Perhaps because virtually no one uses the term in that context anymore. It often helps to avoid ambiguity when posting online.

My own experience is the exact opposite. Out of all the times in my life I can recall ever having heard the word "retarded" used, I cannot think of any reason to suspect that any of them were meant as anything other than a synonym for "idiotic".

Which, of course, also referred to clinical mental disability at some point in history. As did "moronic", "imbecilic" and others. But nowadays they're really all just strong forms of "stupid".

Even in contexts where generic insults directed at people are not tolerated, it should be acceptable to recognize stupid ideas as such.

I think you've misunderstood, then. The GP's comment was using it in the technical sense (slowed/delayed, not the common "that's so dumb" form you've observed).

Ah. The comment was:

>Right. I made a reference to educational development being retarded due to COVID restrictions and the very people you'd expect to be offended were of course offended.

I misread that, and interpreted "retarded" as being a subjective judgment applied to the restrictions.

That said, the reading "[the process of] educational development has a mental disability" is utterly incoherent, so I still see no reasonable justification for taking offense.

I think it's important to remember the real meaning of words. If you know language better, you can understand a lot more information, and you can express yourself better. Knowing the meaning and origin of words give you great insights into things.

Just because some childish people are misusing the word for some time, we shouldn't just ditch it like that. Words go back a long time.

We should just remove the negative use of it. And we do that by growing up, not by banning words.

Mechanics might retard or advance the ignition timing in an engine.