i agree with southern discomfort, we are called retarded as an insult because of when south park appeared around 1995,it brought the word 'retarded' into mainstream society unfortunately.
i have 'mild mental retardation' on my records, and i absolutely despise the word, because it basically means you are mentally slow,im not slow-none of us who have it are,i and everyone else struggle with processing and understanding information and adapting our thinking and behavior according to that,but i dont think slow,ive got a lightning fast sense of humour even if it is rude as hell and i continuously get told 'youve crossed the line' or 'thats innapropriate behavior emma' [gah,they continue to use my original female name].
i might have 'mentally retarded' as a label but im not 'retarded',the people who use the word 'retard' are 'retarded' because they cannot get it through their heads what the term means and how the connotations of the word echo back to when hitler called us 'useless eaters'.
one more thing on this subject,i made a new video on my channel about intellectual disability yesterday,not very indepth but i also touch on the subject of 'retard',i dont know if it would interest you.
i have LFA and hate the idea of a cure,i am incredibly pissed off at the number of people in the autistic or autism community who fight to stop people wanting a cure for aspergers/HFA and they do incredible work to cut down on the stigma and connotations of aspergers;but at the same time they back up the autism parents who continuously want to see a cure for LFA,without asking us,they just assume because we have a more complex disability and are far more distant from NTs than aspie so will never have a 'normal life' that we need curing.
sorry no thankyou,screw your cure theories and put all that campaigning effort to stopping the stigma,the stereotyping and the tragedy filled drama that haunts LFA.
LFA isnt a tragedy,but not having the right support and understanding is.