• frezik@midwest.social
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    2 days ago

    The Euphemism Treadmill might stop when the term is so clinically dry as “mentally disabled”. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue of a schoolyard bully the way “retarded” does. I dunno, we’ll see.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      retarded doesn’t have any more negative meaning than disabled. it’s just about how we use it.

    • Wahots@pawb.social
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      2 days ago

      I’m pretty sure that “mentally retarded” was the medical term for many decades, before it became cultural lingo. There was something similar for erectile dysfunction too, they used to call you impotent, not exactly a great thing to hear at the doctor’s office.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      I thought they already changed it to differently abled. As dis-abled implies they can’t do something, when differently implies they can do things, yet they may just do it in another manner.