this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2026
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me_irl
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I love that 'idiot' is originally the severest term of mental retardation, however it's quite normalized in actual conversation.
That way I can write easily knowingly call people idiots and then not getting overly offended.
Wait there was
dante's hellbut for the neurospicy?Idiots. —Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years. Imbeciles. —Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years. Morons. —Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years. — Edmund Burke Huey, Backward and Feeble-Minded Children, 1912
These were actual medical definitions. Up until a few years ago, Down's Syndrome was "Mongoloid idiocy." Mongoloid because of the eye folds some patients display.
Kurt Vonnegut uses the term 'Mongoloid idiot' in Cat's Cradle because that was the common usage at the time.