[Salty]

I get the concept behind making this a slur, but I don't think the word is that big of a deal personally, being the brother of a mentally challenged man myself.
If it is used in a sneering way to address someone who is mentally challenged, I get it, but otherwise I think this is on the other side of "gamer talk" that is somewhat more appropriate.

Fair enough; it varies from people to people. Like I said, I just am not really a fan of the word but if nothing changes, I'm not going to get all pissed off about it. There are bigger problems in my life than if someone online says it or not; just wanted to pitch my opinion.


"I can see something like this happening in prop hunt but not in TTT. As we all know, adding rules isn’t something the community is fond of, and I really think that if we began to censor words besides blatant slurs, we would see a decline in players." ~Icey

This is a valid point too; I get it. The problem is that we are not agreeing on whether or not it's a slur. In education it 100% is one but this is not an educational setting, it's Garry's Mod. The only time it's a slur is if it's used sneering towards someone with an intellectual disability. The problem is that we have no idea who does or doesn't have an ID when we're playing online, and that's why I felt the need to make a suggestion. I was also informed that this was an identical thread made almost exactly a year ago by Jesse so I found that a little humorous/interesting. 

I appreciate those of you who are giving honest feedback instead of just shitposting on this, I appreciate your respect. 

[matt_st3 (Strongrule)]

The word flat out? No. I don’t feel it crosses a hard enough line. Plus, while I doubt a gmod player would use it in this way it has an alternate use that doesn’t just refer to “mentally handicapped” or whatever the pc word is this year. There’s a list of words that should come first that have less uses and are directly more -ist than this one.
It’s use, in the way you’re envisioning? Yeah, you really could swing an argument for that but tbh I don’t see that argument going far in this community. The first word we adopted is the poster child of banned terms and even that people have tried to reel back, to obvious results. The second is a newer term and has become particularly inflammatory on the internet these days. “But it can also mean a bundl-“ that’s with one g, and it’s certainly not a still used technical term. Your proposed term can be considered harassment or another issue in the right scenario, which probably happens daily, but is widely enough accepted that - well you can see above posts.

[Battons]

While I disagree with this proposition there’s no need to insult him or his belief and I’ll have none of it, keep it civil or don’t say anything.

[Penny]

While I disagree with this proposition there’s no need to insult him or his belief and I’ll have none of it, keep it civil or don’t say anything.

We have been civil.

[RussEfarmer]

man we still having trouble keeping people from saying the n word nobody on earth is ready for that to become a rule

also the word retard isnt a slur, its just kinda rude, just like how most other insult words are rude

[bryanbrr]

What if we just started warning people for harassment when using it to insult people?

[Cryptic Salsa]

What if we just started warning people for harassment when using it to insult people?

if people are being harassed we should be dealing with the harassment not setting specific words for being harassed

[JesseTheUndeadCowboy]

What if we just started warning people for harassment when using it to insult people?

if people are being harassed we should be dealing with the harassment not setting specific words for being harassed

I think you missed his point. The word can clearly be used to harass people already. Hell I remember a couple of times if I recall correctly people used it to harass the hell out of me back when I first rejoined the server back in 2020.

[Salty]

I understand where you're coming from but this is a word that has no racial or cultural significant. I mean, if it's an issue of someone calling you a retard all the time or blatantly mocking someone who's retarded then I'd get it but outright banning the word is too far

man we still having trouble keeping people from saying the n word nobody on earth is ready for that to become a rule

also the word retard isnt a slur, its just kinda rude, just like how most other insult words are rude

"Moron was a medical diagnosis at one point... all were used to insult people who people felt were lower intelligence" ~Happy

Moron was the same word that had the same reputation as "retard" does now because at the time of its inception, the term "mental retardation" did not have any negative connotation. After time passed, however, it slowly became something entirely different from what it meant, as most words do. (For example, the f slur that Matt was referring to used to mean Bassoon in the past.) 

I wanted to showcase some articles to give the community some "Food for Thought" for a lack of better terms.

Attached are articles that I feel are more objectively written (One of them is an article that is an opinion based paper from The Boston Globe but it still has good info)

Article One: click here

Article Two: click here 

Article Three: click here

Article Four: click here
 
Article Five: click here





The third article clearly explains why that the word "retard" is a slur, as it is implying the negative stereotype that those with intellectual disabilities are stupid, unintelligent, etc. The problem is that we have put it so far into regular conversation that we don't make the connection as to why it's offensive. The fifth article shows statistics showing a commonly addressed statement that minorities are overrepresented in special education due to test bias, poverty, poor general education instruction, and insufficient professional development for working with diverse students. This also can be linked to the stereotype that Blacks or African Americans are unintelligent as well; this is also backed by the second article, as it states that Black or African American students with disabilities are more likely to be identified with intellectual disabilities or emotional behavior disorders; article four also backs this up.

*NEW MATERIAL*

In case you're not getting it,  Special Education was used at a point to try and attempt to segregate schools after the Civil Rights Movement, which is why there is 100% racial significance to this word.  Also, people with disabilities do have a culture; if the idea that there is no cultural significance were true, why does the American school system feel the need to sign "Rosa's Law" in 2010 to change the term from being considered "mentally retarded" to "intellectual disability?" Why is IDEA around if there is not a culture about children with disabilities? Why would we have the Special Olympics?  I was more focused on your comment about it having no racial significance when I made this post initially, so I wanted to add some info on culture too. It would make zero sense for us to have passed laws, regulations, and acts for the education system if there was nobody that could benefit from those being passed.  

In the state of Florida, there seems to be data to suggest that Black/African American students are not as likely to be picked in Kindergarten but seem to have the same rate in 4th Grade, which is good and bad because it means that some change has occurred; however, at the same time, you could also say we're doing the opposite problem of rather than having them overrepresented, we're not giving them the help they need. There are other factors besides race that can kick into that, so I would argue that the latter point is a reach; just wanted to state it could be viewed two completely different ways. Article 7 was dated in Feb 2021, so it's incredibly recent data.

Here's a document from the government talking about things I've mentioned: click here

Here's an article explaining that statistic: Article 7: click here

Whether you want to agree with me or not is entirely up to you. I just felt the need to share this; probably due to the fact I want to be a teacher honestly.


Again, I thank you for giving input on this instead of just ignoring it. Do I expect you to read all of those articles? No, but I have them as a reference point in case you're curious as to what I'm talking about when I say that I believe the word is 100% culturally and racially significant.

[YourMateMurph]

This doesn't sound like something you would say SaltyPhish. Who has kidnapped you and forced you to write this