because "normal" people say so.) Let's then say that someone used used the word Autistic as an insult within earshot of you. Given your emotional commitment in this situation, not to mention your ethical framework, how would you react? How would you feel? Please be honest. ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 19:00, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

I wouldn't care, I use autism as an insult myself. And it's perfectly fair to consider autism abnormal, as it's uncommon. It's not something you'd expect of a human. Zygote (talk) 20:57, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Genius is abnormal, sentience is abnormal, life itself is abnormal. Normality is the average, the herd, the status quo. Appealing to "normality" is a lazy excuse not to examine your own thoughts and actions. ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 21:02, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Normal among humans, mate. I don't have anything against autism though if that's what you're thinking. Zygote (talk) 21:07, 1 August 2018 (UTC)