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8:40am March 22, 2015
Anonymous asked: Do you think the euphemism treadmill has stopped? I haven't seen "intellectually disabled" catch on as a slur.

To I soon to tell but I doubt it.

A friend recounted to me how they made a special ed division called BOCES and before you knew it, the nondisabled kids had invented a new insult – BOCES-tard.

I heard a train wreck of this sort on NPR once, too. A reporter referred to Republicans as retarded. Then when she realized she’d said something insulting, she missed the boat entirely: “Oh you know I meant developmentally disabled? Mentally challenged? Intellectually disabled?”

She got she’d said something wetting but thought it was the words, not the underlying bigotry that would let her use those things as an insult.

Also I think children are the best gauge of whether something has become an insult or not.

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