Recently in a private meeting, Rahm Emanuel, the white house chief of staff said that the strategy of liberal democrats was “fucking retarded”. Rahm Emanuel is notorious for his in private potty mouth. But when he used the word retarded he created a mini-firestorm fueled mainly by politics. Sarah Palin, former candidate for the Vice Presidency and mother of a down syndrome infant, charged the attack on Emanuel. Emanuel apologized and I’m wondering why.
Just so we’re clear, no one got offended and the word “fucking” which by all standards is a ‘bad’ word. The offense came from the word ‘retarded’, which some felt was disrespectful to people with intellectual handicaps, of whom none were present.
How did a perfectly good word like retarded turn bad? It is a word that describes the mental development of person, animal, or idea. The word is not politically incorrect. In fact, the word retarded in this instance, correctly and precisely expressed Emanuel’s idea. But let’s for a second pretend that it is offensive. How is it possible to offend someone who is not present? It’s not.
Now, let’s talk about the word retard. The word retard is not an offensive word when pronounced (ra-tard). For example, you could say, I think being overly politically correct retards our ability to grow. The word retard is (according to the powers that be) an offensive and derogatory word when pronounced (ree-tard). You don’t really need it used in a sentence do you?
This post was not to encourage people to use potentially offensive words. This post was not political. This post was in defense of words, which I love. And since they can’t defend themselves, I will.
