Ugly is as Ugly Does

There is another blog I read that frequently uses the word, retarded.

I loathe that. I said something once. It fell on deaf ear's, so I packed up the AG roadshow and moved on. No need trying to teach what are supposed to be relatively educated people how to act. It's like trying to reason with a sports Dad about my diagnosis of his kid's ADD. It's a futile exercise and I end up calling Social Work into the case because I do not have to deal with that and frankly, I went to medical school and he did not. So, AG wins. Wah. Wah.

You've probably read, heard or even said the word (and/or its "'tard" related speak) if you watched last year's MTV Video Music Awards; saw "Napoleon Dynamite," "House Bunny" or the listened to the Black Eyed Peas unedited and on and on. Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder brought it all to the forefront for mainstream America though. "You went full retard, man," Robert Downey Jr.'s character -- in blackface -- admonishes a deflated Speedman. "Never go full retard."

Yikes.

Society uses the word with tacit acceptance and it seems to transcend still today into younger generations. The word is not offensive on prima facie. For example, when we say that cell development was retarded because the cells were agnostic to the intervention. We are all good there. It is however offensive when a 40 something suggests that something that no longer works is retarded. The latter is clearly hate speech for the point of hate speech. Thus, retarded is used in place of anything that is different, odd, and lame.

We as a society have an obligation to stand up to this kind of schoolyard hooliganism. After spending an evening last week with someone who informed me that he was beaten many times on the schoolyard, I realized that we as a society have not transcended much. In fact, said person suggested his putative child should also endure such brute behavior on state owned, education provided, liberal bias property if s/he is a wise acre. Wow! We still think kids deserve a good beat down for being wise mouths and retarded is OK for things we do not understand or like?

We are in real trouble folks. Real trouble.

This schoolyard mentality and unevolved and unexamined lifestyle is offensive to all. We can no longer afford to sit back and watch America become less and less able to function, let alone compete in the global marketplace because we think a good beating and hate speech is just par of the course. If we need to use the word to make something funny or dress down someone that we do not know how to use our words with --- what kind of a society are we? Certainly not one that has progressed and learned to coexist.

I weep for America.