aren't ret*d people the opposite of autistic people?

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Valid point

It's odd that autistic people point fingers at groups with low IQ, as if they are the original "ret*ds".
If you go by the dictionary definition it's us and not them.

I'm not saying that anyone should be called a ret*d but I'm pretty pedantic about language.

What "point" has she made?

She didnt make ANY points. She was just playing word games. Admits to that herself. Lol!



After World War Two the medical community decided to replace words like "imbecil", and "moron" (actual clinical terms before that) with the fancy French word for "delayed".

Low IQ folks were labeled this new French word for "delayed".

Autistic folks are indeed "delayed" in learning social skills, and in meeting certain life milestones. So yes autistics could be called "delayed", or "ret*d".

But that was, and is, not, how the word R word is used. It means "low IQ".

The point is that for many on the spectrum, autism is a developmental delay.

Watching the posts on this forum from 2011 to 2022 I can conclude that it's got to do with being self-consicious. In the period between 2011-2013 there was a disproportionate number of posts from Aspies who were adamant they were not autistic and that Aspergers should remain a separate diagnosis. The stigma associated with autism back then was (I think) associated with the perception NTs would associate them with the r-word

“ret*d” or “ret*d” is not an insult via dictionary definition—but is an insult within “real-life” contexts.

To my knowledge, around 50% of Autistic folk fall into what used to be called the "low functioning" category & usually that is accompanied by a low IQ or at least, significant learning difficulties.

That might be true, but neither Aspergers nor Autism are (necessarily) related to low IQ.

I don't mind being called ret*d if it's said by literate people who know what it means.
I wouldn't want to be called "a ret*d" though.
There's a big difference in the connotation.

Low functioning is a broad brush. It doesn't mean intelligence alone. For example when my daughter started primary school she was mostly non-verbal but she was smart so they called her "high functioning autistic (or HFA). Today the term is more used to describe somebody who might have been diagnosed with Aspergers pre-2013

I'm diagnosed Level 2 with extremely low functioning scores like 1st and 2nd percentile.
They didn't do a full IQ test but my verbal was 25th and nonverbal was 5th.
I consider myself intelligent and I'm highly educated.

Yeah my daughter also considers herself "smart"

When I was younger there were two ways to use "ret*d" when describing a person. As an insult commonly used by schoolyard bullies. And as an accepted medical condition as shown in these below.





Today "ret*d" is not often used to describe people but is often used to describe actions or decisions made by people. A lot of times the implication is that the person is a ret*d, but not necessarily so. This is what happens when we cave into bullies. What was a mixed implication term becomes a wholly colloquial insult term.


OTOH "ret*d" when describing a person has always been an insult.

"This policy if implemented will ret*d economic growth" is acceptable usage. For now.

I was called ret*d a lot growing up and I always took it literal. I don't know anymore if kids truly thought I was ret*d or if they were using it as an insult.

I'd very much like to see a system based on support needs as opposed to IQ. One that takes into account adaptive functioning <IQ. I do badly adaptive functioning wise compared to what might be expected based on my intelligence level. That has not helped re the treatment I've. received as a person with a chronic and severe mental illness. It took decades for how things actually are, rather than how MH professionals demanded they should be, to be acknowledged. That meant decades of very negative comments and sod all help and support for the things I struggled with .

It's too late to fix the damage caused to me. I have to live with the effects as best I can, but it would be good if in the future people like me weren't subjected to the crap I've been subjected to over the years, as an autistic and severely mentally ill person.

Well...so do you.

And ironically...so do her bullying classmates. Theyre in awe of her, and probably envy her intellect...even as they hurl the R word at her as an insult.

My sixth grade classmates were much the same. In fact my sixth grade classmates felt so guilty about having given me a hard time over the length of the school year that they...collectively pooled their money together to buy me an expensive present to make up for it-which they presented to me on the last day of school.

Guess what the present was.

A chemistry set, with a microscope.

Thats how they thought of me ...as a brainiac...who was a ret*d. Go figure.