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cW  ·  4085 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Do you use the word "Retarded" as an insult?

I would like to use it, if only ironically, self-critically and in the manner of self-reference, wherein one mocks oneself and one's people-group, even while expressing nostalgia and the inescapable type of solidarity one cannot help but experience, for good or ill (we might call this "belonging?"), but the current of meaning and context is too strong on this one.

For this reason, and also for the sheer glee of invention, when situations have inspired me, i have said "ritardando." "Molto ritardando," in fact. It's a music term, and it means to slow down extremely, and rapidly, and the first time I heard it, I giggled, because I thought I had discovered something juvenile in the hallowed halls of classical music. In truth, it expresses the real complaint of someone using the epithet, and yet, to my knowledge, has never yet been used to refer to those who suffer from neurological afflictions.

Language is a game, and it can be gamed.