to be surprised at the bbc not finding 'retard' offensive

[recycledteenager24]

just been reading on the have your say about beach goers and there is a lot of angry people. one poster #1088 commented on the 'retards' 'those retarded enough to go to the beach..' i contacted the moderator that i think that word is offensive byt they have deemed to say the post stays !
total scum in this day and age use this worrd imo.
ds has been called this for having autism,in the past. it makes me so angry. aibu ?

whatareyouhiding, do you really not understand that it’s as offensive as the n word or the p word in the UK? It’s similar to calling disabled people a sp**. Which is short for a once used medical term that is no longer used as it became an insult. Please don’t insult people with disabilities by defending the use of an insulting term to describe the selfish wankers who were behaving badly on the beach.

And please don't try to deflect from the issue being discussed by trying to move it on to being about concentration camps.

Whoah - no. That’s a junior member of staff who’s made a disastrously wrong call. Complain.

Disabled people are not all stupid enough...

You can't have meant to type that, surely? So 'some' disabled people are 'stupid'? Ok.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-52890608

It looks like it’s been removed now.

Facebook thinks its ok too I reported it the bot said no it's fine I asked them to look again and someone real must have caught it because it was deleted

Very mumsnet to be worrying about censoring a word in the comments of a bbc article while remaining silent about their government's support for communist concentration camps

Do you hijack every thread on here that's got nothing to do with this?

This poster isn’t worth arguing with.

I have noticed the word ‘spaz’ used in American TV shows and books as a genuine synonym for ‘dumb’ which I think is also unacceptable.

Hang on, doesn't dumb refer to people who, for one reason or another, are mute? Isn't using that as a synonym for stupid quite offensive to those who cannot speak audibly?

This poster isn’t worth arguing with.

This is a vapid non-sequitor.

Pleasure conversing with you.

@whatareyouhiding - why do you bother with other threads? Why don't you start your own thread about it? Actually, why do you bother with Mumsnet at all? Start your own website for your campaign. Don't start hijacking random threads on here with unrelated objections.

I learnt English mostly through watching American tv and retard and Spazz are used quite regularly. Why is there a big difference between the UK and US for this? Also where I live in the Uk those words are used all the time? Although I do realise I live in quite a backwards area compared to most other places I’ve been!

You can't have meant to type that, surely? So 'some' disabled people are 'stupid'? Ok.

I think what @whatareyouhiding is driving at is that some people with disabilities will be 'stupid' enough to use a beach in the time of coronavirus, if this behaviour occurs in people with disabilities at the same rate at which it occurs in those without disabilities. Which there's no reason to suspect it doesn't.

Which issue do you think is more important?

It's possible to care about more than one issue at a time, having a thread about one issue does not mean that people aren't bothered by other issues.

If you care so much about the camps issue then go start a separate thread.

Use of the r-word to mean stupid/ignorant/lacking sense is insulting and is unacceptable for generalised use in the same way that the n-word is not acceptable.

@whatareyouhiding it's actually possible to care about more than one thing. I find I care/get angry about/want to change people's attitudes about, quite a few different things.

One of those things is the use of retard. IN the UK at least it's entirely unacceptable.

Spaz is also unacceptable here, but for those horrified at the US use of it, it does mean something different there. Spastic was never a term for CP over there, so Spaz was also never something aligned to disability. People there 'spaz out', but it doesn't mean, or have any relationship to CP or disability.

I learnt English mostly through watching American tv and retard and Spazz are used quite regularly. Why is there a big difference between the UK and US for this?

I think mainstream media in the USA is generally less concerned with respecting those with protected characteristics. The amount of sexism on a lot of the shows, for instance. You'd never get away with it on the BBC.

would say b. I find mumsnet in general very reluctant to address the latter and absurdly censorious with regard to the former single incident.

So start a thread on it

Spaz is also unacceptable here, but for those horrified at the US use of it, it does mean something different there. Spastic was never a term for CP over there, so Spaz was also never something aligned to disability.

I don't know. The meaning is the same- making wild/jerky uncoordinated movements. Seems like it could be offensive. Wikipedia reckons the American usage evolved from the medical term (not an iron-clad reference point, I grant you, but the best I could find).

@FourPlasticRings

Hang on, doesn't dumb refer to people who, for one reason or another, are mute? Isn't using that as a synonym for stupid quite offensive to those who cannot speak audibly?

Yes I’m aware of meaning of the word dumb, which is why put it in inverted commas.

Yes I’m aware of meaning of the word dumb, which is why put it in inverted commas.

Ah, OK. Didn't read it that way, sorry.