The word retarded. More accurately, the insult "retarded". Coming from a society where people feel personally threatened by Internet texts and Interpret Pepe as a promoter of -blam!- culture, it's almost cynical to think that every little word can hurt you. But in truth, words seem to hurt a lot more than sticks and stones these days. I'm making this post as a one-off: I just finished analyzing an episode of Rick and Morty for a college English class, and I took something to heart. For the sake of this argument, hear me out: It's the episode where the Devil gives Summer a job; the part where Rick buys and scans a microscope from the Devil's thrift shop (Link is [url=https://www.youtube.com/embed/eOBoKxEcVAA]here[/url]). Note the argument presented here. It isn't elaborated in the show, but that's what I'm here for. Let me ask you this: what's the difference between calling someone mentally challenged over retarded? In my eyes, it's just a way to categorize a disability, where the underlying issue of insulting the person is suppressed. However, I agree with the sentiment Rick provides here in that the root problem (classifying someone based on difference and labeling them as different in view) isn't solved at any rate. It's a universal argument that can be taken to any slur, insult, or derogative. What's the difference between "you're gay" and "you're homosexual"? What about "She wasn't hired because of her ethnicity" or "she wasn't hired because of her skin color"? Interpretation aside, these are real examples of social prerogatives that serve little to no purpose aside from setting a false sense of security and or safety. "But Raven," you ask, "why should I give a damn?" Think of it holistically, like so: The United States has a big problem with this regarding gender equality. Everyone has to have their pronouns respected and genders acknowledged, and to their point, America has never been a very safe place to live for the different of heart and mind. That being said, these prejudices aren't going to be overcome through a gauntlet of hard fought political battles and civil protests (maybe...), but if instead a society opts to refer to each other as countrymen or family. This is purely rhetoric, but theoretically, this sort of etymology could phase out public adversity. Yeah, this is pretty far-fetched, but it isn't crazy to think that it could happen. If we referred to each other as Americans or Humans, the next generation would have to start a new foundation to base inequality off of. But I digress. [i]TL;DR: Is it okay to call people proper nouns over slang and informailities: Mentally challenged vs Retarded Black vs African American Gay vs Homosexual We may think it's more respectful and some may feel less offended, but we are still disparaging the different by categorizing them. Speculation and optimism aside, what do you think? Is it justified to encourage this culture of socially acceptable nomenclature? Are SJW's out of their minds? Any feedback helps a ton. Thanks for listening, Floodzone. See you starside.[/i]