Palin: "No, I don't want the retarded baby"

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/09/sarah-palin-bad-mother-bad-wife-says-bristols-former-boyfriend-levi-johnston-in-vanity-fair.html

Says Johnston: "I couldn't believe it when she would come over to us and sometimes say, playing around, 'No, I don't want the retarded baby -- I want the other one' and pick up Tripp. That was just her, even her kids were used to it."

People still want to cling to their idealised picture of this idiot?

Should not be voted in as dog catcher

It's the meaning behind the word that is misused.

No matter what word you use to describe someone who is mentally retarded (yikes! I don't know the new terms), it can become an insult to people who want to be derisive.

So people make fun or ridicule those with disabilities? Changing the words to describe them won't change that.

euphemisms lose their euphemistic qualities over time and are replaced. You may have seen the big back and forth on my post over "people of color" v "colored people." Two almost identical phrases that evoke very different reactions. "Colored people" as in the NAACP became Negroes who became Blacks and now Blacks/African-Americans (they were briefly Afro-American). "Retarded" was actually a euphemism to replace "moron" and "idiot" which were once accepted.

I believe the current term for those who were, until recently, mentally retarded is "differently-abled." I personally think that is a very vague word that really doesn't say much. But it is interesting to watch these things change.

Anyway, I don't want to get in a big dust-up on PC language again and be accused of things. I've always been a sort of arm-chair linguist.

challenged." But as with certain others, each new euphemism becomes more unwieldly. And soon it too is used as an insult anyway. Now kids call each other "developmental" as an insult.

and by the way it is mentally challenged.

I don't think that using mentally retarded is all that bad if it is used in the clinical sense.

changed its name a few years ago (dropping the "retardation" part all together.) These things don't just change over night. Well, not everywhere all at once. The NAACP still has the C even though "colored" lost its euphemistic mojo a long time ago.

am a little confused

I was confused because the state school here in Lufkin is now run by DADS - Department of Aging and Disability Services. So, "retardation" is still in the nomenclature as far as the state is concerned (Texas.)

nt

I didn't make up the titles, but I'm expected to use the proper verbiage when referring to students. It sure beats "my little retards". :puke:

Connotations easily change over time. "Idiot", "imbecile", and "moron" were once neutral terms for a developmentally delayed adult of toddler, preschool, and primary school mental ages, respectively.<4> As with Gresham's law, negative connotations tend to crowd out neutral ones, so the phrase mentally retarded was pressed into service to replace them.<5> Now that, too, is considered rude, used commonly as an insult of a person, thing, or idea. As a result, new terms like "mentally challenged", "with an intellectual disability", "learning difficulties" and "special needs" have replaced "retarded". A similar progression occurred with:

lame → crippled → handicapped → disabled → physically challenged → differently abled

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#The_.22euphemism_treadmill.22

At work I had just gotten used to saying paraprofessional instead of teacher's aid and now - this year - it is suddenly educational assistant!!

Whoever thinks these things up should at least make up words with fewer syllables.

And I really resent being corrected with the latest term. It's not my fault; I didn't get the memo!

so as to, you know, not offend anyone.
:shrug: :grr:

begins using the words in deliberately offensive ways.

Not sure why the blame is being put on the victims instead of the perpetrators here.

It is unfortunate that "retard" used as a noun with the emphasis on the first syllable has become so popular. Similarly, "retarded" as used in epithets like "Are you retarded or something?" have damaged a perfectly legitimate word on our language. Time to move on to something else to avoid the pejorative usage of "retarded."

If some kid wants to insult another kid by using the word to describe a mentally deficient person, they will do so - whatever that word is.

So if you change the word, the kids will change the insult. It is the concept or mindset that needs to be changed.

Explain why. And that is that.

Don't worry about the kids. Try to change what you can. Explain to the kids what the difference is and why the wording is changing. Ignorance of people who have mental retardation has led to terrible things that were pertetrated on people with retardation. It is a hard history to read...

Now I have politically correct idiots telling me I can't call myself "disabled", I'm "different", "special", or "differently abled". :eyes:

Actually pretty funny, that people feel obliged to tell someone what is proper to call himself.

Differently abled? That is a really silly term. I guess I can see that somebody wants to make a positive statement, while disabled is a negative statement.

'Special' is no good. It's already been through the kid joke mill.

But it is just as pejorative and hurtful.

The basic setting should be to describe people in the way they prefer.

Cognitive disability is the currently prefered term for those with developmental disabilities which cause intellectual deficit. And not all developmental disabilities do.

I just really resent being told what I can say and not say. Who is in charge of this? Who makes up all these rules?

Sure some of these make sense. Their replacements are sensible, not hard to articulate, and the people they describe are satisfied with them.

But others really seem to be foisted upon us and then severely enforced, as though you are a language criminal if you slip up and say the older term.

I think it really curbs our linguistic freedom.

for describing their disability? Wouldn't that be better?

It seems to me that since people with disabilities have been more and more mainstreamed into public life, as it should be, we are getting to knowmore and more people who experience this every day. Why would we not want to be helpful and friendly towards them and ask how THEY feel about it? isn't it up to them?

I'm an autistic person. I'll have none of this "with" crap.

In my opinion, you should have the right to your own "description" of yourself, if that is what is decreed somewhere by someone. Personally, if I were to meet you, I would not "type" you until I had heard what you had to say about your own situation. Everybody has a different one,you know. And "everybody" has a disability of some sort, really (if you think about it!).

Most of these new terms seem like they come from the top down, so to speak, from the people who work with disabled people, not the people themselves.

But you are right. That would be very empowering for people in that situation.

55 year old woman. Grew up in an institution. I can't ever fully understand how she's suffered, nor how much pain a simple clinical word causes her.

You can say whatever you want. I'm simply telling you what language will cause others to consider you a jackass.

At least calling black people the N word demonstrates some level of courage; you'd stand a good chance of getting your ass kicked while others point and laugh. In contrast, directing pejorative language at people with disabilities reinforces your self-image as one of the cool kids by making someone else the punchline to a joke about your own insecurity, without any meaningful personal risk.

It is the pinnacle of cowardice.

"Linguistic freedom"? Speaking of euphemism, where I come from they call that "being an asshole".

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2009-10/Pdf/Bills/House%20Passed%20Legislature/1835.PL.pdf

It's the dissing that is the problem.

That's kind of funny that you have "idiot" and "retarded" in there since retarded was the euphemism that replace idiot.

Connotations easily change over time. "Idiot", "imbecile", and "moron" were once neutral terms for a developmentally delayed adult of toddler, preschool, and primary school mental ages, respectively.<4> As with Gresham's law, negative connotations tend to crowd out neutral ones, so the phrase mentally retarded was pressed into service to replace them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#The_.22euphemism...

on the other kids and appeared emotionally detached from him.

I really do.

nt

funding for special Olympics.

Check Think Progress from last year this time.

Fuck everyone else's "retarded" kid?

hmmmmm?

And normally I wouldn't believe EVERYTHING this kid is saying, but let's remember back to earlier where Palin was allegedly in Texas and her water broke with the 'retarded baby', and instead of getting to a hospital nearby, she flies all the way to Alaska? That's not exactly a loving mother response. So it wouldn't surprise me that this one is true too. Palin is a sick woman. There's a reason there's so much drama following her around and it's not because she's a well-adjusted person.

swift enough to be cunning enough to lie.

but I'm not going to believe everything a punk kid says, especially one that is promoting himself and trying to be a model or an actor. And when will he run out of real material and start going to fake material? He's being rewarded for revealing this stuff, and the slow leak method of it has me believing that if he hasn't lied about something already, he eventually will.

I'm glad that Palin is suffering from this because I find her to be a despicable person. With Palin's issues, it will be tough to determine when he's lying, so I guess it doesn't matter to have a caution on these new revelations.

Who do you root for?

this can't be really true. Can it?

My heart breaks for him.

but this story sounds about as true as the "let her go, or die" story that DU's Dirty Harry regaled us with last week.

was that????

....girlfriend was about to be dragged into an alley by an attacker, and god knows what was going to happen.....and the poster claimed he pulled a gun and put it to his head and said "Let her go, or die".

It reeked of machismo fantasy.

Levi Johnston's claims'

http://www.ktuu.com/global/story.asp?s=11035456

This is from a woman who threatened to sue bloggers about reports of alleged marital problems, and then did nada.
Levi has a top Alaskan criminal attorney, Rex Butler, watching his back.

My BS detector has gotten pretty good over the years and I enjoy hearing these Palin horror stories.

This one though..I dunno I think it has to much icing on it.

She carries the poor thing around like a sack of potatoes. I've seen Bristol show a lot more affection towards that baby than Sarah.

She thinks she's funny.

Unfortunately, Palin strikes me as the type of person who would say that.

Claiming others were talking bad about her child. Bullshit!!!

I'll be honest, though. Levi might be just a good storyteller.

First and foremost, she's a disgusting completely self-involved human being. Secondly, she has the blindest ambition of just about anyone I've ever seen on the world political stage. A "retarded" baby is of no value to her and the faux family image she wished to create to sell herself to the masses. Thirdly, if it is indeed true that both of those babies are her grandchildren (which I am totally inclined to believe), it's makes a sick and twisted sort of sense that she would refer to the babies in such a detached and cold-blooded fashion. Her family only exists as a prop, and in the existence of both of those babies is a letdown for her. I have no problem believing that she would refer to them so cruelly and coldly. That woman is amongst the worst evil the GOP has ever unleashed. She is right up there with Dick Cheney in my book.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

her even joking about trading off her baby. I don't think she has allowed erself to bond with him very deeply. She should have chosen the abortion. Maybe Trig's soul would have recycled to a more loving family.

I've been enjoying Levi's stories, but this just doesn't smell right.

this..well its trips by BS meter.

I've been around many mothers with children with disabilities and I've never heard one refer to their child that way.

I too often heard worse, and those were some of the parents who bothered to visit at all