Clarkson slammed for 'special needs' joke

Coz mental illness still rates pretty low on the Disabilities Hit Parade, in terms of where the sympathy, funding, and attention gets directed. Small children are near the top*, then vision impaired people with cute guide dogs, then the Deaf community and wheelchair users. Mental illness, especially anything involving psychosis, rates pretty low. Yeah, I'm a bit bitter and twisted about this. Sorry.

*Unless they have a condition like ADHD which causes behavioural problems, then they're Making It All Up and go to the bottom of the list just above the nutcases.
 
bone said:
retard is french for "slow down"
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I know. But there's no way to just "slow down" a plane. In the GPWS alarms it means "Set the throttle lever to idle" and it won't stop repeating "retard, retard, retard" till you do.
Also, it has been adopted in english, it's not just a french word anymore.
Merriam Webster dictionary said:
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French or Latin; Anglo-French retarder, from Latin retardare, from re- + tardus slow
Date: 15th century

transitive verb
1 : to slow up especially by preventing or hindering advance or accomplishment : impede
2 : to delay academic progress by failure to promote
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Pepto said:
http://www.r-word.org/
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That picture of that kid running in the special olympics comes to mind.
"Even if you get rid of the R-word, you're still retarded!" (no offense meant towards people with intellectual disabilities, obviously)
 
LiamC said:
Why can't people just take what Jeremy says with a pinch of salt? Why bother complaining? He has always been outspoken and complaining to the BBC is such a waste of time. 'throwaway line' is a very good term to use infact, as that is all it is.
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Because Top Gear is a very popular show, and complaining about JC because you feel offended might make the group you belong to as popular as never before.
 
Amie8 said:
And he called May a lunatic. Funny how nobody thinks of that as offensive, even though it could be used as a pejorative term for someone with a psychiatric illness
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Funnily enough, I didn't know which one he was calling a lunatic and which was the retard - BECAUSE IT WAS A JOKE!

It's offensive if it's directed at someone specifically and in a serious context. Same with ethnic jokes. Everybody's got some ethnicity to joke about, so we put up with it sometimes and also laugh a bit at somebody else's expense sometimes.

It's called humor. :rolleyes: Get used to it.

(BTW, this isn't directed at Amie8, just using your quote to make a point.)
 
Yeah... reminds me of James saying "You look like a gay cowboy, you look like a gay terrorist"

Anyway these groups complaining do seem to be just desperate for attention that's all. What a bunch of tards...
 
Im bipolar and I wasnt offended. I mean its not like he went up to a disabled person and said it... I get upset when people who know I am bipolar, refur to me as "retarded" or "special needs" in a condesending way when i do or say something that's as a result of that... but if they are just talking about an object or a car or whatever then i dont get upset.
But ive gotta say, that http://www.r-word.org/ thing ... at the risk of sounding silly I do quite like. I mean not because the use of it offends me when people direct it at like objects or whatever but because more often than not its directed at people. I just felt like standing up for the pledge there :)

Regardless I dont take clarkson seriously. I mean really? :p clarkson says stuff that could be deemed offensive to everyone, its not discrimination if its everyone... not really :p he discriminates without discrimination for who he is discriminating against... yep. That makes sense. Hes not serious.
 
bone said:
retard is french for "slow down"
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To clarify things : in french
retard = lateness, delay (like a delayed plane);

For mentally challenged people , the term is attard?.

And slown down = ralentir ( and not retard.)

All this is so close that people get confused , plus the fact that french terms have evolved differently in both countries didn't help either.
 
This reminds me of a really big group of my friends who get really mad at me when I call someone a retard or gay. Everytime I get a "please don't use that word, its really offensive" I just feel like punching the person in the mouth. Political correctness has really gone way too far these days.

Everyone just needs to take a chill pill, sit down, and watch PCU and stfu.
 
Correspondent75 said:
To clarify things : in french
retard = lateness, delay (like a delayed plane);

For mentally challenged people , the term is attard?.

And slown down = ralentir ( and not retard.)

All this is so close that people get confused , plus the fact that french terms have evolved differently in both countries didn't help either.
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Yeah but it's funny how many terms have been just taken from french in my own language (spanish) because we just didnt have words for them. When a car is idling, we call it "ralenti". The dashboard is the tablier, and so on so forth.
 
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