Yeah, ‘retarded’ has been made into the socially and politically incorrect ‘R word’, but really is it so different than referring to people as “slow”, “dumb”, “idiotic”, or, as said with irony, “special”? It seems now to have moved beyond being a “sensitive” term—like, I don’t know, “mentally challenged”?—but not yet beyond recognition of its clinical use, such as with dumb or idiotic.
In that sense, is it so different from the dynamic with the ever-moving proper term for “Negroes”, “blacks”, or “African-Americans”?
Can you imagine if Bill Oreilly or Rush Limbaugh were caught saying that term in private?