I find it absolutely fascinating that the words "imbecile", "idiot", and "moron" were real terms used to describe the different levels of retardation.
Idiots. —Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years.
Imbeciles. —Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years.
Morons. —Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.
— Edmund Burke Huey, Backward and Feeble-Minded Children, 1912
Those words are colloquial today. You can call anyone an idiot, imbecile, or moron with little to no reaction.
Call someone retarded? You're the worst person on Earth.
You know how the anti-retard movement started, right? Oversensitive parents and do-gooder activists in the disability community took it upon themselves to create a messaging campaign the slurify the word for no other reason than they were offended that kids were using it as an epithet on the playground. It was so successful that the APA, in authoring the DSM 5, changed mental retardation to intellectual disability; same criteria. That was 2013. "Stop the R word" began (I think) around 2006.
So in 20 more years when kids are calling each other "intellectually disabled" as an epithet, I imagine the same bored activists will take up yet another cause and change the language yet again. All so they can self-congratulate at their cocktail parties.
This categorization was included in a health textbook in use when I was in junior high school in the late 1960s. IIRC it actually included IQ ranges for the different levels. It was all quite clinical.
I actually remember my biology textbook (I think high school, but possibly college), listing those terms with the definitions you have given, along with photos to illustrate each one. It did include the explanation that this was outdated and the preferred language was retarded. I guess this gives away how old I am. I remember at the time being surprised that it had actually been considered scientific terminology, as it was by that time already fully pejorative, but still recent enough to be referred to in a textbook.
To me, this is a failure of philosophy. The dirty little secret of philosophy is that like 90% of it is definitions and categories. For example, in the debate between free will and determinism, the determinists won by defining 'free will' as something impossible.
Altering our language like this has been a primary tactic in dismantling objective standards. I think this trend was started by some of the postmodern "philosophers", and they were typically trying to justify or normalize Marxism and sexual perversion.
We should do a piece on the langauge erosion in the mental health field and how it has created an entire culture of people who now believe they can diagnose themeslves and also no longer believe that mental illness is temporary.
It has also created an entire culture of people that advertise & brag about their mental health problems & don’t want to be relieved of them in fear of losing their special status on the victim ladder.
Yes. I worked in a home for the mentally retarded in the early '70s. That was the accepted, 'enlightened' term; we felt politically correct saying it.
On another vein, do you notice that no one says "I think" anymore... instead they "feel":"I feel like". It's idiotic and directly reflects that feelings are validated over reasoned thoughts.
Yep all the young girls that 'feel like a boy". What does that feel like if they have never had a penis? They don't know the difference between acting like a boy and being one, me thinks.
She's doing what politicians find sometimes successful-she's pandering to a certain group by promising that group all kinds of goodies if elected. But people rarely realize the pandering will never be reality. Even Trump was going to drain the swamp but the swamp drained Trump.
The average American has the attention span of a gnat. They see the shinny object with some fancy wording and they're taken in. While true on both sides it's certainly is much more entrenched in today's "liberal"-Whatever that word might now mean.
Harris represents our modern culture. No substance, no intelligence, no real achievements, just a vapid personality full of platitudes and victimhood.
It's a $20billion bribe. That's nothing! I mean, it will probably get her at least a million votes. Heck, there are like 20 million black men, that could put her over the top! What a deal!!!
$20,000, black dudes for Kamala, and the only catch is you have to vote for her.
That's way more effective than Obama calling you misogynists if you don't vote for her.
Of course like Spengler said, democracy ends and civilization collapses when the people figure out they can vote for politicians who will give them things. Not that you will ever actually get that thing.
Hi Josh, always loving the work you and Kevin put into the podcast and your Substack. I was expecting someone to point this out to your at some point, but just in case that has not happened, please let me try! I had (recently passed, age 56) a sister with Down's Syndrome. Several other disabilities, but the point is she was never on equal footing with those around her. Can't tell you the number of times her heart was broken (mine, too, watching this impact) by being verbally attacked, mocked for her appearance and slow capability. Unable to defend herself physically or verbally. And the people who love her find this devastating. Lots of feelings, and I know you are no stranger to that damage of unexpected attack. One moment, laughing and smiling, and the next stunned at a loud "RETARD!" shout. It is intended to hurt. Unfair and pointed, like the man who passed you on the street and waited until shouting "where's your mask?" Whatever point he thought he was making was just shaming and making others feel bad. Like I feel bad when someone drops a thoughtless 'retard'. fwiw, comedians Marc Maron and Anthony Jeselnik both had something happen at one of their individual comedy shows; they used the word 'RETARD' and there was someone in the audience that was visibly in that category. They both saw the horrified look at the person (in both cases an older parent) attending the show with their grown child. Crushed. Just a thought for your consideration, thanks for reading. btw, I'm a founding member for your Substack and hope you have many more people step up and support you. Thanks, John C.
It's one thing to call a friend a "retard" for making dumb decisions, and it's very much another to mock someone with actual disabilities.
Attacking your sister with "DOWN SYNDROME! Har har!" is just as cruel as using "retard." Nobody should ever make fun of people who are trying their best but are impeded through no fault of their own. They don't deserve it. It doesn't matter which word is used: it's the intent to humiliate that hurts.
The fact that people hurt your sister with "retard" means that we shouldn't use that term to speak to or refer to people with intellectual impairments. It shouldn't prevent us from using it on Twitter to thwap trolls.
I’m sorry all that happened. Don’t be mistaken: I’m not unaware of this. You may have missed it above, but I talk about my own profoundly retarded aunt (not DS). I grew up with her and I know what it’s like in public, and the other travails people and their families go through.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not proposing cruelty. And I think if you go back and read this in a few days, the original essay, you’ll see that I’m not. The point is very different from what I think you’ve taken, and I think you may be personalizing. This isn’t personal to you, and also I understand it in my family the way you do.
"Cretin" originally meant someone suffering from congenital hypothyroidism, which caused mental impairment as well as physical problems. Now such a condition is successfully treated with thyroxine from birth.
I remember the late 80s and early 90s when the use of retarded - as we were using it at the time during my formative high school years - was the start of wokeism. They called it "political correctness" (or "PC") and many people fell in line, just as they've done w/ the preferred pronouns of contemporary society. The words fag and queer were also immediately off limits.
What struck me at the time reminds me of the cries of racism, and our society trying to stamp it out. If you're so offended by this behavior, why on earth would you want the non-PC offender to go into hiding? Wouldn't you prefer to know who these people are, so that you can avoid them at all costs?
Is it better to have the members of the KKK or the non-PC bigots to remove their hoods, only to lurk amongst the ranks of the unaware but morally pure?
In closing, I wish we weren't being led by the perpetually offended few. Calm the eff down and, as Touchdown Timmy says, mind your own business.
I find it absolutely fascinating that the words "imbecile", "idiot", and "moron" were real terms used to describe the different levels of retardation.
Idiots. —Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years.
Imbeciles. —Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years.
Morons. —Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.
— Edmund Burke Huey, Backward and Feeble-Minded Children, 1912
Those words are colloquial today. You can call anyone an idiot, imbecile, or moron with little to no reaction.
Call someone retarded? You're the worst person on Earth.
You know how the anti-retard movement started, right? Oversensitive parents and do-gooder activists in the disability community took it upon themselves to create a messaging campaign the slurify the word for no other reason than they were offended that kids were using it as an epithet on the playground. It was so successful that the APA, in authoring the DSM 5, changed mental retardation to intellectual disability; same criteria. That was 2013. "Stop the R word" began (I think) around 2006.
So in 20 more years when kids are calling each other "intellectually disabled" as an epithet, I imagine the same bored activists will take up yet another cause and change the language yet again. All so they can self-congratulate at their cocktail parties.
Euphemism treamill, indeed.
I thought "retard" became a slur naturally (like "thug"). I did not know there was a movement to abolish it.
It didn't work very well. My son graduated high school in 2019 and "retard" was still chugging along.
😂 Damn, wish I lived in a world where words are the worst thing going.
Wait for it...words may in fact 'hurt' worse, because they anesthiatise the brain; locking into a non-contextualized similcrum of reality
I’ll buy that.
This categorization was included in a health textbook in use when I was in junior high school in the late 1960s. IIRC it actually included IQ ranges for the different levels. It was all quite clinical.
That may very well be the book I read. It also included the numerical range.
Woudn't that be funny?
Billy got an idiot grade, Mary got a moron grade.
Sarah passed as an imbecile.
Dylan got a 'retarded' for participation.
I actually remember my biology textbook (I think high school, but possibly college), listing those terms with the definitions you have given, along with photos to illustrate each one. It did include the explanation that this was outdated and the preferred language was retarded. I guess this gives away how old I am. I remember at the time being surprised that it had actually been considered scientific terminology, as it was by that time already fully pejorative, but still recent enough to be referred to in a textbook.
To me, this is a failure of philosophy. The dirty little secret of philosophy is that like 90% of it is definitions and categories. For example, in the debate between free will and determinism, the determinists won by defining 'free will' as something impossible.
Altering our language like this has been a primary tactic in dismantling objective standards. I think this trend was started by some of the postmodern "philosophers", and they were typically trying to justify or normalize Marxism and sexual perversion.
We should do a piece on the langauge erosion in the mental health field and how it has created an entire culture of people who now believe they can diagnose themeslves and also no longer believe that mental illness is temporary.
Feel free to write it. I'd love to publish it!
It has also created an entire culture of people that advertise & brag about their mental health problems & don’t want to be relieved of them in fear of losing their special status on the victim ladder.
We pulled our kid out of therapy. My therapist talks the gender talk, but I will not be swayed.
Yes. I worked in a home for the mentally retarded in the early '70s. That was the accepted, 'enlightened' term; we felt politically correct saying it.
On another vein, do you notice that no one says "I think" anymore... instead they "feel":"I feel like". It's idiotic and directly reflects that feelings are validated over reasoned thoughts.
Yes. I've noticed "I feel" for years now.
Clears throat, raises hand, offers video explainer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIn8IeJda7U
Thank you for this link. The “I feel” thing always rubbed me the wrong way but I never gave a thought as to why. This explained it perfectly.
Rather it takes one off the hook for whst are thoughts.
Not that feeling is wrong, feeling is good. Both are necessatated.
Yep all the young girls that 'feel like a boy". What does that feel like if they have never had a penis? They don't know the difference between acting like a boy and being one, me thinks.
She's doing what politicians find sometimes successful-she's pandering to a certain group by promising that group all kinds of goodies if elected. But people rarely realize the pandering will never be reality. Even Trump was going to drain the swamp but the swamp drained Trump.
The average American has the attention span of a gnat. They see the shinny object with some fancy wording and they're taken in. While true on both sides it's certainly is much more entrenched in today's "liberal"-Whatever that word might now mean.
Harris represents our modern culture. No substance, no intelligence, no real achievements, just a vapid personality full of platitudes and victimhood.
It's a $20billion bribe. That's nothing! I mean, it will probably get her at least a million votes. Heck, there are like 20 million black men, that could put her over the top! What a deal!!!
$20,000, black dudes for Kamala, and the only catch is you have to vote for her.
That's way more effective than Obama calling you misogynists if you don't vote for her.
Of course like Spengler said, democracy ends and civilization collapses when the people figure out they can vote for politicians who will give them things. Not that you will ever actually get that thing.
Thanks so much for writing this article. It's a great share with folks.
The euphemism treadmill serves another purpose too.
The same one as knowing which is the fish fork and which way the port is supposed to be passed on a fancy table.
One of us.
Mina the task mistress 🥰
Socialism/"equity" breeds sloth.
Get out of my head! Lol
This is one of my favorite pet peeves.
And I couldn’t have worded it better than you have.
Hi Josh, always loving the work you and Kevin put into the podcast and your Substack. I was expecting someone to point this out to your at some point, but just in case that has not happened, please let me try! I had (recently passed, age 56) a sister with Down's Syndrome. Several other disabilities, but the point is she was never on equal footing with those around her. Can't tell you the number of times her heart was broken (mine, too, watching this impact) by being verbally attacked, mocked for her appearance and slow capability. Unable to defend herself physically or verbally. And the people who love her find this devastating. Lots of feelings, and I know you are no stranger to that damage of unexpected attack. One moment, laughing and smiling, and the next stunned at a loud "RETARD!" shout. It is intended to hurt. Unfair and pointed, like the man who passed you on the street and waited until shouting "where's your mask?" Whatever point he thought he was making was just shaming and making others feel bad. Like I feel bad when someone drops a thoughtless 'retard'. fwiw, comedians Marc Maron and Anthony Jeselnik both had something happen at one of their individual comedy shows; they used the word 'RETARD' and there was someone in the audience that was visibly in that category. They both saw the horrified look at the person (in both cases an older parent) attending the show with their grown child. Crushed. Just a thought for your consideration, thanks for reading. btw, I'm a founding member for your Substack and hope you have many more people step up and support you. Thanks, John C.
It's one thing to call a friend a "retard" for making dumb decisions, and it's very much another to mock someone with actual disabilities.
Attacking your sister with "DOWN SYNDROME! Har har!" is just as cruel as using "retard." Nobody should ever make fun of people who are trying their best but are impeded through no fault of their own. They don't deserve it. It doesn't matter which word is used: it's the intent to humiliate that hurts.
The fact that people hurt your sister with "retard" means that we shouldn't use that term to speak to or refer to people with intellectual impairments. It shouldn't prevent us from using it on Twitter to thwap trolls.
Hi John,
I’m sorry all that happened. Don’t be mistaken: I’m not unaware of this. You may have missed it above, but I talk about my own profoundly retarded aunt (not DS). I grew up with her and I know what it’s like in public, and the other travails people and their families go through.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not proposing cruelty. And I think if you go back and read this in a few days, the original essay, you’ll see that I’m not. The point is very different from what I think you’ve taken, and I think you may be personalizing. This isn’t personal to you, and also I understand it in my family the way you do.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
"Cretin" originally meant someone suffering from congenital hypothyroidism, which caused mental impairment as well as physical problems. Now such a condition is successfully treated with thyroxine from birth.
I remember the late 80s and early 90s when the use of retarded - as we were using it at the time during my formative high school years - was the start of wokeism. They called it "political correctness" (or "PC") and many people fell in line, just as they've done w/ the preferred pronouns of contemporary society. The words fag and queer were also immediately off limits.
What struck me at the time reminds me of the cries of racism, and our society trying to stamp it out. If you're so offended by this behavior, why on earth would you want the non-PC offender to go into hiding? Wouldn't you prefer to know who these people are, so that you can avoid them at all costs?
Is it better to have the members of the KKK or the non-PC bigots to remove their hoods, only to lurk amongst the ranks of the unaware but morally pure?
In closing, I wish we weren't being led by the perpetually offended few. Calm the eff down and, as Touchdown Timmy says, mind your own business.
Oh my god! I am so distraught my daughter is friends with all the female hims and also one of them at school! Ugh!!!! There’s no winning this!
Reason released this today about US Presidents use of the word, “we.”
https://reason.com/2024/10/14/the-presidential-we/