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| Advocates for the mentally disabled are calling for a complete end to the use of the word "retarded" in both casual and clinical contexts, saying that it is offensive and derogatory. | |
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| "Retarded" was itself introduced in the 1950s as a polite replacement for words like "idiot" and "moron", which had been deemed too offensive for continued use in clinical settings. | |
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| Likely candidates to replace "retarded" include "special" and "challenged". Linguistics experts project that those words, in turn, will become unspeakably rude within about 30 years. | |
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| At this rate, experts say that as much as 40% of English vocabulary could be unusable in polite conversation within a few centuries, unless a language recycling program is implemented. | |
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| Activists have as yet given no insight into how they plan to stop teenage boys, the most frequent users of the "r-word", from insulting one another by drawing comparisons to mentally deficient people. | |
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| As a former teenage boy myself, I'd like to suggest "mind control drugs in the water supply" as the most plausible method. | |
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