To be upset at the use of this word?

[The4ks]

Was out shopping with dp today in the next town to ours.
Browsing charity shops as we like to do when in the middle of the shop a young woman and her friend are talking, well actually ranting very loudly for the whole shop to hear.
All about her neighbour and his son who's apparently in the 'mong' class.
Having a 4 year old autistic son ourselves we just shook our heads in disbelief and walked away before hearing anymore.
Dp agreed how upsetting it was to hear a poor child being described like that.
AIBU to be amazed and a bit scared that people still use words like this and the openness in which she did?

@littlepaddypaws I don't even know what to say to that!?! That is utterly vile !!

Absolutely disgusting!
My don is 5 nearly 6 and is autistic and at a SEN school
I detest that word and 'spaz' 'retard' abhorrent !

YANBU. My little brother has severe cerebral palsy so my family is sensitive about the words ‘retard’ and ‘spastic’ Just today I gave a kid on a bus an earful for calling his mate both words... whilst we were sat across from them with my brother. There’s no need for it

An elderly person could perhaps be excused as ignorance to it having such a horrible meaning nowadays when it was acceptable to use in their day

I have never heard an elderly person use the word, not now, and not when I was growing up. The only people I heard use it were in my school when we were about 13 or 14 (and that's that's about 28 years ago), and most of them stopped using it after being told what it meant.

Did gervais use that vile word and then defend it?

He's a habit of attacking vulnerable people, there's a special place in hell with his name in it.

YANBU!!! It’s a hideous word to use.

I wiped the floor with DN when I heard her call it DS. Just awful

Disgusting. I have a “friend” who I’ve lost all respect for who one night got drunk and started talking about spastics on CBeebies (the presenter with a short arm). Being drunk is no excuse.

Nasty.
YANBU

YANBU. I was really taken aback when I heard a woman in her late twenties use ‘flid’ a few weeks ago. I thought that one had well and truly died out.

I think some people don’t understand the meaning. They think it’s just like calling somebody stupid. I had no idea of the real meaning until I was about eighteen and feel awful knowing I casually used that word many times. Same with ‘gay”... everything was called gay when I was a teenager. I don’t even have the excuse of not knowing the meaning, I just didn’t think about it all. It was socially acceptable where I went to school and everybody talked like that. I only really thought about exactly what that meant when I was a bit older.

I also heard a man use the word in a shop this week and was surprised by it. Some people seem to think it’s cool and funny to be offensive - it shows how tough they are because they don’t give a shit and ‘tell it like it is’.

Someone I knew was a teacher in a secondary school. Somebody said to her "Rather you than me, kids that age can be really difficult" Her reply only confirmed the low opinion I had of her. "Oh, it's OK, I teach the retards... they're easier to control" Vile woman.

I just feel bringing up kids is worrying enough nowadays, especially those with SEN.
Was always worried about other kids being cruel, didn't cross my mind that it would be the adults

Oh my god 81Byerley that is an unbelievably disgusting thing to say!
Shocking

Sadly it doesn’t surprise me, there will always be adults around who choose to be unpleasant.

YANBU - it’s totally unacceptable. It’s not a word whose original meaning has been lost over time, either. People know exactly what it bloody means and I don’t believe people who claim they don’t.

“Mong” is short for “Mongloid” which is what the Victorians called people with Downs Syndrome. They thought their features mimicked that of the Mongloid Race (their name for Chinese ).

Bless you! I never encountered that and would assume it was bad name for oriental people.

Sadly one of my own DC used that word. In his defence he had no idea what it meant and was horrified and upset when I explained. The phrases mong and spaz are endemic at his inner city secondary school.

I’m 51 and it was considered ignorant and inappropriate when I was a youngster, so ignorance amongst young people is no excuse. I went through a friend once for using a revolting term to insult someone. I pointed out that my youngest has SN and did he want me to tell her that he thinks she’s (insulting term). I’m deliberately not using the term because there will inevitably be posters trying to outdo each other on the disablist expressions they’ve —used— heard.

Yanbu, it's unacceptable and i don't think I've heard if since my teen years thankfully. Sadly heard spaz from friend from the US where the word apparently isn't bad? I found that confusing and told her why she shouldnt use it here.

I reported a shop assistant last year for referring to a customers with downs syndrome as 'that mongrel boy'. Disgusting terms that should have died out a long time ago

Sadly I think these terms are very much still current among young people even now - I'm only just out of my teens and I've heard both teenage friends and my 20-something colleagues use all the terms mentioned. Sometimes I challenge it as one of my closest friends has cerebral palsy and is upset by spaz in particular, since spasticity is actually part of her condition, but sometimes I chicken out and let it go. And then kick myself afterwards. I need more balls.

What's spaz?
I would google but that throws out too many different things for words like this

Vile. DS is Autistic and dyspraxic. I'd be so very very angry if I heard this.

‘Spaz’ comes from the word ‘spastic’ which comes from ‘spasm’, or movement which is out of your control. It is a common slur used to describe people with cerebral palsy or even Downs.

@herculepoirot2 thank you 😮