I understood GP as talking about what is in the 'overton window' or not. You and I may have qualms about saying retard but I've worked in industries where that is not the case. I've met people who would call an unprofitable VC-backed company whose only customer-facing product is a well-designed chat client telling them what is or is not acceptable to say something I wouldn't say here.

Society is not as monolithic as you think it is. "as a society we" for sure have not decided that these words should not be used or that they are derogatory. Maybe this is true for your circle of friends or for the communities that you enage in but it is not true for the wider world.

When did that happen?

We didn't decide that.

Just like "we" didn't decide on "latinx" or "woman" or that "white lives matter" and the "ok" gesture were racist.

Our "betters" decided those things on our behalf and simply called us racist misogynist incels if we didn't comply.

Man that OK Gesture was brilliant psyops by 4chan.

Well, it’s not really OK, you need to spread the fingers to make it look like WP.

(I find it ironic how all these dimwits adopt behaviors and attitudes from the ghetto gangs they would claim are their cultural anti-model.)

You have to spread the fingers to form OK sign.

Dimwits? You mean 4chan that used media to make neutral sign look racist? Or the white supremacists that took the free advertisement and appropriated a common sign?

The only dimwits are the media companies that contributed to it.