Wikepedia states
“Much like today’s socially acceptable terms idiot and moron, which are also defined as some sort of mental disability, when the term retard is being used in its pejorative form, it is usually not being directed at people with mental disabilities. Instead, people use the term when teasing their friends or as a general insult.”
Is it only a slur if directed at soneone with mental disabilities? Is it a slur if durected at onself?
Whats lemmies take on this?
We have shifted from using MR (mentally retarded) to using ID (intellectual disability). Even before that change, we tended to say MR instead of retarded, i guess because of the way it gets thrown around negatively and feels uncomfortable to say. Similarly, people are using autistic negatively to describe someone who’s quirky or introverted, narrowing what’s seen as ‘normal’. If you have to ask if it’s ok to say something, other people will probably have a gut reaction to you if you say it. Whether that matters is up to you.
In my state all state run sites they use the terms LMHA (local mental health authorities) and LBHA (local behavioral health authorities). But a large majority of the local offices call themselves <County Name> MHMR (mental health mental retardation).
All the laws and support systems use the term IDD (intellectual or developmental disability). And you’d be hard pressed to find any county that actually lists the full name for their MHMR office. So it seems like they are trying to phase it out. In the meantime it just makes things confusing.