There’s a clear campaign against the mentally ill with the global rise of fascism. Lots of it shows up in anti homeless rhetoric, but you can see it in the MAHA and anti vaccination movements.
There’s no reason to use the word “r-tarded” to describe someone. As someone who’s worked with the intellectually challenged, it’s an insult to them to compare them with people who are willfully ignorant.
Well that’s the thing, the word is not being used to insult people who are actually afflicted with the condition.
Exactly, and that’s already a particularly hateful thing to do that many people have a problem with, so what’s your point? You’re asking me what if you didn’t want people to do it and I’m telling you that’s something many people already don’t want people to do, so the hypothetical doesn’t make sense.
I’m saying that playing language police in this way is a waste of time and effort because even if you get people to play along, you haven’t really accomplished much of anything when people just reach for a synonym for the exact same purpose.