[Blarg]

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How bad is the word "retarded" when used in real life and not on a message board? Does anyone use this word in their daily vocabulary?

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Depends on the company. Perfectly fine in some places, but worse than Hitler in others. Most bothersome thing about using it is that you never know when someone has that problem in their family themselves. This is why I don't like rape jokes much and try to be really careful about making them. I can't get behind "feeling" the retard one nearly so much, though, and I've known plenty(used to be a teacher's aide for a class full, etc.) It just seems to be constructed very, very differently. But lots of people don't care about fine points, and others prize political correctness quite a bit, sometimes very aggressively so.

So, since you never know who you're with, while I don't think using this word is bad, it's probably wiser just to find some other way to say something along the same line. Although, of course, calling someone an idiot is probably offensive to idiots or people who have idiots in their families, or are married to one, etc. *sigh*