American conservatives are not generally known for approving of politically correct speech, hence my pessimism that Sarah Palin's attempt to get a bit of respect for people like her son will be taken up by many on her side except for those who would see it as an opportunity to score a point against their political opponents.

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Did you ever think that Palin's support of this has more to do with being a mother rather than a politician?

Using the word retard has negative implications. It's a nasty insult. It shouldn't be used in that context.

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We've plenty of words that insult someone as stupid : fool, fckwit, moron , numptie , idiot, gobdaw

I'm not sure why one of those words, retard, deserves to be singled out ?

cYp

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Because none of those words are used to mock the mentally challenged.

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Campaign makes sense... in a way... One retarded lady looking to censor the use of the word 'retard'.. I agree with campaigning against the stigma but not the word

Tenner bet she won't seek to ban the word 'f.a.g.g.o.t' because it doesn't affect her personally and.. oh yeh.. it's in the bible and that gives it the SkyFairy's seal of approval. So that's fair game.

Sarah Palin is as thick as elephant sh1te in a bottle and that's 10 times thicker than tar! 'It' gives women a bad name!

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You are fooling nobody. It is obvious you would not have started this thread if Sara Palin had not been involved in calling for people to stop using 'retard' as a term of abuse. You obsession with her is becoming tiresome .

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I thought that was implied by what I said? As low an opinion as I have of her in general, I wouldn't be quite so cynical to think that she is prepared to use her son purely to score political points. So I'm certainly willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I don't have such a 'high' opinion of most of her colleagues, however.

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Moron and Idiot used to be the official medical terms for different levels of severity in mental retardation.

In fact 'moron' at least - actually began as a scientific term, then was used as an insult and has fallen out of use as a result of the stigma of the insult.

Whatever word replaces 'retard' may or may not become an abusive term as well in time (although we are probably becoming a little more enlightened - compared to the early 20thC anyway).

Retardation (as Tommy says) is a word used a lot in science and simply means to slow down a process, i remember also running into it in applied Maths in the Leaving as the opposite of acceleration.

Without reading further than the title I am hoping that the r word is recession.

Rahm Retard