The R-Word’s Comeback Is a Grim Sign of Our Political Moment – Rolling Stone

                        By  <a class="c-link  lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-color-brand-primary-dark:hover lrv-u-text-decoration-underline:hover lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/author/miles-klee/"            >   Miles Klee</a>                      <br>    As someone who grew up in the U.S. in the 1990s, I am all too familiar with a culture in which anything you and your friends disapprove of is &ldquo;retarded,&rdquo; and anybody you might care to insult is a &ldquo;retard.&rdquo; And, like others my age who grew out of such harmful language not long after graduating from middle school, I have been dismayed to see it flood into mainstream adult discourse over the past few years, abetted by social media and its laziest, most callous shitposters.&nbsp;<br>    You have Anna Khachiyan of the edgelord podcast <em>Red Scare</em>, which helped repopularize these terms, using that word to <a  rel="nofollow"  href="https://x.com/annakhachiyan/status/1854369558431199725"  target="_blank"  >describe progressives </a>in the wake of the 2024 election; <a  href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/elon-musk/"  >Elon Musk</a> replying &ldquo;<a  href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1876168991330439314"  rel="nofollow"  target="_blank"  >F u retard</a>&rdquo; to a Finnish doctoral student on his platform X (formerly <a  href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/twitter/"  >Twitter</a>) who accurately described him as a historically dangerous <a  href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/elon-musk-twitter-misinformation-timeline-1235076786/"  >purveyor of disinformation</a>; and countless users across alt-tech sites including <a  href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/kick/"  >Kick</a>, <a  href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/rumble/"  >Rumble</a>, <a  href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/gab/"  >Gab</a>, and <a  href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/truth-social/"  >Truth Social</a> who have inserted the word in their account handle. <a  href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/tiktok/"  >TikTok</a> blocks you from searching the slur, noting that it &ldquo;may be associated with hateful behavior&rdquo; &mdash; a change implemented after <em>Mashable</em> <a  href="https://mashable.com/article/r-word-social-media"  rel="nofollow"  target="_blank"  >contacted them</a> about the use of the word on the app &mdash; but it&rsquo;s all over <a  href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/facebook/"  >Facebook</a> and <a  href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/reddit/"  >Reddit</a>. Disability advocates have been <a  href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/11/14/metro/r-word-disability-advocates-slur-ableist/?p1=Article_Recirc_Most_Popular&p1=Article_Recirc_Most_Popular"  rel="nofollow"  target="_blank"  >sounding the alarm</a> for months as the word has once more became entrenched as a <a  href="https://www.vox.com/culture/376401/r-word-slur-return-euphemism-treadmill-cycle"  rel="nofollow"  target="_blank"  >commonplace eptithet</a>, despite their long and tireless campaign to protect the intellectually disabled from pejorative abuse.     <div class="admz" id="adm-inline-article-ad-1">                     <div class="adma boomerang" data-device="Desktop" data-width="300">                  <div style="min-width:50px;min-height:75px;"   class="pmc-adm-boomerang-pub-div ad-text"   data-priority="10" >    <div id="gpt-dsk-tab-article-inbody-uid0"       class="adw-300 adh-250" data-is-adhesion-ad="">         <script type="application/javascript">

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