Well spoken, sir. I especially like your observation that the Chop, as an act of willful ignorance, deserves a harsher term. Turner Field attendees can, should, and hopefully someday will do better.

Craig, I have to give you huge credit for being able to admit fault, something that far too few have the ability to do on the Internet.

I didn’t happen to catch the particular post in question, so reading this was kind of a surprise for me, but nonetheless, it sounds like the P.C. crowd got to you.

Frankly, I can’t fault you for what you said. The term “retarded” has a meaning other than the clinical one. The relatively recent colloquialism is, whether the P.C. crowd likes it or not, just as valid informally. It’s like if you called someone a “noob”. Not exactly a word you want to use, say, in a research paper, but in a blog, I don’t see the crime.

At any rate, I try to avoid snafus like that myself, and my point of view is that if you absolutely have to use a word that is bound to cause some level of controversy, then you need some work on your vocabulary.

I’m not saying that’s you, because I don’t think you would struggle to come up with synonyms for the colloquial “retarded”.

Basically, if you use “retarded,” I don’t see the big deal. But you should try to avoid it anyway simply because most people won’t take too kindly to it.

Tom— I say plenty of things on this blog that are pointed and uncompromising. If it was simply a matter of not offending others I wouldn’t care.

My comments in this post are because I wasn’t, upon reflection, personally comfortable with what I said and how I said it. Just because it happens to flow with the offense of others doesn’t make this an exercise in wikiblogging Kumbaya nonsense.

Being reflexively anti-P.C. is every bit as stupid as being reflexively P.C.

As a father of a boy with Down syndrome, I appreciate this. Words shift and change in meaning. In another era (not so long ago), “idiotic” would have referred to people we now call retarded. My son would have been labeled a “Mongoloid idiot.” “Retarded” was brought in as a way to move away from the stigma of idiot, and now we use “delayed.”

And yet, recognizing that the meaning is but a product of recent social constructions doesn’t mean that the meaning isn’t real and potentially hurtful.

Anyway, thanks.

I think part of the reason the word persists in the vernacular is the lack of a really good snarky replacement. “Lame” - nice one, KR - doesn’t have the same effect. Synonyms for “stupid” don’t have the same connotation as “retarded,” and really, the idiot/moron family of words is getting a bit played out. You can always escalate with the ol’ Anglo-Saxon gerund, but that certainly won’t fly on the site where I do my baseball writing, and I doubt Craig wants to head down that path either. So we’re left with “retarded,” or a substitute word that’s less strong and doesn’t reflect the same level of venom that the stricken word brings to the table.

Wait! I’m offended at PC! Where do I go to get satisfaction, Craig?  Isn’t that one of the new additions to the Bill of Rights? The Right Not To to be Offended?

Tom—it was the former in my case. I didn’t write this because I felt the need to address any one person’s concerns in the thread. It was really a matter of not feeling that I could personally defend my use of the word retarded in that context, and I’m just wired in such a way that I have to be able to justify what I say.

Bravo for finding that necessary but elusive middle ground between anti-intellectual/reactionary/lazy persistence and overly sensitive kowtowing.

That is an intellecually dishonest position, Craig.  You said that it sparked a heated debate and you changed your mind after reflecting on everyone’s criticism.  Sounds like you get wobbly when people criticize.  That is, when some people criticize.  Tolerance is simply a one-way street to get someone else to believe what you believe.  If you were torn by your use of the word “retarded” (defined by The Oxford Dictionary as “delay or hold back in terms of progress, development, or accomplishment”) after hearing criticism from people, simply don’t use it again.  Easy, case closed.  But for your attempt to apologize to a small group, you impinge upon society’s ability to use words that have a legitimate usage.  Just remember that some people might be offended by the use of the terms or phrases “switch hitter”, “rubbing up the (base)balls”, and “high and tight”.  Thinking back to my teenaged years, “getting to third base” could be offensive to others, as well.

Brian, first of all, freedom of speech applies to government censorship of public speech, not to a private blog.  Second, even in the misapplied way you mean it, just because you have the right to act like a dick doesn’t mean you should.  Dick.

That said, “retarded” is one of those words that, by the time we die, will be completely un-PC.  For now, the word as I believe it was used (underdeveloped) is in my opinion fair game, though if avoiding one or two sensitive seeds is the goal, there’s no real reason to go out of the way to use it, either.