Earlier quoted context omitted.
To counter the explosion of "fuck you" kind of comments, and as the father of a child with a developmental disability, thank you for pointing out this impolite and linguistically lazy behavior. People who use "retarded", "gay", "autistic", "ghetto" (and so on) in a derogatory form are showing a lack of imagination, aren't introspective enough to consider how their choice of words makes others perceive them, and trivi…
Thank you for taking the time to share. I personally am aware of zero instances where anyone associated with a developmental disability is comfortable with the use of the word 'retarded', in any context. (Please note: this is not to say such a thing does not exist!) Empathy is a worthy reason for voluntarily restricting my personal speech, and I appreciate others willing to take people like you into consideration her…
You are suggesting that they would be uncomfortable with:
"we applied the fire retardant at the base of the flames..."
"the growth process was retarded by the application of too much nitrogen fertilizer..."
"his social development was retarded by the lack of same age peers in his neighborhood..."
Again, genuinely curious - are we expected to contort our language around these concepts now ?