Not all slurs are created equal.
And great resposne and I applaud you for it. You've actually, like the OP, kept consistant across the board instead of ratioanlizing based on partisan lines.
Says you. Others, right in this thread even, say different.
So does the dictionary.
Wait I'm confused:
re·tard·ed (rĭ-tär'dĭd)
adj.
1. Often Offensive Affected with mental retardation.
2. Occurring or developing later than desired or expected; delayed.
I'm confused. Are you trying to tell us that Rham's exclamation about the Democrats proposal being "****ing Retarded" was really supposed to mean that hte proposal was "****ing developing later than desired or expected"?
or are we to believe his intention was "****ing like a person with mental retardation"
The first doesn't make sense...
The second is definitely a slur, albiet one commonly used, meant to compare an inanimate object with a retarded person to insult based on the stereotype that all retarded people are stupid idiots.
Please, which one of those two definitions was Rham trying to compare the proposal by the Democrats to.
i think this is a mild example of poor taste, very mild. and i think it's kind of silly for palin to make such a big deal out of it. but then again, i think she's kinda silly.
"nigger" and "retarded" do not have the same intention attached.
And, in the staggering opposite of Kand, we have an example of partisan ratioanlization when there's an oppertunity to attack the other side. Nigger-rigged said between a few friends without any intention of being racist, that's horrible and aweful and bad. Retarded stated by the chief of staff of the POTUS with no intention to insult people with mental disabilities, well that's just very very very mild cause you know, Palin has an issue with it and I'd look silly if I was even relatively consistant and still blasting her for it. Is there perhaps a difference between nigger and retarded? I imagine it'll differ if you ask a mentally handicapped person and a black person, and which of those you ask. At the same time, I'd concede the former is generally viewed as worse than the latter, but from the extreme disdain you show for one to the mild, mild, mild view of the other makes me highly question the intellectual honesty of your weighting system.
My position is the same on all. I'm not a fan of political correctness. I don't care too much what people say in their free time and I think INTENT is far more important than what a word is. I think its idiotic and hypocritical for Palin who bitches about political correctness to then harp on this.