Summary
Iranian pop star Amir Hossein Maghsoudloo, known as Tataloo, has been sentenced to death for blasphemy after the supreme court overturned a prior five-year prison sentence.
Tataloo, who had been living in Istanbul since 2018, was extradited to Iran in 2023 and has since been detained.
He also faces charges of promoting “prostitution” and spreading “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic.
The verdict is not final and can still be appealed.
Once a figure courted by conservatives, Tataloo gained fame for his controversial music and tattoos.
Before retard was a slur, it was a medically diagnosed term, and before that, imbecile, moron and idiot were medically diagnosed terms. Now, they’re commonplace terms for stupid.
Kids these days are calling each other autistic, and nobody bats an eye.
When I use the word retarded, I don’t even associate it with people with disabilities like down syndrome, it’s strictly used as a synonym for “really stupid”, excluding people with learning disabilities.
I think by claiming it’s an offensive term, the association between the word and people with learning disabilities is strengthened. I think it will inevitably roll around to being acceptable again, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it (provided you aren’t explicitly using it as a slur towards someone with a learning disability).
Funny anecdote: many years ago my brother in law used to work with a organization for people with down syndrome, and whenever they had a trip planned, they would take the minivan together, and would crank “Let’s get retarded”.
They knew what the word meant, in all its connotations, but loved the song. They took power over it by calling each other retards, and even the supervisor would tell them to stop being retarded, and they would piss themselves (figuratively) laughing whenever it happened.
Retarded was, and still is, used as an insult for those who are severally developmentally disabled. Those who are literally unable to defend themselves. The people most impacted by this have no ability to take the power back for themselves. You suggest they knew what it meant, but quite frankly I doubt, also having been involved with those with down syndrome. They might have had an idea, but it’s unlikely they all understood all the depths and nuances. And regardless of just down syndrome, there are those with more severe cognitive dysfunction, potentially nonverbal, that literally have no way have reclaiming the word. I don’t think it will become increasingly acceptable, I think it will become increasingly unacceptable.
The other terms you used, while they used to be medical terms, weren’t use in the same connotation to target developmentally disabled individuals. That’s the difference.
I think you’re in conflict with Americans on this one. Sarah Palin, the Vice Presidential candidate in 2008 who was remarkably stupid, had a mentally retarded child and really encouraged people to stop using retarded as an insult. Ironically her fame was partly derived from opposing things like this.
Using the r slur as a way to imply someone or something is stupid is associating the people who actually experience ableism with stupidity, just like calling a straight man who likes cooking the f slur would be homophobic, not because you’re insulting a gay man, but because you’re using a term for gayness as an insult.
It isn’t that hard to understand, so just stop. That is a slur and I don’t want to be reminded of ableism everyfuckingwhere I go.
By that logic, people should just never call others stupid, moronic, imbeciles, or idiots?
Please don’t use the a word i don’t like it
Calm down. Everyone knows Websters changed the definition of removed to refer to loud and obnoxious Harley-Davidson riders in 2009.
That’s like saying “black people can use the N-word (as an in-group term), so I can too (as an insult)”.
You really don’t see the difference?
I’m not saying we can use the term because they can use it as an in-group term, that story was an aside.
In that specific case, the supervisor had an R-word pass.