In kindergarten we were taught:

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.

This country is kowtowing to the weak and insecure. It's alarming really, because the real world is full of tough love.

Give it time. For a brief while after retarded went out of style the preferred term was the equally unwieldy "mentally challenged", and we made that fly! (I was a kid, give me a break.)

Apparently "special needs" has already become a derogatory phrase in England; people will always find a new phrase to use.

Personally, as someone with a psychological condition, 'retard' doesn't offend me in the slightest, but then again, it's pretty hard to offend me.

Hmmm...makes a little bit of sense...

Those who use phrases like "mentally retarded" as insults are usually barely above the threshold to be classified as such themselves, by changing to a phrase like "intellectually disabled" it will take them a little while to figure out how to pronounce that.

But really, running and hiding because people want to misuse a term as an insult is silly. We'll never stop running.

This is all conjecture but, cigarettes come bundled up like a bunch of sticks. So a single single cigarette out of the bunch is the dimunitive "fag". I wonder if a pack of cigarettes was ever called a faggot. :p

Stalker. :P

I meant more in terms of, jokes and phrases and things that will make most people get offended usually don't phase me. The venn diagram of things I find funny and reasons I'm going to hell in a single circle..

But it wasnt a racial and derogatory term in the beginning.. But time changed that.. Like with this word.. So you think its ok i call my cousin a "retard" the next time i visit him where he and others like him live? Calling them all 'retards' all day? Heck they can't understand it and not object to it.. So its ok? I'll probably then start calling everyone on this site "nerd" 

I don't know if it was universal but years ago people who had cerabal palsy where called spastics and there was even a spastic society  , so you got stuff like he's having a spaz attack " what a spaz " etc , it was also used as a broad put down phrase so it covers quite a few variables , something you need in a good put down phrase so I vote that if anything happens to retard ,  like the people responsible for taking Christmas out of schools , no playing in the PLAYground etc etc , do a retarded kidnapping figuratively and literally  , Spastic takes it's place, it rolls off the tonque quite well.

i believe in freedom of language and i hate political correctness, no phrases should be banned ever.
You might get in trouble if you say some stuff(threats, trying to stir up violence) but all this PC nonsense needs to stop, there is a saying in Denmark "kald en spade for en spade" which rougly translates to" call a shovel a shovel" don't bubblewrap what you say because some might get offended.

Idiot. Imbecile. Moron.

These were all words used by doctors to describe levels of intelligence. In time they became insults for stupid. New words like retarded or mental were devised to avoid connotations and that became an insult for stupid. My guess is what ever they settl me on will also become an insult.

I doubt we will ever get people to stop insulting one another with new slang.