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curl-6 on 12 February 2015
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Chazore said:
curl-6 said:
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.

Really?, over here it seems fine (IOM), of course if you're actually in special needs and you know why you are and people use the word against you then it could offend, I've seen that happen once or twice during my high school years.

In all my years I can't say I've heard mentally retarded used often here, at best we have mentally ill, handicapped, mentally challenged, special needs care etc. I have heard mentally retarded or retard used a lot more often on tv though or the internet in general.

I don't exactly find the word as offensive but I've seen those that are mentally challenged who do realise what the word means can find it offensive even if it is the truth, it kinda breaks them down mentally a notch when it's used to make fun of them and I have seen it affect them in various ways.

I could be wrong, I'm just going on what I've heard, I don't actually live in England. I think I just read an article about it once during my socio course.