• secret300@lemmy.sdf.org
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    10 months ago

    Give it a few more years and then “mentally disabled” will be the new retarded. We’ll cringe at how people would say they’re “disabled”.

    I work with the mentally disabled and have for a while now. I love my guys but it’s so annoying seeing how new terms will come and go throughout the years constantly.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      10 months ago

      The Euphemism Treadmill might stop when the term is so clinically dry as “mentally disabled”. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue of a schoolyard bully the way “retarded” does. I dunno, we’ll see.

      • Wahots@pawb.social
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        10 months ago

        I’m pretty sure that “mentally retarded” was the medical term for many decades, before it became cultural lingo. There was something similar for erectile dysfunction too, they used to call you impotent, not exactly a great thing to hear at the doctor’s office.

      • pyre@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        retarded doesn’t have any more negative meaning than disabled. it’s just about how we use it.