Me-and-my-scrum

I just feel like it’s one of those words that can be used very harmlessly. I would never call a mentally ill or handicapped person retarded and would not approve of anyone who did. It just seems like there are suddenly certain words that people are suddenly deciding are offensive. Those people are usually on the outside of whatever the issue is. It’s almost always privileged white people trying too hard to be seen as “woke”. They try to put some of these trivial word on the same level as if I used the n-word (which is ridiculous).Know what I mean? Like if I said “this new procedure my boss is making us do is fucking retarded.” That seems super harmless and unoffensive to anyone to me. I’ve heard the argument that it would only offend you if you saw yourself as said word. I don’t always agree with that but it does make a little bit of sense. Am I wrong for viewing that word how I do? If so, could you explain what it is that makes it so bad when the context is so harmless. Thank you! Wish you all the best!

You are right and I agree that it isn’t a big deal to take certain words out of our vocabulary. Growing up there are certainly words I have taken out of mine. I guess the frustrating part to me is how sensitive people have become to literally everything. It makes me not want to take out certain words because people are telling us what we can and cannot say and want to attack people when they hear it. Again, I’m talking about the very trivial words not the super racist or sexist stuff. I’ve always thought that context very much matters and depending on what that context is we should almost laugh at people who are offended by such silly things. I do agree with you on what you said though.

Is the word “retarded” actually offensive even if used to describe someone acting like an idiot or describing something dumb? Or is it just normal people virtue signaling?